The recent Quake 2 remaster by Nightdive Studios is arguably the best way to experience the classic 1997 shooter. But could it be better? That's what one modder thinks, who's currently working on a path tracing mod.

Reddit user mStewart207 (as spotted by DSO Gaming) recently uploaded some images from their upcoming "RTX Renderer" project, which will aim to implement even greater lighting algorithms to the revamped version of Quake 2.

[caption id="attachment_397928" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Image via mStewart207/Reddit.[/caption]

Judging by the screenshots so far, it looks pretty great. The modder is aiming to publish it to GitHub "as soon as it's more or less playable." We don't know when that will be, though.

What is path tracing?

There are a lot of technical terms that get thrown around in this modern gaming era. From image upscaling to things like RTX and rasterization, it can be difficult to know what's going on when it comes to visual acuity.

Many of you may already be aware of ray tracing, which is – in a nutshell – a piece of AI that uses the position of the player to make light and shadows look more realistic. But is this any different to path tracing? According to TechSpot, "Path tracing differs from ray tracing in that instead of following lots of rays, throughout an entire scene, the algorithm only traces the most likely path for the light."

It's up to you to decide whether you understand that definition or not.

At the very least, it sounds like the remaster of Quake 2 could potentially look even better once this mod comes out. Who knew id Software's brown-and-gray FPS would get a second chance in the limelight?

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I’ve never really gotten elbow-deep into the Quake series. Before the 2021 Quake remaster by Nightdive Studios, I was actually most familiar with Quake 4, and I really don’t remember that much about it. In 1996, I was into Duke Nukem 3D. And then after that, it was Goldeneye 007. I at least played Quake 2… The N64 version.

But after the first Quake was remastered and introduced me to the series, I held off on any more series exploration, anticipating the second one would eventually get the same treatment. My patience paid off, and the Quake II remaster has arrived. Once again, it’s a terrific introduction.

[caption id="attachment_396573" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Quake 2 (PC [Reviewed], PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch)
Developer: id Software, NightDive Studios, MachineGames
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Released: August 10, 2023
MSRP: $9.99

After the development of the first game in the Quake series was beset by creative differences, many members of id Software departed, including Sandy Peterson and John Romero. This is considered by many to be the end of classic id Software, as it seemed like the heart had left the brain with an empty bed.

You can sort of feel that in Quake II. There was something of an anarchic directionlessness in Quake that is replaced with something a lot more cohesive. Quake still felt like a first-generation shooter like Doom. Quake 2 is a lot closer to Half-Life.

You can see this clearly in the narrative. Earth has been under attack by the Strogg and hasn’t been faring well. So, the meaty humans launch a counter-attack, taking the fight to the meat substitute Strogg’s homeworld of Stroggos. Quake II and all the expansions are set around this counter-attack as you take control of different space marines attempting to hinder the enemy’s ability to wage war on humanity.

The first Quake really didn’t have much of a narrative, and this is definitely not a continuation. This comes with its pros and cons. The biggest positive is that a more defined narrative gives you purpose that helps drive you through the game. The downside is that the Strogg don’t care much for interior design, and there’s little visual diversity throughout the campaigns.

https://youtu.be/cyxBE163n20

Out of item

Nightdive’s remaster is similar to their approaches to the original Quake and the recent Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition. They have gathered all the expansions into one package, added a newly created campaign, and transported everything to their more modern KEX Engine, bringing with it a number of extra visual and gameplay options. And then, after already doing more than most would expect, they continue on to polish up the graphics and gameplay without tampering with the overall feeling and aesthetic of the title.

It’s extensive. They even upscaled the cinematics. Then, somehow, they ported all of the N64 version of Quake II’s levels. For whatever reason, when Raster Productions handled the N64 port, they wound up remaking almost all of the levels. It’s just as much its own campaign as the other expansions. It seems like it would be quite an effort to re-port the N64 version back to PC, but it was very worth it. It contains visual flourishes that make it, at the very least, aesthetically worth exploring.

The two expansions by Xatrix Entertainment and Rogue Entertainment are necessary inclusions, even if they mostly just feel like added content. Which, to be fair, is essentially what they were when they first released.

Meanwhile, the new campaign, Call of the Machine, by MachineGames is a great way of showing off the many successes of Quake 2 while minimizing its deficiencies. Visual variety is a lot better here, depicting a lot of different and interesting locales based on the Strogg War story but in places not shown in the games. It’s an effective way to demonstrate the outstanding gunplay, fast action, and interesting enemies without eliminating the unique flavor of the base game.

[caption id="attachment_396572" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Someone hang a poster

Which to be fair, as much as I hassle Quake 2 for its repetitive brown corridors, I do enjoy it. The main campaign is maybe a 6-8 hour romp. It kept my attention through to the end, even when similar games with shinier corridors failed to. Games like Dusk have demonstrated the lasting appeal of the clunkier and more straightforward games of yesteryear, and Quake 2 is an essential example of that.

But beyond that, Nightdive's remaster makes things a little more pleasant. One great feature is the compass, which draws a path to your next objective. It’s not that Quake 2 was obtuse beyond reason. Each of the “units” of the game is composed of a handful of small levels, so you’re destined to trip over what you’re looking for. It’s just a matter of how much backtracking you’ll have to endure.

For example, you might finish a secondary objective and see the message “turbine disabled.” Perhaps you won’t realize it’s talking about the fan that you just passed and can now bypass. So, you continue on your merry way, and then when you finally circle back, you say, “Ooooh. It was talking about this turbine.”

So, I mostly used the compass whenever I came back to a familiar-looking room and wanted to make sure I wasn’t just going in circles.

[caption id="attachment_396574" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

That's a lot of screens

As usual for Nightdive remasters, their all-encompassing approach to Quake II makes it the definitive way to play the game. Beyond just compiling all the expansions, certain features, such as AI, were buffed up, and cut content was restored. And then there’s also the multiplayer, which in some versions supports 8-player split-screen local. Or you can play online, if you don’t like sharing your screen.

But if, for whatever reason, none of that sounds good to you, the original versions are still available.

For me, it was a great introduction to Quake II. The PC version, I mean. It’s an oppressively brown shooter, but it still carries the speedy, lightweight combat that makes older FPS games still pop today. The changes that Nightdive brought in for the remaster make it even more enjoyable and accessible. It may not have the same experimental charm as Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition, but it more than makes up for it with its tight and gory gunfights.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer.]}

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We all heard the news. Quake 2 has been officially remastered, and non-other than Nightdive Studios was responsible for its creation. While the contents of id Software's classic game are enough to keep us satiated (especially those of us who love the original 1997 release), there's something else to look forward to.

In a recent post on Twitter, Laced Records, a company that specializes in vinyl soundtracks for video games, is unleashing Quake 2's music. The tweet links to the website, which shows there are two versions, one of which will be a limited edition.

https://twitter.com/Laced_audio/status/1689683030313500672

While both of them will set you back $38 each, the limited edition press will feature "two solid red and orange A-side/B-side effect LPs," which looks pretty fancy judging by the images.

When can I get it?!

Hold your horses. This Quake 2 vinyl is not out just yet. The website says both versions will be released in January 2024, but you can pre-order yours now.

The soundtrack to the game is quite memorable, heading much more into rock/metal territory than the NIN ambient sounds of the first Quake game. Q2's music was conducted by Sonic Mayhem (who also did soundtracks to games like The Division and Deux Ex: Mankind Divided) and Jer Sypult. Horror director and musician Rob Zombie also contributed to the game's main theme.

It may be more than two and a half decades old, but Quake 2 is an important part of 90s gaming, especially in the FPS genre. Okay, it may not have had the same impact as the first Quake or the OG Doom entries, but it's still a classic, and now we have a remaster (and soon the vinyl) we can enjoy.

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What are you reading this for? Nightdive’s rumored remaster of Quake II has been released, and you might already own it if you already had a version of Quake II on Steam or something. If the PC version is too good for you, then it’s also available on Xbox, Switch, and PlayStation platforms. What am I even writing this for?

Okay, because I’m expected to meet a certain word threshold to please the internet robots, I’ll tell you more. Bethesda and Nightdive dropped a remaster for the original 1996 Quake back in 2021, and it was an excellent source port of the classic game. It kind of felt like a similar Quake 2 remaster in the KEX Engine was an inevitability, but we only heard murmurings about it until today.

