Have you played Quake? The eldritch lords at RPS HQ don't let me write HYP posts, of course, but I thought I'd ask anyway. See, it's QuakeCon At Home this weekend, and Bethesda are giving away a seminal piece of shooter history - and every character in its arena-blasting descendant Quake Champions - for free 'til the end of tomorrow.
]]>Quake Champions's December update is live, and it's one of the biggest the old-school arena shooter has seen since it entered early access. The much-maligned loot box-based economy of the game is dead, replaced by a linear progression of cosmetic rewards for each character, and extra goodies for those who pick up a Fortnite/Rocket League-styled season pass. They've also brought back Capture The Flag mode (my favourite way to play classic twitchy shooters), added a new map and squeezed a little more performance out of the game for those on lower-spec PCs. Check out the full patch notes here.
]]>Twitchy old-school arena shooter Quake Champions is the latest competitive game to axe random rewards in favour of a more deterministic reward structure. Outlined here, the free-to-play deathmatch (still technically in early access) will drop loot boxes this month in favour of a Fortnite and Rocket League-esque progression system. Players earn a chain of rewards each three-month season just by playing, or speed things up and earn shinier things by spending 1000 Platinum (around £8) on a seasonal Battle Pass. Id explain it all in a development diary video below.
]]>Today's update for Id's twitchy online FPS Quake Champions holds a special place in my heart - much as I appreciate its Quake 3-inspired core, Quake 2 was the first competitive FPS I got into. On top of a new attack-and-defense playmode called Slipgate, new champion Athena feels like she's been lifted straight from Quake 2, laser-like grappling hook and quirky physics intact. Below, videos introducing Slipgate and Athena. The game is in early access and free-to-play, and the Slipgate update is out now. You can see the full patch notes here.
]]>Big changes for Quake Champions today. Id's twitchy (and now free-to-play) arena FPS revival is paying tribute to the fans - favourite high-flying Quake 3 deathmatch map The Longest Yard is back in business, plus a grab-bag of alternative modes for more casual play. The September Update is live now, though the game still technically remains in early access.
Update: Quake 2 character Athena's release had been announced, but has been bumped back to the next update. The Longest Yard and Arcade Mode are up now.
]]>Ever since Quake Champions first bunny-hopped onto the scene, we've known that it would go free-to-play, but Id Software kept a price-tag on it during its initial months of public testing. During their QuakeCon keynote mere moments ago, they announced that now (and forever), Quake Champions is free-to-play. While you can earn characters through play, the option still remains to buy all present and future champions outright, and this pack is on sale, too.
]]>I can only assume the makers of Quake Champions are bunny-hopping around the office, rocket-jumping off their keyboards. That would explain the flurry of activity surrounding the old-school arena FPS. Today's update marks the first leg in Id's recently-revealed roadmap out of early access, introducing a new playable character (one of the more irritating monsters from Quake 1) and returning the briefly-mothballed bots to service, along with some improvements to their murderous robot brains.
]]>Chances are if you play twitchy arena FPS Quake Champions, you take your shooters a little more seriously than most. It's an uncompromising game where knowing the ins and outs of every map is nigh essential. Enter the heatmaps section, added today to the Quake Champions site. Not only is it neat to poke around the living history of each map, seeing where players lived and died, but it's genuinely informative, especially as you can filter by both kills and deaths to a specific weapon.
Update: While we were busy monkeying around with heatmaps, Id announced a bundle of new features and modes in this developer stream recap. We take a peek at some of that below.
]]>Quake Champions is a fascinating experiment in remaking a game and trying to make that game both exactly like the original game but just More. The title has been impressively on top of their game, regarding monthly-ish updates and the addition of new characters, maps, and balance tweaks. They've also made the way that you and your pals explode into meat much more specific. Now, there's a way to free yourself of your terrible online name choices AND there's a beautiful, relaxing river cruise down The Molten Falls, in a newly added map.
