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As good as Quake III: Arena is today, it will get even better with time, say veteran players. This is because a large and loyal community of creative Quake-heads have been fashioning new environments and character identities using development tools provided free by id software. Called “mods” (for modifications) these expanded game features mean that Quake continues to evolve, limited only by the creativity of the playing community.
With new mods added to servers all the time, players can expect an ever-changing variety of gaming experiences in the future. A quick browse of Quake’s many fan sites will give you an idea of how sophisticated the mods have become, and how enthusiastic the developers are about building them.
Train by Battling the Bots
Although the multiplayer Internet arena is the focal point of Quake III, the game includes an offline single-player mode with an important function — it essentially serves as a training module, preparing
new players for entering the arena and battling against real opponents.
By using this mode, gamers new to Quake can develop and finesse their
chops, even if they’ve never touched an earlier version of the
game.Here, instead of battling other players, you’ll fight a variety of computer-generated opponents, or ‘bots,’ who are armed to the teeth and endowed with enough artificial intelligence to sniff you out and frag your sorry posterior to kingdom come. (Hint for newbies: shoot them before they shoot you.)
The 32 insidious bot guys, gals, and aliens are formidable opponents with sufficient smarts to act amazingly like humans (though some may argue that acting like a human requires very little in the way of smarts). Each has its own unique set of strengths and weaknesses, a preference for certain weapons, a distinct fighting style, and unique sound effects. Some even talk.
In fact, don’t be surprised when the bots speak directly to you, or argue and fight with each other, spewing insults along with ammunition. It’s quite an experience the first time you peek around a corner to watch a couple of them going at it, completely unaware of your presence a few feet away.
Download Mac OS X Patch for Quake III: Gold and Quake III: Arena
Put Your Eye Out
While navigating through increasingly harder levels of play, you’ll meet Orbb, a fast-moving eyeball who runs and hops around on his hands with his weapons attached to his head. There’s also Lucy, a chunky former prison guard with a bad temper; Klesk, an aggressive alien with a spiky head and elbows; Uriel, a gargoyle who loves to jump; and a motley assortment of soldiers, bikers, cadavers, aliens, and skeletons.
Once you wipe out the first 31 bots, you’ll ultimately have to deal with Xaero, Zen master of the final level, who wields one heck of a railgun and is tough to beat, even for the pros.
When you graduate to playing on the Internet, you can adopt the physical characteristics of your favorite bots to shape your own identity.
Power Up
You might wonder what it takes to play a game that has this level of graphical detail and realism, coupled with the need for speed when playing on the Internet. Fact is, you’ll need a pretty hefty setup to take advantage of all the great graphics while achieving and
maintaining a frame rate fast enough to play without suffering latency
problems. (See What You Need to Play.)You’ll also want as fast an Internet connection as you can get. Because as we all know, he who hesitates is fragged — with or without blood.
