Enemy Territory: Quake Wars [PC]

New screenshots added: 1/13/06

This time, the Quake experience is hitting gamers where they live -- literally. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is set some 50 years in the future, and plays out on the decidedly recognizable (and expansive) battlefields of Mother Earth. Prequel to the events of Quake II, this is where the Quake-'verse friction gets serious, as the alien Strogg bring the war to, well, us (courtesy of a slick, beautifully modified version of the Doom 3 engine).

In order to keep nudging the action and story in directions consistent with Quake's future-history, the sprawling Earthside maps are mission- and objective-based. Battlefields are divided into territories, each containing their own key objectives. Victory by the Earth Defense Force Marines or the Strogg determines how -- and in some cases, where -- subsequent clashes will unfold. And the nastiness the objective-based scheme promises to bring to the multiplayer is solid, radioactive gold.

What's new in Quake Town? The first-person combat is thick with unique vehicles that are wheeled, winged, rotored, bipedal, and antigravitic, there are two very different factions (one fairly conventional, one truly alien). Using the so-named MegaTexture scheme, the designers can present a single, colossal texture (roughly 30,000 x 30,000) that's applied to an entire battlefield, convincingly fusing all different terrain types, and drawn all the way out to the visible horizon.

This means there's no cheesy, cop-out "fog," unless the scenario calls for it. Get yourself on a high enough perch, and you'll be able to view terrain rolling out below you for a mile without interruption.

From what we've seen, Quake Wars goes absolutely nuts on the physics and little details. When vehicles roll off paved roads and onto hardpack, you'll notice little plumes of dust, or even the audible plinks of rocks on the undercarriage. Vehicles are not fixed, static bodies that react to violence merely like bricks with changing textures; indeed, we spent a little too much time gleefully blowing out the independent off-road wheels of armored personnel carriers, just to watch the chassis sag and dip as individual wheels disappeared -- blow out three of an APC's wheels on the same side when the vehicle is parked on a slope, and the vehicle could easily start tumbling down the grade.

In full combat, the combination of real physics and environment allows players to become their own worst enemies, too: Jam a wheeled vehicle over some piles of lumber or debris quickly enough, and momentum may carry you through. Come at the obstruction without enough oomph, and you'll simply end up with your vehicle jammed there, wedged and helpless. One nimble EDF all-terrain quad vehicle seems custom-made for jamming through narrow, entrenched fortifications that would stop a tank cold.

The designers were also kind enough to include some rather unlikely, but immensely fun Evel Knievel-style, river-spanning jump setups. Bonus points if you manage to actually land the quad battle-bike on a Strogg trooper (it could happen).