- Made By: id Software
- Cost: Free!
- Where to get it: Sign up for the Beta at quakelive.com
I know, I know. Ben, you say, Quake Live? What kind of magical fairy dust are you snorting? This is a site for indie games. Look at the facts, Chuckles: It’s free, it plays in a browser, and it’s made by the guys who arguably started ‘indie’ development and have remained this way all these years. Stick that magical fairy dust in your pipe and smoke it.
Anyway, I got in on the Quake Live Beta a couple weeks ago. This is essentially Quake 3, for free, in a browser, paid for by ads on in-game billboards. If you don’t know Quake 3, it was one of the last remnants of an old age of first-person shooters, an age when weapons hovered above the ground like angels waiting to be claimed, ‘camping’ was a veritable faux pas, CTF was the epitome of multiplayer gaming, in-game life lasted but a few seconds and death was merely a temporary annoyance. Ninja-like reflexes, surgically precise aiming, level memorization and resource control were what put you on the top.
The whole package is all very simple. You install a browser plug-in, endure a quick tutorial and play a one-on-one with Crash, a bot who after the match determines your skill level. After that you customize your settings, look at a list of servers (which also show how your aforementioned skill level matches up with the rest of the group already playing) and click on the one you want to join. It’s very elegant and works perfectly. The game tracks all your stats too and allows you to add friends and such, just like you’d expect from a true Web 2.0 product.
Quake Live has no grounding in reality, nor does it bother with any semblance of context. If you’ve been raised on Halo or Rainbow Six, this might put you off, but if you have fond memories of playing any of the Quake games, then this will be like Christmas. Imagine getting a bunch of friends together and not having to spend an hour getting everyone’s installations up to date just to get a match going. Rejoice when this goes public.