]]>Update Night is a fortnightly column in which Rich McCormick revisits games to find out whether they've been changed for better or worse.
If, for some reason, you needed reminding of Quake Champions’ 90s heritage, then you need look no further than Anarki. One of Quake Champions’ 12 playable characters, Anarki (1) rides a hovering skateboard, (2) has a pink-dyed mohawk, (3) sports a pair of space JNCOs tucked into his metal legs, and (4) talks like the galaxy’s spaciest stoner dude.
He’s the video game version of The Simpsons’ Poochie: an attitude-by-numbers toon cooked up by an undead focus group whose members all died when Papa Roach released their first album. But he’s not even the most ‘90s thing about Quake Champions. That would be the game itself, a resolutely old-school arena shooter that — in full flow — feels as fast and fluid as Quake 3 did in 1999.
]]>It's been heartening to see Quake Champions doing so well. After the likes of LawBreakers failed to draw the crowds even during free beta events, was there even room in the market for an old-school arena shooter? Apparently so, as when Bethesda announced at E3 that the game was going free-to-play early (for a limited time), the servers filled up fast, and stayed full. They reckon they're on to a good thing, clearly, as they're extending the giveaway for another week. Tag the game now at Bethesda.net or on Steam and keep access forever.
]]>I've never been a Quaker. I've always thought a life spent pursuing peace and friendship through a religious lens was at odds with the Quaker's requirement that you spend 5 hours of every day playing a version of Id Software's hyper-violent shooter, but I won't pretend to understand such ecclesiastical matters.
I just got myself all tangled up over something that's quite simple, now that I've managed to spell it out. Quake Champions is an upcoming free-to-play arena shooter, only for now it's in paid for early access. Except for right now and up until June 18th - until which you can get free permanent access to the early access version if you download it and play at least one match. If you're like me and have barely dipped your toes into Quake before, this seems like a good opportunity to fix that.
]]>The game has hit some bumps along the way, but arena shooter revival Quake Champions has made steady, sure steps towards its goal to revitalise the genre over the past few months. Today's update brings the game just that little bit closer to the ideal, introducing bots for practice play (and to fill empty slots if someone bails from your team), and a gratuitously detailed gore system worthy of Doom 4. Rockets, chainsaws, machineguns and more will have visibly different effects on your now-mechanically-separated opponent's body. Squishy.
]]>Quake Champions is a delightful return to the origins of the arena shooter, and although the title is in Early Access at this point, there's still a ton of DLC and other add-on content you can buy. That's fun, right? I always find paid content in an unreleased game odd. Anyhow, there's a lot to be actually excited about here, as the game is getting huge updates. That includes the community's biggest request: Bots. Hell yes bots. With scalable skill levels, you can now learn to play that game on your own, or hone your expert skills, or just get some kills without having to both with the whole, you know, Other People thing.
Also: gore is coming. Not just blood and guts: really specifically engineered blood and guts. This is a game about science, after all. (Don't... don't double check that. Just let it sit.)
]]>Quake Champions: So nice, they made it twice. We all know about Bethesda/Id's revival of the arena shooter franchise, but don't go overlooking the Doom community's impressive QC:DE project, adapting the formula of the game to a more old-school engine with its own fresh collection of playable characters. This week, both got significant updates.
On Bethesda's side of the fence, the game now lets you be a Strogg Infiltrator from Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and wield the classic Quake 3 Plasma Gun, plus hop around a new map. On the Doom mod's side: For the first time in any kind of playable/voiced incarnation, it's evil AI Durandal from Marathon, plus a new set of expendable monsters for him to chew through offline. Within, character trailers and gameplay footage of both in action.
]]>It should almost go without saying now that Doom 2 is all things to all people, in the most literal sense. Thanks to 25 years of evolution in modding tools, it's Donkey Kong, Resident Evil and even Heroes of Might & Magic now, among other things.