Quake 2 was initially released at the tail end of 1997, and featured a new, jazzed-up engine to take advantage of hardware acceleration. It wasn’t initially planned as a sequel to Quake, but gradually began shifting in that direction. Most notably, it has no narrative connection to the first game’s very loose story. Instead, it introduces a space war against the cyborg-like Strogg.

Quake is often considered to be the last game by id Software’s classic line-up. After some creative differences, a bunch of staff departed id, including John Romero. You can absolutely feel it in Quake 2, as it’s unusually cohesive for the studio. There was sort of a wild experimentation in early id games that kind of lags behind the technical wizardry in Quake II.

Okay, good enough? The Quake II remaster is now available on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch. It includes all its expansions, as well as a port of the N64 version’s campaign. Cool, bye!

The post Quake II’s Nightdive remaster is live right now appeared first on Destructoid.

Not only can you get Quake 2 (as well as other classic FPS games) for cheap at the moment, but there's a rumor that a remaster of id Software's classic could be announced soon. If you thought the era of remakes, remasters, and reboots was over, think again.

Speculation comes from a report on Dealabs (via VGC). The leaker says that, having gained access to some evaluation documents, a remaster of Quake 2 could be getting announced at this year's QuakeCon.

[caption id="attachment_395011" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Image via is Software/Lightspeed Studios.[/caption]

The event is scheduled to run from August 10 to August 13, so news about this supposed reimagining of the 1997 shooter could be just over the horizon. The report from Dealabs goes on to say that "enhanced" and "remastered" are being tossed around to describe the alleged project, as well as giving information about potential platforms.

Already been suspected

Thanks to the video game rating board in Korea, we've already been made aware that Quake 2 could be making a comeback. We still don't know whether this is happening, but it's bound to stir up plenty of fans, especially the older ones.

While Quake 2 was a phenomenal hit when it released more than two and half decades ago, it did represent a bit of a shift for the developer. It was the first game the studio made without John Romero, so his influence is not to be found.

It was also a complete tonal shift from the original Quake. The first game had a darker and more gothic (almost horror) aspect about it, while the follow-up was much more "space marine", sci-fi action, with splashes of brown and gray.

Hopefully, we'll know more about this supposed Quake 2 remaster (or "enhanced" version), but for now, reel in those expectations until official confirmation.

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Will it ever happen?

Older gamers will recall legendary developer John Romero's immortal words when he was promoting his new game (new for 2000, at least) Daikatana. Sadly (or perhaps not), no one was made to feel like the Doom co-creators "bitch," and his first release after leaving id Software proved to be a flop.

Was it the worst game launch in history? It's probably up there, but it's largely been clouded by much more contemporary titles like No Man's Sky, Cyberpunk 2077, and Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/15303b5/john_romero_ama_featuring_doom_guy_life_in_first/

However, according to a recent Reddit AMA, Romero would quite happily see Daikatana make a return at some point. In response to a question about the aged FPS, he said he would "support a remake." Replying to a similar question further down, Romero adds that, if it were to be remade, Daikatana "could be an exciting game, [more so] than the original."

A Daikatana remake is just a pipe dream, so far

This doesn't mean a remake or reboot is on the horizon, as far as we know. Plus, Romero did specify that he wouldn't be involved in such a project, though he would possibly be onboard as a consultant of some kind. We already know that he's working on a new FPS with a major publisher, which he restates in the Reddit thread. Pretty much nothing is known about this project, and the man himself even says he can't say anything about it.

John Romero is something of an icon in the video game industry. While he's been making games since the early 80s, it was 1993's Doom that helped set the scene for the early days of the first-person shooter. These days, he is still active in the gaming world, even making some new maps for Doom. As such, it'll be interesting to see what he's currently working on, and whether Daikatana will ever get a second chance.

The post John Romero is not opposed to a Daikatana remake appeared first on Destructoid.

QuakeCon announcement incoming?

Everybody's favorite spoiler, The Game Rating and Administration Committee of Korea, is at it again, this time apparently lifting the lid on an incoming remaster of one of the most genre-defining shooters of all time, id Software's Quake II.

While Activision is yet to officially announce said remaster, we have been here once before, as game ratings board previously leaked the remaster of the original Quake, ahead of its official reveal at the annual gathering of all things id, QuakeCon. Given that QuakeCon 2023 is set to take place in a little over a month from now, it seems pretty snug that Quake II Remastered is scheduled to make its appearance.

Originally released in 1997, at the height of the second major FPS boom, Quake II is a violent, sci-fi shooter that sees top-tier marine Bitterman fend off an entire alien invasion with an arsenal of bombastic weaponry. With its smart, interconnected stages, multiple player characters, and commitment to chaotic destruction, Quake II was highly praised by critics and fans, becoming a mainstay on the early online multiplayer circuit and boosting the Activision coffers long before Call of Duty was even in consideration.

We will be sure to give you a heads-up when an official announcement is forthcoming. QuakeCon 2023 takes place at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas from August 10-13.

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Horde and Honey are here for Quake

The remaster/re-release of the original Quake from NightDive Studios is still getting new content. Bethesda announced that Update 2 is out today and contains both a new Horde Mode and the Honey add-on, alongside some other new improvements to good ol' Quake.

In a Bethesda blog, the publisher breaks down what's all in the update. The Horde Mode added to Quake today is a new experience designed by MachineGames, letting one to four players or bots take on waves of enemies together. There are multiple difficulty levels, four new maps specifically designed for Horde play, and even boss monsters that let you unlock new weapons and items.

And for the solo players out there, Quake is also adding the Honey add-on. MachineGames senior level designer Christian Grawer created Honey, a trip through a village with a sinister secret. Originally released years ago, it's getting added back in as an add-on for Quake. Much like the add-ons for the Doom re-releases, these seem simple enough to boot up and play, so you get to enjoy some new Quake content like its 1996 all over again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jut8g31RZH8

As time has rolled on, it's been nice seeing these classics of PC gaming past get so much attention. The Quake re-release left a strong impression on us, and even outside Bethesda, companies like EA have gone back to their vaults for some PC gaming revivals. Plus, the addition of new content really shows how timeless some of these games are.

Other improvements to Quake include text chat and push-to-talk support in pre-game lobbies, crosshair color and type options, and improved auto-aim to reduce the amount of snapping and view-locking. If you still needed an excuse to play some Quake, well, take this as your cue.

The post Quake re-release adds new Horde Mode and Honey add-on appeared first on Destructoid.

Quake III pulls ahead, wait a minute!

I'm a huge proponent of gaming history and preservation. I lived through a lot of eras of gaming, and remember it all. The LAN cafes and people going crazy over Quake III. People in my area trying to make it big in the fighting game community in local tournaments, and the bourgeoning Halo regional scene. And of course, the national phenomenon of StarCraft overseas. It was all fascinating to watch, but this very quick and enlightening esports growth chart visual aid really drives home how big some of these games were, and currently are.

Posted on Reddit by PieChartPirate, the esports growth chart starts at 1998 and ends in the present era, cataloging prize pools. At what is essentially the dawn of esports, Quake II, QuakeWorld (now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time), and StarCraft Brood War were at the top of the charts. In just one year Brood War completely shoots ahead, followed closely on its heels by Quake III Arena, which was gaining massive popularity with the rise of online play. Amazingly, Quake III pulls ahead, but the ominous Counter-Strike appears.

In just several years, starting around 2003, Counter-Strike pulls ahead by a long shot and dominates by at least a million dollars (if not more) until 2014. At that point its reign is over, as League of Legends, StarCraft II, and Dota 2 are all in position and gaining popularity. From then on, given the massive amounts of cash Valve injects into the latter, it's Dota 2's game to lose. CS Go enters the fray as the second-highest total prize pool placeholder, followed by Fortnite in third and League in fourth.

There are so many stories told in this esports growth chart: each of which probably deserves its own symposium. One of my favorites is the low-key appearance of Age of Empires II in the early 2000s, and the fact that Descent 3, a game I played mostly alone, had a $50,000 prize pool. It's also sobering to just sit down and realize how much money Valve makes in a day, and how their chokehold over the esports scene has lasted nearly two decades.

https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/po68o2/oc_top_15_esports_by_total_prize_pool_since_1998/

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The Dopefish Lives!

