So I got to play Quake 4 today (a story of drama)
Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2005 3:12 am
The Story/Drama
I ended up going to the Digital Life convention in NYC today, where UGO had a Quake 4 booth set up. The convention itself was rather yawn-worthy, but I went there for Quake so I didn't care. They had a small bus set up with something like 10 PCs equipped with 7900's, on its sides. They also had a small LAN-like set up for the tourney they were holding. First thing I did was to try sign up for one of 'em but they all got filled up rather quickly. The incompetent broad at the sign-up table was of no help explaining the premise, so that was the first bad sign of things to come.
I said fuck it and figured at least I'll play on the bus machines. There must've been something like 5 kids behind each comp waiting for their chance to play. I must've waited something like 30 minutes waiting for the first kid to stop playing (the other people in front of me gave up waiting), but I was relatively patient. He actually turned out to be a cool dude. Anyhow, he finally lets me on and I start blasting away. Holy fuck, this game is awesome. I played a total of 4 of short matches, coming in at 2nd in the first one (I came in at the last 2 minutes of the match) with 19 (the fraglimit was 21), got first place the next two matches, and second with 19 again the last one (I only played for half the match). The other half of the match I spent arguing with someone we'll call The Bitchboy. This is more or less how it went:
Middway into my 3rd match (mind you the matches must've been something like 2-3 minutes long, due to my cat-like fragz0ring) I get a tap on my shoulder, with some guy proclaiming it's his turn to play. I realize everybody wanted to play and all, but I just waited a long half hour waiting for my turn and played for a mere 6 minutes or so and wasn't ready to just give up my spot (every person ahead of me and at the other comps played at least 20 minutes each - there was no time limit being enforced), so I politely tried explaining to him just how long I waited, etc. The Bitchboy then proceeded to explain that's just how long he waited (meanwhile this was the first time I noticed him anywhere near the booth) and he wants to play. Now. I promptly tell him I'll be done in a minute or so and gives me this weird look and says (full of attitude) "Excuse me?" I'm like WTF? and replied with a " 'Scuse you...?" He continuted going off about some bullshit. Once again, I tried being polite and repeated that I'll be ready to give it over to him in a minute (meanwhile half the computers around me got vacant). He then flatly stated he's gonna "Fucking knock me out" and now I'm really like "WTF is this guy on?" See, I'm not a fighter and generally consider myself to be a decent guy, but I'm always ready for a fight in case shit's about to go down (the Bronx will do that to ya). At this point I was just about ready to laugh in the toughguy-Bitchboy's face (which I did) and said "Please." I turned around and went back to playing (and won the third match, now energized by adrenaline). At this point Bitchboy knowing I ain't scared of him, asked some random guy that happened to work for the event, bitching to him how I'm hogging the machine (keep in mind all this happened in a period of 6 minutes or so). The worker (who was cool) asked me if I'd be ready to give up my comp after the following match, which I agreed to, seeing as that's what I was gonna do regardless. I then turned around and start saying quite loudly (part to the worker, part to Bitchboy and part to the rest of the crowd that was around) how I love how people interrupt somebody's good time and then proceed to curse them out and threaten them, all because of a stupid videogame. I said "Fuck that, I'm ready to go right now, I don't care" (I was obviously pretty ticked off and high on adrenaline at this point). The Bitchboy, of course, remained quiet throughout this short outburst of mine. Missing half the match, I was still able to climb rather quickly to 2nd but that's okay. After I was done, I turned around and told the douche "Not to be such a bitch next time," to which he walked past me without looking at my face, and gently nicked me with his shoulder. I love how toughguys become such creampuffs when you bitch 'em out.
All in all, I'd rather not have this whole thing happen of course; it was pretty retarded, fighting over who gets to play a videogame in a public event such as this. I was willing to be reasonable and was hoping Bitchboy would be too, alas. I'm sure he sucked too, btw, I went back there after 5 minutes and he was gone. Must've got pwned.
