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Joke 4: The Death of OpenGL

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 35
Date: October 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Back in the mid to late 1990s two major Application Programming Interfaces managed to dominate the PC game scene - DirectX and OpenGL, so much so that graphics hardware developers like ATI and NVIDIA built hardware around these APIs. OpenGL seemed to enjoy a life with game developers who used Silicon Graphics workstations (SGI) to create models and animations for games and film. We could buy high-end OpenGL graphics cards that where up to 64mb back in the days when 8mb cards where mainstream. Even the Nintendo 64 built some of its architecture around OpenGL graphics. In the year 2004 the high end 256mb cards where quickly bought up to enjoy the power of games like "Half-Life 2" and "Doom 3" (in fact "HL2" was the only reason for the upgrade). "Doom 3" is an OpenGL game and looked amazing. "Half-Life 2" used DirectX 9 where previously Half-Life 1 offered both OpenGL and DirectX support. Because "Doom3" was so dark it led many to wonder that if the game was brighter, would it reveal something questionable about the quality of modern OpenGL graphics? "Doom3" also had an option to use 512mb cards that have only been released in the autumn of 2005. Valve's choice not to support OpenGL further fuelled speculation that OpenGL may be badly lagging behind DirectX 9. "Quake 4" is confirmation of this problem... and it is more serious than previously thought. "Quake 4" is built on the "Doom 3" engine. Since "Doom 3" was mostly occupied with hiding you in dark places you never got to see the full quality of a brightly lit OpenGL first person shooter. Now that "Quake 4" has had to come up with a sequel to "Quake 3", ID software handing over development to Raven software, the horrible truth has come to light. OpenGL is simply leagues behind DirectX 9... and we are talking a big difference here. "Quake 4" offers absolutely no reflections. Instead we are still in the world of mapped reflections. Texture detail is the equivalent of "Half-Life 1". Polygon shapes are clearly visible even with every setting maxed out. Bump mapping is hardly visible. Steam and smoke is displayed as big successive blocks of floating transparent maps. Fire is "Duke Nukem" quality, fat orange blobs of quickly changing pixels. The shading and textures of the weapons look terrible. Again, no reflections on the guns, but we do have shadows. The facial expressions of your space marines are an attempt on matching "F.E.A.R" or "Half-Life 2" but you must turn up the Anti-Aliasing to round them off. Sadly even on a high spec gfx card this results in an even lower fps. You are a space marine that must run through the alien enemy complex, usually to meet up with a special marine who you must bring back with you, or to defeat an enemy outpost. The enemy AI does not exist. Everything is scripted. The enemy, the Strogg, instead moves exactly the same, coming in waves of two or three and you can see them move like clones of each other, getting blasted up the same way and dying the same, every single time. Not good. Lighting looks extremely blurred and the sky background is just one big map that does not even move except for the odd ship that flies around the place. Even the PS2 has better graphics than "Quake 4" which when on a PC at this quality begs the big question - what will the XBOX 360 have to offer if the PC version looks like a pre-millennium first person shooter? This is terrible news for everyone. The Quake series has been ruined. Multiplayer is the same quality as Quake 3. There is absolutely no need to upgrade. OpenGL is now officially dead! Only "Doom3" could mask its failure. Now we know why Valve did not support it. The XBOX 360 is faced with marketing a bad port to show off absolutely nothing that the 360s architecture can handle. Various tweak scripts have been released for "Quake 4" on the internet. These seems to have a little bit of an effect on improving game play ever so slightly, but sadly do not help much. You simple can't get what isn't there and that is the bottom line. To add further trouble to the mess is the fact that these poor quality OpenGL graphics are so demanding that even high spec card users will find themselves turning off lots of features and running the game at a low resolution. That is why "Doom 3" and "Quake 4" have a 512mb option... because it takes a juggernaut of a graphics card to actually round the graphics off and even then we are nowhere near looking at something as good as "Half-Life 2". Things are really that bad.

As "Quake 4" was duel released with "F.E.A.R", a fully fledged DirectX 9 name, I would point gamers in the direction of that first person shooter instead and to also keep an eye out for "Call of Duty 2". OpenGL IS DEAD. QUAKE IS DEAD! ........noooooooooooooooo!!

