Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Encyclopedia
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (ET:QW) is a first-person shooter
video game, and is the follow-up to the 2005
title Quake 4
. It is also the first game in the series to be rated T by the ESRB (With the descriptors of Mild Language and Violence. Mild Blood is featured but only on the Microsoft Windows
version). It is set in the same science fiction
universe as Quake II
and Quake 4
, with a minimal back-story serving as a prequel to Quake II. It is the second multiplayer-focused game in the Quake series after Quake III Arena
.
Quake Wars features similar gameplay to Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
, but with the addition of controllable vehicles and aircraft as well as multiple AI deployables, asymmetric teams, much larger maps and the option of computer-controlled bot
opponents. Unlike the previous Enemy Territory games, Quake Wars is a commercial release rather than a free download.
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars was developed by Splash Damage
using a modified version of id Software
's id Tech 4 engine
with MegaTexture
rendering technology. It was released for Microsoft Windows
, Linux
, Mac OS X
, PlayStation 3
and Xbox 360
. The game received mostly positive reviews upon release, although it received some criticism on consoles.
assault mode.
Each player class normally has new objectives show up during game play, many times based around the specific capabilities of that class. The game also has the capability to group players into fireteams for greater coordinated strategy. These fireteams can be user created or game generated depending on the mission selected by the player.
The game has an experience points (XP) rewards system in place, which rewards every player some points depending on the mission completed. This accumulated XP later leads to unlocks which may vary from availability of new equipment/weapons to abilities like faster movement or more accurate weapons. These rewards are reset to zero after the completion of every campaign, which consists of three unique maps, all with a common locale/region.
paid subscribers on June 20, 2007 and to nonpaying members on June 23, 2007. There were also beta keys given out for a limited time exclusively at QuakeCon 2007. The public beta ended on September 25, 2007. A second build of the beta was released on August 3, 2007. It features a new map entitled Valley to replace Sewer and several changes to the game code to improve performance and implement new features. This map was featured in tutorial videos released prior to the beta, and was the map made available to play at QuakeCon 2006. The Valley map is based on a real Earth location: Yosemite Valley
.
A PC demo for Windows was released on September 10, 2007 and for Linux on October 16, 2007 also featuring the map Valley. The full Linux version was released on October 19, 2007. A Mac OS X client has also been released. In January 2008, a new updated version (2.0) of the demo was released. The updated demo includes changes introduced in the 1.4 patch such as 'tutorial mode'. The original 1.0 demo is no longer supported and should not be downloaded. The final retail version was first released on September 28, 2007 for Windows. The initial Linux release, created by id Software
employee Timothee Besset
, was made available three weeks later on October 19, 2007.
technique developed by John Carmack of id Software
. The technology allows maps to be totally unique, without any repeated terrain tiles. Battlefields can be rendered to the horizon without any fogging, with over a square mile of terrain at inch-level detail, while also providing terrain-type detail that defines such factors as bullet hit effects, vehicle traction, sound effects, and so on. Each megatexture is derived from a 32768×32768 pixel image, which takes up around 3 gigabytes in its raw form (with 3 bytes per pixel, one byte for each color channel).
, the PC version of the game had an average score of 84% based on 55 reviews. On Metacritic
, the game had a score of 84 out of 100 based on 52 reviews. Kevin VanOrd of GameSpot
gave the game a rating of 8.5/10.
Other reviews are generally very positive, scoring Quake Wars in the 8–9 (out of 10) range.
For the week ending September 29, 2007, Quake Wars was the best selling PC title in the United Kingdom
according to the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association.
On October 17, 2007, after its top of the charts sale in the United Kingdom, Quake Wars debuted at a familiar #1 spot yet again in the United States. According to NPD group's top 10 best selling PC game charts, it managed to take the #1 spot.
Xbox 360
and PlayStation 3
reviews for the game were generally much less positive, with IGN
giving the 360 version 6.1 and the PlayStation 3 version 5.3, citing game issues and inferior graphics to the PC version as causes for the lower score.
on October 2, 2007 in North America and September 9, 2007 in Australia and Europe (in Europe the collector's edition was released as Premium Edition). The collector's edition features the game itself, 10 collectible cards (there are 12 cards, but the first two are only available via preorder) and a bonus disc, which contains concept art, HD videos, interviews, artwork, downloadable icons, ringtones and music tracks.
