Quake III Revolution (PS2) - Sarge: Tier 3 [NTSC-J]

Back in 1999, PC gamers were working with cutting-edge machinery and, for a time too, Quake III: Arena encapsulated that feeling of cutting-edge with its fast, first person arenas, visually distinct (and macabre) gothic levels, adrenaline-pumping soundtrack, and a well integrated online multiplayer system quite unlike anything else at the time of release.

No fifth generation console could do Quake III but it did not take long for new machines to capitalise on the progress of technology. By late 2000, Sega’s 128-bit Dreamcast brought Quake III: Arena over in impressive fashion, keeping all the core tenants of it’s gameplay, including online play. Quake III: Arena on Dreamcast was an exceptional conversion of what otherwise seemed impossible on more compact, TV based, hardware and arguably still stands as the best, official, way to play Quake III without actually finding a computer to play it on. That said, in 2001, Electronic Arts attempted to do a version of Quake III on Sony’s own advanced 128-bit PlayStation 2 and, while an admirable effort, sadly it never matched the same lofty heights otherwise set on Dreamcast.

Quake III Revolution, as it were dubbed, did do a few things different though. Namely, it introduced a new campaign with an original narrative surrounding the antagonistic Vadrigar, a demon who hosts the tournament and puts your playable character in the gauntlets featured throughout the game. Likewise, content found in Quake III’s expansion pack, Team Arena, was accessible in Quake III Revolution and made a welcome addition to the onslaught of matches you faced throughout the story. Also, for an early PlayStation 2 release, Quake III Revolution performed rather well, with a frame-rate that often exceeded its Dreamcast equivalent. Quake III still looked and sounded as fantastic in 2001 as it did in 1999 - truly a testament to how far id Software pushed computing hardware when contrasted with the original Windows 98 release.

Alas, the positives ended there for Quake III Revolution as sadly, like Unreal Tournament before it, the limited networking infrastructure of Sony’s PlayStation 2 (i.e. None at that time) prevented the game from truly being the interactive multiplayer spectacle it promised to be. With no online,TCP/IP, or even basic LAN Support, Quake III Revolution was limited in just four player split screen support which, while a fun distraction, was nowhere near as enjoyable as what other platforms offered.

Unlike Unreal Tournament however, Quake III Revolution completely lacked mouse and keyboard support, which instead saddled play with laggy and imprecise DualShock 2 support. The controller based aiming was made even worse by having slow and unresponsive aim assistance, put in place to compensate for the difficulty of having an analogue control scheme. While games like Timesplitters and Turok had shown exactly how to make analogue based shooters operate comfortably, Quake III Revolution still preceded the standard set later by genre codifiers such as Halo: Combat Evolved and Call of Duty 4.

Combined with long loadtimes, Quake III Revolution felt like another compromised PlayStation 2 conversion, bettered on competing hardware, and simply just not as good as its PC brethren. Like Unreal Tournament, options to play Quake III in 2001 had not only increased tremendously with newer, and cheaper, computer options hitting the market but these players also had a superiror experience because of updates, mods and a community that sadly neither PlayStation 2, nor Dreamcast, could ever match. As such, Quake III Revolution remained to be another relic of a different age in computer gaming. Nothing more.

As a side-note: Quake III Revolution natively runs at 512x448 on PlayStation 2. This video series changes this by forcing 480p through GS Mode Selector on Open PS2 Loader. Further upscaling to 1080p60 was commenced by processing a YPbPr Component signal to HDMI video on a GBS-Control AIO. Video capture was also made possible using an Elgato HD60S. All further editing and compression to 2560x1920 was done with a combination of video editing on Final Cut X and Handbrake respectively. If there are any further questions about how I make my videos, please do let me know.

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A NECESSARY EVIL:
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Any copyrighted footage I use is covered under fair use laws, or more specifically those listed under Section 30(1) of the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1989 and under section 107 of US Copyright Act 1976. This video exists purely for the purpose of research and criticism. I do not make a profit from any uploaded content, nor do I intend to. Thank you for watching.