Pros:
- Absolutely NONE.

Cons:
- Shockingly sub-par graphics.
- Poor graphics still demanding high end system specs
- No enemy AI.
- Nothing new. Same as "Quake 3"
- You must quit and restart the game every time for graphics settings to take effect.
- Same price as better first person shooters out there.
- It will break hearts.

big let down ever

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 35
Date: October 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

yep. ive played doom 3 already. i thought this was quake 4, not another doom 3 expansion. pffff

A DOOM 3 repeat...nothing new !!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 15
Date: October 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I would take a guess and say the ONLY people that will give this game a high rating will be kids 16 or younger.

If you have played DOOM 3, then you have already played Quake 4!

I was wondering why this game slipped out onto store shelves and was released to retail without any great fanfare. Now I know why! It is basically the new Doom, except the weapons have flashlights. I am not impressed at all. I beat this game on the hardest setting no problem. The enemies are not particularly clever, just greater in number. Talk about predictable...this game was that in spades. Sadly, you can finish this game in 10 hours or less....YUCK!

Quake 4 is built by the same team using the same graphics engine. I didn't like DOOM 3 much either but it was a great deal better than this. Yes, the graphics were average. I have a AMD 64bit 4000+, an NVIDIA 7800 256MB GTX, 2 sticks of Corsair 1GB 3200 DDR modules, and a Viewsonic 19 inch VP191b monitor. And with all that power, and with Quake 4 video settings cranked up to the highest settings...it still was rough and mediocre looking!! However, the Quake series was never known for its stunning graphics and beauty. Mainly, I felt there was nothing hard to accomplish or figure out. Basically this game did not fill the 1st person shooter void within me. I am a huge fan of id software and have played every Doom or Quake title they ever released, when they were originally released. Yes, I have been playing computer games since my old Commodore 64 was delivered!!!

This is just my opinion though. Download a demo version and give it a whirl but I doubt you will want to pay $50 for it.

That said, I bet multiplayer on this will be a blast after some MODs are created and released. I have hosted 5 different lan parties for this game and we yawned through it until we gave up and switched over to Battlefield 2 or UT 2004! MUCH BETTER MP ACTION!!!!

In summation -
Enemy AI is lame, graphics are weak, a few cool "factory" scenes but no reason to go crazy for this title, gameplay is predictable, weapons are mediocre, limited interactive environment, nothing thrilling, exciting or shocking that will keep your tension levels cranked up to 11.

Half-Life 2, Battlefield 2, UT 2004, GTA: San Andreas even the older and outdated Medal of Honor and Call of Duty games will keep you stressed and excited better than Quake 4.

Save your money...spend it on Call Of Duty 2, which comes out this week anyway! F.E.A.R. is already out, PREY is coming out soon. Much better uses of $50

From classic to atractive

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 23
Date: February 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

La saga Quake siempre a sido de las mejores y a pesar de ke fue saturada con la 3ra entrega, esta 4ta entrega concluye la trama original ke se vio en Quake 2. Esta vez no estara uno solo, sino ke la potente AI de los NPC te ayudaran a sobrevivir y revelar la trama del juego hasta su "final". Con las mismas graficas ke relucieron en Doom3, Quake 4 se ve mejor aun.

Wish I hadn't Bought It

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: November 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I had to reboot twice to get this installed. 'Way too much work for a so-so game. Pretty graphics, boring gameplay. Shoot-it-up, fine. I started shoot-em-ups with the original Wolfenstein. It was immeasurably better than this. I wish that it was the old 'try-before-you-buy' days. I wouldn't have bought. Find another...better would be easy.

Moderately disapointed

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 19
Date: October 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've been anxiously waiting for Q4 to come out for about a year now, and now that I have it, and played it, I have to say that it's nothing like I anticipated. First and foremost, if you want to play in Single Player mode, you are limited to playing a campaign, and just one campaign at that. Forget the concept of CTF, Free For All and Deathmatch - they simply do not exist unless you are in Multi-Player mode. And when you are in Multi-Player mode, you be playing the Q3TA maps....so nothing new here.

