[Quake Champions] Beta open to all, no more NDA, new esports team mode

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa-6fQyNkZo

Quake. Is. Back.

The fast, skill-based arena-style competition that turned the original Quake games into multiplayer legends is making a triumphant return with Quake Champions. Running at an impressive 120hz with unlocked framerates, id Software’s new multiplayer shooter is getting ready to take PC gaming by storm once more.

Quake Champions features a roster of unique characters, each with their own distinctive abilities, allowing you to fight the way you want. Get your first look at Quake Champions and some of its heroes in the cinematic reveal trailer, debuted during the #BE3 2016 Showcase.

As all the resources listed currently don't exist, this seems to be all the information on hand.

Bathesda, in their infinite wisdom, has decided that the grand success of farming out Doom 4's multiplayer to ex-Halo devs means that the Quake game fans have been waiting on for over 15 years should be a class-based hero shooter.

Yes, I am a known jerk-faced Quake elitist. And, yes, I had to squint at the trailer out of pure trepidation--and that was before I read the description.

But Quake is probably my favourite series. It's where I made friends, it's the game I played competitively just because I loved it that much. And I can't just give up when it shows up not looking quite how I want it to.

Quake Champions is my Cunégonde, and I have to believe that in this best of all possible worlds, things just might work out.

Besides all the bad and the ugly, that's actually good?

• The classic Quake 1 and Quake 3 aesthetic. Not those screen-filling "realistic" weapons from Quake 4 or the new Doom, or pretty much all the game's contemporaries. We have those simple, sleek rocket launching tubes, the stubby lightning gun. This is what I've always wanted. As much as Quake 4 had its own list of gameplay problems, what really turned me off it was how the guns looked and felt.
• So far, a firm PC commitment. Unlocked frame rates, support for high refresh-rate monitors. It's a start.
• Some good Quake 1/2/3 references on the models and characters. And a rail gun!

Uh . . . I'll keep thinking, and add more when there's more to add.

So, a melee kill right in the trailer isn't a good sign. But he did pick up a dropped weapon, which is pointing in the right direction.

"Esports support from the ground up."

I'll patiently await the confirmation of strafe-jumping before making a final decision. And mod support.

PMAvers

Seriously, show me the mod and tool support. It's kind of weird how they skip around that when talking about the game's legacy.

Brolo

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We'll probably have to wait till QuakeCon in August for real info and gameplay. The good news there is that many of the best Quake players in the world will be in the room, so we can get someone other than random Youtube personalities to show off the gameplay and give candid thoughts.

cB557

a nu start

Is class-based team shooters the new MOBA?

Mechanical

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So, a melee kill right in the trailer isn't a good sign.

Hey man, just because using the gauntlet wasn't a good idea in practice doesn't mean it wasn't a thing before. :P

Olivaw

If this is just Overwatch but you can pick up weapons and rocket jump

I'll be into that

Casually Hardcore

Not going to hold my breath....

nope...

not holding my breath

TelMarine

We know almost nothing but please just don't be a re-skinned Overwatch...when I read about heroes having different abilities...argh (not a knock against Overwatch, it's fun). Just seems weird to me to go in that direction for Quake, but I guess from a business standpoint they figure that all this dota/moba-like stuff is all the rage right now, so that's how you'll get people to buy it. I'm going to be SUPER skeptical about this, way more so than Doom.

Drake

Haha

Wow. Totally pessimistic here.

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I have heard some sort of strafe jumping confirmed, but I'm still trying to source it.

The game is now being connected (co-developed) by Saber Interactive . . . who worked on Halo: Master Chief Collection and Halo Online, as well as the absolutely godawful Battle: Los Angeles game. Shades of Doom 4?

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Alright, found it. Here. 2 hours, 20 mins in.

It's not Mynx in the trailer, but a new character named Nyx. She can rocket jump higher?

Strafe jumping, rocket jumping, and ledge double-jumps all confirmed, to some degree. Movement named as one of the "three cores" of Quake.

Drake

All I can think is that this is Unreal Championship 2 all over.

That's sad on so many levels.

reVerse

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So, a melee kill right in the trailer isn't a good sign.

Did you even play Quake 3? That's the Gauntlet.

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I know it's the gauntlet, but that was a weapon of last resort in Quake 1 (well, the axe) and 3, not something you show off in a trailer. There's no way I can disassociate it from Doom 4's intrusive melee finishers, even if this is supposed to be a PC exclusive.

Undead Scottsman

The four characters appear to be Ranger (Q1/Q3), Visor (Q3), Nyx and Scale Bearer (who seem to be new characaters)

The video shows Ranger taking the lightning gun after killing Scale Bearer, so weapon pickups might still be a thing.

id also announced they're adding classic deathmatch to Doom, which comes after the announcement that they're taking over MP development on that title, so maybe they're listening.

