Quake III Fortress Game Review CIS 487 Jeff Lundberg September 23, 2002 [email protected] III Fortress : Game Review Basic Information Quake III Fortress is a remake of the original Team Fortress modification MOD for Quake. At one point, Team Fortress was the most played online first person shooter. Due to it’s popularity, there was a high demand to reproduce the game on a more updated 3D engine such as Quake III Arena. Quake III Arena is a 3D action game, better known as a first person shooter (FPS). Quake and Quake III Arena were developed by id Software & distributed by Activision. The game Quake III Fortress, or Q3F as it’s known to the players, was created by a group of gamers who call themselves the Q3F Development Team. There is no official corporation entity sponsoring the game’s development & no actual money involved. They created the game for gamers, like themselves, to fill a void. When Quake III Arena was released in 1999, it retailed for $49.99. Three years later, you might be able to find it on store shelves, but it’s highly unlikely. id Software did release some expansion packs & other enhancements to the game such as Quake III Team Arena. Today, you can purchase Quake III Gold for $24.99 which includes the original Quake III Arena game, as well as the expansion packs. Hardware Requirements The minimum hardware required for Quake III Arena includes a 233 MHz processor with 25 MB of hard disk space and 64 MB of RAM. You’ll need a DirectX 3.0 or higher sound card as well as a 3D hardware accelerator (graphics card) with full OpenGL support. To play online, you’ll need some type of Internet connection. This could be dialup (in which case you’ll need at least a 28.8 Kbps modem), or some type of Ethernet connection. Quake III Fortress isn’t available in stores. The only way to obtain the game is to download it from the Internet. The 140 MB download is available free from www.q3f.com or other mirror sites. To install Q3F, you’ll need at least an additional 375 MB for a total of 400 MB of hard disk space. The actual hardware requirements depend on a few things. If you only have a 233 MHz processor and a low-end graphics card, you’ll be able to play the game, but not at the high resolutions you see on the Q3F website (www.q3f.com). I recommend at least a 500 MHz processor with a 32MB or higher graphics card and at least 128 MB of RAM. Because this game is multiplayer only, you’re going to want the fastest connection possible, or at least as fast as your opponents’. If you’re on a 28.8 Kbps dial-up Internet connection and your opponent is on a T3 like at a college campus, they will have a distinct advantage over you. To even the playing field, I recommend getting the best hardware possible. It does make a difference in game-play. Game Summary Q3F is a team-oriented online game. There are several objectives built in such as capture the flag, command point, capture and hold, and assault & assassination. Since capture the flag is really the only game ever really played, I focused my review on that aspect. Q3F supports up to 32 players simultaneously on the same map with up to six different teams. There is no set objective in the game. It comes with 34 unique maps, each with their own objective. Server admins can determine the time limit for each game, or they could have no time limit. There could also be a score limit. i.e. the first team to capture the flag 10 times wins.A typical game involves 16 players, 9 on each team. Each team squares off against each other for two, 30-minute rounds. One round is usually played on your server, while the other is played on your opponent’s server. Each capture of the flag will gain 1 point for your team. Whoever gets the most points after two rounds wins the match. Installation & Setup Installing Q3F is a breeze. Simply use the Windows installation wizard to install it. It includes the typical “Next >, Next >, Next >” screens which allow you to change a few options such as installation directory. Q3F can be installed on Mac & Linux. Those installations are a little bit more complicated. Help is available online. Once the game is installed, the user can use a simple GUI to change graphics settings, sound settings, and user settings such as controls & mouse speed. Player’s Role The game itself promotes online leagues due to it’s multi-player only team-based focus. A league is composed of different teams called clans. Much like the National Football League has teams with statistics, rankings and such, online gaming leagues have the same. Each league has their own set of rules & standards to follow such as long each round should be. The game has 9 different classes to choose from, each with unique skills & different attributes. The nine classes are Recon, Soldier, Sniper, Agent, Grenadier, Engineer, Paramedic, Minigunner, and Flamethrower. Here’s a quick chart showing some of the attributes of the different classes. Health Armor Speed Weapons Grenades Recon 75 50 440 Axe, Single Barrel Shotgun, Nail-Gun Stun, Flash-Bangs Soldier 100 200 240 Axe, Single Barrel Shotgun, Double Barrel Shotgun, Rocket Launcher Hand, Nail Sniper 90 50 280 Axe, Nail-Gun, Sniper Rifle, Assault Rifle Hand, Flash-Bangs Agent 90 100 300 Combat Knife, Nail-Gun, Double Barrel Shotgun, Dart Gun Hand, Gas Grenadier 90 120 280 Axe, Single Barrel Shotgun, Grenade Launcher, Pipe-Bomb Launcher Hand, Cluster Bombs Engineer 90 100 300 Wrench, Double Barrel Shotgun, Rail-Gun Hand, Pulse Paramedic 90 100 320 Syringe, Single Barrel Shotgun, Double Barrel Shotgun, Super Nail-Gun Hand, Stun Minigunner 100 300 200 Axe, Single Barrel Shotgun, Double Barrel Shotgun, Minigun Hand, Cluster Bombs Flamethrower 100 150 300 Axe, Single Barrel Shotgun, Flamethrower, Napalm Launcher Hand, Napalm The individual player’s role depends on what you and your clan have decided. As a player, you’d usually specialize in a particular class or two. Your clan must come up with different strategies based on the map & what skills you have as a player. An example defense for a map called2forts would be 1 engineer, 1 grenadier, 2 soldiers, and a sniper. The offense could be 2 soldiers, 1 paramedic, and 1 recon. Gameplay Gameplay for the individual player depends on what position he chooses to play. If you