With the exception of Team Fortress 2, most popular shooters available on the PC today are rather twitchy, conveying a “realistic' feel. It was, in fact, one of the last high-octane deathmatch oriented games, as both Quake 4 and the Unreal series rapidly began to veer towards fast-paced team gameplay involving tanks, forts, and other team game cliches.īut the lack of modernization in Quake Live is refreshing. In its day, Quake 3 Arena gathered some criticism because it stuck to an aging style of gameplay that favored deathmatchs over team play, but it was still considered a leading shooter. The game-play, however, remains largely the same. Quake Live is, essentially, Quake 3 Arena, although it is also different in numerous ways, so much so that it does not really resemble the content that was available in the retail release of Quake 3 Arena. I wonder what John Carmack would have thought if you’d told him that, in only ten years, his newest graphical master-piece could be played in Internet Explorer? Now, ten years later, it’s a browser based game. Few games were able to display levels with such a wealth of curved surfaces, and character models were also extremely high in detail. When Quake 3 Arena was released, it was considered the graphical titan of the year. But as with anything free, there is also a lot of junk to sort through. As a result, there is a surprisingly robust field of first-person shooters for those with thin wallets to choose from.
The big publishers lose interest in selling them, and so the rights go up for grabs.Īs a result, it’s easy to find old games for free, either because the title is abandonware or because the title has been put up for free by a new owner. While a good book or album may sell in consistent numbers for years and years, games more than five years old are generally considered dinosaurs.
But unlike movies, music, or literature, games do not gain credibility and market appeal as they age. Like many pieces of intellectual property, they are prone to having rights to their use transferred, split, re-combined, vaporized, and condensed time and time again.