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A look at one of the most promising future aspects of PC gaming

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Joined: 21 Aug 2008

Recently, I was invited to beta test a new browser game by an ambitious small company. A browser game? What the hell? Yeah, that's what I said too.

Anyway, I took some screenshots with FRAPS.

Well, I can't really come up with too many conclusions with deep ramifications since I still have twenty tons of adrenaline still running through me, but one thing's for sure: This "id" company has got an amazing thing coming up with this "Quake Live" game. I've tried playing Quake Live even on the embarrassingly underpowered 4 year old Dell junkers at my lab, and it was amazing to see a browser game run so smoothly in 3D and at 800x600 in a tab in Firefox. So I don't want to hear anyone complaining about big PC games and their bigger system requirements. If you can post on these forums, you should be able to play Quake Live. Although...you'll probably get your ass kicked over and over again :p

However, the skill matching feature has thus far kept things really fair too; even Halo 3 can't touch it. You get the option to choose between skill matched matches or matches which are either challenging or very challenging. It's really refreshing to see that and especially to see it work. Oh, and so far, I haven't seen any of the typical idiocy that stereotypically plagues XBL or Counter Strike. I'd say more, but I think I'm going to go back to either play more or to recuperate :p

Oh, and is anyone else on the beta? I would like to play with people who aren't totally random strangers for once :]

More information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_Live

And sign up for the beta here: http://www.quakelive.com/

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1901
Joined: 20 Jul 2008

=O That looks sick to just be a browser game! I must have...is it going to be free? I assume so since its going to be a browser enabled game.

Pulitzer Laureate
Posts: 768
Joined: 9 Apr 2008

Wow, that looks pretty cool. Quite a nice development in gaming. Thanks for the share Eggo :)

Muckraker
Posts: 345
Joined: 17 Dec 2007

I remember hearing about this. It is incredible that they pulled this off as a browser game.

BANNED
Posts: 1891
Joined: 26 Mar 2008

Yeah, i heard about Quake Live a few years ago, awesome to see its nearly finished. 2009 is going to be the year id software return.

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Pulitzer Laureate
Posts: 857
Joined: 24 Mar 2008

So I'm not sure I follow? This wasn't id? i.e. why call it this "id" company?

As for the accusations that people make about gaming systems needing to be top notch, I will point out that such is the norm for almost every major PC game that has been released, so until the software / hardware that makes this browser game as efficient as it apparently is becomes the norm, the point stands.

And is the whole Quake 95 in a browser thing the promising future of PC gaming? Doesn't seem a huge deal to me, I've seen similar developments like that all over the place, browser based competitive game-play and 3D environments don't seem special to me. Where is the most promising future aspect of PC gaming in this platform?

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1331
Joined: 22 Oct 2008

That's... intense. I'm signing up for the beta. Right now.

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1065
Joined: 16 Nov 2008

wow that looks really fun!

BANNED
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mark_n_b:
So I'm not sure I follow? This wasn't id? i.e. why call it this "id" company?

As for the accusations that people make about gaming systems needing to be top notch, I will point out that such is the norm for almost every major PC game that has been released, so until the software / hardware that makes this browser game as efficient as it apparently is becomes the norm, the point stands.

And is the whole Quake 95 in a browser thing the promising future of PC gaming? Doesn't seem a huge deal to me, I've seen similar developments like that all over the place, browser based competitive game-play and 3D environments don't seem special to me. Where is the most promising future aspect of PC gaming in this platform?

Free broswer based games have been extremely popular on the PC for years now. EA is also trying to do this with Battlefield Heroes. I think its very promising what they are trying to do here. I wouldn't knock something like this because its this kind of stuff that tends to lead to better things and new ideas. Something the PC platform has been great at along with bringing new technology.

Who knows, give it a few years and you could be playing new big name games in your browser over the net and its entirely possible as the web gets faster.

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Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1374
Joined: 16 Jul 2008

You can expect to see more like this, with more realistic results. There is a system comming that calculates and renders all the physics, textures and light sources and then sends it to your browser to be decoded. Graphically it is looking better than anything I have seen, and all that has been leaked is the early alpha engine tests.

I'll hook out the video, but I've posted it before.

BANNED
Posts: 3535
Joined: 11 Oct 2008

So I signed up but didn't get any email.

Anyone knows why? Shame really because I wanted to add another game to my "Pwns Everyone" list.

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Gone Gonzo
Posts: 2621
Joined: 27 Aug 2008

Eggo:
Just getting your attention, figure you'd know:

Talking of browser games...are there any Diablo 2 grinder kind of things? I have a lot of spare time at work.

Pulitzer Laureate
Posts: 988
Joined: 22 Sep 2008

mark_n_b:
So I'm not sure I follow? This wasn't id? i.e. why call it this "id" company?

He's making a joke, I assume. Quake Live is an ad-supported browser-based version of Quake III Arena with some updated and improved content. Part of the reason it runs so well is because John Carmack is a programming genius. The other part of the reason is that it is a pretty damn old game.

PROBATION
Posts: 3330
Joined: 23 Oct 2007

Holy. Shit.

That is brilliant. It's a long time since I last played multiplayer Quake, back when Quake II still had some working servers. What I can't figure out though is: does the program run server-side or client-side?

User was put on probation for: Do you think you're sexually attractive?. (3 days)
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The engine runs client-side. And the most amazing thing is the match load times: they're almost always under 5 seconds.

PROBATION
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Joined: 23 Oct 2007

Eggo:
The engine runs client-side. And the most amazing thing is the match load times: they're almost always under 5 seconds.

That would explain the speed of it, then. I'll have to give this a try some time. I was moderately good at Quake II, but I've lost a lot of that twitch FPS skill over the last few years.

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BANNED
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Eggo:
The engine runs client-side. And the most amazing thing is the match load times: they're almost always under 5 seconds.

What do you need to do to get in the beta?

User was banned for: FUN FORUM GAME THX FO PLAYIN :3. (Permanent)
BANNED
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Joined: 21 Aug 2008

Sign up for the beta and wait. I forget how long I had to, but it was a couple months :\

Copy Clerk
Posts: 114
Joined: 24 Dec 2008

If you could (could being the key word here) then it would be a fucking revolution in pick up and play gaming. People could get their fix any were with a wireless hot spot or from any cheap cafe internet computer.

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1521
Joined: 5 Jul 2008

Eggo:
Sign up for the beta and wait. I forget how long I had to, but it was a couple months :\

I signed up the moment I heard of it and still haven't gotten my invite.

Apparently there's a matchmaking system there in place (in addition to a proper server list, I hear), so you won't be able to gauntlet people next to a wall for long.

BANNED
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Joined: 21 Aug 2008

Heh, I was playing in a matched game. Protip: Unless you're really damn good, avoid instagib servers. I forgot how sore my ass could get after 15 minutes of instagib FFA :[

 
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