Video Game Impressions: Quake 4

Some 12 years ago I started killing Nazis in Wolfenstein 3D with my uncle's PC. Then there was the original Doom as well. Where other kids were playing Mario (well I was also playing that) on their NES I had Doom.

But as far as shooter games goes nothing has ever best id's other franchise to date - the Quake series. The first proper 3D fps I played was Quake on the family's Pentium Win 95 PC. Hell I am still enjoying the original Quake on my Pocket PC.

Well after roughly two months wait, Quake 4 retail price has dropped by half. This is probably due to the release of the XBox 360 version as the 'ultimate version'. (Have fun folks.) Quake 4 as some of you may know is the true successor to Quake II. Quake III Arena does not count as it lacks single player mission mode.

My system being a crappy Celeron stuck to a three year old graphic chipset, I had my doubts that it could crunch through. But after tweaking through the system I managed to get a respectable frame rate at SVGA medium setting. I had to disable some effects but I did leave shadows and bump mapping on. Not bad for a crappy system.


Quake 4 as seen through my crappy old system

Sure the quality could have been better but right now I am unwiling to spend hundreds of pounds to frag something. I am amazed that the engine was flexible enough to actually allow a Geforce4 card.

Update: Well I had a blast. I do wish we can do away with those chattering NPCs. It was rather easy even though there were great moments. It was too short. The story did not have the same level of depth that even the original Half-Life did. Visually it was great, but I just can't help thinking that Cormack needs to rethink id's strategy. You can only retell the same story so many times.