Ah, E3. One of the most beautiful and notorious shows to ever exist. Thankfully, the influx of information makes up for all its bad points. And amidst all the information is this beautiful trailer for ET: Quake Wars, from this years E3. As you can see, it appears to be coming along quite well, but that video alone doesn't quite answer the question that's been burning in me from day one - does it still capture what made the original ET so great? Well, the latest of Gamespy's preview articles happily answers all. They interviewed id Software's Kevin Cloud, and playtested the game, and from what they had to say it sounds like Quake Wars still holds its ground, keeping infantry combat (which the original game totally revolved around) in the forefront of play, while still putting controllable vehicles in effectively. While there's alot there in the article, this excerpt describes the intricacies of QW's combat quite well. | Quote: | | Throughout our playtesting, it seemed fighting was often happening on three levels: infantry, ground vehicles, and air vehicles. At times, combat would cross over between levels, with, say, a Goliath or Desecrator crushing GDF infantry units, or a solider with a homing rocket dropping a Hornet or Icarus out of the sky. But at other times, it was clear that players would get sidetracked dogfighting each other, ignoring anything else happening on the map. As a result, even though combat usually centered on the current objective, maps would often have isolated skirmishes happening in different places, effectively creating battles within battles. |
Since they only playtested on one map though, what's described is only a small taste of what's to come, as ET's gameplay tends to differ from map to map, rather than gamemode to gamemode like in other games. You can view the whole article here, and the list of articles and videos on gamespy is here Of course, there wouldn't be much fun in it all if there was no direct competition, would there. Battlefield 2 is constantly in competition as it is, since both it and Quake Wars share similar fields, and the latest of the BF2 booster packs, Armored Fury slightly touches on this with the inclusion of vehicle drops (already announced for implementation in Quake Wars last year), but that's not really enough to call it competition. What is though is the development of a new title to the Battlefield franchise, Battlefield 2142. It shares similar ground to Quake Wars, in ways. Set in the future, the Earth is dying and at war with itself to take claim of the remaining areas of land. Two major factions have emerged, the Pan-Asian Coalition and the European-American Union, and they're set on destroying each other. Even though its the future, some familiar technology still remains, like bullets instead of lasers and tanks are still in play. New additions include Mech walkers and cloaking devices (which, if a cloaked player is in a vehicle, can cause a whole vehicle to cloak, although you can't fire while cloaked). What really makes 2142 stand out, however, is the inclusion of a new gamemode, the "Titan" Mode. | Quote: | While Battlefield's classic Conquest mode will return in BF2142, the big focus was on the new Titan mode, which is like Battlefield with a few extra twists. In this mode, each team has a huge flying fortress -- the Titan -- that continually hovers above the battlefield. The object is to destroy the other team's Titan, but you'll have to jump through a few hoops first.
The early stages of Titan mode start out like normal: there are a few missile silos on each map, which serve as control points for each team to battle over. Once you've held a point long enough, a missile fires at the enemy Titan, and lowers its defenses a little. On this particular map, "Minsk," there were three silos total, and it would take about eight successful missile shots to completely weaken a Titan.
Once the Titan's defenses were down, the second phase of the battle would begin. One of the new vehicles is an APC with small ejectable pods, which, if you drive under the Titan, you can launch yourself into the air and onto the Titan. Once inside the Titan, your goal is to destroy four control panels and then the core to win. |
Whether the inclusion of this mode will be enough to make it a unique enough experience compared to BF2 or QW is hard to say right now. What may well tip the scales is how many Titan Mode maps they choose to release, and how varied they make the engagements. What is nice though is that BF2142 takes the infantryman into account more than Battlefield 2 did. Fights inside the Titan can only take place with infantry, although the flyers can help engagements outside. Trenches are weaved into parts of the map that was on show, EMP grenades are included to help infantry combat vehicles (they disable/slow down a vehicle for a short time), and a nice selection of tools are available. Different turrets are available - a stationary turret can be deployed, or a hovering one can be used that follows you around to give you extra covering fire (and it follows you if you're in a vehicle too), although they give away your position if you try to hide with them above you. Spawn pads can be placed anywhere on the map, allowing your squad to spawn on it instantly as long as it hasn't been destroyed or camped by the enemy. Videos are available on gamespy here, although you may be able to find other videos from E3 not show here on Google Video (there's a nice 20 minute one here that's essentially a walkthrough of all the game's features. Courtesy of Planet Battlefield). More information on Battlefield 2142 is available here Both games look like excellent games in their own right though. And they're both touted for this Autumn, strangely enough. So put on your helmets and grab your spanners (or plyers), and get ready to party.
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