QuakeCon 2009: Checking out XBLA's Quake Arena Arcade and Doom II

Posted Aug 15th 2009 5:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: Downloads, FPS

While Big Download is a PC gaming site first and foremost, two upcoming games from the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade might be of interest to PC gamers as well. The exhibit floor at QuakeCon 2009 had not one but two games based on previous id Software PC titles in playable form.

One is Quake Arena Arcade, the XBLA version of id's 1999 multiplayer shooter Quake III Arena. id actually announced plans for such a game at QuakeCon in 2007 but it's finally looking like it will be coming out fairly soon (although no release date has been announced). The game itself is being ported by Pi Studios and on the show floor it looks terrific. We were told that the game actually has some slightly higher polygon counts for the levels and characters than the original Quake III Arena so purists will have little issue with the game's looks.

So why get Quake Arena Arcade when you can play Quake Live (also based on Quake III Arena) for free on your web browser? Well, one reason is that this game is fully "M" rated; that means when players die on screen you see gibs and blood rather than the "disappearing in a flash of light" thing you see when you kill players in Quake Live. The other reason is that in addition to all of the levels in Quake III Arena, Pi Studios has created a whopping 12 all new levels unique to Quake Arena Arcade. Oh and did we mention that there are plans for even more downloadable content for the game after it's released?

Check out the other XLBA game based on an id Software classic after the jump:

The other new XBLA game on the QuakeCon show floor was a surprise; it's a version of Doom II, the second game in id Software's Doom series. Of course, the original Doom game was ported to XBLA a while ago and was a massive hit. Nerve Software, which handled the XBLA port, is back with this version of Doom II. It will also support four player co-op mode options just like the first Doom game port.

But that's not all. Nerve has made Doom II more than just a port; they are adding an all new single player episode to the game that's unique to the XBLA version. We were told that after making fully 3D games, it was something of a treat for the Nerve team to go old school and make 2D levels in the Doom engine. A couple of the levels from the new episode were playable at QuakeCon and they certainly look and feel like maps that play like they were mad by pros rather than your average Doom amateur level maker.

Again, no release dates were announced for either XBLA game but since they were playable at QuakeCon we expect we won't have to wait too like before Quake Arena Arcade and Doom II will be available to download for Xbox 360 players.

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