Quake IV on Xbox 360 (2005)

Brief synopsis of Quake IV

Being a console owner, youll probably not have heard of a game called Quake. A long time ago, a company called id brought out a game called Quake, in which you single-handedly had to defeat wave upon wave of zombies and demons, whilst armed with nail guns, rocket launchers and the like. The game picked up where ids own Doom had left off, further expanding the newborn first person shooter genre. Then Quake II came out, with more of the same gory blasting action. But it was further distinguished by its excellent multiplayer mode, in which players could roam mazelike granite environments under swirling orange skies. Even today, first person shooters are shaped by what went on in those early LAN parties, at the birth of rocket jumps, head shots, and mouse and keyboard control.

The blank canvas of Quake IIs multiplayer, and the modding community that grew up around it gave the game a longevity far greater than any single player content could ever have offered. So much so that when Quake III finally came out, it did not even have a single player mode in the traditional sense. The developers at id simply set out to create as high fidelity an engine as they could, packaged with an assortment of player skins.

Since then, the company turned its attention back to their earlier, Doom creation, with the emphasis on the single player experience. The result was the terrifying and supremely polished Doom 3. They gave the languishing Quake license over to Raven Software. The people at Raven are now releasing their own take on the Quake universe. And using the Doom 3 engine, theyve taken the franchise back to its own single player roots. Dont expect an amazing multiplayer mode, instead Quake offers a single player experience much more fast paced than its psychological horror sister, with more enemies, and hectic gameplay. Quake III made it onto a console, the PS2, and didnt compare favourably with the graphical sharpness offered on PC. Now the Xbox 360 puts it dukes up and gives PCs a run for their money.