Quake 4

Quake 4 is underrated. It might not be a work of high art. But it's a very well put together FPS. Everything works. The design in Forever War/Sharship Troopers military Sci-Fi distilled to it's simplest beauty. The gore is plentiful, satisfying, but never overdone. The level design is efficient and never gets dull. The story isn't much, but it motivates you to keep going forwards. And it has some real hightlights (If you've played it you know what we're all thinking of ;-) ) and the world of the Strogg and Space Marines feels weird and cool enough that you just want to see more of it. And the game just feels big. The spectacle and size of it is enormous. You feel draw into the hellish world of sci-fi war. I might have a smaller budget, but it puts most modern warfare games to shame. What really makes Quake 4 a classic is the gameplay. It has a great line up of weapons. A sort of greatest hits collection from the first three Quake games. The Nail gun. Railgun. Lighting gun and BFG 10,000 (albeit renamed) all make a comeback. They've been tweaked and improved. And most of them have been given neat secondary fire-modes. Gameplay is fast and furious. With loads of verity to keep things spicy. The enemies come in wonderful verities and have differn't strengths and weaknesses. A mixture of difference environments and locals keep you on your toes and mean you have to switch up your tactics. Bosses are big and have personality. The difficulty isn't punishing. But intense. You need to play fast and smart to not run out of health kits or end of splattered against the wall. The end effect is that Quake 4 is a military sci-fi fever dream. It grabs you. It creates a frenzied atmosphere that can turn for abject horror to feeling like a stone-cold baddass at the drop of hat. If you like single player FPS games just get Quake 4. You'll like it. I promise.

Believe it or not, I still play Quake 2 after all these years. The online community is still alive, so it's definitely a game I cherish. However it's only recently that I've come to play Quake 4. From the get go, there is definitely a stylistic shift in the gameplay. Acute attention is given to detail: marine colleagues can be heard talking casually as you walk by them, the environments are nicely designed and have a worn, hyper-industrial look to them. The game is focused on mood, and as a mood piece, it really sells the futuristic military setting really well. In terms of gameplay, I do agree with the criticisms levelled at the game. On the one hand, the aesthetic and the design of the levels is logical and has a sense of flow. On the other hand, I feel Q4 is a very linear game, and very straight forward. To me, it sacrifices creative level design for mood and aesthetic. The guns are a lot different to Quake 2 as well. The hyperblaster feels more like a electrical laser gun that lacks the slicing sound that we've come to associate with the gun. The dark matter gun, the BFG of the game, never feels like it has any physical impact on enemies, even though it's the most powerful weapon in the game. Players navigate closed corridors and take out the Strogg, who seem to have a habit of hiding in shadows and spawning at (in)convenient times. It lacks the finesse of some of the old school FPS' games, but it does capture a sense of horror very well. I felt the game improved towards the end. The natural crescendo in action, and the detailed futuristic aesthetic was nicely done. The bosses and set pieces were effective, and showed a great deal effort and consideration. I would say that it has some great ideas and is worth a playthrough. But those expecting it to reach the heights of a Quake game may want to lower their expectations. It's Quake, but not quite Quake.

Hi-Res Texture-mod + Glitch Fixes Also fixes many other issues (forced low res, forced aspect ratio, forced low res textures, game freeze, game slowdown). 1. Install the game. 2. Start the game. The game will now create a config file in ":\Quake 4\q4base" named "Quake4Config". 3. Close the game. 4. Open that config file with Notepad. 5. Find corresponding lines in config file and overwrite them with the values below. 6. Save and close. 7. Right click on "Quake4Config", choose Properties, Check "READ-ONLY". 8. Play. >>Set Res and Aspect ratio with this:>> seta r_customHeight "1440" seta r_customWidth "2560" seta r_fullscreen "1" seta r_displayRefresh "0" seta r_mode "-1" seta r_aspectRatio "1" >>Set textures with this:>> Alternative #1: seta r_renderer "best" seta image_downSizeLimit "0" seta image_ignoreHighQuality "0" seta image_downSizeBumpLimit "0" seta image_downSizeSpecularLimit "0" seta image_downSizeBump "0" seta image_downSizeSpecular "0" seta image_useCache "1" seta image_cacheMegs "512" seta image_cacheMinK "4096" seta image_usePrecompressedTextures "0" seta image_useNormalCompressionLoadDDSForPal "0" seta image_useNormalCompression "0" seta image_useAllFormats "1" seta image_useCompression "0" seta image_preload "0" seta image_downSize "0" seta image_lodbias "0" seta image_anisotropy "16" seta image_filter "GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR" seta com_videoRam "2048" seta com_machineSpec "3" >>IF #1 DOES NOT WORK>> Alternative #2: seta image_downSizeLimit "1024" seta image_ignoreHighQuality "1" seta image_downSizeBumpLimit "1024" seta image_downSizeSpecularLimit "1024" seta image_downSizeBump "1" seta image_downSizeSpecular "1" seta image_useCache "0" seta image_cacheMegs "256" seta image_cacheMinK "30" seta image_usePrecompressedTextures "0" seta image_useNormalCompressionLoadDDSForPal "1" seta image_useNormalCompression "2" seta image_useAllFormats "1" seta image_useCompression "0" seta image_downSize "1" seta image_lodbias "0" seta image_anisotropy "8"

baboeska wrote, that offline installer is not available. That is not true! ☝️ On GOG website, go to your username (top of the page), select Games, locate Quake 4. In this pop-up window below there is a section named DOWNLOAD OFFLINE BACKUP INSTALLERS. Click on this or select the small triangle and it should open up the offline installer files. There are two of these in the time of writing this: Quake 4 (Part 1 of 2) - this is an .exe file and (Part 2) a .bin file. Version number is: 1.4.3 lang update. The .exe file is 1 MB in size and the .bin file is around 3.1 GB. About the game itself has been written countless informations, just my two cents: if you like linear (corridor) shooter games, punchy weapons and dark places, this is a solid experience. Not too long, just the right length, it doesn't overystay its welcome.

I remember when I saw it for the first time: opening titles had proudly proclaimed that the game was developed by Raven Software and PRODUCED by id. A Quake title, no longer being a vehicle for any kind of graphical revolution, this time it was just an also-run, piggybacking on Doom 3 tech. The most honored PC franchise had entered the age of Half-Life 2 and Halo. Quake 4 was quite competent as contemporary corridor shooter of its time: bombastic in-game cinematic, "go-there/do-that" silent protagonist, smart but not particularly troublesome enemies, and the great Peter Stormare as a sidekick... ehhh... medic? technician? I don't remember. I remember trenches, being sent on too many occasions to "turn on that damn switch, or everybody dies and get back in one piece" and That-Surgery-Scene. And Iron Maidens that were all wrong. Quake 4 was a competent corridor shooter for its time, but as a Quake game it looked awkward. A Quake that didn't move the World forward, but a Quake that was bending in the wind of modern trends. The fact that it was outsourced to Raven (which at the time was no longer the same Raven of Heretic and Hexen fame) was an early hint that its creator, John Carmack, was no longer interested in creating games. His next big thing, Rage, only confirmed that. But the times they'aree changing, I guess. I don't mind, Quake 4 is not a bad game. Just don't call it a good Quake.