Can you believe I’ve never really gotten into Quake? Doom was a significantly impactful game for me as a child. I’ve played Wolfenstein 3D multiple times, and I don’t even like it that much. I’ve touched Quake. My uncle at least had the shareware. I’m pretty sure I rented the N64 version. I never really sat down to play through it, though.

It’s one of the more impactful ‘90s shooters. It was the last game of the classic id Software lineup before folks like Sandy Petersen and John Romero left. Its engine was an impressive effort to get smooth 3D visuals on PC at a time before 3D accelerators were widespread. It’s not one to overlook if you want to understand the evolution of PC shooters.

I just never took the time to get Quake working on my modern hardware. I would need to shove it into a source port, and there doesn’t seem to be one that is clearly the best. It makes me tired just thinking about it.

Then suddenly, we’re given a remaster. Thanks, NightDive Studios! I can finally play Quake how I want to. I can even play it on my Switch!

Quake (PC [Reviewed], PS4, Xbox One, Switch [Reviewed])
Developer: id Software, NightDive Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Released: August 21, 2021
MSRP: $9.99

The narrative of Quake is the timeless story of some military dude fighting monsters. It’s basically like Doom, except more Lovecraft and less Satan. Like Doom, development started out with a lot of big ideas before someone said, “Okay, but what if we made it fun?” and it was spoiled down to the bare essentials of shooting dudes.

Is it fun? Was Pickman a painter?

Yes. If you haven’t read Lovecraft, the answer is yes. It was Pickman’s Model, and it’s one of my favorites.

It was hard for the id Software guys to do wrong, and they were doing what they did best: pushing technology and using it to let you blast horrors. It’s dead simple, with most of the technique being in staying mobile. A speedrunning community would later flourish around the game and the unorthodox skill of rocket jumping, but if you’re just looking to see the credits, it rarely gets more complicated than just blasting whatever is in your way.

The remaster does a number of things. It has moved Quake to the Kex Engine, adding graphical effects like real-time lighting and ambient occlusion. Moreover, some of the models have been given a slight upgrade, and while it usually gives me pause when updated models are jammed into an old game, they fit so well that I never got the impulse to turn them off. The option is there, however. If you want to turn off all the fancy effects and play the game like it was in 1996, that’s absolutely an option.

It also bundles the expansions Scourge of Armagon, Dissolution of Eternity, and 2016’s Dimension of the Past. Alongside it is another expansion developed by Machinegames, Dimension of the Machine. It’s a whole lot of Quake.

There’s a lot of variance between the different expansions, as well. Okay, maybe I shouldn’t oversell it. One of Quake’s weaknesses is that the levels are all very thematically similar, but certain episodes make more use of one enemy set or level theme than others. The starkest is Dimension of the Machine which ties in a great deal of modern design complete with relatively complex environments. While there may be some weaker parts of the package, the fact that they’re not just all the same makes playing through them worthwhile.

Indeed, I think my biggest gripe with Quake is that there isn’t a lot of variety when compared to something like Doom, which was already lacking to begin with. Weirdly, the addition of jumping didn’t lend to a greater feeling of verticality. The levels aren’t exactly interchangeable mechanically, but they certainly are aesthetically.

It’s likely due to the troubled development. While the team was focused on putting out a fun product, there were complaints about a lack of leadership. The central concept of Quake changed so many times throughout its creation, that it’s no wonder it’s a mash. Lovecraftian monstrosities, cyborgs, and demons all attack you against backdrops of medieval castles, sci-fi military bases, and crumbling ruins.

It makes it kind of feel like Quake doesn’t really have an identity of its own, but that generally gets lost when you’re tearing through levels. The fact of the matter is it’s fun, even all these years later, because sometimes you just want to blow things into chunks and the set dressing is pointless.

If you're down for it, there's also multi-player both split-screen and online, both co-operative and adversarial. I personally don't feel like getting destroyed by people who have been playing for 25 years, but the option is there for people who do.

There are also going to be add-ons, not unlike what’s going on with the Doom console ports. Essentially, these are curated mods that are being made available. The only one to start out is Quake 64, which is slightly underwhelming. I mean, it’s a nice addition because there were some merits to the N64 version, I just wouldn’t play it back-to-back with the original. They’re too similar.

My first actual full playthrough of Quake was a pretty enjoyable experience. Not only is the port a solid effort, even going above-and-beyond of what’s expected, but it’s also still a great game. Maybe not Doom great, maybe not even Duke Nukem 3D great, but there’s room in this world for all sorts of flavors of ‘90s shooter.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]} 

The post Review: Quake (2021 Remaster) appeared first on Destructoid.

Just in time for QuakeCon, here's some Quake

After popping up on the radar a few times ahead of this weekend's QuakeCon, a remaster of the first Quake game is out now. The remaster brings Quake to PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch with next-gen versions (and a free upgrade) on the way, and it's got some extra content in store, too.

According to the store description on Microsoft and the Nintendo eShop, this version of Quake will get higher resolution (depending on platform) and widescreen support. There are also some visual touch-ups, like anti-aliasing and enhanced models. The remaster will also still have its soundtrack, including the theme by Trent Reznor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi-bdUd9J3E

On the single-player side, there's obviously Quake's campaign. Also included are the Dark Fantasy campaign, The Scourge of Armagon and Dissolution of Eternity expansions, and two more expansions developed by MachineGames: Dimension of the Past, and the all-new Dimension of the Machine.

In Dimension of the Machine, you travel across space and time to bring together lost runes, powering a long-dormant machine to open a portal that's hiding the "greatest threat to all known worlds."

If multiplayer's more your speed, the Quake remaster will also have both online and local multiplayer. There's support for four-player local split-screen, dedicated servers for online matchmaking, and peer-to-peer support for custom matches. Crossplay is also enabled, so you can match up against both your Switch pals and PC pals.

Quake will also have some more content in store too, as this remaster will support free fan-made and official mods, starting with Quake 64. Bethesda says more fan-made and official mods and missions will be coming soon, too.

All of this, plus gyro-aiming on the Switch and a pretty reasonable $9.99 price point (or available simply as part of Xbox Game Pass), is a pretty rad announcement for nostalgic Quake players like myself. It's been literal decades since I first picked this series up, but I'm very ready to hop, strafe, and frag my way back in.

The post Quake remaster is out now, with a new expansion and crossplay appeared first on Destructoid.

QuakeCon 2021 gets underway today

[Update: The Game Rating and Administration Committee of Korea has released its own listing for a Quake Remastered, as spotted by Gematsu.]

Today sees the start of QuakeCon, the long-running fan convention focused on id Software's legendary shooter franchise. And it seems that the festivities have gotten underway a little earlier than expected after the ESRB ratings website dropped a new listing for an as-yet-unannounced new title in the Quake series, as spotted by VGC.

The ESRB's listing for the succinctly titled "Quake" speaks of players exploring a medieval environment populated with horrific monsters and other fantasy creatures, to be fended off with an arsenal of explosive weapons, including Quake's iconic nail gun. Sure sounds like Quake. The listing doesn't give away quite enough clues as to whether the new title is a brand new reboot — ala 2016's Doom — or just a remaster/remake of the 1996 original. This isn't the first clue that more mayhem was incoming, as a since-deleted listing for QuakeCon also spilled the beans on a "revitalized" Quake experience.

Given the QuakeCon goes live today, we'll no doubt receive answers to these questions at some point during the course of the weekend. QuakeCon — which is once again being hosted in an online capacity — will include news and reveals, online tournaments, retrospectives, interviews, art contests, and much more. You can check out the full schedule of events over on the official QuakeCon website, and catch all of the action on a selection of official Twitch channels.

We'll be sure to give y'all a heads-up when the mysterious new Quake title is officially unveiled. Better stock up on screws.

The post Quake Remastered pops up on ratings websites ahead of this weekend’s QuakeCon appeared first on Destructoid.

Cblogs of 6/19 - 6/25/2021

-Holy Shadows writes about the fun of summer gaming.

-Riley1sSpook plays and discusses Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid in this blog of three parts.

-Black Red Gaming shares some E3 news.

-Gamingnerd discusses the legacy of Quake on its 25th anniversary.

-Gamingnerd discusses the legacy of Sonic the Hedgehog on its 25th anniversary in this blog of two parts.

-Black Red Gaming explores the legacy of the Kane & Lynch games.

-Manasteel88 celebrates the birthday of Sonic the Hedgehog in his 30th year.