The latest game to be swallowed by the all-consuming vortex of creativity that is the GZDoom-powered mod scene is Quake Champions. The arena FPS reboot may still be in public testing, but it's already been systematically disassembled, stripped for parts, and launched today as Quake Champions: Doom Edition (or QC:DE for short), a mod for possibly the most enduring game in PC history.
]]>Now that we're a significant way into October, Humble's got a new set of games to offer up as part of its monthly subscription service, Humble Monthly. Those games are Quake Champions, The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited and a set of content for the card game Elder Scrolls Legends.
]]>Thursday was patch-day for early access arena shooter Quake Champions [official site]. Tons of changes in this update, but there's something for everyone as it's raining buffs: BJ Blazkowicz gets a buff! Clutch gets a buff! Doom Guy gets a buff! And everyone's favourite scary alien lizard-lady Sorlag gets... a nerf. Two, in fact.
Poor Sorlag. At least there's a Double XP event running this weekend. That's something, right?
]]>Other sites will bombard you with "facts" and "details" about the top-selling games on Steam, but not us. We won't patronise you with such things. We know you're better than that, taller, more attractive than the readers of those sites. We know you know we know you better, and as such reach for higher, smarter, more eloquent brilliance.
]]>Get grunting, gibfiends, as Quake Champions [official site] is now in early access. This is id Software taking the vintage mega-fast arena FPS into slightly more modern lands by making it a bit of a 'hero shooter' where everyone has special abilities and different stats. (A 'hero shooter' is a class-based shooter where character classes have names rather than descriptions and they don't wear similar uniforms. THAT IS ALL, OKAY.)
While Qamps will be free-to-play when it launches properly, making money by selling access to characters, for now it costs cash. Technically that's buying the 'Champions Pack' pass, which includes access to all current and future characters.
]]>Something about putting the words 'Quake' and 'early access' into the same sentence makes me dizzy. We're in another world these days, but back in the day Quakes were games that arrived so fully-formed, so absolute and monumental, that the idea of being able to buy an unfinished one makes the damn fool old man who sits at the back of my head wave his walking stick around furiously.
But there it is: id Software's multiplayer-only shooter Quake Champions [official site] is strafing into the rough'n'readier part of Steam in just five days.
]]>I'm eagerly following the progress of free-to-play shooter Quake Champions [official site]. I spent a good year of my life in the browser-based Quake Live bunny hopping, insta-gibbing and failing to rocket jump over the smallest of obstacles (seriously, I can't rocket jump in any game), and had a blast. I haven't had the chance to play the beta yet but I've watched a few streams and the feedback seems to be positive, including from Rick Lane, who was pleasantly surprised with it.
Currently the beta is only available through the Bethesda.net launcher, but Bethesda have now confirmed that it will come to Steam too when it launches properly later this year.
]]>Each year E3 rolls around like a giant evil worm, crushing all that's good and pure. BUT that worm also announces lots of exciting gaming news as it wreaks its carnage upon the Earth. Here we have gathered every announcement, reveal, and exciting new trailer that emerged from the barrage of screamed press conferences over the last few days. And lots of it looks rather spiffy.
A rather enormous 47 PC games were either announced, revealed, or updated upon, with new trailers, information, and released dates that will all be missed by at least three months. We've collected the lot, with trailers, in alphabetical order, into one neat place, just for you.
]]>If you know your gibs from your gifs and your frags from your frogs, draw a bloody circle around Friday, May 12th on your calendar then drag that fingerprint out and along to May 21st. That's the duration of the Quake Champions [official site] "large scale tech test" which will invite everyone to rocketjump and railgun, unlike the previous limited closed beta. Rick Lane was pleasantly surprised by how much he liked the free-to-play FPS so sure, go on, let us in. If you want in, sign up this-a-way.