Anyways, here are some observations I made while playing:
Misc
-The players had shadows (I noticed they had none in the Quakecon build videos)
-The matches were really fast paced, and it was quite easy to work your way up fragwise
-The announcer at the booth plainly stated that there are no hitboxes and it's all Per Pixel Detection - WTF? :icon28: (thought it's supposed to be the other way around)
-Many of the console commands have changed, oddly (sadly?), for instance: cg_fov is now g_fov :icon27: This had the effect of confusing me and resorting to having to use the Main Menu to make quick adjustments. Having said that, the Main Menu is awesome
-I noticed the game run at an average of 40-60 FPS the whole time (FPS would drop to 20 quite often during firefights, but it wasn't all that noticeable; still, this is the 7900, which gets me worried)
The Weapons
-It seems harder to kill people with the Gauntlet, somehow. I got 2 quick kills with it, but it doesn't seem to have that "snap" of the original
-Machinegun seemed more powerful than the Q3 one, and I was able to mow down something like 6 people with it, in a period of 5 seconds (with quad, but still); I also got a new medal of some sort after doing so (a some kind of orange/light brown skull-type thing)
-The shotgun is a monster. It felt very much so like the Q2 SS (almost), which after having to deal with the pea-shooter that the Q3 SG was, is a welcome change.
-RL seemed pretty identical to the Q3 one. It was the weapon that seemed most reliable on all the maps (as always), and one I got the most frags with
-RG also seemed identical to the Q3 one. The new trail is unimpressive however.
The Maps
-I got to play on remakes of Q3DM17, Q3Tourney6 and Q2DM1, and they were all fantastic. I also got a glimpse of some small very Q2-like tech map, but I didn't get a chance to play it.
-The Edge remake was particularly satisfying, and seemed almost identical in architecture to the original. The texture was set was different, however (with a big cool-looking, strogg-logo on one of the walls of the main courtyard). There also was a Haste rune (on the boxes outside the window of the corridor leading to the RL-drop, if that makes sense)
-DM17 was also pretty similar in design, but bigger (and prettier). It felt like all the platforms were enlarged a tad, and sometimes seemed to even dwarf the players. Weird.
Overall, I feel that this game is awesome. Really frantic, really fast-paced; the perfect successor to Q3. I think we're all in for a treat (in the MP dept anyways). Can't wait for Tuesday. :icon31:
I ended up going to the Digital Life convention in NYC today, where UGO had a Quake 4 booth set up. The convention itself was rather yawn-worthy, but I went there for Quake so I didn't care. They had a small bus set up with something like 10 PCs equipped with 7900's, on its sides. They also had a small LAN-like set up for the tourney they were holding. First thing I did was to try sign up for one of 'em but they all got filled up rather quickly. The incompetent broad at the sign-up table was of no help explaining the premise, so that was the first bad sign of things to come.
I said fuck it and figured at least I'll play on the bus machines. There must've been something like 5 kids behind each comp waiting for their chance to play. I must've waited something like 30 minutes waiting for the first kid to stop playing (the other people in front of me gave up waiting), but I was relatively patient. He actually turned out to be a cool dude. Anyhow, he finally lets me on and I start blasting away. Holy fuck, this game is awesome. I played a total of 4 of short matches, coming in at 2nd in the first one (I came in at the last 2 minutes of the match) with 19 (the fraglimit was 21), got first place the next two matches, and second with 19 again the last one (I only played for half the match). The other half of the match I spent arguing with someone we'll call The Bitchboy. This is more or less how it went:
Middway into my 3rd match (mind you the matches must've been something like 2-3 minutes long, due to my cat-like fragz0ring) I get a tap on my shoulder, with some guy proclaiming it's his turn to play. I realize everybody wanted to play and all, but I just waited a long half hour waiting for my turn and played for a mere 6 minutes or so and wasn't ready to just give up my spot (every person ahead of me and at the other comps played at least 20 minutes each - there was no time limit being enforced), so I politely tried explaining to him just how long I waited, etc. The Bitchboy then proceeded to explain that's just how long he waited (meanwhile this was the first time I noticed him anywhere near the booth) and he wants to play. Now. I promptly tell him I'll be done in a minute or so and gives me this weird look and says (full of attitude) "Excuse me?" I'm like WTF? and