-Exber reviews Salt & Sanctuary on the PS Vita.

-Captiosus revisits the damaged legacy of Mass Effect: Andromeda.

-PhilsPhindings discusses the similarities between the soundtrack of Shining Force 2 and Polka music.

-ABowlOfCereal summarizes all the Guardian Tales balancing suggestions in this blog.

-ChronoLynxx opens this week's open TGIF community forum.

Thanks to Lord Spencer for this week's recap and to all of our community for your thoughts and views on all matters gaming. Shoutouts to Gamingnerd and Manasteel88 for their anniversary pieces!

Work continues on fine-tuning many elements of Destructoid after the switchover, but we hope to return to Blog Promotions, Bloggers Wanted, and other community-themed projects soon! Thank you for your patience.

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Go boom from your living room

Bethesda Softworks has released the live streaming schedule for its annual QuakeCon event which, as previously reported, will be going all-digital this year for the first time ever - another industry staple forced to switch things up due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Running from August 7-9, QuakeCon at Home 2020 looks to bring fans all the news, interviews, and live gaming action they expect from the yearly event, but this time in a safe, socially-distanced capacity. There will be panels and chats with a host of producers, community leaders, and voice actors from popular titles such as The Elder Scrolls, DOOM, Fallout, The Evil Within, and Prey, along with competitive tournaments and a slew of contests and competitions.

Exclusive merchandise will be available throughout the weekend, and viewers will be able to donate during streaming events, with proceeds going to numerous organisations including Direct Relief, UNICEF, The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and The Trevor Project. The entire weekend will be readily available to watch on Bethesda's Twitch channel.

While undoubtedly there are many fans left disappointed that QuakeCon has had to change plans for its long-running annual gathering, it remains important that we all try to stem the tide of COVID-19. With a packed schedule and hopefully a few surprises, QuakeCon at Home 2020 will still provide fans with a weekend of fun events and interesting behind-the-scenes chatter. You can check out the full schedule for the weekend right here.

QuakeCon at Home 2020 takes place August 7-9.

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Streams, tourneys, charity drives and more!

As the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has forced the cancellation of a huge string of industry events this year, publishers are finding ways to continue their annual traditions via online experiences. Case in point: Bethesda Softworks, who has announced that its annual event QuakeCon will, for the first time ever, be a digital-only affair.

QuakeCon at Home 2020 will take place from Friday, August 7 until Sunday, August 9 and will host a weekend of fun events and activities all over the world. The "Global Super Stream" will feature news, previews and chatter of various Bethesda products - including guest appearances from community members and superfans - while the QuakeCon Twitch Team will be playing games, chatting with the community, and raising money for a selection of charities. Registration for these games is expected to open soon.

For Pro-Play fans, the QuakeCon Pro League will culminate in the QuakeCon World Championships 2020. This event will see the 24 best players in the world challenge each other from the safety of their own homes in a day of hard-hitting action, with a grand prize pool of $150,000 up for grabs. The tournament will take place on Sunday, and can be watched live via the Global Super Stream.

QuakeCon is renown for raising top dollar for a number of charities, and QuakeCon at Home will be no different. Viewers will be able to donate via Twitch to numerous organisations including Direct Relief, UNICEF, The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and The Trevor Project. Two exclusive new shirts (pictured above) will also be available for both dog and cat people, with all proceeds going toward animal charities Dallas Pets Alive and FOUR PAWS. There will also be a selection of exclusive QuakeCon at Home merchandise made available throughout the weekend.

While it has been disappointing to see so many fun events fall by the wayside in 2020, it's important that we continue to do all we can to stem the flow of this dangerous pandemic. In the meantime, kudos to the hard-working crew members working tirelessly to provide these alternate means of entertainment during this difficult year.

QuakeCon at Home 2020 will take place between August 7-9. For full details, check out the official website right here.

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Arc World Tour is also a no-go

The ongoing crisis of the COVID-19 outbreak is going to get a lot worse in the United States before it gets better. That is if listen to doctors, epidemiologists, nurses, experts, and anyone who isn't some nut job on the internet. That means more time locked down at home and more annual video game trade shows, conventions, and tournaments that have to start making some difficult decisions.

As we continue to push closer to the Summer season with no slowdown in sight for the virus's spread, shows set to take place several months from now are being called off. Today, the organizers of the annual QuakeCon announced it had canceled what would have been the 25th anniversary of the event.

An update on QuakeCon 2020: pic.twitter.com/1FYUauI7PY

— QuakeCon (@QuakeCon) March 31, 2020

In addition to QuakeCon, and the dozen other events that have been called off this year, the organizers of Combo Breaker confirmed the May-scheduled fighting game tournament has been canceled for 2020. Anyone who made hotel reservations with the host hotel has had their reservations moved to the 2021 event. Refunds will be processed next month. Those who did register will be sent a few items of appreciation, including a lanyard, Combo Breaker badge, pin, and a commemorative magazine.

Finally, the Arc World Tour 2020 has been called off in its entirety. In its announcement, Arc System Works America CEO Minoru Kidooka said the company is looking toward 2021 to start holding events again, however, it will all depend on where we're all at with the COVID-19 outbreak. ARCREVO Japan 2020 and ARC World Tour 2020 Finals have not been totally cancelled just yet as the company is currently discussing holding those as independent events, with participant safety as its top priority.

Combo Breaker 2020 Update (Combo Breaker)
Notice of Cancellation of ARC WORLD TOUR 2020 (Arc System Works)

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The classics never die

Nvidia has announced a fully RTX enabled version of Quake II today. Dubbed Quake II RTX, this remaster of the 1997 ID Software classic adds ray-tracing support and dramatically overhauls the atmosphere of the shooter. Coming as a free download for PC and Linux on June 6, 2019, Nvidia states that this newest update will include "top-to-bottom enhancements that improve virtually every aspect" of the classic game.

For a few months now, mods have been going around that unofficially add ray-tracing support to Quake II. While that won't mean a lot to the average user, the massive change in how light is rendered practically gives the game an entirely new look. It also shows the potential for what ray-tracing can do for future games, which will become much more important as the next-generation of consoles comes in. That statement is corroborated by Nvidia, which wrote on its website, "Quake II RTX demonstrates the possibilities of ray tracing, and offers a glimpse at the future of gaming, with realistic real-time lighting, shadows, and effects."

When released, Quake II RTX will include the first three levels of the game for everyone to sample. If you happen to own Quake II (and who doesn't?), you'll be able to experience the entire game in this remastered format. Nvidia recommends having a GTX 2060 to ensure the best possible performance, though I'm not sure how else you'd run this on a non-RTX card.

Quake II RTX Available On Windows and Linux June 6th [Nvidia]

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Pre-alpha footage

3D Realms has uploaded a 20-minute video for its upcoming first-person shooter Wrath: Aeon of Ruin. Based on the demo I played at PAX East, this walkthrough should show you exactly what I meant when I said Wrath feels more like Hexen and Turok than Quake. It's great to have a completely different kind of shooter than just wall-to-wall violence.

The one thing I notice here is that the sound effects are a little dull (something I couldn't quite tell while in the middle of the Boston Convention Center full of 100,000 people). The shotgun sounds a bit weak, which is unfortunate. It certainly doesn't feel that way when being used, but there is always time to perfect the sound design before Wrath launches.

Wrath will be heading to "early access" on PC this summer. The full release, which will be coming to PS4, Xbox One, and Switch, will land sometime in 2020.

WRATH: Aeon of Ruin [PAX East 2019 - Pre-Alpha Gameplay] [1C Entertainment via YouTube]

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They drew first blood

Before Wrath: Aeon of Ruin was announced, Destructoid's CJ had teased me by saying, "This game has you written all over it." I was very intrigued, but CJ is a man of his word and did not break embargo. Even when I was speculating about the tease from 3D Realms' Twitter account, he didn't budge. Then the curtains were pulled back and I was floored. CJ knows me well.

What more can I add to his lengthy preview of the game, though? While CJ is a fan of old-school shooters, he hasn't played them as extensively as me. While other kids were digging into platformers, sports games, and action titles, I was spending my time toiling away at corridors in Doom. I begged my mom for my own PC just so I could have free reign to play all kinds of crazy shooters as a kid. Since I've been playing them for nearly 20 years, I think I have a good grasp on what makes a first-person shooter solid. Wrath is solid and could be the sequel to Hexen we've all been waiting for.