SmokeStacks

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I know it's the gauntlet, but that was a weapon of last resort in Quake 1 (well, the axe) and 3, not something you show off in a trailer. There's no way I can disassociate it from Doom 4's intrusive melee finishers, even if this is supposed to be a PC exclusive.

The gauntlet in Q3 was a showoff weapon (hence the HUMILIATION message from the announcer), not something you'd want to use on a regular basis.

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SmokeStacks wrote: »

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I know it's the gauntlet, but that was a weapon of last resort in Quake 1 (well, the axe) and 3, not something you show off in a trailer. There's no way I can disassociate it from Doom 4's intrusive melee finishers, even if this is supposed to be a PC exclusive.

The gauntlet in Q3 was a showoff weapon (hence the HUMILIATION message from the announcer), not something you'd want to use on a regular basis.

That's what I just said it was . . .

Looking at the recent track records of Bethesda and id (Doom 4), and Saber Interactive (multiple Halo games and other console FPS), and the way the gauntlet was used neither as a last resort nor as an obvious taunt, but as something cool and badass, I'm more confident that they're pushing melee than that they're simply showing that they're still using the Quake 3 weapon design.

I'll be happy to get proven wrong, but until then it's an easy assumption that one of the characters is getting a melee damage buff or some other nonsense as one of his abilities.

SmokeStacks

I meant to differentiate the gauntlet from the melee finishers in Doom, I probably should have worded that post better.

The most disappointing part of the Quake Champions reveal for me is the notion that if they are revealing it now, than they've been working on it for some time. It's pretty clear that id thought that Doom's multiplayer would be way better received than it actually was, so there is a part of me that wonders how much of the Doom post release updates were preplanned and how much of it is just id going into panic mode because no one seems to care about Doom's generic multiplayer.

The other thought I have is I wonder what sort of impact the lack of consumer excitement over Doom has done to Quake Champions development. I bet there have been a lot of meetings and changes over the past month.

Olivaw

Part of me wonders if id didn't know that Doom's multiplayer was kind of a mess. Development was a huge long cycle where they did a full reboot at least once. I wouldn't be surprised if they farmed out the multiplayer and SnapMap stuff to another team just to allow them to focus on the campaign, with every intention of taking over after the fact

Not sure how I'd explain the season pass being nothing but multiplayer stuff if that were the case though...

Regardless, I'd have my doubts about all of this if they hadn't just produced an incredible single player game that preserved the spirit of a classic game while elaborating upon it in surprisingly effective ways. Quake is another beast entirely, sure, but they've more than earned the benefit of the doubt

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Saber is the wild card here. Nothing but console FPS and Halo games, and nothing at all that stands out as particularly good. But they do claim to have their own engine, and the interview did mention id is borrowing technology from them. Maybe all they want are some extra lighting effects, and not comprehensive advice on how to do progressive unlocks with level-ups and ranks.

Harbringer197

Personally I'm excited haven't played the orginal quake. if they are able to maintain the spirit of the old game but add in cool new stuff I'm all for it. people worried about glory kills but they turned out great. hope The sames true for the character abilities. The second developer worries me though

TychoCelchuuu

Harbringer197 wrote: »

Personally I'm excited haven't played the orginal quake. if they are able to maintain the spirit of the old game but add in cool new stuff I'm all for it. people worried about glory kills but they turned out great. hope The sames true for the character abilities. The second developer worries me though

If you haven't played the old Quake, why do you care if they maintain its spirit? How can you know whether glory kills "turned out great" if we don't know anything about this game?

vamen

I know it won't happen, but I just want to play DM4 in a pretty new Quake game. In fact, I'd be pretty amazingly happy if it was just Quake 1 remade in modern visuals.

Drake

You can probably give up on any hope for original Quake gameplay. I imagine it'll be an even more simplified version of the neutered mechanics from that last big Quake Live update. Add in a hero meta and it's a Quake game I really don't care about.

vamen

Yea, my assumption is that it would probably be more like Quake 3 than anything else. But a man can dream.

Linespider5

I just...don't know about this.

It feels like it's been a long, long time since an id game, let alone a Quake game, had anything important to say about multiplayer FPS modes.

Also, out in front, nothing in this reveal looks anything more than a new version of Quake 3 Arena, which was already done once before in Quake Live. Only with character designs that are notably less polygonal and instead overly round.

