A LITTLE MORE QUAKE WARS GOODNESS - Following the interview I headed back to the presentation room so I could get a chance to play the arctic Ark map which was already in the second round. This snowy environment felt very different from the first two maps. The GDF solder and vehicle skins had changed a bit and I could see the clothing had a snow colored camo and the vehicles had an arctic sort of paint scheme. I wish I could remember more about the short amount of play time I had on the Ark map (and the other two maps too for that matter), but by this time all the new game info, sweet effects, great sound, excellent graphics, wonderfully detailed environments, crazy combat, multitude of weapons, vehicles and deployables, were all starting to become a blur. Oh yeah, and the delivery of the Strogg Mining Laser down out of the sky was super cool. With the conclusion of the final round for the day and the server reluctantly being shut down everyone had a chance to ask a few more questions.  I had also asked a few id Software, Splash Damage, and Activision guys some questions while we were playing the three maps throughout the day.  Here's some more info.

I asked if there were any “grab and escape” type maps, such as Enemy Territory’s Goldrush or Radar, or the original Beach map in Return to Castle Wolfenstein. It sounds like the answer is yes, as there are several objectives where one or more parts need to be moved from one location to another on the map. I wanted to know if the GDF's Mobile Command Post was included in most maps and Paul said the MCP is not included on any of the maps where the Strogg are attacking, and only included on a few of the GDF attacking maps.

Paul also went into a bit more detail regarding Quake Wars game play. Some of the maps have the same sequence of objectives, and a couple of them have similar sequences of objectives. For example, on the Ark map that we played the sequence of events (from the Strogg perspective) was to 1) Destroy the Jamming Tower Generator, 2) Construct the Mining Laser, and 3) Destroy the Lab Equipment. There is another map that uses the exact same sequence of events, but the game play is completely different, not just because it is a different map or arctic vs. temperate, but because the surrounding geometry near objectives is completely different. The combat in one map might suit foot combat while another might be heavy on vehicle combat.

To make the game as straight forward as possible Paul explained there are not too many different objective types, thus players can quickly figure out what needs to be done on each map. Similarly, with the classes, if an objective needs to be destroyed it is always going to be a GDF Soldier or a Strogg Aggressor that will need to plant the charge, and it will always be a GDF Engineer or Strogg Constructor that could disarm the charge.  However, the geometry that the charge is being planted on might be indoor or outdoor, might have big vehicle routes approaching, or might have a second or third access route available by water vehicles or an underground tunnel for example. Also, as I discovered from the three maps we played, the game play can change a lot even within the same map. The map might start out with a lot of outdoor wide open combat that includes vehicles and air units, and then half way through the objectives the fighting could become mostly indoor combat. The maps in Quake Wars are big, but due to most of the combat happening in a concentrated area there is constant action. Kevin said the game plays really well with 12 vs 12 players, but also said that teams that work well together would still be able to have close and exciting games with as few as seven players on a side.

Some of the maps limit which vehicles are available to one team or the other, creating a tough challenge and requiring tactics to be changed.  I enjoyed trying out vehicle after vehicle because each one on both the GDF and Strogg side was unique and distinct in its own way.  By default the "G" key is used to get in/out of vehicles and while in the vehicle the "F" key is used to cycle through available empty positions. I found that I had to be very close to the vehicles and mostly facing them in order to enter. When driving/flying around the "Home" key is used to cycle between a cockpit view, that same forward view without the cockpit graphics, and an external 3rd person view (which is useful when backing up or to check that someone is not planting an explosive under your rump).  The conventional GDF vehicles are a snap to just jump into and start using and have a very nice feel to their handling. I am personally not much of a pilot but I decided to try flying the GDF's Ananasi and was surprised how easy it was to maneuver around (and even land)! I am sure that mastering the Ananasi will be a challenge though.  And the guns in the back of the Bumblebee were nice for supplying some hot lead to below.

In great contrast to the conventional GDF vehicles are the Strogg vehicles, some of which will probably take a bit of practice to be able to skillfully maneuver due to the floaty feeling from their anti-gravity technology. The Strogg Hog however is not floaty at all, and its "ram" attack was a blast to use. A destruction derby vehicle at its finest, even able to deliver a deadly blow to the GDF Titan tank with a good hit! (At least the tank I hit went "ka-boom" but it might have already had some damage, I'm not sure.) The "ram" attack is very powerful though. The Strogg Desecrator and the Goliath Heavy Walker have a "siege mode" where the unit hunkers down and gains fire power at the sacrifice of mobility.  Someone also told me the Strogg Goliath Walker has a "stomp" feature that can be used to squash pesky GDF when they are hanging around underfoot. I did not get a chance to investigate this but I can hardly wait to see someone stomped in a clan match. Ouch.

A while back when I heard there were going to be console versions of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars I wondered if they would have a single player version of the game. I asked about this and Kevin answered that the console versions of Quake Wars are going to be a very similar experience to the PC version. It does not sound like there will be a single player story driven version of the game per say, but instead a player that does not want to play online will play alongside and against bots. This way it will still feel like an online multiplayer experience. It also sounds like the bots have some cool tactics and use teamwork rather well, so that should be a cool experience for console players (and PC players) without an online connection.

When asked about multi-core CPU's Paul said id Software and Splash Damage have worked closely with manufactures like Intel to take advantage of some of their technology feature sets. There are multiple game processes that can currently take advantage of multi-core CPU's. For example, the manner in how the tiles of the MegaTexture are loaded will be spawned in a separate thread on multi-core machines. That's certainly a nice bonus.

Even as finished as Enemy Territory currently seems the game is still considered to be in testing/beta. There is still some interface work to be done, but good features like admin controls are indeed already in place. Kevin stated their major focus right now was on optimization. One of the event attendees that had played the game some time back told me they noticed a significant improvement in optimization since their last experience. Good news to hear. Kevin also reported that the game play and game play mechanics are all pretty well worked out, but balance was still being tuned on a per map basis.
Recently Clans had the ability to sign up for a closed beta and a lot of people want to know when individual players would have a similar opportunity. Kevin disclosed there will be a much larger beta released sometime in mid April to allow the community to provide an even greater amount of feedback on the game. (This will not be considered a demo though and still no word on that yet.)  During the larger beta they will be checking on the stat tracking system and looking for server issues. The whole point is to give the game a heavy duty testing before release to hopefully avoid any major issues. (Paul reminisced about a bit of a major server crash only hours before the showing of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory at the 2003 E3. This prevented the Splash Damage team that had all flown to Los Angeles and were in their t-shirts and shorts with towels in hand from hitting the Santa Monica beach. A bit of a bummer for sure, but nine hours later they had everything back up and working in time for the show!) Just another example of how these guys are dedicated to and love doing what they do.

Kevin stressed that id Software, Splash Damage, and Activision are definitely looking forward to the release of this game, and hope that by helping to support the modding community, online competitive team play, tournaments, and contests, that Enemy Territory: Quake Wars can have a strong life well past the release day. When the last of the questions have been asked, I asked Paul if Splash Damage has an escape plan in the event of a major Strogg attack. There is a slight pause, and then thankfully he responded, "We are... yes, we are protected!"

Thank you to Chris "fab" Longridge of QuakeWarsCenter.com for initially providing me with the opportunity to attend this great event. Thank you to Step-3.com and the Activision crew for coordinating and holding such a cool event. And finally, a huge cheers and thank you to Splash Damage and id Software for developing and continuing to evolve awesome games and technology, for strongly supporting the gaming community, and in general doing it right. Thanks.