So, yesterday, after long weeks (months) of anticipation, I finally got my hands on a copy. Well, not a REAL copy, just an image of some generous sharer's copy. I installed it as soon as possible and got my mate to run a server. First quake4 game ever: ffa on Beyond the Edge. (or smth)

K, first thing I noticed : my pc isnt going to be able to run this game to the fullest graphical extend (yet. maybe in 4 years or something), so I immediately got a tweaked config to turn everything to picmip 200000 or something. that means, lowest of lowest. I noticed that having your gun in screen eats a LOT of fps, so I turned that off too.

K, gameplay wise: wtf happened with the usual movement. It's kind of a step back. Maybe its because q2dm1 doesnt cut it in this type of gameplay, but damn, getting up stairs is a bitch now. I mean, you have to WALK up, no more speeding up with jumping like in q2. Plus, there's no doublejumping, so getting up to the Ya boxes is a disaster. It's really, really annoying.

So, after a while we decided to run another map. I dunno what its called exactly, but it's the one with a lot of jumppads and a YA that floats in the air. I like the game way better on this map. It just works a lot better. So I guess, if you want a new game, maps are the solution, not changed movement. Im a CPMA player, so I like speed, but for some reason, the movement didn't keep me from playing. Even though it's quite dodgy in my experience (I felt like this is the first quake where you have the LEAST control over your actions), it feels 'new', and it's quite well balanced with the weapon use.

Talking about weapons, this has to be the craziest combination of weapons I've ever seen. It's like a combination of all weapons of the Quake series. Gauntlet (q3), machinegun (q3), shotgun (feels q3ish), grenade launcher (q2), nailgun (q1), hyperblaster (q2), lightning gun (q3), rocket launcher (feels q2ish, kinda slow but powerful, 100dmg on direct hit), railgun (q2 style, 100 dmg), and some kind of weird new BFG (q2 style). The weapons are well balanced, tho. Weapon cooldown is quite long tho, so forget the rg/shaft combos, or rl/rg quickshots. You have to think about what you're gonna use now, no more quick switching; walking around with rg in some situations might get you killed immediately.

As for hitsounds, the sound got reduced in volume a bit. It's harder to hear if you hit something, especially in big fights, but your crosshair does change color when you hit, so that's a good addition.

After a while, we decided to do a 2on2 game on q2dm1 again. This is where shit gets wrong. First of all, I don't really like the player models. They look too tall, and too skinny. The colors suck too; too dark, sometimes almost invisible. No brightskins yet. And this is what makes team games annoying: It's damn hard to recognize who's on your team and who isn't. The only thing dividing friend from foe is a little circle above their heads, on everything else they're identical. So expect a lot of friendly shots in.

Second, what happened to the drawteamoverlay? I couldn't be bothered to check the menus for it, but my guess is it isn't. If it is, then nm this, if it isn't, this sucks.

After 2 hours of play, I got tired, but didn't get tired with the <i>game</i>. To be honest, I would be playing it all night if I didnt have work the next day. But something is bothering me a bit.

It feels new, but then again, it feels a lot like thing are a step backwards. A lot of functions that formed the basis of the Quake series over the years, are gone. Tilde key no longer fires up the console, you need to do a three key ctrl+alt+tilde combo now. Console commands are changed again, wtf happened to the simple 'name' command? Gone. A lot of stuff that got established by others is left out. Simple OSP type commands, brightskins, stuff like that. Movement, kinda buggy, but it's a new game. So, to me, the question is:

Should we keep comparing Quake 4 to the previous Quakes, or should we accept the game as it is? Are we taking a step forward, or are we taking a step back, just to play the game we already know?