QuakeCon Keynote Wrapup: Quake Wars release date, Quake Zero & Steam deal announced
Posted by inpheaux on August 4th, 2007 at 7:40 am
Well, it looks like the guys from id had a bit more up their sleeves than just naming Rage. Actually, they had a whole lot more.
First up: Enemy Territory: Quake Wars got a release date. 2 OCT 2007, on PC, PS3, 360. There's also a new build playable right now at QuakeCon, which will hopefully trickle down to us beta people some time in the next week or so. I really like ET:QW so far, but it definitely needs a lot of improvement before release. From what we've heard from devs over at Splash Damage, the new build should be a major step closer towards that goal, but I'll wait until we start hearing stuff first-hand from people playing it this weekend before I start believing it.
After that we've got a bunch of little announcements that came out of nowhere. For instance, Quake Zero. Apparently it's some sort of free web-based incarnation of Quake III's multiplayer. I have no idea how the hell this is going to work, but id says they've got a team of devs working on it. So . . we'll see?
Then there's Quake Arena coming to Xbox Live Arcade. Due to the success of Doom on XBLA, porting some version of Quake seemed like a logical next step.
And of course, another big one: Nearly every game id has ever released is now available on Steam. Right now. The only game I can think of that's missing is Quake IV, but that was really a Raven game . . but then again, so was Hexen, Heretic & friends. The individual games range from $4.95 for Wolfenstein 3D or every Commander Keen game (!!!!!), to $19.95 for newer releases like Doom 3 and Return to Castle Wolfenstein. But the real draw right now should be the absolutely ridiculous multi-packs they've got running right now. Quake 3 + Q3 Team Arena are presently cheaper than either game alone, all the Hexen and Heretic games are currently only $9.95, and seriously do I have to mention Commander Keen 1 through 5 for $4.95? And if you feel like being a big spender, you can get all 22 games in one mega-pack for $62.95, a total savings of over $150. id and Valve obviously know far too well what happens when you put incredibly high quality games down in impulse-buy price range.
And finally, I already linked to it in the comments, as promised, but here's the Rage debut trailer I mentioned last night. It doesn't show a whole lot more than the WWDC video did, but it's much more clear, and really does look impressive.
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