As mentioned in our preview, Wrath is going more for a metroidvania vibe. There are three hub worlds that have around five levels each. Progression through these worlds isn't entirely linear, so you'll be able to find upgrades in one level that you'll then take into another level. From the start, you'll able to select level one or two and plow through that to unlock the next three in that hub.

The design of these levels feels like something straight out of Turok. Forget what you know about Quake, because Wrath doesn't feel like it. The game has speed, an awesome arsenal, and some creative enemies, but the flow is very much the polar opposite of id Software's mega-hit. You'll be progressing through the levels in a much more concerted fashion, skimming the walls for hidden doors and checking each cranny for keys and items.

I suppose that isn't what everyone wants, but I was a decent enough fan of Hexen to find this setup intriguing. I also think it's a great balance considering New Blood Interactive just released DUSK, which is basically Quake with all of the fat trimmed. Trying to ape that title isn't going to happen, so why not sculpt your own vision of retro FPS goodness?

The weapons feel like a mash-up of all the FPS kings. There's a grenade launcher type weapon that feels like a mixture between Unreal's flak cannon and bio-rifle, a vampire fang launcher that is basically Quake's nail gun, and a shotgun with a wonderful risk/reward styled alternate charge blast. It's great to finally have a use for the right mouse button again instead of simply having ADS (aim down sights).

Since this demo was the same one CJ previewed earlier, I didn't get a look at any different enemy types. What I can say is that a lot of archetypes are represented here. There are the standard cannon fodder zombie foes, annoying ass flying bastards, and hulking brutes that will charge straight for you. The mix-up comes from the artifacts system, which could be comparable to items from Hexen. These grant temporary buffs to the player from invincibility (at the cost of reducing your health) to enemy health drain.

If you're pretty skilled, you can completely ignore these, but they also might just help you out of a tight spot. I got to the end of the level without digging into the invincibility artifacts, but then was able to bust out two in a row to clear the room with ease. That element of weighing the odds and stocking up your supply will surely lead to some clutch moments where you’re passing by the skin of your teeth.

In a particularly brutal move, Wrath does not have unlimited quick-saves. That artifact system comes into play here with you needing to utilize a specific rune to make a quick-save. Run out of those runes and you're stuck progressing through large portions of the level without a safety net. Since this demo was the second level of the game, I didn't think quick-saves were even necessary, but this mechanic should prevent players from save scumming through tough moments.

More importantly, it changes how you approach combat scenarios. Quake was all about tight corridors and reckless abandon, but Wrath is about open exploration and weapon mastery. The shotgun's secondary fire takes a few seconds to shoot off, so you will not be running headfirst into crowds and instantly blowing them all away. These tweaks give Wrath an identity all of its own, even if it is borrowing the tech from Quake.

I walked away from the demo very impressed. I don't think this will be my new favorite, but I'm happy that developers are starting to realize that not every shooter needs to be all action all the time. There once was a period where these games asked you to learn how their mechanics worked and how their levels flowed. Wrath captures that beautifully.

Regarding the release date, 3D Realms' Vice President Frederik Schreiber told me that they are planning for August with episode one. Despite having the "early access" moniker (which I was told was due to Steam policy), episode one will be a finalish build of the game. 3D Realms is likening this to the old shareware model, just with a price tag. Schreiber stressed that nothing from that build would feel incomplete or sloppy.

Episode two and three will be coming out at some point in 2020 with versions available for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch. You can either pre-order the game on Steam to receive episode one when it's ready, or wait for the final version. Whatever your course of action, Wrath is one to keep your eye on.

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Kill demons like its 1996

For the past few weeks, I’ve been obsessing a bit about the Resident Evil 2 remake. Not the game itself which I’m sure is very fine, but rather the mod community that keeps thinking of ways to absolutely blow me away. Whether it’s Thomas the Tank Engine, DMX, or a completely misguided thong, seeing how modders can drastically alter the mood of the game with a character or music swap never ceases to astound and amuse me.

And it’s not just that game. I’ve been fascinated with mods for as long as I’ve been reading about video games. I wasn’t a PC gamer growing up, so hearing about how two people took the Half-Life game engine and created Counter-Strike is blew my mind. The closest I’ve come to something like that is with TimeSplitters 2 and its extensive map editor. I spent hours crafting labyrinths in my GameCube copy of the game only to never be able to share them with anyone. Had I actually owned a decent gaming PC in the ‘90s, I probably would have immersed myself in the modding community, especially the Quake level scene.

Quake was id Software’s follow-up to the genre-defining Doom and it included the QuakeC programming language and a level editor. The move was spurred by player-designed custom levels in the Doom engine, and their inclusion created an army of dedicated level designers that is still going strong today. One of those designers was Jeremiah Fox, also known as KillPixel. After toiling away in the Quake community, Fox decided to try his hand at making a full-fledged game. The end result of his work is Wrath: Aeon of Ruin.

Wrath is a dark fantasy 3D first-person shooter where players take control of the Outlander, a mysterious man who washes up on shore and is tasked to take down beings known as the Guardians of the Old World by a figure known as the Shepherd of Wayward Souls. Yes, the names may make you want to roll your eyes, but the action will do anything but. Wrath is a silky-smooth, high-octane shooter that rewards those who take risks rather than run away. And this isn’t just a game that that’s inspired by Quake, but one built on the same framework id Software first used more than 20 years ago.

If the idea of an FPS from the ‘90s sounds familiar, it’s because last year I wrote about another old engine finding new life with Ion Maiden. That game, built from the same engine that gave us Duke Nukem, is coming this year from a reborn 3D Realms, the same company that is helping develop Wrath. Like with Maiden, Wrath isn’t simply looking to the past for inspiration. Rather, it’s immersing itself in the technology that defined that era.

“We’re making an authentic ‘90s shooter, not just something pretending to be,” Fox explained. “The retro thing for us is not a shtick we’re doing. The engine and the tech dictates what you can and cannot do. It’s just really, from its core, an authentic shooter of the era.”

Fox was on hands in San Francisco last week to give me my first look at Wrath, a game he’d been working on for years before 3D Realms came aboard. Along with him was Frederik Schreiber, Vice President of 3D Realms, who shared Fox’s belief that the game is fundamentally different than other modern shooters that parade their retro inspiration to throngs of fans seeking something truly old school.

“I think something a lot of people coming from this scene, a lot of people who still play Quake today and these old school shooters, never playing new games, see from this wave of new retro games is that a lot of the games seem to think that, ‘Oh, Quake was like this, so we’re going to be like this too,’” Schreiber, said, “but they played Quake back in ’96. They didn’t play Quake the day before or the day before that. So a new game comes out that’s a retro-inspired that doesn’t actually capture what made Quake great but is great in its own right. What we’re doing is actually capturing what we think and know is great about Quake. Not just try and imitate it, but exceed it and expand on it up.”

“We’re not disregarding all of the advances made in shooters,” Fox added. “Nineties classic games had some rough edges and we’re just filing those down but preserving the essence of what made them so much fun to play. So everyone working on the game really never left [Quake]. These people were making Quake maps just because they love it.”

Like Ion Maiden and its heavily modified Build engine, Wrath’s version of the Quake engine has seen some updates. The game supports up to 666 frames-per-second, a number I’m sure was chosen just so I’d write about how the game with demons in it has the devil’s number as its frame cap. The modifications to the engine will allow for levels far larger than what was possible in the original Quake and allow it to run on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch in addition to PC.

“PC has been easy,” Schreiber said,” because it’s still a PC game. There have been a lot of upgrades to the Quake engine, a lot of modifications. Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch have been a challenge. An otherworldly challenge but we’re hitting really good framerates. We have a very unique idea of how we want to port it to make it work which you’ll end up seeing when the game comes out.”

While Schreiber and Fox only had a PC on hand for my preview session, I was shown video of the game running on Switch. It’s still an early build and all of the enemies on screen were completely stationary, but Wrath on Switch was moving about as quickly and smoothly as what I saw on the hotel television screen.

The final game will feature 15 levels and three massive hub-worlds with radically different themes. The hub-worlds will feature light metroidvania influences where players can collect items and skills in the levels they can use to fully explore the many secrets of the hub-world map. Fox and Schreiber said each of the levels plays into the central theme of each hub-world, but no two levels will feature the same designs, resulting in a radically diverse game. Players can either go at it alone or in co-op. Schreiber said the team is also experimenting with four-player, split-screen co-op to truly give the game that ‘90s feel.

