Quake 4, Game Reviewers
Before the LAN party even started, I had already started my gaming fix. Roland and I split a copy of Quake 4 and by virtue of an upcoming test for Roland I got it for the night before the LAN.
Man, oh, man is Quake 4 awesome. I haven’t played a game all the way through that was that much fun in ages. It dwarfs DOOM 3 in just about every way. Well, other than pure scariness, which was what DOOM was all about. But since I’m not particularly big on scary games/movies/anything, Quake 4 had everything I wanted in a game.
In one weird aspect, it kind of reminds me of Half-Life 2. Half-Life 2’s engine appears as pretty much the apex of the previous generation’s technology. Quake 4 plays like pretty much the apex of last generation’s gameplay. The engine is clearly the best use of the latest technology we’ve seen so far. Without the frequent dips into complete darkness, the features of the DOOM 3 engine are really allowed to shine.
This is where I take a moment to consider the reviews of Quake 4 that I’ve read. All of them were “okay”, but focused almost entirely on “what is new here”, and when finding nothing outlandishly new about the gameplay, they just kind of blew it off. I really think that is a poor criterion to review from. Indeed when gaming was a new entertainment medium, every single game was a foray into something completely new. But now that gaming has matured a little (still new, I realize, but maybe toddler rather than newborn), the expectation that every single “great” game has to be brand spanking new is pretty unrealistic.
When I think of game reviewers I picture the group of judges in Iron Chef. They sit around the table and taste the amazing dishes provided by the challenger and they go, “I’ve already tasted this taste before… I guess it’s okay.” Then the equally amazing dishes come from the Iron Chef and all the judges go, “I’ve tasted this before. I mean, it’s a new mixture of tastes, but I’ve already tasted each of these tastes before. Since you’re the Iron Chef, I expected something completely new.”
What a crappy and unfair criterion that would be. After all, great recipes are creations derived from the good tastes of other things. I feel the same thing about great games. We’ve experimented enough that there are some well-known “good gameplay flavors”. Why rate down a game like Quake 4 because they took an old favorite gameplay base, then smothered it in a beautiful glaze of content and a revolutionary presentation. It is a great game. It’s something familiar with something delightful.
In fact, I think that describes all of my favorite recipes, gaming or food. 