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
video game, and is the follow-up to the 2005
2005 in video gaming
-Events:*March 6 — The television show 60 Minutes tackles issues within video game controversy. This segment of 60 Minutes has been criticized by video game players for encouraging video game censorship....
title Quake 4
Quake 4
Quake 4 is the fourth title in the series of Quake first-person shooter computer games. The game was developed by Raven Software and published by Activision. Raven Software has collaborated with id Software, the creators and historical developers of preceding Quake games...
. It is also the first game in the series to be rated T by the ESRB (With the descriptors of Mild Language and Violence. Mild Blood is featured but only on the Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
version). It is set in the same science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
universe as Quake II
Quake II
Quake II, released on December 9, 1997, is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Id Software and distributed by Activision. It is not a sequel to Quake; it merely uses the name of the former game due to Id's difficulties in coming up with alternative names.The soundtrack for Quake II...
and Quake 4
Quake 4
Quake 4 is the fourth title in the series of Quake first-person shooter computer games. The game was developed by Raven Software and published by Activision. Raven Software has collaborated with id Software, the creators and historical developers of preceding Quake games...
, with a minimal back-story serving as a prequel to Quake II. It is the second multiplayer-focused game in the Quake series after Quake III Arena
Quake III Arena
Quake III Arena , is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game released on December 2, 1999. The game was developed by id Software and featured music composed by Sonic Mayhem and Front Line Assembly...
.
Quake Wars features similar gameplay to Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is a free and open source multiplayer first-person shooter video game set during World War II...
, but with the addition of controllable vehicles and aircraft as well as multiple AI deployables, asymmetric teams, much larger maps and the option of computer-controlled bot
Computer game bot
A bot, most prominently in the first-person shooter types , is a type of weak AI expert system software which for each instance of the program controls a player in deathmatch, team deathmatch and/or cooperative human player. Computer bots may play against other bots and/or human players in unison,...
opponents. Unlike the previous Enemy Territory games, Quake Wars is a commercial release rather than a free download.
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars was developed by Splash Damage
Splash Damage
Splash Damage is an independently-owned British game development company that specializes in multiplayer first-person shooter games. The studio is best known as the creator of the Enemy Territory franchise for id Software.-History:...
using a modified version of id Software
Id Software
Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...
's id Tech 4 engine
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
with MegaTexture
MegaTexture
MegaTexture refers to a texture allocation technique facilitating the use of a single extremely large texture rather than repeating multiple smaller textures. It is featured in Splash Damage's game Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and was developed by id Software technical director John...
rendering technology. It was released for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
. The game received mostly positive reviews upon release, although it received some criticism on consoles.
Gameplay
Quake Wars is a class-based, objective focused, team-oriented game. Teams are based on human (GDF) and alien (Strogg) technology. While the teams are asymmetrical, both sides have the same basic weapons and tools to complete objectives. Unlike other team-based online games (such as the Battlefield series), the gameplay is much more focused on one or two main objectives at once, rather than spread all over the combat area. This allows for much more focused and intense combat situations, similar to the original Unreal TournamentUnreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament is a futuristic first-person shooter video game co-developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. It was published in 1999 by GT Interactive. Retrospectively, the game has also been referred to as UT99 or UT Classic to differentiate it from its numbered sequels...
assault mode.
Each player class normally has new objectives show up during game play, many times based around the specific capabilities of that class. The game also has the capability to group players into fireteams for greater coordinated strategy. These fireteams can be user created or game generated depending on the mission selected by the player.
The game has an experience points (XP) rewards system in place, which rewards every player some points depending on the mission completed. This accumulated XP later leads to unlocks which may vary from availability of new equipment/weapons to abilities like faster movement or more accurate weapons. These rewards are reset to zero after the completion of every campaign, which consists of three unique maps, all with a common locale/region.
