The Concept

Teamplay Ho!

Quake 3 Arena was meant to be the ultimate deathmatch experience. Q3A was definitely about Deathmatch and the Team Deathmatch. Yes, it did have Capture the Flag, but it seemed almost like an afterthought. With only four CTF maps compared to well over 20 deathmatch maps, it was pretty clear where the effort lay. For some, Quake 3 offered more than enough. It made as good a compromise between Quake II, QuakeWorld and NetQuake as could be hoped - while no hardcore fans of any specific Quake variant was truly happy, many were happy enough to take the plunge.

Da Logo

Da Boy

However, when compared with its competitors -especially Unreal Tournament and Tribes, Quake 3 seemed to be seriously lacking in the features department. Tribes pioneered and led the FPS teamplay revolution. Quake 1 had Team DM and CTF, but Tribes introduced new game modes such as Capture and Hold, Defend and Destroy, and more. UT refined teamplay even more and brought many of the game types (and then some) to a more familiar, enclosed style of play.

What's it got?

Perhaps in response to these criticisms, id Software developed the Team Arena expansion for Q3. Team Arena will feature more maps for CTF, some new weapons (a nail gun, a chain gun and a proximity launcher - only this last one is available in the demo) as well as 3 new game modes and several powerups.

Da Girl

Da Guard Rune... er.. Powerup

The game modes are Single Flag CTF, Overload and Harvester. The "permanent" powerups are Ammo-Regen, Guard, Doubler, and Scout (the first 3 are available in the demo. Then there are two powerups which can be used once and need to be activated - Kamikaze, which makes an appearance in the demo, and Invulernability which will make it into the final game.

The demo also includes lots of new graphics and textures, several new bots, a pair of models and three skins per model. The demo includes a single map which servers well for all three new game modes, as well as regular CTF. Lets take a look at what all these new modes and powerups are all about!

The new bot (had ya goin!)

Proximity Launcher