Quake 3 Arena

* * * * *

PC

id Software

$99.95

MA15+

Review: Peter Eley


Quake and Unreal are the Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield of the PC heavyweight division.

And like their boxing counterparts, it's almost too close to call.

Quake was the undisputed champ of the first-person action game throughout its first two versions, just holding off the graphically superior Unreal on points.

But then Unreal pulled off a tactical masterstroke, attacking Quake's huge online database with Tournament, a game designed specifically for multiplayer mode.

Quake's producer, id Software, has hit back with Arena, the game's third version. Like Unreal Tournament, it is designed as a multiplayer game.

It can be played solo against computer bots, but the lack of any plot or structure limits this mode to practice for the real thing.

Comparisons of the two games are inevitable, but it is too difficult to separate them. Both are first-rate, five-star multiplayer games.

I prefer Quake as a single-player game, but Unreal has better graphics. Unreal seems a bit easier to set up and use in multiplayer mode, although Quake is hardly difficult.

The weapons in both games are uncannily similar, as are the characters, power-ups, controls and modes of play.

One thing to bear in mind when deciding which to buy is that Quake Arena requires lots more grunt.

Its minimum is a Pentium 233 with 64Mb Ram, an Open GL 3D accelerator and an 8Mb video card.

Unreal Tournament runs on a Pentium 200, 32Mb Ram and a standard video card, although that is in "software" mode. High-res graphics require specs more like that of its rival.