I'm a computer graphics artist and have been a PC game and game technology enthusiast for a while now, but this was the first time I have been to an event like this. It was a unique opportunity to be able to do this write up, but I am certainly not someone that normally reports on or reviews such things. I was fortunate to have the chance to attend this event and I hope to share with you some of what I experienced, took note of and enjoyed, and some of the things I learned about the developers and their latest product. Here is what leaked from my mind onto the page. Game on.
-Marc "marmil" Miller

SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA - At 9am I arrived at the preview event for the upcoming game Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, but hold on a second, my brain just started to flip out. Just a bit. Was it from something I ate the night before? Absolutely not because the fine Italian dinner and delicious dessert that Activision treated us attendees to the night before was great. Random dinner conversations had included talk about other upcoming video game titles, VR headsets and multi-monitor setups, sponsorship of clans, auto racing and silly workout habits, questionably legal WOW gaming practices, fine Tequila, and how Paul was indeed THE man. But now I was about to get a chance to play Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. So many others and I have been keeping tabs on this game for well over a year now. A game that has looked more impressive the more I have heard about it. A game developed by Splash Damage that seems to have figured it out and be having lots of fun. A game built on highly successful id Software technology and staying true to the (in)famous "when it's done" mantra. This game that finally seems close to being on store shelves after seeming so far away for so long. I actually found myself wondering if what I was about to see would live up to everything I had heard and read. What if somehow it did not live up to the hype? Will Enemy Territory: Quake Wars deliver? Over the next five and a half hours I concluded I did not have anything to worry about.

As I entered the presentation room and saw the twenty-four computer LAN setup I was pretty sure it was going to be a fun day. The presentation began with the E3 2006 Enemy Territory: Quake Wars trailer playing on a large flat panel TV in the front of the room. I have watched this video several times, but it was still fun to watch, especially considering I would have a chance to experience that Quake Wars world first hand very shortly. With the conclusion of the trailer John Rafacz from Activision, introduced THE Paul Wedgwood of Splash Damage and Kevin Cloud of id Software. Paul seemed excited. Actually, really excited to get things started.

Many of the attending guests have been a part of the beta testing for a while now, but a few like myself were going to play Enemy Territory: Quake Wars for the very first time.  Attendees were asked to introduce themselves, and Paul revealed this way we would know whose butt we were kicking when in the game. Some of the attendees (and who they were representing) included: Roger LaMarca (QuakeUnity), Marc Miller (QuakeWarsCenter), Rick Bassett (PlanetQuake and PlanetWolfenstein), Brandon Ealick, Tim Cooper, and Greg Howard (TotalQuakeWars and My Internet Services), Chris Polan (Team 20ID and CAL), J.R. Guerra (TeamHOT and GigaFrag), Rob Wallace (Team neXgen), Kevin Bowen (IGN Entertainment), and several other excited attendees (unfortunately I did not manage to get everyone's name).

Over the day we had a chance to play three different maps: Valley, Sewer, and Ark.  Paul revealed the Sewer map had not been played by anyone outside of Splash Damage, id Software, and Activision, so we were getting an excusive first looks. Sweet. He also explained that these three maps were all from different campaigns: the North American, Pacific, and the Northern European campaigns.

The Valley map was loaded up first and we watched the GDF and Strogg training videos that can be found on the Quake Wars website. During production, Valley was one of the first maps that was taken to a solid beta stage and because it includes most of the vehicles Paul said it has been a solid map for testing purposes. We started out with about ten minutes of warm up before starting the round. There was lots of stuff going on. Sometimes there was so much stuff going on while heading toward, and at the current objective that it was a little over overwhelming! Splash Damage is totally right when they describe the action as being heavily concentrated and focused combat. Yes indeed! For the first round I was on the GDF side and choose to start as an Engineer. As an Engineer I was able to deploy a few different types of turrets. This was really straight forward but a few times I found it a bit tricky to find an acceptable deploy location since you can not deploy on steep terrain, rocks, trees, or other obstacles. But I did get an anti-personal turret deployed near the bridge in a decent spot and it was pretty satisfying to see it go to work. If you try to deploy a new turret and you already have one deployed it will ask if you want to take down the first one. I guess this prevents having six-dozen turrets scattered around the battlefield. The movement through the battlefield is pretty dynamic with the objectives updating and changing and transitioning from outside to in, all the while with lots of action going on.

Sewer was the second map we played. It was at this point that Paul pointed out one of the things id Software started was "unoriginal map naming", and that Splash Damage was continuing that tradition. This is why the Quake Wars maps simply have names like Valley, Sewer, or Ark, and you have to admit, it does make it pretty easy to remember the names this way. (Take note all you up coming Quake Wars custom map makers.) On certain maps there are locations where a spawn point can be captured and lost.  However it is not quite as easy as just bumping into a flagpole as it is with Wolfenstein. You have to "use" a control panel for a few seconds which makes you an easy target. On Sewer if the GDF control the Spillway Spawn Point (letter "e" on the Sewer map) it can make their assault on the final objective much easier.

When there are secondary objectives or missions, such as destroying an enemy deployable or capturing a secondary spawn point, these missions show up in a little box on your screen. If you accept one of these missions then it will show up as an icon in your HUD so you will know which direction to go. If several players select the same mission a fire team is auto created. Normally when you look at another teammate you will see a tiny green triangle over their head. However if someone is in your fire team instead of the tiny green triangle you will see a green-circled icon that represents their class. It is much easier to see who you are working with and who to stick with this way. The members of a fire team show up in a box in the upper left of the screen that also allows you to see the health of each member. Fire teams can also be manually created, but more typically they will be auto created, and once the mission has been completed the fire team is automatically disbanded.

Here are some of my feelings and other things I learned while playing and talking to some of the id Software, Splash Damage and Activision crew. There is damage drop off over distance on weapons such as the sniper rife. This is still being adjusted as part of the current game balancing. While a Strogg Infiltrator is in covert mode if a GDF player sees them kill another GDF they will be "discovered" and loose their disguise. Also, when a Strogg player is running around in covert mode, even though they look like a human, they cannot enter or use GDF vehicles. The way the main spawn areas are setup there seems to be adequate spawn protection. Some of the attackers secondary spawns did not seem quite so protected but the defenders are probably going to be back protecting their objective and not out at the attackers spawn. Vehicles did not feel like they dominated the game, but rather enhanced the action. The heavy weapons on the big vehicles did not seem over powerful. There was a good amount of cover or alternate routes that infantry could use to avoid vehicles the vehicles all together. I had read sometime back that the deployables could be manned, but that feature has been removed. It might have been fun to man a turret and wail on the enemy some, but the computer will always be smarter and more accurate about taking out targets so the feature was removed. I was told that there are a few places in some maps where there is a small gun emplacement, a mounted machinegun setup, which a GDF player can use. When on foot it did not take very long to cover a respectable distance. The detail in the maps is awesome. I really wanted to just wander around the maps and look at everything but I decided I would save that for when I got the final game. The game had a nice pace to it and the player movements and animations were smooth.

After playing Sewer we broke for a quick lunch and afterward Paul give us an overview of the third map for the day, Ark. But I would miss out on playing the warm up and the first round of Ark though, because instead I had the opportunity to sit down with Paul Wedgwood, Owner of Splash Damage/ETQW Lead Game Designer and Kevin Cloud, Co Owner of id Software/ETQW Creative Director.