Following in the footsteps of its older sibling, a remaster for seminal shooter sequel Quake 2 will reportedly get an official announcement at next week’s QuakeCon 2023, which is an in-person event for the first time since the pandemic era. Earlier in the year, Quake 2’s remaster accidentally poked its head out in a ratings board leak, but let’s all pretend to be surprised when Bethesda announces it next week, okay?
]]>Quakecon started yesterday and to celebrate Microsoft have added another swathe of id Software and Bethesda games to both PC Game Pass and the Microsoft Store. That's not all, either, as there's also an id-themed freebie over on the Epic Games Store this week, and more Bethesda games going cheap in various sales. Here's everything you need to know about what's going on where.
]]>This year’s QuakeCon begins today, and it’s once again being staged as a digital-only event. The organisers say they’re committed to being an in-person event again in 2023 but for now there’s still some intriguing streams to tune into starting from 6pm BST/7pm CEST/10am PST. Read on for more info and our personal highlights on what’s happening at QuakeCon 2022.
]]>Looking for a comprehensive schedule of the summer's big gaming events and showcases? After a muted return from pandemic oblivion as a digital event in 2021, plans for E3 2022 in any form were scrapped way back in March. But those who can't picture the start of summer without a festival of gaming trailers and announcements needn't fret, because a number of other, similar events will be going ahead in E3's usual place. Collectively (and highly unofficially) referred to as Not-E3, these various events are expected to run for around two-and-a-half months between June and August, and look to cover everything from triple-A titles to the hottest indies on the radar right now.
Read on for the scheduled line-up of everything we know so far. We'll keep this page updated with more information as we get it, including links to livestreams once they're available!
]]>It's tempting to simply copy-paste the post I wrote last year, as again QuakeCon is going to be an online-only event in 2022. The annual celebration of Bethesda-published games has traditionally taken place in Dallas, but has been forced into cyberspace by Covid-19.
]]>If you had asked me about Quake a few years ago, I would've made a weird farting sound with my mouth. But that was before I realized how messed up it was and how good the mods are. Today I'm here to offer you a way inside. Whether you're a lapsed Quake fan from 1996 or a skeptical newbie from 2021, it's never been a better time to start playing Quake.
In this guide, I go over how to download and install Quake, give advice for enjoying it, and provide curated playlists of notable mods along with some tasting notes.
]]>With QuakeCon 2021 set to take place in a virtual fashion next week - and already being in the headlines thanks to an errant schedule listed a 'revitalized' Quake - GOG are offering some deep discounts on some of the best-known ZeniMax franchises including Fallout, Dishonored, The Elder Scrolls, Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein.
It's a great chance to pick up some fantastic shooters and roleplaying games at bargain basement prices, from recent releases to all-time classics. Here are my personal highlights, plus a big link to the sale itself.
]]>Quakecon 2021 will take place this August, and like last year it will be an online-only event. In today's announcement, Bethesda said that they'll have more to share about the lineup in June.
"We can’t wait to get back to Dallas with our QuakeCon family, but for the continued safety of our staff, the volunteers, and the community, this year’s QuakeCon will once again be a digital-only event," says the brief statement.
]]>QuakeCon is an entire quarter-century old this year, and no pandemic will stop Id Software and Bethesda from celebrating it. While the in-person event was cancelled back in March due to Covid-19, QuakeCon will now be joining the raft of gaming events being taken online. Aptly named QuakeCon At Home, it's set to feature esports tournaments, charity initiatives, and loads of "round-the-clock" live streams. It all kicks off on August 7th with "Bethesda's QuakeCon Digital Welcome Global Super Stream" - what an absolute mouthful, I hope the stream is as flamboyant as it sounds.
]]>The Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center will not ring with the detonation of rockets or chugging of Bawls this August, for QuakeCon 2020 has been cancelled. Id Software's 25th annual fragfest is called off due to the usual concerns and uncertainties of the Covid-19 pandemic. What began as a big ol' LAN party has grown into a big marketing event too, particularly after Bethesda bought the Quakelords at Id Software, though I suppose any announcements that Bethesda would've made at QuakeCon could be done online instead.
]]>Bethesda have detailed many changes coming to Fallout 76 at their QuakeCon panel, giving some new insights into Vault raids, and the NPC-driven expansion Wastelanders, and a new map coming to battle royale mode Nuclear Winter, as well as a slew of smaller developments.
]]>Id Software have given some more details about Doom Eternal’s multiplayer experience, Battlemode, at its QuakeCon presentation. It’ll be based on an asymmetrical structure, putting one Slayer up against two demons. There’ll be five different classes of demons to choose from, so you can mix up how you play. Or, you know, play Doom like you would in the singleplayer campaign as the Slayer, except you’re goring your pals instead of AI monsters. Here's a vid showing it off and breaking it down.
]]>One of the last of the Id Software old guard is parting company with the studio soon. Tim Willits wasn't part of the original team of founders, but was there early enough to be credited as level designer on 1995's Ultimate Doom and have a credit in almost everything since. After working as a designer and creative director on the likes of Quake, Doom 3 and Rage, and acting as studio director through the release of Rage 2, he's left a mark on the FPS genre as we know it. After QuakeCon next week he'll say his goodbyes and announce his plans for the future.
