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Rezet's Xbox 360 vs PC Game Review: Quake 4

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 23 / 25
Date: December 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Sometimes, very rarely a 3D shooter playes better on a console than it does on a PC. Well, it's not one of those times. As a matter of fact for those who have played a PC version of Quake 4, playing it on Xbox 360 will be a huge step down. Surely the HDTV graphics are there and overall the game looks similar to the PC version, but controls are again the weakest link here.

Well, since the opening was about the "bad parts" of the game, let's go ahead and get though them before we get to the "good ones".

Having played Quake 4 on PC, and deciding to be a hot shot by start the Xbox 360's verion right away on the "corporal" difficulty, I quickly realized how bad of an idea that was. Aiming is certainly something that takes a good time to get used to with a controller. But even after about 5 hours I was still no where near good at locking into enemies and strafe dodging shots as I was on a PC after only 10 minutes of play.
Surely by switching to the "private" difficulty I was able to get though the game with a relative ease but the excitement wasn't there. All underminded by the fact that 3D shooters are meant to be played with a keyboard and a mouse.

The graphics in this game while not "Half-Life 2" realism like, are certainly pretty. And if you enjoy watching people get cut in half with saws, you will certainly appreciate all the character, textures, particle effects (yes, blood) and lighting quality of this game. (On the same note, if you enjoy it TOO much, you may want to see a doctor *wink*).

The problem, however, lies in the inconsistent FPS (Frames Per Second). Many times FPS plunge into low teen numbers, making the game a slide show for a few seconds. It wouldn't have been a problem if that happend every now and then but frames don't stay consistent for more than a couple of minutes at a time. Combined with already hard to work with targeting system, it can bring pure hell in certain situations and quickly lead to death. Which then leads to perhaps the last big problem in the game - long "loading" times. Loading times can last in excess of 30 seconds. And although they don't appear often if you progress though the game (about once every 30 minutes), they can become enormously irratating if you keep dieing. In situations where it takes more than simply shooting at the enemy (usually boss fights), it may lead to situations of running into a room, getting nailed with one hit and looking at "loading" screen. It can test a patience of those who are not sure what they are doing and die in seconds only to look at spinning Quake logo for half a minute, over and over.

On the good side, however, the game is a well made 3D shooter from the point of level designs, overall graphics, and a relatively deep storyline for a what most would consider "mindless shooter". The story is easy to get into: Stroggs are continuing the fight against the human race. So as one of the marines you get dropped off on their planet to show them who the boss is. The missions are the ones that tell you story from a "brotherhood" military point perspective. You know that the war is going on, but inside the game it's more about surviving together with fellow marines. Assigned to the squad, you constantly on the move to help others, and AI (CPU controlled NPCs) do a surprisingly good job helping you as well. Which certainly takes away the feeling many other shooters give you that you are actually "baby sitting" the NPCs instead of working as a team.

Through out the game you get to know quite a few peronalities and spend most of the game fighting along side of them. Never knowing who will live and who will die. It isn't until you get deeper inside enemy bases that makes you understand why this game deserves a strong "M" rating. The images of graphical torture of captured fellow marines, blood and gore are everywhere. But what can you expect from a complex called "Strogg's Medical Facility"?

The level and environemt designs are good, but at times can get a bit seamless. And the fact that many missions force you going back and forth though same rooms - certainly doesn't help. But it isn't significanly de-valueing the game overall.

There is a good choice of weapons in the game that get modified through out the game for a bigger punch. And there are a number of vehicles available for the use through out the short missions (usually outside). It seems fun but certainly nothing you haven't aleady seen before in other 3D shooters.

Multiplayer is pretty good and certainly adds a good amount of fun to the game. However, Xbox 360's version suffers from the same problems mentioned above. Where things like precise controls play bigger role than they do in a campaign mode. Making a PC version truly shine and leaving 360's version in the dust.

Overall, this game is an almost perfect example of what you would expect from "big hitter" companies like Raven Software and Id Software. But I wish they had taken a slight risk and tried to add something new to the game to spice it up and make it stick out from the rest.

PC version of this game strongly deserves 4.5 our of 5 stars. Xbox 360 version, however, is proabably somewhere in between of 3.5 and 4 stars out of 5. Mostly due to problems mentioned in the beginning of this review. One thing can be guaranteed is that you will have a blast playing it if you are into linear Gory, and Bloody 3D "twitch" shooters. The only suggestion here is to get the game for a PC if you have a powerful enough computer. If you don't, you will still have a blast on Xbox 360. Just probably not as a big one.