For my hands-on, I was given access to the second level of the game: dark, gothic ruins with caves, graves, prisons, and scores of demons ready to fuck me up. When I took control of the mouse and keyboard, everything felt incredibly smooth right out of the gate. I can't tell you the difference between 60 fps and 666 fps, but the Outlander moved with finesse as I charged skeletons, flying freaks, and other monsters with guns blazing.

Players will get access to a variety of guns over the course of the game. For this demo, I collected four of them: a pistol, a shotgun, a fully automatic that shoots teeth, and a gun that lobs acidic orbs I gain from specific enemies. Each gun features a standard shot as well as an alternative firing mode that can do more damage. The shotgun’s second shot sends bullets ricocheting off the walls and ceilings while the tooth shooter will fire a burst shot that does more damage than its rapid fire mode. Even the Outlander’s melee weapon, a hidden blade on his right wrist, has a devastating lunge attack in addition to its standard swipe.

That lunge was necessary for me to reach the first artifact of the level. Artifacts are various items that can help players in a variety of ways. Two available in the demo revolve around the Outlander's health. One, when activated, will siphon energy away from the enemies as you kill them. The other drops his health down to 10% but makes him invincible for a short period of time. Artifacts can't be used at the same time but smart players will be able to figure out how to use them consecutively for maximum effect.

More innovations can be found in the save system. 3D Realms doesn’t want people to be able to save spam during the game, so it implemented a system where you collect save points as if they’re items and you choose where in the level you want to leave one. Just defeat a massive wave of enemies? Plop down a save point so you won’t have to do it again. See a mid-boss coming up? Make a save now just in case it wipes the floor with you.

I spent about 25 minutes with the game, getting the feel of everything, and it just works so damn well. The design of the level is impeccable with a multitude of little nooks to explore. Enemies burst into pixelated gore as I dismember them, and the placement of the monsters throughout the stage greatly encourages experimentation with the weapons. It’s clearly a well-built game, and the last time I felt this way about a shooter I was demoing was with Ion Maiden. It’s almost too perfect 3D Realms has its hands in both titles, but as I found out, there’s a very good reason for that.

“I actually saw the trailer for Ion Maiden and I realized. ‘Okay, that’s my competition,’” Fox explained to me. “That was really the only game I considered my competition because they zoned in on what I thought a retro shooter was. I kind of disregarded all the other ones that were like a shtick or weren’t quite authentic. So I wanted to keep tabs on Ion Maiden and see what they were doing, so I joined the Discord and started talking to developers. I was keeping Wrath under wraps, I didn’t want to show it to anyone, but I wanted to have a conversation about what I was passionate about so I put a video up of a weapon or something like that and then [Schreiber] contacted me.”

“We had just announced Ion Maiden,” Schreiber added, “and were planning on what we wanted to do going forward. Ion Maiden is produced internally but is being developed by Voidpoint. We wanted to do a game internally that we knew was going to be 3D, but still with an old engine. Then I saw the video he posted of his personal project and it was exactly what we were looking for. So I reached out to Jeremiah and we had a meeting about what his plans for the game were. I offered to pay for a ‘dream team’ at 3D Realms to do the game and let him fulfill his mission of doing the game exactly as he wanted it to be.”

A “dream team” is right. For the project, 3D Realms brought in long-time Quake level designers to build the game, including one of the minds behind Arcane Dimensions. Beyond the gameplay, Quake Champions and Dusk composer Andrew Hulshult has been brought in to score it, Cyberpunk 2077 Senior Audio Engineer Bjørn Jacobsen is doing sound design, and the narrative is being penned by a former Blizzard writer. All the elements are in place for one hell of a shooter, and based on what I’ve seen and played, Wrath will be just that.

“Every single person is really passionate about the game,” Fox said. “I think we’re all happy to see a game like this exist. My goal for Wrath is for it to be on the shelf with Doom and Quake. Whenever I reformat my computer, I always have a few games that I always have installed like Doom. I want Wrath to be the type of game that when you reformat your computer it’s just always on there.”

If you want to get your first taste of Wrath: Aeon of Ruin and play an improved version of the demo I tried out, 3D Realms will have the game on display at PAX East. The full game is expected to launch in 2020 for Mac, Linux, PlayStation, Switch, and Xbox One, but PC players should get their shot at the action later this summer.

Oh, and yes, Wrath will absolutely feature mod support.

Wrath: Aeon of Ruin [3D Realms]

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All that chunky goodness

3D Realms is teasing a brand shooter built on the original Quake engine. Set to reveal tomorrow, the possibilities are endless for what this new game might be. It obviously isn't Quake 5, but there is a very real chance that it might be something related to 3D Realms' back catalog. I'm trying to convince myself it isn't Duke Nukem (especially since Gearbox still owns that IP), but the recent inclusion of the character in Rad Rodgers is getting my hopes up.

Whatever this game ends up being, it will certainly be old-school and right up my alley. With this, Amid Evil, and Ion Maiden coming out in 2019, I might be in retro shooter heaven.

3D Realms [Twitter]

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HUMILIATION

Quake Champions has come a long way since its early-access release last year. I was down on it from my initial impressions, but I've grown to accept how it plays and how fun it can be. In an odd move, though, there hasn't been any kind of capture the flag mode available. That is set to change this month as Bethesda has announced a new CTF mode will headline a bunch of new updates for the arena shooter revival.

Along with that CTF mode, a battle pass will be available for purchase. Working in a fashion similar to Fortnite and PUBG, the battle pass in Quake Champions will allow players to earn skins, shaders, nameplates, premium currency, and loot boxes just by playing. It will operate in seasons with a 100-tier ladder that is constantly rewarding you for leveling up. Daily and Weekly challenges will round out the battle pass extras, with special challenges for owners of the pass. The pass is available for 1,000 platinum (basically $10 USD).

Champions are also getting some new functionality in December. Along with the battle pass, players can now level-up their preferred champions by completing weekly challenges. This will grant you "Shards," another new currency, that can be spent on items specific to each champion. With these new upgrades, you'll be able to tailor your champion to your specific playstyle.

You can find out more about December's updates by reading the official FAQ. There isn't a solid date for when you'll be able to play CTF, but it shouldn't be too long now.

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Wooo........

While we're all waiting for that sweet reveal of DOOM Eternal, Bethesda and id Software took to the QuakeCon stage to announce that Quake Champions is now officially free-to-play. This may be confusing to you as the game has had periods where it was already free, but now everyone is welcome to hop online and frag each other without jumping through hoops.

You'll still need to buy more than the single champion the game gives you, but if you're okay with dealing with the free-to-play grind, Quake Champions is fine.

Quake Champions [Twitter]

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It's a Blood Moon

Anyone who bought Prey's Mooncrash DLC will notice that it got a little snazzier today. That's because developer Arkane released the "Blood Moon" update which added a handful of new cosmetic items.

The obvious highlights are the ones that crossover from other Bethesda properties. There are Fallout and Quake Champions themes for the operators now. Last month, the same happened with Skyrim and The Evil Within. 

Here's the full list of new items in Mooncrash:

• Fallout Theme Operator
• Quake Champions Theme Operator
• Witch Hat Mimic
• Medieval Mimic
• TranStar Silenced Pistol
• TranStar Q-Beam
• TranStar Shotgun
• TranStar Wrench

Prey was a rather serious game, but Mooncrash is a different beast. The roguelike scramble to escape a moonbase is silly enough that it makes sense to blast away at a crown-wearing mimic before scuttling off to a Fallout-themed medic to heal. Or, even if it doesn't make sense, at the very least it works.

Bethesda says that there are more cosmetics-focused updates coming. However, everyone has their eyes on the asymmetrical Typhon Hunter multiplayer mode where half the players turn into ordinary objects before shape-shifting and attacking the humans. That's still ambiguously set for "later this summer." 

Prey: Mooncrash -- New Blood Moon Update Adds More Free Content [Bethesda]

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Scales and all

Quake Champions has been a strictly digital affair, thus far. The game launched with a paid early-access period before eventually starting a trial period of its free-to-play transition. If you missed out on grabbing the game for free but don't want to pay for simply a license, Bethesda may finally have a version that will suit your needs. Exclusive to GameStop, the Quake Champions: Scalebearer Edition comes with a code to get into the early access period, all current and future champion characters and a 12" statue of the "Scalebearer" character.