replied with a " 'Scuse you...?" He continuted going off about some bullshit. Once again, I tried being polite and repeated that I'll be ready to give it over to him in a minute (meanwhile half the computers around me got vacant). He then flatly stated he's gonna "Fucking knock me out" and now I'm really like "WTF is this guy on?" See, I'm not a fighter and generally consider myself to be a decent guy, but I'm always ready for a fight in case shit's about to go down (the Bronx will do that to ya). At this point I was just about ready to laugh in the toughguy-Bitchboy's face (which I did) and said "Please." I turned around and went back to playing (and won the third match, now energized by adrenaline). At this point Bitchboy knowing I ain't scared of him, asked some random guy that happened to work for the event, bitching to him how I'm hogging the machine (keep in mind all this happened in a period of 6 minutes or so). The worker (who was cool) asked me if I'd be ready to give up my comp after the following match, which I agreed to, seeing as that's what I was gonna do regardless. I then turned around and start saying quite loudly (part to the worker, part to Bitchboy and part to the rest of the crowd that was around) how I love how people interrupt somebody's good time and then proceed to curse them out and threaten them, all because of a stupid videogame. I said "Fuck that, I'm ready to go right now, I don't care" (I was obviously pretty ticked off and high on adrenaline at this point). The Bitchboy, of course, remained quiet throughout this short outburst of mine. Missing half the match, I was still able to climb rather quickly to 2nd but that's okay. After I was done, I turned around and told the douche "Not to be such a bitch next time," to which he walked past me without looking at my face, and gently nicked me with his shoulder. I love how toughguys become such creampuffs when you bitch 'em out.
All in all, I'd rather not have this whole thing happen of course; it was pretty retarded, fighting over who gets to play a videogame in a public event such as this. I was willing to be reasonable and was hoping Bitchboy would be too, alas. I'm sure he sucked too, btw, I went back there after 5 minutes and he was gone. Must've got pwned.
Anyways, here are some observations I made while playing:
Misc
-The players had shadows (I noticed they had none in the Quakecon build videos)
-The matches were really fast paced, and it was quite easy to work your way up fragwise
-The announcer at the booth plainly stated that there are no hitboxes and it's all Per Pixel Detection - WTF? :icon28: (thought it's supposed to be the other way around)
-Many of the console commands have changed, oddly (sadly?), for instance: cg_fov is now g_fov :icon27: This had the effect of confusing me and resorting to having to use the Main Menu to make quick adjustments. Having said that, the Main Menu is awesome
-I noticed the game run at an average of 40-60 FPS the whole time (FPS would drop to 20 quite often during firefights, but it wasn't all that noticeable; still, this is the 7900, which gets me worried)
The Weapons
-It seems harder to kill people with the Gauntlet, somehow. I got 2 quick kills with it, but it doesn't seem to have that "snap" of the original
-Machinegun seemed more powerful than the Q3 one, and I was able to mow down something like 6 people with it, in a period of 5 seconds (with quad, but still); I also got a new medal of some sort after doing so (a some kind of orange/light brown skull-type thing)
-The shotgun is a monster. It felt very much so like the Q2 SS (almost), which after having to deal with the pea-shooter that the Q3 SG was, is a welcome change.
-RL seemed pretty identical to the Q3 one. It was the weapon that seemed most reliable on all the maps (as always), and one I got the most frags with
-RG also seemed identical to the Q3 one. The new trail is unimpressive however.
The Maps
-I got to play on remakes of Q3DM17, Q3Tourney6 and Q2DM1, and they were all fantastic. I also got a glimpse of some small very Q2-like tech map, but I didn't get a chance to play it.
-The Edge remake was particularly satisfying, and seemed almost identical in architecture to the original. The texture was set was different, however (with a big cool-looking, strogg-logo on one of the walls of the main courtyard). There also was a Haste rune (on the boxes outside the window of the corridor leading to the RL-drop, if that makes sense)
-DM17 was also pretty similar in design, but bigger (and prettier). It felt like all the platforms were enlarged a tad, and sometimes seemed to even dwarf the players. Weird.
Overall, I feel that this game is awesome. Really frantic, really fast-paced; the perfect successor to Q3. I think we're all in for a treat (in the MP dept anyways). Can't wait for Tuesday. :icon31:
- gj Hatefactor 
owned