Development
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars was first announced through a press release on May 16, 2005. The public beta opened to FilePlanetFilePlanet
FilePlanet is a video game download service that provides demos, patches, mods and other gaming media and other gaming media downloads to its users. FilePlanet was launched, and is run by, GameSpy, which is now a subsidiary of IGN, and is one of the most used video game download sites on the...
paid subscribers on June 20, 2007 and to nonpaying members on June 23, 2007. There were also beta keys given out for a limited time exclusively at QuakeCon 2007. The public beta ended on September 25, 2007. A second build of the beta was released on August 3, 2007. It features a new map entitled Valley to replace Sewer and several changes to the game code to improve performance and implement new features. This map was featured in tutorial videos released prior to the beta, and was the map made available to play at QuakeCon 2006. The Valley map is based on a real Earth location: Yosemite Valley
Yosemite Valley
Yosemite Valley is a glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada mountains of California, carved out by the Merced River. The valley is about long and up to a mile deep, surrounded by high granite summits such as Half Dome and El Capitan, and densely forested with pines...
.
A PC demo for Windows was released on September 10, 2007 and for Linux on October 16, 2007 also featuring the map Valley. The full Linux version was released on October 19, 2007. A Mac OS X client has also been released. In January 2008, a new updated version (2.0) of the demo was released. The updated demo includes changes introduced in the 1.4 patch such as 'tutorial mode'. The original 1.0 demo is no longer supported and should not be downloaded. The final retail version was first released on September 28, 2007 for Windows. The initial Linux release, created by id Software
Id Software
Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...
employee Timothee Besset
Timothee Besset
Timothee Besset is a software programmer currently employed by id Software who is most well known for creating and supporting Linux, as well as some Macintosh, ports of id Software's products. He has been involved with the game ports of various id properties over the past ten years, starting with...
, was made available three weeks later on October 19, 2007.
Technology
Quake Wars utilized a modified version of the id Tech 4 engine with the addition of a technology called MegaTexture, a new texture mappingTexture mapping
Texture mapping is a method for adding detail, surface texture , or color to a computer-generated graphic or 3D model. Its application to 3D graphics was pioneered by Dr Edwin Catmull in his Ph.D. thesis of 1974.-Texture mapping:...
technique developed by John Carmack of id Software
Id Software
Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...
. The technology allows maps to be totally unique, without any repeated terrain tiles. Battlefields can be rendered to the horizon without any fogging, with over a square mile of terrain at inch-level detail, while also providing terrain-type detail that defines such factors as bullet hit effects, vehicle traction, sound effects, and so on. Each megatexture is derived from a 32768×32768 pixel image, which takes up around 3 gigabytes in its raw form (with 3 bytes per pixel, one byte for each color channel).
Reception
As of February 9, 2008 on the review aggregator Game RankingsGame Rankings
GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 games.GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive...
, the PC version of the game had an average score of 84% based on 55 reviews. On Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, the game had a score of 84 out of 100 based on 52 reviews. Kevin VanOrd of GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
gave the game a rating of 8.5/10.
Other reviews are generally very positive, scoring Quake Wars in the 8–9 (out of 10) range.
For the week ending September 29, 2007, Quake Wars was the best selling PC title in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
according to the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association.
On October 17, 2007, after its top of the charts sale in the United Kingdom, Quake Wars debuted at a familiar #1 spot yet again in the United States. According to NPD group's top 10 best selling PC game charts, it managed to take the #1 spot.
Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
reviews for the game were generally much less positive, with IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
giving the 360 version 6.1 and the PlayStation 3 version 5.3, citing game issues and inferior graphics to the PC version as causes for the lower score.
Collector's Edition
A collector's edition of the game was released exclusively for WindowsMicrosoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
on October 2, 2007 in North America and September 9, 2007 in Australia and Europe (in Europe the collector's edition was released as Premium Edition). The collector's edition features the game itself, 10 collectible cards (there are 12 cards, but the first two are only available via preorder) and a bonus disc, which contains concept art, HD videos, interviews, artwork, downloadable icons, ringtones and music tracks.