This edition will be going for $79.99 and will release on August 9, 2018. You can currently pre-order it from GameStop's website, though I'm sure it will be available in store. This edition will be a limited run, so if you really want it, make sure to grab a copy. Personally, though, I don't care for Quake Champions, so I'm not sure a statue would sway me much.

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Jump in and get humiliated!

Bethesda is pre-launching Quake Champions' free-to-play variant right now for everyone. While the full free-to-play version isn't ready just yet, people will be able to jump into the trial and keep the game whenever it does launch. This is actually similar to the trial version Bethesda gave out in April, just that you won't need to jump through hoops to grab it.

You'll be able to grab it until June 17, after which it will return to its previous $30 price. Remember, though, that spending $30 will net you all available champions and prevent you from hitting free-to-play roadblocks. The trial version only grants you access to Ranger and puts up a lot of walls for getting unlocks.

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Test for eventual free-to-play launch

Shortly after being announced, Quake Champions was slated to be a free-to-play game at some point. While that time hasn't quite arrive, Bethesda is going to be demoing the free option this weekend. This limited run version is to test out how the transition will affect servers when it launches later this year. PC Gamer and MMORPG.com will be handing out keys over the weekend that will grant permanent access to the free version, for the time being.

Along with that, Champions' April update will also introduce the "Strogg" character from Quake II. Quake III's amazing plasma gun is making a return while a brand new Cthala-themed map will be added into the rotation for all game modes. The April update also brings daily rewards and a brand new UI, which should be useful for jumping into matches quicker.

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From DUSK till dawn

With the release of DUSK onto Steam Early Access last month, old-school first-person shooter fans have been in heaven. The game captures the glory of games like Quake and Doom while providing modern compatibility and startling creativity. What more could you possibly want? How else will this game expand?

To figure out where this modern classic is going, I chatted with New Blood Interactive's producer Dave Oshry and DUSK designer David Szymanski and asked about the upcoming Episode Three, mod support, and the creative process behind building the levels we already have. It turns out that Quake wasn’t the only thing on David’s mind.

To start off, one of the many tidbits I had read about DUSK prior to setting this interview up was that David came up with the inspiration for the game during a period where he didn’t have access to a PC powerful enough to play modern games. Failing to actually relocate the source of this story, I asked David if that story was true.

While it definitely was fact, it didn’t happen immediately prior to DUSK’s development.  “When I was younger around the time people were playing Half-Life 2 and Doom 3,” David recounts, “I didn’t have a computer that could run anything like that. My computer was a decade behind the times.” Due to his outdated PC, David played and replayed things like Doom and Chasm: The Rift. This led to him creating concepts in his head for what would eventually become DUSK.

It took a while for David to start working on DUSK, though. With his outdated PC, David began work on titles in QBasic, but the process didn’t work out so well. While he didn’t give up on ever making the title, he eventually shelved it to hone his craft before returning in the future. In the intervening years, he played a bunch of other games that would eventually come to influence other elements of DUSK.

While the games that had the most impact are obviously Doom and Quake, a lot of the atmosphere in DUSK draws inspiration from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. David also personally admits that Chasm: The Rift played more of role in his design due to him playing it more as a teenager.

I sadly admitted that I had never heard of Chasm, but Dave Oshry reassured me that, “Nobody has.” He then went on to explain, “for Episode One, a lot of people have been comparing it to Blood and Redneck Rampage, whereas Episode Two is more S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Half-Life…there’s little bits of all other games sprinkled around there.”

“That’s the dirty secret of DUSK,” David says. “A whole bunch was taken from old immersive sims.” Thief is one game that Dave and David both refer to when saying this, which is definitely felt when playing DUSK. For how immediate the comparison to id Software’s classic titles is, DUSK actually borrows very little from the grandmasters of the genre.

So now that I better understood where DUSK was drawing its influences, what would we be seeing for Episode Three? “There’s definitely going to be new enemies,” Oshry says. “There’s going to be flying guys. We haven’t gotten to annoy you with those yet.” New weapons don’t seem to be on the docket, but a slight reworking of some current weapons is on the table.

Oshry specifically points out the sword, which was kind of a novelty in Episode Two. It was neat, but didn’t do enough damage to really be a viable alternative to the previous melee weapon. “For one level, we take away all your weapons and force you to use the sword in Episode Three,” Oshry outlines. “We’re changing the way the sword works…but definitely new enemies, some new power-ups and more power-ups.”

How will the level design change? “David’s just getting really crazy with the level design,” Oshry gleefully adds. “He’s not constrained by ‘farm area’ or ‘factory area.’ Now it’s just like fucking bleh-leh-luh-leh-luh-leh-la!” Seeing as how Episode Three is called “The Nameless City,” the limitations on what are possible basically don’t exist.

Rewinding a little, I asked where the inspiration for DUSK’s current episodes stemmed from. “For Episode One, that location is completely my wheel house,” David states, “because that’s where I live.” Oshry then jumps in, “He literally lives in DUSK.”

David then elaborated on what he meant. “That was just me driving around, living everyday life and being like ‘that would be a cool place to explore in DUSK.’ Getting onto Episode Two, that’s when I started with each level having a main gameplay or thematic idea. It wasn’t just ‘here’s a cool location,’ but it was like, ‘here’s a cool gameplay idea.’”

Oshry continued by adding, “When David was telling me his ideas for episodes, I was like ‘I think we’re making Cabin in the Woods.’” Oshry then told David to go watch the movie, which then became the catalyst for the whole idea of DUSK having a layered world where the first episode starts mundane before giving way to a secret military base underneath and then almost literal hell below it.

“’90s shooters were more about this mix of atmosphere, environments, and environmental storytelling along with a good mix of cool combat encounters and secret hunting,” Oshry told me. “It’s really, really satisfying to kill everything and find everything and learn everything and then move on…When you’ve got stuff that is procedural, or just big open rooms…you miss out on the whole other aspect that made old shooters really, really great.”

“For me,” David adds, “I especially love the idea in a game like Doom, what you are in is actually a space you can backtrack through and explore and kind of go at your own leisure. There was a real emphasis on making it feel like you were in an actual space and making it interesting to move around that space and giving you different views and angles.”

Both David and Oshry agree that a modern trend with gaming tends to be on infinite replayability through random generation instead of creating specific levels with identifiable set-pieces. While they admit there is something to be said about how that can create new and unique experiences, it isn’t what they are looking for when it comes to classic shooters. To them, DUSK is meant to be memorable and replayable because you find levels that excite you and invite you to revisit them.

Since DUSK borrows the act structure from classic shooters, one of the things I personally wondered about was an eventual fourth episode coming to the title. Doom re-released as The Ultimate Doom a year after with a brand new fourth chapter, a trend that would continue with Duke Nukem 3D and even things like Tomb Raider Gold on PC, so since DUSK is positioning itself as the return of the golden era of shooters, it would only make sense for an Ultimate DUSK to happen.

“I mean, if DUSK does well,” Oshry says, “we’ll do whatever the hell you want. We’ll make episode four, five, six, DUSK 2: With Graphics This Time.” For the moment, though, development is focused on getting all of the features that the team promised from the start. This means the final release with Episode Three, mod support, Steam workshop integration, a Mac and Linux port, and even a co-op mode for the campaign.

Since mod support was the only real “complaint” I had about DUSK in my Early Access review, I definitely inquired more about what that would entail. Turns out the team is taking it very seriously. “We’ve got a dedicated guy who comes from the Doom community working on the SDK,” Oshry mentions, “and people are getting prepared to start using it.” David then added, “I can’t wait for mods. It’s going to be so cool to see what people come up with.”

Toward the end of our chat, we began to talk about performance and how DUSK targets a rock solid 144 FPS, but this brought about the idea of console ports. According to Oshry, he is actually starting to finalize a pitch that he’ll be making to Nintendo for a Switch port of DUSK. While Sony and Microsoft haven’t agreed to anything, Oshry doesn’t see them opposing the game for their platforms.

