2501 The way I phrased it was too strong. It’s nitpicks, really. The Quakes are my go-to “i would like to play a video game now” games, mostly for multiplayer, and I keep a version of every numbered game installed at all times on every computer I own. I say “a version” bc the first three have been open source for almost as long as I’ve been alive and there are a ton of well-maintained forks that, for an overly opinionated PC player, these remasters are “competing” with. I Do Not Care For the remastered graphics, though I also don’t think any “remaster” would look as nice as native-res Ironwail with the software renderer emulation on. The multiplayer lobby system is bad (p2p, but no host migration if someone crashes, ragequits, etc; this is starting to get rating with q2r as well tbh). Movement isn’t Absolutely Perfect (or wasn’t when I was investigating), it doesn’t have the hitscan+projectile antilag of modern QuakeWorld, AFAIK it still doesn’t work with Quake Injector.
Essentially, it’s not the best version of the game on my computer, unless I really want to get a Steam achievement. I recognize this is silly! And I’d be more than happy with it if I were playing it on a console.
2501 Anyway I hope Bethesda is drumming up hype for a full reboot in the spirit of Wolfenstein and Doom.
I would love this, but Quake is in a weird spot. There’s no ~ coherent brand identity ~ besides an unpopular type of competitive multiplayer. The huge theme shift from 1->2 happened because they were meant to be working on a new IP. Quake 3 didn’t have a campaign or real “theme” at all, just (REALLY GOOD) multiplayer with bots in a fighting game-y arcade mode. Quake 4 had a campaign in a bad way (360 launch title, Q2 reboot, space marines, year after Halo 2, “standing in front of door you’re supposed to walk through so I can read my lines about rendezvousing at the LZ,” etc). Then Quake Live+Champions were both multiplayer-only, and flopped (though QC’s most recent official tournament was Literally Today). Hell, this goes for Quake 2, even; the campaign was okay and has its shooters, but the multiplayer is what you hear about. Note that there are next to no custom single-player levels for Quake 2, but it had enough multiplayer mods to get an expansion pack devoted to them. I’ve met a lot of people whose “first Quake” was Action Quake 2 or the Capture the Flag mod, much like how people used to buy Half-Life just to play Counter-Strike. It’s normal for an otherwise Dedicated Quake Player to have never finished the Q2 or Q4 campaigns. Rebooting something like that into imsimmy lovecraftian survival horror feels like something a money person would say no to? I’d play it though. and that Marathon reboot is happening…
oh, and re: “Quake 2 movement,” there are 25 years worth of technical platforming challenge maps built around some engine quirks. I don’t think this is your thing, but it might be someone’s? They are fun to play and watch, imo. here’s a video tutorial and a pre-rolled Q2Pro client - the remaster fixes some of the exploits and doesn’t support any preexisting mods(!).
