Quake 3: Arena Elite

by ACTIVISION

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000031WCQ
• Media: CD-ROM
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,249 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

As in its dozens of first-person shooter ancestors, id Software and Activision's Quake 3: Arena transports players into a violent, virtual world filled with deadly weapons, impressive power-ups, and intense combat. Players compete on 26 maps in either death match (free-for-all or team play), with goals to rack up as many kills as possible; or capture the flag, a team-oriented game with scoring based on the number of enemy flag captures. Though presenting the best death-match experience around, Quake 3's two game types lack the variation and originality of a similar game, Epic's Unreal Tournament.

Although you'll need the latest video card and computer hardware, it's impossible to dispute the sheer beauty of Quake 3's 3-D engine. The 26 maps are filled with exquisite architecture and impressive special effects; further, Quake 3 provides dozens of highly detailed player models to choose from. If you've played other id Software first-person shooters, the weapons should all look familiar: machine gun, shotgun, plasma gun, grenade launcher, rocket launcher, lightning gun, railgun, and the BFG 10K. Though impressively rendered and balanced, you've likely used them before in id's Doom, Quake, or any number of other first-person action games.

Hopping online and competing against other Quake 3: Arena players worldwide requires only a 56K or better Internet connection and a few mouse clicks. Quake 3 offers an infinitely replayable multiplayer experience (and a violent one--not for youngsters), but an unsatisfying solo game. Its single-player tournament mode--a series of death matches against computer AI bots--serves simply as a massive training exercise for multiplay. --Doug Radcliffe

Pros:

• Elite Edition: cool metal box
• Near-perfect death-match multiplay
• Detailed player models
• Cutting-edge graphics

Cons:

• Uninspired single-player experience
• Lack of game variations
• Unoriginal weapons

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great game, poor overview by amazon, June 19, 2000

By 

Wesley Hatfield (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quake 3: Arena Elite (CD-ROM)

Quake 3 Arena is a great game. The weapons are hardly groundbreaking innovations. But why would they need to be? I own both this and Unreal tournament and for pure deathmatch competitions nothing beats Q3A. It's focus on gameplay over a multitude of weapon modes is what really allows it to shine. Games like UT can become to bogged down in the cuteness and novelty of 25 weapon fire modes. And let's not even talk about the unbalancing caused by the redeemer.

On another note, the Amazon overview of the game is completly incorrect. A) There is no flamethrower built in to the game, some mods include one, but ID did not. B) What player classes? Again, there are some great mods which provide team fortress gameplay (Weapons Factory and Q3Fortress), but character choice is inconsequential in relation to gameplay in vanilla Q3A.

39 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars buy this game or die! (literaly!) this is an amazing game!, November 11, 1999

By 

John English (placerville, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quake 3: Arena Elite (CD-ROM)

I'm just kidding about the die part! But just if you ever bump into me over a internet sever you will die!

I have played, studied, and have been amazed by this masterpiece. I've had the most recent tests for Q3arena and the add-ons for it and they are top-notch quality and fun. If you have the right hardware and a good, compatible computer with a nice 3D card such as a TNT2 ultra or Gforce that support 32bit colors you will enjoy this game. I have seen the games that try to mach up to a game like this, such as UnrealTournament and they dont come close! I tell you that this game is unbelievable, and is far ahead of it's time! I not just talking about pretty looking effects, but I am also saying that there is incredible detail and realism such as 360 degree sphears and real-time reflections that actualy show the world around. If you didn't like Q2 (i cant see why you wouldn't) you will be more than pleased with this STATE-OF-THE-ART tech that is leaps and bounds ahead of it's time. OH! and by the way, this game is way better than Half Life. hope you enjoy!

Mr.FRAG

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Near-Flawless Deathmatch Experience, September 27, 2000

By 

Ed Soule (Potomac, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quake 3: Arena Elite (CD-ROM)

I've always been an Unreal Tournament person, but lately I've been playing the Q3A demo a lot and decided to get the full version. The engine is the smoothest and most powerful I've ever experienced in an FPS. It is fast as Hell and accomodates an extraordinary degree of precision in regard to movement and aim, which is easily noticable if you use a mouse that takes advantage of unusually high-res environments (I use an Intellimouse Explorer). Unfortunately, the graphic designs for a lot of the levels using it are kind of boring aesthetically... lots of castles and gothic constructions, and those space levels with the jump pads. Then again, most of my favorite flashy, unconventional UT levels had bad framerates. I did find the weapons a bit of a problem, not so much because they are unoriginal as because they are unbalanced. It is rare that anyone uses anything other than rockets and railguns, which hurts gameplay a bit. The built in alternative modes of play are not great, but the mod community is fairly advanced. I still like UT more, but any true FPS fan should have a copy of this.