We Saved San Onofre For You and Your Kids

Q is for Quake.

Quake has long held the number one slot in the category of games known as first-person shooters. Quake is blatantly (and unapologetically) violent, and rated for Mature (17+) audiences by the ESRB. Long-time players will assure you that there are strategies for playing Quake well, but the bottom-line objective is undeniably basic: to hunt down and ‘frag’ (from ‘fragment,’ Quake-lingo for kill) as many enemies as possible.

For those unfamiliar with Quake, you start the game with two weapons (a machine gun and a gauntlet) and basic armor, and begin hunting for victims through a landscape of rooms, caverns and labyrinths, called maps. Along the way, you’ll spy more powerful weapons — and hope that you can snatch them up before your opponents do. You’ll also want to look for power-ups, which are enhancements that give you strategic advantages over others, such as stronger armor, invisibility, or extra speed.

The map environments in Quake III now have three-dimensional curved surfaces instead of the boxy, squared-off edges in earlier releases. There are also new special effects and details that add realism to the game. For instance, if you shoot a weapon under water, bubbles appear. Or if you shoot in a darkened room, the blast lights up the walls.

You’ll also encounter (and struggle with) realistic elements of nature such as water, smoke, fog, slime, flickering flames, and lava. Sound effects also play an important role. Sometimes you can hear your enemies before you see them. And of course, it wouldn’t be Quake without the bone-chilling death screams.

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posted by NeoN @ 12/31/2003 05:37:00 AM