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id Software, Raven Software and Activision confirmed that Quake 4 PC has eneterd manufacturing and is heading for store shelves by mid-October. The firms did not provide an exact date, bu if we believe retailers such as Gamestop, then Quake 4 PC will be available for purchase on Oct. 18; the version for the Xbox 360 will be released together with the game consule about a month later, on Nov. 15.

The PC version will be available in a now-common "special" edition for $60 as well as in a regular package for $50. The Xbox 360 variant will cost $60 - and reflect a 20 percent price-hike for the new platform, if compared to games for the "old" Xbox.

Quake 4 enlists gamers in the role of Matthew Kane, a member of the Earth Defense Force's legendary Rhino Squad, to penetrate deep into the heart of the Strogg war machine and engage in a series of heroic missions to destroy the barbaric alien race. (THG)

Link,
Yay, just in time for a birthday present, the Doom3 engine in a large outdoor enviroment with a focus on action rather than horror should be cool.

Oh, so there's an actual story again?

Wait, they've been working on Quake 4?

Am I the only one who was unaware that they were even working on it?

Quake 4? I have vague notions of hearing about this sometime over the last year.

They've really been keeping quiet about it, eah?

Quake 4
Available for purchase October 18, 2005.
It's not like Doom 3, we swear.

Eh? Eh?

Hey guys, I heard Doom 3 had some pretty dark environments. Isn't that hilarious? Am I right?

Uraniun235 wrote:Hey guys, I heard Doom 3 had some pretty dark environments. Isn't that hilarious? Am I right?

Don't you mean "m i rite"?

Well, I might pick it up as a birthday gift for myself, if it turns out to be any good. Can't wait to see what my 7800GTX can do with it.

FEAR comes out the same day as this. Buy it instead.

DPDarkPrimus wrote:FEAR comes out the same day as this. Buy it instead.

Ahhh yes, thats right. For some stupid reason I thought FEAR came out in late November.

DPDarkPrimus wrote:

Uraniun235 wrote:Hey guys, I heard Doom 3 had some pretty dark environments. Isn't that hilarious? Am I right?

Don't you mean "am i rite"?

Ha ha ha! How amusing! You're quite correct, of course.

Now that we finshed bashing Doom 3...Quake 4 actully looks pretty good.

InnocentBystander wrote:Quake 4? I have vague notions of hearing about this sometime over the last year.

They've really been keeping quiet about it, eah?

Keeping quiet? It was all over E3.

Captain tycho wrote:

DPDarkPrimus wrote:FEAR comes out the same day as this. Buy it instead.

Ahhh yes, thats right. For some stupid reason I thought FEAR came out in late November.

Or just buy both.

For a late November release, you might be thinking of Oblivion (the only game I REALLY care about).

With all these good games coming out, when will I find time to go Christmas shopping? Maybe I won't, I'll be too wrapped up in my games

Oh wow, so we get to have exactly the same game that ID Software has been peddling for the last 10 years, but with another graphic engine update! Yahoo! Quick, tell everyone you know!

Darth Wong wrote:Oh wow, so we get to have exactly the same game that ID Software has been peddling for the last 10 years, but with another graphic engine update! Yahoo! Quick, tell everyone you know!

Actually the engine isn't new, it's just an optimized version of the D# engine with outdoor scenes.

DEATH wrote:

Darth Wong wrote:Oh wow, so we get to have exactly the same game that ID Software has been peddling for the last 10 years, but with another graphic engine update! Yahoo! Quick, tell everyone you know!

Actually the engine isn't new, it's just an optimized version of the D# engine with outdoor scenes.

Y'know, I could have sworn Mike said the same thing you did. Might want to read a little more carefully.

But yeah, I'm finding it very hard to get all worked up about this. Will it be pretty? Sure. Just like Doom3 was pretty and Unreal 2 was pretty. Will it have any sort of innovative gameplay, intriguing storyline, or some other little hook that will make it much more worthwhile?

Probably not. Id and Epic have made a business of making nice new graphics engines for companies to buy when they don't want to waste the time coding their own. I don't have hard numbers for it, but I'd be willing to bet both companies get more money from selling/renting their engines than they do from the games they actually build from them.

That said, of the two, I have much more respect for Epic, despite the lackluster UT2003. They seem to be doing more things with what they do and put the engines to better use. Additionally, they are much better to their community, releasing quite a hefty amount of content totally free to the players, much like Cavedog of old. Id, meanwhile, has released the source code to Quake 1. A noble gesture, but seriously, I think I've seen one game made with it.

If I had to choose between Quake 4 and whatever Unreal-based game is on the pipe for the next year or so, I'd pick Unreal. More bang for my buck, and probably more fun. I'm much more interested in games I will enjoy playing, rather than ZOMG teh next FPS is out.

The market of FPS games is well and truly flooded. You might as well hold out for the good ones, games that take the genre and make it something special. Max Payne comes to mind, F.E.A.R. looks like it will be in that category. Deus Ex, Thief, System Shock, Half-Life, Far Cry, Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Jedi Knight, all of these games did more than just have shiny graphics.

If you absolutely MUST HAVE a game running this new engine, wait six months to a year. I bet someone will take the engine and do something honestly cool with it by then.

Max Payne and Splinter Cell are not First Person Shooters in any sense of the term.

Thief is iffy.

DPDarkPrimus wrote:Max Payne and Splinter Cell are not First Person Shooters in any sense of the term.

Thief is iffy.

Max Payne merely lacks the "first person", which is hardly a major genre-changing event. Please, do tell, what significant gameplay changes happen from changing perspective? Would a space sim cease being a space sim? Would a RTS cease being an RTS? Jedi Knight switches to third-person at times too. When you have the saber out, does it cease to be a FPS game?

Splinter Cell drastically changes things, but still follows many of the same conventions as a normal FPS.

With Thief, you're clearly trying to make a distinction between games that focus on combat and focus on stealth, which is silly.

Had I mentioned Morrowind, you'd have a much more solid argument, because while it has first-person perspective, it is clearly an RPG.

So is this Quake still ugly as shit?

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:So is this Quake still ugly as shit?

Last publicity shot I saw of the characters suggested that it was.

Uraniun235 wrote:

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:So is this Quake still ugly as shit?

Last publicity shot I saw of the characters suggested that it was.

Shining...

It doesn't look bad, but its also not a huge next-gen system hog. It should run fine on any system that ran Doom3... And the gameplay looks something like Call of Duty in space.

I think there is nothing at all wrong with any of that.

Hotfoot wrote:That said, of the two, I have much more respect for Epic, despite the lackluster UT2003. They seem to be doing more things with what they do and put the engines to better use. Additionally, they are much better to their community, releasing quite a hefty amount of content totally free to the players, much like Cavedog of old. Id, meanwhile, has released the source code to Quake 1. A noble gesture, but seriously, I think I've seen one game made with it.

They've also released the source code to Quake 2 and 3.