]]>As QuakeCon 2018 continues, so too does Bethesda Game Studio's steady drip-feed of information about their games, and specifically about post-apocalyptic multiplayer survival RPG Fallout 76. Its E3 showing left a lot of questions unanswered, and last night Gary Steinman, Todd Howard, Jeff Gardiner, and Chris Meyer shed some light on those lingering unknowns, including player progression and anti-griefing measures.
]]>The frags will flow like Bawls this weekend at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center, where Id Software are throwing their annual LAN party/convention, QuakeCon. Thousands of gib-hungry gremlins will lug their computers to Texas and many more will loiter around the festivities. It's become more ZenCon in recent years, featuring more from corporate siblings Bethesda and other studios and games owned by ZeniMax Media, but will have a good kick of Id this year with our first look at Doom Eternal, the sequel somehow not named Doom II: Hell On Earth. Before all that, loads of Id and Bethesda games are cheap on sale, including yer Quakes, yer Dooms, yer Fallouts, and yer Preys.
]]>Id Software today announced Doom Eternal, a sequel to their unexpectedly great 2016 reboot of Doom. As in the series' original run, the sequel is bringing Hell to Earth, and it looks pleasingly meaty in the announcement trailer. Click on through to watch.
]]>So the new Doom game will emerge from its eons-long hellsleep at QuakeCon later this month. That much is known. I don't think it was unreasonable for people to assume that any and all footage would make its way onto the Internet in short order, given that this is the year 2014. That, however, apparently isn't the plan. Bethesda and id want to make this reveal special for QuakeCon attendees, so it's for their eyes only. I guess that means press folks like me will just have to settle for writing about it. Yuck, writing about videogames? It'll never catch on.
]]>You know how id Software always used to say they'd tell us more about Doom 4 at QuakeCon? And that they really meant it this time? Then they stopped doing that because they never had anything to say about Doom 4? Well, you guys, they really mean it this time. They mean it so much, they've even whipped together a cinematic teaser trailer saying that at QuakeCon this July, they'll really, definitely, for real have something to say about Doom 4. Or DOOM, as they're simply calling it now. It's got a Cyberdemon and everything so they must really mean it.
]]>It says something about John Carmack's status in the gaming industry that he can hold a talk that lasts for three and a half hours and the majority of watchers are simply delighted. So, if you've got nothing else on for the next 210 minutes, here is said relaxed, cheerful, full-throttle, ad-libbed and fascinating QuakeCon speech in full. id's brain o'brains chats about the problems with Rage and its messy PC launch, his love-hate relationship with the PC as a platform, those Oculus Rift VR goggles that are getting Kickstarted hearts all aflutter, Doom 3 BFG, 3D displays, just the tiniest smidgen on Doom 4 and, of course, a sustained stream of characteristically uncensored techspeak about the past, present and future of computing. Such as viewing images by firing laser beams directly into people's retinas. Er...
Impressively, as well as talking for so damned long, he doesn't sit down until the 90-minute point.
]]>QuakeCon. QUAKECON. QUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE-A-CONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN. Just saying that name makes me laugh: truly, it is the most testosteroney of all gaming conventions. If QuakeCon and BlizzCon were ever to merge, terrible, terrible things would happen. Fortunately, id's being owned by Bethesda these days means there's no risk of that happening. QuakeCon '11 isn't far off - the doors open August 4. It's going to be a big one, because that date means it's a mere month before RAGE finally ships so doubtless there's going to be a ton of exciting hands-on access for atendees. And could it maybe, maybe, pretty please maybe entail a first glimpse at Doom 4?
One way to find out (actually there's two, but 'watching the internet around that time' scarcely seems like making an effort): pre-register now.
]]>Ah, QuakeCon leftovers. Delicious. Here we have two Brink videos via GameTrailers, one being Splash Damage boss Paul Wedgwood talking about the game in some depth - although with plenty of stuff we've heard before - and one talking about S.M.A.R.T., which is the game's unusual movement system. It's worth taking a look at that second one, at least, because it looks fairly intriguing. A free-running, sliding, leaping, vaulting, mantling approach to movement. And, well, blimey. Getting more excited about this one each time I see it.
]]>One last snippet of news from Quakecon. They've set the release date for Rage in UK for September 16th 2011.
]]>You know what? I'm feeling lazy. I'm going to say that id's Rage is looking like the midway point between Fallout 3 and FUEL. This half-arsed device allows me to indicate that it's post-apocalyptic, involves shooting creatures in wastegrounds, and racing cars through dust. But it's also incredibly unhelpful because it leaves behind notions of FO3's turn-based combat, or FUEL's mechanical world. It's Borderlands with driving, okay?! Oh, it doesn't help, does it? Everyone stop doing it. Instead, take a look at the trailer that's just emerged from QuakeCon and coo and ooh at how impressive it all looks.
]]>QuakeCon saw, at last, the release of some official screenshots of FPS Rage. And guess what. Only one of them's brown! Click on the pics for bigger versions.
]]>Eurogamer wrote up the Carmack keynote over here, in which he covers future tech and Quake Live stuff. The trailer, which you can see after the jump, is essentially the same footage as the E3 trailer, but with another section tacked on the end. It shows some kind of battle-racing tournament feature, with some shots of the racing itself. Hard to be sure how it'll play off any of this, but it's all Id Tech 5, and looking fairly amazing.
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