PS2 seems to be the console of choice for first person shooter fans. First came the almighty TimeSplitters, then the not so almighty Unreal Tournament, but now a new champion has now surfaced. Bow, before the new king of first person shooters, Quake 3: Revolution!!! But with Half Life and Red Fraction on the horizon, can the king stand up to the entire Royal Family?
TimeSplitters looks fine and runs at a blinding speed, Unreal looks amazing but moves at the speed of a geriatric turtle. Quake 3 on the other hand looks as good as Sarah Michelle Geller, while running at 60 frames a second, even in four player!!! The character skins are detailed and move fluidly, it�s almost a shame to blow them to bits �� almost. It�s unbelievable when you get a rocket to make contact, they explode in a shower of blood and guts, which have earned the game a 15 cert. The weapon protruding from the bottom of the screen is frighteningly realistic and incredibly detailed. No one can complain of weedy explosions in this game!! When a rocket explodes you know about it, you can see them from miles away!! The levels themselves are also highly detailed, with moving scenery and little touches that will amaze you when you notice them. The lighting and reflective effects also deserve comment, they are beautiful. And yes, the graphics are better than the PC version, especially as the PS2 runs four screens of it with 4 player split screen mode at 60fps.
Now, I know all those PC boffins reading this will scoff at using a control pad for Quake 3, but surprisingly it works rather well. There are a lot of control options on offer, the best of which being the �Advanced controls�. These are exactly the same as TimeSplitters with a bit of tweaking to refine them to the Quake style of play. The amount of auto aim used is spot on, it still takes loads of skill to be any good at all!!
Quake 3 is unique, I don�t know of any first person shooter that plays like it. It is fast and furious with a lot of 3D gameplay needed. Shooting someone with the rocket launcher while flying over their head, high above them, is one of the best examples of this, it�s just amazing. If anything it plays faster than TimeSplitters, yes it is possible!! If you have TimeSplitters I would still recommend this to you. I have both and they play so differently they really are nothing like each other. The single player is simply stunning, loads of challenges and things to do, it stuffs TimeSplitter�s single player. Quake 3 has 12 weapons, all unique and devastating. The weapons are well balanced, you are never outgunned too much as all the weapons have weaknesses that you can exploit. For example, the rocket launcher is slow firing and the rockets are slow moving so strafe and use the machine gun and you should win. All in all, Quake 3 plays like no other game and is great fun to play, but the action really kicks off in multiplayer mode. You also train your character and can save them as bots!! People you play with are saved as bots as well with their stats!!
Simply the best part of Quake 3. Playing it with three mates is the most fun you can have with Quake 3, in fact, when I was playing it with my mates they preferred it to TimeSplitters!! It has more Multiplayer games than you can shake a big, long pointy stick at!! You have the traditional DeathMatch, Team DeathMatch, Single Weapon DeathMatch, Single Weapon Team DeathMatch, Capture the Flag, One Flag Capture the Flag, Possession and Team Possession!! 41 characters are on offer, including the pink wrestler if you want to get picked on. Every level from the PC version has been included and new PS2 exclusive levels have been designed as well. The frame rate is constant even with four people playing and the graphics are just as good as the single player game. EA have done a mighty fine job on this one.
The soundtrack suits the game well, it�s loud and Heavy Metal, just the way I like it. The sound effects are good as well, they alter in loudness depending on how far away from them you are!!
Quake 3: Revolution is an amazing game that is unparalleled in graphics, speed, multiplayer and gameplay. There is no reason why you shouldn�t go out and get it today!!Zandramas.
10/10 |
