quake-3-arena posts

If you have tried to join the Quake Live web site this morning and was unable to join the free-to-play first person shooter, you are not alone. The game's official Twitter web site has confirmed that the Quake Live web site from id Software cannot be accessed at this time.

A second Twitter message states that while the actual Quake Live servers are up and running for some reason the servers are not accessible. The message adds, "We are working with our ISP to resolve the outage." The issues comes just a few days after the game got a content update that added three new maps. We will update this post when Quake Live is fully operational.

Last year id Software's free-to-play first person shooter Quake Live came out of beta with new premium pricing plans and a series of content updates for those users. This week the developer released the first such content update for the game for 2011, adding three new maps for those premium users.

One of the new maps is titled Concrete Palace which is designed to be a "midsized duel arena". Another is a Team Deathmatch level title called Dies Irae for eight to 10 players. Finally there's a new map of the dreaded (for some) "space" level variety, a CTF map called Skyward. The update also has some balance changes and bug fixes including one that fixes a lag on quitting games on Windows systems.

By the time this news post is read by most of you QuakeCon 2010 will be officially shut down in Dallas. However those of us who didn't get to go this year can still get a very nice deal on most of id Software's Quake games. For the next 24 hours, the Quake Pack bundle of games on Steam will be on sale for a mere $10, a whopping 75 percent price cut from its normal price.

The bundle includes the original Quake and its two expansion packs, Quake II and its two expansion packs and Quake III Arena and its expansion pack Team Arena (for some reason Quake IV and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars are not included). And one last reminder: the QuakeCon 2010 pack is still available on Steam with 27 id Software-Bethesda Softworks games for a mere $69.99. Today is the last day for that bundle

Update: Looks like id Software made the deal even cheaper; the Quake Pack is actually priced at $7.49.

As we reported late on Friday, developer id Software has now taken Quake Live officially out of its open beta test period and has added two levels of paid subscription services in addition to its basic free-to-play service. With the new version of Quake Live now back online we know more about the new additions to the game.

One thing that people who pay to play Quake Live will get is a lack of advertising. Players who stick with the free service will have to check out ads while loading the game via Quake Live's web page but Premium and Pro subscribers won't have to deal with those ads appearing

A post on the game's forums gives more info on all the new features including the 20 new maps that are added for Premium and Pro subscribers (the map names are listed after the jump). There are five all new maps in the update along with a new community-made map. The rest are maps that have been adapted from previous Quake III Arena community-created maps including Threewave CTF levels, Rocket Arena 3 maps and others. In addition, all of the previous Quake Live maps have gotten visual upgrades including support for ambient occlusion, dirt map lighting and true vertex lighting. There's also been some layout changes and even a few name changes for some of the maps.

id Software's free-to-play first person shooter Quake Live has been online for well over a year now and this week the game got a major new update with quite a few new features, changes and bug fixes. The biggest new addition is the player invite system which now allows friends to invite others into their games.

Other new features in the update include a way to mute blocked players, Firefox 3.6.3 support and more. id Software is also working on a new Premium (i. e. paid) Service that will allow players and leagues to purchase their own private Quake Live servers.

It's a bit unusual to announce a sale on Steam ahead of time but today id Software revealed on its web site plans to put (nearly) all of its Quake games on sale via Steam next week. From Monday, March 29 to Thursday, April 1 most of the Quake game catalogue on Steam will be on sale for 50 percent off their normal prices. The exception is Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. also, Quake IV has never been available on Steam. You can check out the full list of games that will be on sale below:

Quake 2007 Collection
Quake
Quake Mission Pack 1: Scourge of Armagon
Quake Mission Pack 2: Dissolution of Eternity
Quake II
Quake II Mission Pack: Ground Zero
Quake II Mission Pack: The Reckoning
Quake 3 Pack: Quake III Arena + Team Arena

The world was a very different place back in late 1999. Bill Clinton still had over a year to go in his presidency. This new thing called the "internet" and the "world wide web" was beginning to look less like a trend and more like a real communications tool. Broadband usage was still well below dial-up access.

It was also near the height of the PC game industry. Thanks in part to the growing use of the internet, people were buying desktop PCs at a record rate. PC gaming rigs were getting faster all the time and the use of hardware acceleration in PC games and in graphics cards increased the performance and the looks of many PC game titles to height that were much better than the best console games at the time.

Sometimes you just need to sit down, slide a floppy into your A: drive, and enjoy gaming retro style. We know this all too well! That's why we have a list of the best and brightest from days long gone. These are some of our favorite games of all time, and we're sure that you'll love them as much as we do, if not more. Welcome to Boot Disk, and enjoy the retro ride!

It's only fair that, after giving its competitor some air time, that id's multiplayer masterpiece is covered on Boot Disk. I'm talking about Quake 3, a game that spawned a thousand debates (which is better, Quake or Unreal?!) and a thousand mods. Recently reworked for the browser through the magic of Quake Live, it's time to put a little perspective on the original. It may appear dated, but the low resolution of the textures hides a game that every first-person shooter fan should enjoy. While you may initially have trouble warming up to the weightlessness of Quake after all that time spent in Call of Duty, you'll soon lose yourself in this classic.

As promised a few weeks ago, indie game developer Mangled Eye Studios has now released their first person shooter Dark Salvation. The game, which uses id Software's id Tech 3 (Quake III Arena) graphics engine, definately has a retro Doom-Quake feel to its art style.

While there's no demo for the game, people can still purchase the full game via mail order as a two disk limited edition for $24.99. The first disk contains the game while the second is a CD with the game's soundtrack. You can also download the full version of the game from the Dark Salvation web site for $14.99.

13 years ago today, id Software released Quake, the first game in a first person shooter franchise that continues to be one of the most well known in the PC gaming industry. With five full games based on the series, an number of official and unofficial expansion packs, tons of mods and total conversions and a currently running web browser online-only game, the Quake series continues to be popular even with major shift in emphasis.

On the day that the Quake series become a teenager, Big Download decided to look back at the entire game series. From it's start as a near-Doom clone to the Stroggos storyline to its multiplayer emphasis to its current incarnation as a free-to-play shooter, the series has had many different versions in a relatively short time span.

Click on the image to the right to continue reading Happy 13 Birthday Quake