The graphics in Single player mode are pretty good...better than that of Q3 for sure, especially with the animation.

So this is my take on Q4: If you'd rather play Q2 or DOOM 3 over Q3 or UT04, then this is just for you. But if you'd rather play Q3/Q3TA or UT04 over Q2 or DOOM 3, save your money unless - you want to see some pretty cool graphics and a fairly decent AI experience at a hefty price (in the single player campaign mode...which there is only one campaign).

I've read other reviews where people insist that this is nothing like DOOM 3....but really, it is VERY much like DOOM3. Should have been DOOM 4 and not the successor to Quake III in my honest opinion. Sure, there are some improvements over DOOM 3 that would place it apart....but the campaigns are nearly identical (or, perhaps they shouldn't have made the campaign in DOOM 3 too similar to the campaign in Q2). It's all about "Campaign" playing (versus bot play, multi-play and instant action) in my opionion. - There you have it!...my opinion.

PROS:
Impressive graphics in Single player mode.

CONS:
Expensive - especially if you already own Q3TA
Bloody - excessive blood and guts in Single player mode and no way to turn it off.
Short - I bought Q4 a little over a week ago, and I've already conquered it! (and I'm no pro)...
Application HOG! - you have to completely EXIT the game if you want to do some other task on your computer! (Alt + Tab no workie).
Asside from the mission, where are the single player maps?

So as you can clearly see...the CONS far outweigh the PROS. Perhaps the next incarnation of Q4 will be better.

I'll have to admit, that I had some fun while I was playing it...but now that've I've completed the mission, I have no desire to play it again. :(

Outdated Graphics - Old Story Line...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 28
Date: October 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

God, to think so many talented people, put in so much time, and so much hard work, and hours of coding and meetings, and pizza dinners, and miss their families, for this? Dude, WTF?

Using the Outdated Quake III engine for this game was the first mistake, this game looks like it's right out of the 1990s.

The Story line is interesting enough, but stupid.
If you could land a bunch of people on a planet, well, why?
Just keep pounding it with nukes from orbit, just like they said in ALIENS, 'it's the only way to be sure.'
A 15 minute game: jump to system, get in orbit, blow the planet to bits, done - go home for dinner!

Otherwise the weapons look like regurged versions of Q3 weapons,
with some slight change in lighting and sound effects.

The characters are improved, with some new maps,
but hey, it's a bug hunt.
Seen one FPS, seen'em all - if it moves, shoot it.
If it bleeds, shoot it again!

I mean, come on.
Really, can we get past the whole 'run around and shoot stuff' model?
How about something with some challenge?

Something that's oh, I don't know, FUN?

Skip this twitch master, and try Myst V - End of Ages.
A real game that is a challenge, with top notch graphics and award winning sound.

(...)

Review for SinglePlayer only. Haven't tried Multi yet.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 10
Date: October 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I can't help but compare this game to HL2 and RTCW, since those are my last two single player games. This particular review is only about the singleplayer as I have yet to launch the multiplayer. I am running an AMD 2000 Ghz = 3200+, ATI Radeon 9800 128 MB, 1 Gig RAM.

The game is only 4 CDs, so it loads fairly quickly. After launching the game, I went into the settings portion of the game to set up my graphics, ctrls, etc. I immediately noticed the following:

-setting up the game
Customizing the graphics using the settings menu is largely simplified. You can select your resolution, otherwise you can mainly only select low, med, high, ultra quality. You cannot fiddle with bi,trilinear, lodbias, etc. settings. The advanced settings are a joke. When you make significant graphics settings, you must EXIT the game for them to take effect! I can only run in 1100? x 856? with high quality to get a decent frame rate. With my system I get an FPS from 40-120 FPS, with 60 average.
-50 million keys for guns, but no sprint key? Or am I blind? The NPCs in the game can sprint, why can't I?
-The console is hidden, just like in Doom3. CTRL ALT ~
-Additionally, setting low mouse sensitivity is a bit tricky.
To get a good setting, I had to use the console.

