Can you imagine our surprise? "It will be done when it's done." That's what I was told when I asked the powers that be in Activision's office for a release date for id Software's badass multiplayer shooter, Quake Wars. That, it seems has and always will be the id mantra.
And you can't fault them for that because it's a good one to have, and when the Doom creator's games do ship, they head straight to the upper echelons of gaming greatness. Yes, you're not sure when you're going to get it, but when you do, you ruddy well know it will blow a hole in your pants.
Still, I got to take id's latest creation for a whirl around the battlefield this issue and I was impressed. A lot.
If there is one shooter out there to beat for its sheer multiplayer pulling power its Activision's other mega franchise, Call Of Duty 4. Quake Wars, quite possibly, has the chops to go toe to toe with it. Enemy Territory is more of an experience I'd liken to a skirmish round in Midway's Unreal III what with the multitude of vehicles, hoverpacks and arsenal of ball-busting weaponry that would make even Arnuld blush.
The invasion begins But if there is one PSN behemoth you have to do combat with it's COD4. Just ask Deano, it's all he has, ever and probably will play when he's at home. And yes, Enemy Territory packs enough muscle to do that.
In an interesting twist for id, and for the Strogg who have stalked the corridors, rooms and distant planet of outer space in previous Quake games, the battle is brought to earth on a global scale. I had the chance to get to grips with it this month and gunned my way through some of the game's maps and the training mode with the team...
One thing was made clear to me by id's Steve Nix before we were all allowed to carve up the training map and blow up alien scum: Enemy Territory is all about objectives and achieving them as a team of 16 players. The story is simple. Extra terrestrial nasties the Strogg are invading planet Earth and the EDF (Earth Defence Force) need to fend the savage buggers off. You can choose to play on each of the twelve maps as either the human led EDF or the Strogg.
Playing as both has its advantages. but, personally, I really dug playing as the invading alien race for the cracking selection of vehicles, robot walkers and jet packs on offer as the Strogg.
Each side has five different types of troops for you to get to grips with, all of which will be essential in mastering if you really want to storm each map and complete every objective with style.
Soldier, soldier First up for the GDC are the Soldiers, with a thing for heavy weapons. Next is Field Ops, these guys can deploy fire-support guns in battle and designate targets for each along with the means to call in airstrikes and supply troops with ammo. Third is the Engineer, a support/defence class specialising in construction and repair of vehicles and turrets.
Lastly is Covert Ops for those stealthier objectives like hacking computer mainframes and Medics for fixing up downed troops. The Strogg forces are broken down in pretty much the same way, but with cooler-sounding names (Aggressor, Oppressor, Constructor, Infiltrator and Technician) and their own unique attributes on the battlefield - like the Infiltrator's ability to possess the corpse of a fallen GDF and infiltrate enemy buildings.
Each map you brawl on is strewn with multiple objectives that require you to use pretty much all of your team at certain points in the battle. Of course, you can just ignore this, let someone else complete the objectives and go crazy with a shotgun.
On the training map I played through called Sewer Plant, the objectives kickstarted with capturing an enemy bunker, switching classes (by simply pushing Back, then selecting the requisite class and dropping into the action via a parachute) to plant explosives on a armoured door, followed by a swift switch to engineer and lastly to Covert Ops to complete the map's final objective - hacking into a secure computer network. Switching on the fly is key to completion but if you want to storm the map and assist in the willful destruction of everything, you can.
Meaner machine The biggest difference between the console version and its PC counterpart, which has been on shelves for a couple months, now, is the addition of a fully functional single-player campaign with 15 AI bots, all of which are 'extremely life like' according to id Software's Steve Nix. This way you can get yourself a surefire grounding in combat, get to know all the maps nooks, crannies and vantage points. Of course, multiplayer is the key here and this is what Enemy Territory was crafted for.
Console ports aren't actually being developed by id Software, rather the task has been farmed out to multiple dev teams on each platform. Xbox gets Nerve Software and PS3 gets Activision Underground.
"Those guys are an extremely experienced console development team and have a tremendous amount of experience on the PS2 and the PS3. We needed a strong engineering team to take it on because of the migration to different servers and those guys did a great job there," explains Nix.
Territory runs at a rapid pace too. It's fast, furious, frenetic and, Nix tells me - the PS3 translation looks far better than the recommended-spec version on PC. It certainly looks special, maps are ridiculous in detail and size and weaponry and vehicles are enormously cool looking.
Frankly, there wasn't really anything on show that failed to impress. And according to Nerve's Greg Stone, the console versions controls are more refined on the pad making it, according to the man itself, a game that plays much better than its PC bigger brother.
Home time With twelve maps on offer, Nix and co said there were no plans as yet to deliver additional downloadable maps because of the sheer complexities of MegaTexture (see boxout), but when we pushed him over downloadable weapons he didn't rule them out - rather explaining that each map, weapon and character has been perfectly balanced through years of playtesting, so to throw something like a new weapon into the mix as a download could rumble years of work and upset the balance.
One thing is certain; Enemy Territory is going to be a blast. It looks fantastic, 'plays more intuitively since the console revamp' claimed a fellow journo who poured hours into the PC version, and packs in reams of vehicles and weapons. And with twelve huge maps there's going to be plenty to do.
PSW Staff
// Overview
Verdict
Fast, fun, huge and packed with a multitude of weapons and vehicles for you to get stuck into. Get invading.
xbox 360=ROD. Buy it on the PS3,according to this preview it runs and plays great on the PS3,especially with the ps controller,not with that HUGE,HEAVY,UGLY and UNCOMFORTABLE xbox controller
xbox 360=ROD. Buy it on the PS3,according to this preview it runs and plays great on the PS3,especially with the ps controller,not with that HUGE,HEAVY,UGLY and UNCOMFORTABLE xbox controller
Anyone stressed about having the best controller would surely have it on PC ..not console ?
The 360 is widely regarded as one of the best designed pads in history. As I said It's much more ergonomic than the PS3 pad (A PS2 pad without rumble).
I hardly think RROD has anything to do with buying and playing this game. Even so I've had my 360 since April 06 and it's run fine.
IGN says:
"Then there's the graphical portion, while we'll save final judgment for when the game ships (though the version we played was near final) there's no question that there's a discrepancy between the two versions. The Xbox 360 version has a nice coat of anti-aliasing on it with some nice faked HDR lighting effects. The PS3, at least the version that we played, did not."
This is a game designed mainly for online play. And the Xbox has the best online service without doubt. It's a fully integrated service, unlike the the PS3's tacked on equivalent.
xbox 360=ROD. Buy it on the PS3,according to this preview it runs and plays great on the PS3,especially with the ps controller,not with that HUGE,HEAVY,UGLY and UNCOMFORTABLE xbox controller
If you want to play the best version buy it on the PC. KB and Mouse beat a console pad hands down.
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