Remember: Quake 3 Arena was originally supposed to be classed based, with characters that had unique stats and abilities. Here in the trailer, we see 'Visor' one of the Q3 characters, seeing through walls and stuff to track enemies, which he probably was able to do at some point in the development of Q3.

I know it's in Bethesda's interest to make a successful multiplayer shooter title (I don't think they have one, do they?), but I don't see anything in Quake Champions that's going to be it. Of course, I had low expectations for both the new Wolfenstein and the Doom based on their announce trailers, so we'll see, I guess.

THAT ALL SAID,

I may be of a few, older weirdos, but goddammit I want Quake 1 remade with the attention, care, and glory that Wolfenstein and Doom have got. In my mind, I don't see how a multiplayer FPS from id will work in this current age, and releasing yet another failed attempt at multiplayer around the name Quake is only going to make it harder for my weird slipgate nightmares to become reality.

vamen

Linespider5 wrote: »

I just...don't know about this.

It feels like it's been a long, long time since an id game, let alone a Quake game, had anything important to say about multiplayer FPS modes.

Also, out in front, nothing in this reveal looks anything more than a new version of Quake 3 Arena, which was already done once before in Quake Live. Only with character designs that are notably less polygonal and instead overly round.

Remember: Quake 3 Arena was originally supposed to be classed based, with characters that had unique stats and abilities. Here in the trailer, we see 'Visor' one of the Q3 characters, seeing through walls and stuff to track enemies, which he probably was able to do at some point in the development of Q3.

I know it's in Bethesda's interest to make a successful multiplayer shooter title (I don't think they have one, do they?), but I don't see anything in Quake Champions that's going to be it. Of course, I had low expectations for both the new Wolfenstein and the Doom based on their announce trailers, so we'll see, I guess.

THAT ALL SAID,

I may be of a few, older weirdos, but goddammit I want Quake 1 remade with the attention, care, and glory that Wolfenstein and Doom have got. In my mind, I don't see how a multiplayer FPS from id will work in this current age, and releasing yet another failed attempt at multiplayer around the name Quake is only going to make it harder for my weird slipgate nightmares to become reality.

You said it. I loved the feel of the first Quake's setting, which was lost in Q2 and later (though I loved Q2). I figure in a lot of people's mind, Quake 1 is the last Quake that comes to mind when they think of the series. Which makes me sad.

Undead Scottsman

The problem with Quake 1 singleplayer is that it's basically already Doom with the serial numbers filed off and demons from hell replaced with Lovecraftian monsters. I'm not sure what you do there without either just retreading the new Doom or going further down the Lovecraft hole (which would be at odds with the "murder everything" style of the original.).

Going MP only was probably the way to go, especially after the reception of Doom's MP.

Linespider5

Undead Scottsman wrote: »

The problem with Quake 1 singleplayer is that it's basically already Doom with the serial numbers filed off and demons from hell replaced with Lovecraftian monsters. I'm not sure what you do there without either just retreading the new Doom or going further down the Lovecraft hole (which would be at odds with the "murder everything" style of the original.).

Going MP only was probably the way to go, especially after the reception of Doom's MP.

Disagree.

Quake is decidedly more dungeon-y than Doom ever gets. Levels with lots of weird traps, floating platforms, crushing devices-to say nothing of criminally underused concepts like underwater areas, non-earth gravity segments, and wind tunnels. There's a lot of potential for clockwork madness in Quake, that dispenses with the idea that any of it was ever made by human hands.

Mind you, I'll agree that getting Quake 'right' is a thousand times trickier than getting Doom right, but honoring the atmosphere goes a long way. Make the monsters extra tough, hang onto as much of the NIN soundwork as a starting point for remaking it, and you could make a pretty interesting thing.

Is your idea that since Doom's Multiplayer didn't take off, Bethesda should make a standalone multi, and Quake is the next best choice?

Drake

Yeah, also the move to full 3D in Quake seriously limited the number of baddies you could have on screen, so you never get to slaughter masses of enemies like Doom. Then you consider the movement physics, jumping, and z axis shooting.

Quake is a pretty different beast than Doom, even though they share so much DNA.

Undead Scottsman

Linespider5 wrote: »

Undead Scottsman wrote: »

The problem with Quake 1 singleplayer is that it's basically already Doom with the serial numbers filed off and demons from hell replaced with Lovecraftian monsters. I'm not sure what you do there without either just retreading the new Doom or going further down the Lovecraft hole (which would be at odds with the "murder everything" style of the original.).

Going MP only was probably the way to go, especially after the reception of Doom's MP.

Disagree.