Hold up! This is NOT a DOOM clone!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 31 / 40
Date: October 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Whoa! Some folks are comparing this to DOOM! No way! Firstly, the AI is much improved. You aren't stuck in constant corridors where the AI doesn't have to have a brain. It just has to 'be' right in front of you, and come at you.
Not so here. I have actually watched the enemy AI step away and hide behind a pole until i passed the pole and shoot me in the back! You gotta keep your eyes on this one.
Of course, it can be a system hog. I have a P4 3200 + 1 GIG DDR RAM + 256 MB DDR PCI EXPRESS ATI VIDEO + SOUND BLASTER AUDIO. With those specs, i got a REALLY sweet framerate that hardly dropped under 75 fpm. That with a 1024X768 screen setting and *MOST* features cranked. I was glad they alowed key binding to be changeable, and that they included the save anytime feature also. NO FREAKIN' CHECKPOINTS! I see minor comparisons to HALO and DOOM and even F.E.A.R. But, not so much that the game feels derivative. I thought the graphics were sweet at the settings i chose. And, the weapons sound incredible. You can almost smell the gunpowder. This is worth every penny.

Fan-freakin'-tastic

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: November 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The latest in the Quake series is just short of perfect. Quake 4 follows the story from Quake II (which is included in the DVD edition of the game), and, like Quake II, is completely unrelated to Quake I and Quake III.

The story itself is fairly well done, better than most shooters (hard to be worse than nothing, lol). A couple small things here and there are unexplained (like the multiple Makrons...), but they are definitely not story stoppers. Moves pretty well.

Top notch graphics, based off the Doom 3 engine. A little intense for most computers, but once you set it to what your box can handle, it still looks wonderful. I had mine set to near-lowest settings (since my hardware is nearly three years old), and it still looked and moved fluidly.

The gameplay is fantastic, with nearly non-stop action. There's a lot of unit-based action, with the player spending quite a bit of time with other soldiers and even developing a bit of a bond with his own unit, Rhino squad. Enemies are always coming from everywhere, though a cleared area usually stays clear (thank you id). There are a couple pathetic attempts to include puzzles later in the game, though they are easy enough.

There are a few vehicle levels (riding in a troop carrier, driving a tank, driving a mech, and riding in a tram) which are very well done, proving difficult but not impossible. I would've liked to see more tank or mech time, but the game is already pretty long.

The sound is pretty sad. I had to pull some tricks out of nowhere to get it to work, and even then it all sounds really tinny. It gets the point across, though, so it's not a total failure. Honestly, I'm not even sure if there is music in the game. I want to say that there is, but I can't remember any for the life of me. So I suppose the soundtrack, if there is one, is completely forgettable.

Scores:
Gameplay - 9/10
Sound - 6/10
Graphics - 9/10
Story - 8/10

Overall - 9/10
Well done and very much worth picking up when they support more hardware (or if you have the extra cash and an itchy trigger finger).

*Note: the above scores are my opinion, and are not based on any system. Also, I run Quake 4 on a AMD Athlon XP 2600+ with 512MB DDR400 and a GeForce FX5600 with 256MB vram, which is running SuSE Linux 10.0. [...]

Old school shoot-em-up fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 12
Date: November 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Well this is my first real taste of Quake. I played the original shareware Quake 1 back in the day and I also owned Quake 3 Arena for Dreamcast. Now I know Quake 3 was insanely popular but since I didn't own the keyboard attachment, the game was frustrating as heck. Now with Quake 4 here, I have come to realize why everybody loves the Quake series so much.

For starters, the game's graphics are fantastic. Truley some of the best out there and they are improved over Doom 3's as well. The sounds are great too although the machine gun's sound will really start to irritate you especially in multiplayer. As for the singleplayer campaign, its pretty decent. Basically its an old school style of gameplay where you blast the living heck out of anything that walks. My complaint with the single player is that its over way to quickly. The vehicle levels are over before you know it and the story isn't the best either. But the shooting is well done and since thats what you're doing most of the time its fun to play.

Now the multiplayer portion of the game isn't really my favorite style for online FPS games. Its basically a combination of Quake 2 and 3's maps with much improved graphics. Most of the people online are seasoned vets and since I am a noob when it comes to this games multiplayer, I usually end up dead more often than alive. So if you loved the other Quake games online, then you will surely enjoy this one too. If your like me and enjoy games like Day of Defeat, Call of Duty, Ghost Recon, or the Battlefield games, then you won't probably care too much for Quake 4's online aspects unless you put in a great amount of practice.

Normally I wouldn't have spent more money on the special edition version of the game just to have it on dvd as opposed to multiple cds, but I had a giftcard and since I never played Quake 2, I bought it. Although I have only played a few levels of Quake 2, it is a very fun game and I'm sure the included expansion packs are fun too. Well, if you're looking for a new FPS and you are either a long time Quake fan or are new to the series, then you will most likely have some good old fashioned fun with Quake 4.