FIRING UP THE GAME
-Graphics
Compared with HL2, the graphics seem sub par. Even when I had them turned up, I wasn't as impressed as with HL2 or COD2 demo. Most places are pretty dark so I just leave my flashlight on a lot. I also have gamma turned up a bunch so that may be affecting things.

-Sound
Sound seems ok, but I'm not using speakers. One thing that bugs me is that I can't turn the music off in the game menus. I hate playing FPS games with a soundtrack. Am I watching a movie or in the action? The music isn't constant, but it comes on in places where the fighting is trying to build tension. I had to edit the config to turn off the music in game. Well, I think I did. I haven't heard music since.

-Movement
If you are looking for Q3/RTCW strafe jumping, look someplace else. Player movement feels faster, than say CS:S or Swat 4, but I can't seem to do much bunny hopping like in Q3A or RTCW. This is disappointing because because I had heard that ID wanted to keep the jumping physics for Q4 relatively the same to please the old Q3 players. Maybe in multiplayer?
Jumping feels similar to HL2, in that it's unlikely you will be able to jump more than a couple of feet high. It feels like the gravity is set quite high.

-Linearity of levels
This game has no surprises in the ability to wander around levels. It's just like any other FPS single player game in that you have to follow a fairly set path. Although thus far, they haven't made me back track too much when I've had to return to a certain point. Cool beans there.

-Stability
No crashes yet, unlike with the COD2 demo and HL2. Definite plus there. COD2 demo crashed about 10 times before I beat it. No exageration. HL2 crahses about every 45 minutes on me. Same with CS:S.

-Difficulty
I think this game has pretty good difficulty. The action doesn't feel as intense as with COD2 demo or some of the HL2 scenes, but there have been some trouble spots for me already. I think the difference is that the hits from the enemy take a significant amount of health (so long as you aren't wearing armor). A close hit on you might cost 100-150 health out of 100 (think knife attack) wherease a direct hit with the blaster weapon MIGHT take 25 health. All guesses.
For a challenge, go pistol only!

-Physics
Holy crap, you can't pick things up in this game. You can push them, but you can't pick them up. I guess I got used to that in HL2.
-Weapons
The shooting feels decent. Although the SMG comes with a scope which I think is kind of lame. Especially as it feels fairly accurate and does way more damage than the HL2 SMG. The Q4 SMG feels more like an RTCW SMG to me. Maybe between Q3A and RTCW for spread and damage. Again, this is just by feel.

-Fun
Is this game fun and worth the dough? Too early to tell. I needed a new drug badly so I picked this up. I think if I were you, I would try to get it on sale. I might be a bit happier if I could resolve some of my graphicsal disappointment (especially when compared with COD2 demo and HL2).

OTHER NOTES.
-Loading games from the quicksaves after a death is unnecessarily cumbersome. From autosave is fine, but not quicksaves.
-So far, the people in my squad (when I have a squad) are fairly competent. They don't get in the way like in HL2 and COD1. A definite improvement.
-No knife!!!! You start with a pistol, but I don't think there is a shank weapon for humans anyway.

-One thing I like is my goal is clearly defined in this game. In HL2 I felt like I was just running though a maze. In Q4, I know what I'm supposed to do and that helps keep a plot going. HL2 SP is immensely fun, but I felt the story was lacking quite a bit. The Q4 goals are fairly focused. Almost Ritalin focused.

Great graphics and weapons

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: January 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Nice game, fun to play, great graphics, poo poo online gaming community.

All I purchased this game for was online play. I don't really care for the single player stuff.

As it turns out, the online community for this game doesn't really exist. No matter when I try to play, there are usually only a few games going at any given time.

If you are looking for something with a great online community to play against, this is not the game for you.

Kind of a let down

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: October 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Maybe I've just become jaded, but Quake 4 was a bit of a letdown for me. I'm a FPS fan, just read my UT04 and FEAR reviews and you'll see that, but I blew thru this game in no time. After the final cutsceen, I thought "That's it?!" The graphics are great, the controls are great, but there was something missing for me. Too linear and straight forward. It's not that I didn't like the game, it just didn't wow me like I thought it would. The big suprise was ruined for everyone long before the game hit the shelves, so you spend the first third of the game waiting for it to happen. It happens, you go on, no big deal.

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