Since DUSK is such an old-school shooter, you’d think that gamepad support would be flat out terrible, but that actually isn’t the case. The game supports a variety of gamepads on PC and it actually ends up feeling pretty smooth. Oshry explained to me that they worked on figuring out an auto-aim system that would emulate the smoothness that DUSK requires. While it obviously won’t match keyboard and mouse control, it does a remarkable job of capturing the speed you’d expect from a ‘90s shooter.

To wrap things up, I asked about what some ideas for a potential DUSK 2 would be like. It is obviously far too early to get any concrete details (especially since New Blood Interactive is looking to support DUSK for the next few years), but David did clue me in to how the game might look. “I don’t know that I’d ever want to do something completely photo realistic, because in five years it’s just going to look like complete garbage. Stylized graphics always age the best.”

The post Talking DUSK’s inspiration and its future with Dave Oshry and David Szymanski appeared first on Destructoid.

The Golden Age is Back

For the last decade or so, the first-person shooter genre has been dominated by the likes of Call of Duty and Battlefield. These two behemoths of gaming started a trend of “ultra-realistic” shooters that basically all play the same. You’ve got iron sights for more accurate aiming, regenerating health, incredibly linear level design, and a strong focus on an RPG-lite multiplayer system. This wasn’t always the way things were.

In the days of old, shooters were more focused on creating intricate, sprawling levels that required players to remember the location of locked doors as well as providing an arsenal of crazy weapons that had no practical use in real life. Enemies were also varied and required different tactics, unlike the abundance of hit-scanning enemies that populate the modern landscape. Multiplayer was more a skill-based affair instead of a measurement of the amount of free time you had.

DUSK harkens back to the golden era of PC shooters were things were blocky and pixelated, but also labyrinthine and absurd. To say I’m in FPS heaven would be an understatement, because I’ve been waiting for a real Quake successor since Quake II came out.

DUSK (PC)
Developer: David Szymanski
Publisher: New Blood Interactive
Released: August, 2017 (Episode One), January 11, 2018 (Episode Two and DUSK World)
MSRP: $20.00

Upon booting up DUSK, you’re greeted with a mock-up DOS prompt that initializes the game. There are old CPU sounds, many random strings of text, and an assurance that DUSK is badass. It takes me back to the days of attempting to figure out obscure commands just to launch Duke Nukem 3D on my old Packard Bell PC.

Once in the game proper, you have the option of jumping straight into the action or tinkering with some settings. While DUSK is initially optimized to look very similar to the original Quake, you can actually turn on things like bloom lighting, depth of field, tweak the field-of-view, and cap the framerate to your monitor’s refresh rate. On that note, DUSK fully supports 240 hz (and everything in between) and is a fucking trip running that smoothly.

If you really want to replicate the late ‘90s, you can even pixelate the hell out of DUSK and get a pseudo-640x480 resolution going on. DUSK does actually support 4:3 resolutions, though, so you could always play the game pillarboxed and really get into the spirit.

That attention to detail isn’t lost on the main game. The very structure is separated into episodes, much like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, etc. At present, the first two episodes are the only ones available, but a final episode will be ready for when the game officially launches. Both episodes feature wildly different themes, with special mention needing to be given to the second episode’s disregard for conventional level design.

Much like old-school shooters, DUSK is a key-hunting game with an emphasis put on winding pathways. While there aren’t really alternate routes, exploring the nooks and crannies will help better prepare you for the challenges ahead. Secret doors, walls, and paths will grant you power-ups like better weapons, extra health, or more ammo that will all be welcomed during the various shootouts you’ll be involved in.

For the first episode, DUSK is actually relatively easy. If you have any kind of familiarity with twitch shooters, you’ll be right at home with the ridiculous physics and amped-up speed. The AI basically just runs straight at you, though you’ll still need to prioritize targets based on their attack range and damage output. DUSK does a great job with its enemy design by having each foe be visually and audibly distinct (much like classic shooters).

That being said, nothing in Episode One is ultra-taxing on your skills. The levels are relatively simple, enemies aren’t too plentiful, and there aren’t any trap doors or monster closets to catch you off guard. It is a great introduction to this new breed of old-school shooters. I jumped right in at “Cero Mideo” difficulty (the equivalent to Doom’s Ultra-violence) and it felt like I hadn’t lost a beat from my old Quake days.

Episode Two, on the other hand, ramps things up with more enemies, bigger levels, and even a couple of new enemy types. Sadly, some of the encounters rely on shock tactics to catch you off guard, meaning you’ll walk into a room and get blindsided by a wall dropping with upwards of 10 enemies behind it. It can feel cheap, but since DUSK is so old-school, quicksaving and quickloading is a part of the package. That helps mitigate some of the unfair balancing.

Even with the sometimes overly difficult enemy placement, Episode Two is just plain awesome. All of the levels contained are sprawling and feature some kind of new twist on the architecture. One level is even themed after M.C. Escher’s paintings, which is a real trip visually and spatially. If you thought this old-school style design philosophy got taken to its inevitable conclusions years ago, think again.

What would any of the level design matter if the weapons weren’t good? DUSK delivers on that front, too, with a seriously kick-ass double shotgun combo. While the weapons might be a bit conventional in terms of design, every gun has some great sound effects and different applications that make them stand out. They also really shine in DUSKWorld, the game’s multiplayer component.

One of the things I’ve always loved about old-school games (Unreal Tournament in particular) is that every gun is viable in any situation. While a guy with a rocket launcher might have raw damage output on his side, if he can’t hit you then you’re still able to gun him down with the pistol. DUSK perfectly captures that, since every weapon is pretty viable.

Since reloading wasn’t invented until 1998, DUSK doesn’t even feature that. When you press R, your character will just twirl his gun around like he’s a badass action star. I think it fits the atmosphere well and sort of encapsulates just what DUSK is trying to be. This is a balls-to-the-wall FPS from the good old days, whether you like it or not.

For being in beta, DUSKWorld works pretty well. It isn’t the smoothest experience around, but the maps are well-designed and finding matches is simple. I regularly played in populated lobbies and I found that retro bunny-hopping tactics are effective in avoiding oncoming fire. About the only thing that didn’t work out was the grenade launcher, since it lagged just a bit too much to become accurate.

DUSKWorld does have a lack of different gametypes, though. Currently, deathmatch is the only thing you’ll be playing and there isn’t even support for different teams. That isn’t the worst thing in the world (the original Quake only launched with the same mode), but it does highlight my biggest wish.

Mod support is not a part of the package and that has me a little bummed. All of id Software’s greatest games featured modability right out of the box, but DUSK isn’t quite there yet. I’m not sure if mod support is in the works, but that would be the cherry on top of this delicious old-school sundae. Hell, I can already imagine someone remaking Quake within the confines of DUSK and that has me giddy with excitement.

Even in its Early-Access trappings, DUSK is already well worth the price of admission. The multiplayer component works well enough and the current two episodes are so well designed that replaying them is a blast. I can’t wait to get my hands on the final episode and hopefully get some answers about who the DUSKguy is.

_{[This review is based on an early access build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Early Access Review: DUSK appeared first on Destructoid.

Doomguy included

Bethesda's revival of arena shooters, Quake Champions, will be leaving its closed beta phase on August 22 and entering into Early Access on Steam and through Bethesda's own game launcher (which I didn't realize was a thing). While the game will eventually be free-to-play, this current Early Access period will require a payment $29.99 (25% off the usual price of $39.99).

If you opt in to paying for Quake Champions, you'll receive all 11 currently available champions, any future champions, an early access skin for Ranger and three exclusive loot chests. Along with being able to finally play the game, players will also have access to the DOOM Slayer, clearly inspired by the Doomguy from last year's incarnation of DOOM.

If you happened to be a part of the closed beta, you can still play Quake Champions for free, but you'll be limited to launching it through Bethesda's launcher. You'll then have the option to upgrade to the "full" version or you can buy champions individually (similar to how the game will work when it finally launches as free-to-play).

All in all, this sounds odd to me. While I don't mind microtransactions in free-to-play games, putting eventually free games up for sale at regular retail prices just feels wrong to me. Having loot crates and drop rates and all this extra crap in a Quake game is also sickening, since its following a model made popular by a totally different game.

I'm still interested to see if Bethesda has changed the game any from the beta I played at PAX, but I'm honestly not that optimistic about Champions anymore. It just sounds too much like following trends instead of trying to revive a beloved franchise.

The post Quake Champions enters early access next week appeared first on Destructoid.