An expansion worthy of notice

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: October 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

In retort to the other review, yes this game uses the Doom 3 engine and this game is also shooter. I can understand cotempt for this game b/c of all the shooters coming out but this one IS EASILY my favorite. The AI is quite inteigent tho sometimes predictable. Graphics are still great, lighting is insane. I really can't complain biut it at all. Multiplayer wil catch on soon, and it will definately bring Quake fans up to speed. Happy fraggin' guys.

By far one of the best games of this year

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 12
Date: October 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First and formost this game is not a doom clone. Yes it uses the same engine but it's another game on it's own. Ok here's the Story on Quake 4 you play as Mathew Kane a new member of Rhino Squad and take place right after the events in Quake 2 where a lone marine knocked out the planets defenses and took out "The Big Gun" and killed the leader the Makaron. This is where Quake 2 ends and Quake 4 begins. Now for the graphics= the graphics overall are really great and worth taking a look. As for the game overall I would recommend it to anyone who loves FPS's. A great game and great use of the most powerful engine on the market this game is worth the $50 dollars you pay for it or if you get the special edition which comes with Quake 2 and the expansions it's $60.

If your system can handle it, this the best FPS game you'll ever play

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: February 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Quake 4 is one of those games that comes along every so often that challenges the computer you use. It is a perfect benchmark for how smoothly your system runs. The makers of this game stopped at nothing to give the most realistic backgrounds, loudest, and fullest sound, engaging interactive characters, stunningly designed bad guys, and all around brilliantly animated gaming environment available. While you will need to have a computer that plays games first and does everything else later, the experience you will have playing this game will make it all worth it.

You are Matthew Kane, and you're a late guy. I know this because every time you regroup with your squad, they will ask if you took your time, or make some smart aleck comment about your punctuality. You will be called on to scout for the rest of your squad, so half the time you're exploring the area alone, and the rest of the time you and the squad are in team play.

You must battle the Strogg, who are taking all the human resources and tools away from the military. Turns out they want the humans themselves, to use their actual body parts. Creepy. The villians you will encounter are very varied, and may use a cannon, blade, teeth and claws, whatever.

The cutscenes occur here and there, but they're entertaining, and further the story along. No checkpoints, no PDA. The story goes along smoothly and gameplay is never dull. There are also skill levels if you find yourself in the weeds too quickly.

Online play is very fun as well, as you have deathmatch or capture the flag options.

Again, this game is the best FPS game you will ever have, just make sure your computer is top of the line graphics/memory wise. I played it on a Dell XPS M170 notebook with all the bells and whistles, and got a killer framerate. Along with the game, this DVD edition contains three older Quake titles (Quake II, Reckoning, and Ground Zero) as well as a making of documentary. 10/10.

Amazing gaming experience...Worth every penny

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: February 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

First off DON'T RATE THIS GAME BASED ON HOW YOUR COMPUTER RUNS IT. NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR HARDWARE AND PERFORMANCE ISSUES WITH THIS GAME. IT IS NOT FAIR TO THE DEVELOPERS OR PEOPLE INTERESTED IN BUYING THIS TITLE. IF YOUR SYSTEM CAN'T RUN IT WELL THEN OBVIOUSLY YOU HAVE A MEDIOCRE SETUP AND NEED TO UPGRADE. I get a kick out of how people complain about video performance when they are running on board video. PLEASE get a clue!!! Now for my review I'll make it short as possible. This is without a doubt one of the best FPS titles I've ever played. Graphics, gameplay, story, weapons, action are all top notch. Level design is superb these guys did an incredible job making this game. I don't undestand how anyone (specially a FPS fan) could give this game less than 5 stars. This is coming from someone who has played most of the popular FPS titles (FEAR, Half Life 2, Doom 3 etc). Yes the graphics are like Doom 3 (which I think were gret) but the game plays a lot differently. One thing I really enjoyed was fighting along side fellow marines unlike Doom 3 where you are solo throughout the entire time. The weapons you get are a lot of fun and you have a very interesting variety to choose from. Cut scenes are fantastic. My two favorites are the Pod flight scene and the transformation you go through when the Strogg try to change you into their kind. Amazing and very intense. Also if you have a good surround sound setup you will be treated to a spectacular sound effect ride not ruined by background music. I have a pair of surround headsets coupled with hardware mixing creates a truly engrossing atmosphere. I'm still playing the game and I must say since I started I just about stopped playing other FPS games. This one has me hooked. This is my first Quake title and I must say I've become a dedicated fan. I'm really hoping for another title after this. You also get to operate some pretty cool machinery which is nice and changes things around once in a while. I also love the open area battles that are present throughout the game which makes for some great long range gun battles. I hightly recommend this titel to anyone that wants a fun, action packed FPS shooter which delivers intense excitement and thrills during every step of the way. You wont be dissapointed. I do advise you get the DVD version , installs a lot quicker and you have less discs to worry about. If your thinking about getting this title just do it. Well worth the money just for the single player experience alone.