]]>Here’s the most important thing you need to know about Quake Champions [official site]: I shot a man to death with a railgun while we were both flying in mid-air. As we passed each other like trains in the night, he exploded into jelly, and a very deep voice bellowed “Impressive!” into my ear. For a split-second I felt like a god, a pure, unstoppable force of destruction. Then a bolt of brilliant green from another player instantly dispelled me of that notion.
It’s moments like these which Quake III: Arena always sought. Not the bit where I died, that happens all the time. It’s that minute instance, that unmeasurable sliver of time where something so remarkable happens that you don’t quite believe it was you who did it. Frankly, I never believed I could do it, which is why despite multiple attempts I never really got on with Quake III, preferring the broader, more varied multiplayer offering of Unreal Tournament back when such distinctions mattered. Quake Champions has me wondering what I missed, which is as high an accolade as I can give this free-to-play multiplayer shooter in its beta form.
]]>Quake Champions [official site], Bethesda's multiplayer FPS with a highly over-complicated business model that we're calling free to play in the absence of anything more straightforward, is getting close. Close enough that I can raise a wet fingertip to the wind and sagely declare that a beta's a-comin'.
]]>The upcoming Quake Champions [official site] will indeed by free-to-play, id Software have confirmed. Champions, to refresh your memory, is a multiplayer-only arena shooter starring different characters with unique abilities. One champ will be free for all and sundry, Ian 'Ranger' Quake, though folks who just want to buy a video game will be able to buy the whole lot in one pack. Free-to-players will need to rent others with currency earned by playing, so it almost sounds like the F2P version is an extended demo. That, or it's being monetised in a ghastly way. At this point, who knows!
]]>Beta signups have opened for Quake Champions [official site], the next rocketjumping, gibspraying multiplayer shooter from id Software. Champions brings in the modern 'hero' strand of shootybangs, giving each character "unique attributes and abilities", and I'm interested to see how that works out. We already have two decades of Quakes doing minor variations on the near-perfect Quake formula so sure, go on, give it the ol' twisteroo and show us what you've got. Oh, yes, a new trailer is a good start:
]]>I do not believe that I shall ever come to terms with the fact that Quake III's announcer was not, in fact, voiced by Michael Dorn. I believed that to be the case for so long, having been told it was so by someone at university. Watching this trailer for upcoming online shooter Quake Champions [official site], my heart leaped when I heard the familiar refrain in that familiar bass voice: "Excellent." Worf! You're back! No. It was never Worf, Meer. It is not Worf now. But maybe it is the original Q3A announcer returned. That would be something. You can hear Not-Worf for yourself in this first in-game footage of Champions, which rather looks like Quake III and Unreal Tournament had a baby. The speed of the former, the more vibrant palette of the latter.
]]>In all the sound and fury of E3, I'd missed one big detail about the newly-announced Quake Champions [official site]: its 'champions' are actually classes each with a unique ability. Oh! Luckily, id Software studio director Tim Willits is on hand in a new trailer to explain the abilities of the four champions revealed so far. Expect charges, dodges, blinks, and dastardly wallhacks.
]]>Twenty years ago today, id Software released Quake. Following a multiplayer test that gave the world a first glimpse of the studio’s new, cutting edge 3d engine, the full game arrived on June 22, 1996. Its bizarre mash-up of medieval architecture and crunchy, industrial weaponry didn’t run through the sequels, which have focused on both singleplayer and multiplayer combat, and there hasn't been anything else quite like it in the two decades since release.
Arena-based Quake is set for a revival with the recently announced Quake Champions, but here, we remember the original. Happy twentieth, Quake.
]]>Bethesda started big. When the lights and music dropped, the giant screen at the E3 showcase showed a DOS prompt. After fiddling around directories for a moment, the unseen user typed one small word: QUAKE.
The game is Quake Champions, an arena-based shooter pitting "diverse warriors with unique attributes and abilities" against one another. It has been designed for "world class esports play at every level" and contains big Stroggy bastards and a blue-haired lady.
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