Quake is decidedly more dungeon-y than Doom ever gets. Levels with lots of weird traps, floating platforms, crushing devices-to say nothing of criminally underused concepts like underwater areas, non-earth gravity segments, and wind tunnels. There's a lot of potential for clockwork madness in Quake, that dispenses with the idea that any of it was ever made by human hands.

Doom actually had a lot of traps and crushers and stuff like that. I'd also argue that Doom 2 had a lot of dungeony areas (it just had a more vibrant color palette than Quake, so they were red and electric blue dungeons rather than brown ones). Also, you are the only person who I've ever seen who is nostalgic for underwater sections.

Anywho, that all being said, I was referring more to the gameplay than the level design (of which new Doom actually inherited a lot of how Quake dealt with 3D level design). New doom developed the system of the glory kills feeding into the health/ammo drops that pretty much MAKES the combat in that game work. I'm not sure what you do with Quake that isn't just a retread of that.

Is your idea that since Doom's Multiplayer didn't take off, Bethesda should make a standalone multi, and Quake is the next best choice?

More or less. Quake is probably more well known for multiplayer (and mods) than as a singleplayer game at this point so if you're going to try and make a new modern MP game, Quake is probably the franchise to do it with.

Linespider5

Undead Scottsman wrote: »

Quake is probably more well known for multiplayer (and mods) than as a singleplayer game at this point so if you're going to try and make a new modern MP game, Quake is probably the franchise to do it with.

I suppse it's hard to argue with that, actually. Apart from RAGE I don't know what else id has as an IP, and Quake is the eminent mutilplayer one, hands down.

Maybe I'm just unhappy since they're using the original Quake font.

It really could be something that dumb.

BladeOfSanjuro

I wanted a sequel to Unreal Championship 2... but not by taking the Quake IP out of commission to do it

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Best case scenario is they completely rip off Diabotical's mission plan, which the trailer could be. It won't, but it could be. It's been my opinion for a long time that the real thing holding arena FPS back is that every new one is a CPMA remake but without even the Quake brand to get sales. You need a certain amount of momentum, and though Warsow and Reflex are fine enough games, nobody who doesn't haunt ESR already has a clue that they are.

Bethesda wants in on the esports money just like everyone else. Doom 4's multiplayer was DOA, so that was never going to happen. This is what they have. They're going to debut it at QuakeCon, where all the best Quake players in the world will already be for the QuakeLive tournaments. They've announced year-round tournament support before we have a single screenshot. God willing, they're paying some sort of attention to what the competitive Quake community--the players who have been at it for 20 years now--want out of the game.

All it needs is mod support, mapping tools, and a server browser. They can sell cosmetics. Everyone does. If they go full AAA-stupid and want to sell map packs (as Doom 4 is doing) and lock down community involvement, it will get real ugly, real fast. If they can learn a single thing from Overwatch, is that you can sell a game with everything unlocked in perpetuity and still make a healthy profit. That's all they need to do.

A working console with all the required cvars would be nice as well. If I can go back to actual zoom scripts, I will be so happy I'll actually buy a new mouse and stop using my drawer full of $5 logitechs.

Handgimp

They should just update RAGE to idTech 6 and call it a day :P

Drake

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Best case scenario is they completely rip off Diabotical's mission plan, which the trailer could be. It won't, but it could be. It's been my opinion for a long time that the real thing holding arena FPS back is that every new one is a CPMA remake but without even the Quake brand to get sales. You need a certain amount of momentum, and though Warsow and Reflex are fine enough games, nobody who doesn't haunt ESR already has a clue that they are.

Bethesda wants in on the esports money just like everyone else. Doom 4's multiplayer was DOA, so that was never going to happen. This is what they have. They're going to debut it at QuakeCon, where all the best Quake players in the world will already be for the QuakeLive tournaments. They've announced year-round tournament support before we have a single screenshot. God willing, they're paying some sort of attention to what the competitive Quake community--the players who have been at it for 20 years now--want out of the game.

All it needs is mod support, mapping tools, and a server browser. They can sell cosmetics. Everyone does. If they go full AAA-stupid and want to sell map packs (as Doom 4 is doing) and lock down community involvement, it will get real ugly, real fast. If they can learn a single thing from Overwatch, is that you can sell a game with everything unlocked in perpetuity and still make a healthy profit. That's all they need to do.

A working console with all the required cvars would be nice as well. If I can go back to actual zoom scripts, I will be so happy I'll actually buy a new mouse and stop using my drawer full of $5 logitechs.

Good luck.

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I mean, there must be someone out there who actually like Bethesda.

PMAvers

You know, I'd love it if it ends up being like the new Unreal Tournament. Free (with cosmetics if you want 'em), full server access and mod tools, the nine yards.

SmokeStacks

It won't, because Bethesda