For those with Cadilac CPU's you'll enjoy this game. For those with Yugo's, you'll go no where with this game.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: October 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Folks Q4 is the bomb. The game sucks up a lot of resources but if you have what it takes you'll surely enjoy this. If your still playing with a 128MB video card with old chipsets like ATI's: 9250, 9300, 9500,9600 and NIVIDA's 5100 - 5900 you might not get everything you were looking for out of this game. Of course if any of these are modified 256MB cards then your chance of enjoyment out of this game increases.

Before I continue: Parents this game is not for children. Maybe those over the age of 15 or 16. . . . .

The story picks up minutes after Q2. Which is great because everything that made Q2 awesome still remains. Outside and inside engagements are pretty well done. Your squad or shall I say fellow Marines are pretty good also. You can't control them. But they do so well on there own that you'll be worried more about keeping your butt alive. Although enemy AI like friendly AI is pretty good but not polished. You'll sometimes have a Stroggy run up to you shooting a pea-shooter while your holding a weapon that'll rip him and his buddies a new one in a New York heart felt second. . . . But hey their bodies belong to the Strogg but their minds don't.. . You'll find out more about that in the Game.

I must remind you that this is a FP action shooter. It's not another DOOM 3. In some areas it gets dark but your fellow Marines have flash lights on their basic issue rifles and so do you. Plus the Strogg are not plush. So that means their facilities and structures are built for purpose not show. So for that reason some environments in Q4 are dark, unwelcome, unforgiving, and very nasty. The Strogg are rugged and I hate to say this but fairly filthy and very unsanitary . Comparing them to Star Treks BORG is like comparing EA's System Shock villain SHODAN to the Trojan Virus.

The action is on par with HALO 1. . . with better AI and way better graphics. The game supports wide screen flat panels with the high end being 16:9. 1600X1200 (just not native wide screen resolutions) The Sound is awesome, better experienced with SB LIVE or AUDIGY sound cards and a set of 5.1 speakers. Playability is great. I would replay it again. The story is not as in-depth as HL2 but slightly below HALO 1. But again, it's a shoot and scoot game, not a shoot and look for answers game.

Overall. This game along with, HL1&2, COD, No One Lives Forever 1&2, Soldier of Fortune 1&2, & Far Cry are in my top 6 Favorite PC FPS.

I am also adding the Strogg as one of the evilest groups of villains in pc gaming along side SHODAN, and the "Many".

Running a: Intel P4 478 3.2mhz 512 Cache, ASUS P4C800DELUXE. 1gig 3200 MEM, SB AUDIGY 2, RADEON PRO X850 XE AGP8.0 256MB, DELL 24inch WIDESCREEN 16ms access time. Oh by the way the DELL screen . . . With its 16ms access time has suffered NO ghosting at all neither in DOOM3, Q4, HL2, COD, any game. . . .seriously no ghosting. I ran Quake 4 with everything turned up w/ resolution 1600X1200 and screen sized @ 16:9. Smooth through most of the game with areas were my CPU slightly slowed down when entering a huge engagement. I hope you enjoy the game as much as I did.

Truly a worthy sequel to the fantastic Quake series

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: October 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

To other reviewers: Reserve judgement till you finish the game. It just gets better and better.

For the rest of you:

****Warning**** Some spoilers below.

Gameplay: The gameplay is fairly basic but still loads of fun. There is some prudence needed on your part, you can't just run and gun all the time and expect to get through.

Weapons: The weapons upgrade is a great idea. Even your weaker weapons at the beginning of the game can be used later in the game for more punch. And they are all useful. The machine gun is great to snipe enemies at a moderate distance. The nail gun is my favorite (especially later in the game). I wish the railgun and the BFG was more powerful though. And I did not like that the railgun has to be reloaded after 3 shots, especially since there is a charging time.

Enemies: This is one of my favorite elements of the game. The enemies are just amazing to watch. They have brought back the Gunner, Beserker, Gladiator, etc. with excellent detail. I wish they didn't disappear after they are dead. So sometimes I get myself killed just so I can get a better look at them. The AI maybe lacking a bit, but that is easily forgiven because of the damage these enemies can do at the harder settings. The bosses are a sight to behold.

Level Design: Amazing, detailed, probably the best I have seen in an FPS. You should upgrade your PC if you haven't done already, it is worth the experience.

Sound: The game sounds are absolutely incredible. The weapons sound very convincing. There is always some chugging and whirring in the background to immerse you in the industrial strogg atmosphere. Do yourself a favor and turn the volume up. The only weak point is the music, the score could have been a lot better (Halo raised the bar a little too high for me, unfortunately).

Kudos to Id and Raven for a spectacular game. We want more! Bring on the expansion packs! I can't wait 6 years for another sequel.

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