Quake Live Beta Opening Next Week

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Browser-based games make up a significant portion of PC gaming these days, but it’s not all just Tower Defence and Bejeweled games.

Going into public beta next week is id Software’s Quake Live, which isn’t really a new game at all. Quake Live is Quake III Arena ported for in-browser play.

Unlike Quake III Arena, and most other PC games, Quake Live requires no manual install other than just accepting a browser plugin. Although Quake III Arena does run across multiple platforms, currently Quake Live is just for Windows with Internet Explorer or Firefox. Support for Mac OS X and Linux are still in development.

From our own experiences with the Quake Live private beta, we found it to perfectly recreate the old Quake III Arena experience, replicating the “feel” and precise controls of the game that we so fondly remember.

Keep an eye on QuakeLive.com on February 24 and be sure to sign up for an account if you miss the days of simple, pure fraggin’ fun.

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Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
14 Comments Comment from the forums
  • WTF ? :)))))
    The biggest crap that I ever heard.
    Why in the world should we play this crap ?
    Wouldn't be easier to install the freeking game on PC and play just "oldschool" ? wtf these people are thinking ?
    Reply
  • zerapio
    I've played it for a bit and boy does it live to its source. They have most of the popular game mods already built in like DM (duel) TDM, CTF, Instagib and I think Rocket Arena. Game performance is very good and I haven't noticed issues. Auto matching works well. You can play in a browser window or full screen. There's access to the console to change some settings. I haven't tried usin my old config spec though. There are a lot of Team Arena maps in the rotation for those that like it.

    The game has ads inside the maps and look like big signs or billboards placed in high trafficked areas. I didn't find them distracting at all.
    Reply
  • michaelahess
    I've been in this beta for almost the entire time. I love it, brings back old memories of college :) And it runs very well on my intel 950 based Lenovo laptop.
    Reply
  • NuclearShadow
    I bet if someone said we would be playing Quake III in a browser back in its prime they would have thought we were crazy. I wonder how far browser gaming will go. It could be very profitable if there are ads when loading new maps and such.
    Reply
  • ADM-86
    bla blaWTF ? ))))The biggest crap that I ever heard.Why in the world should we play this crap ?Wouldn't be easier to install the freeking game on PC and play just "oldschool" ? wtf these people are thinking ?Goddd people don't seem to evolve in way that they improve their intelligence, they just evolve to prove us in many ways how stupid they are.
    Reply
  • engrpiman
    I have been playing it. It has been great fun. The reason I don't play "oldschool" is because Quake live runs better and only takes 3 clicks to get into the action.
    Reply
  • coolgamer512
    I got into the beta a little over a week ago, yet I signed for the beta several months, maybe even a year ago. I'm glad to finnaly see that everyone will be able to play Quake Live. It's pretty impressive for a web browser game.
    Reply
  • Technologies8
    the improvements are good
    i dont remember signing up...
    somehow i must have though

    improvements over quake 3 are immediate and are worth noting

    i just wish i could tell it to install to my g:\games\ folder instead of directly under my user files
    i dont keep files on the system drive for a reason!


    it will be great when the servers are packed
    Reply
  • abbadaba
    Oh man. I cant wait til this thing goes live so I can wreck droves of newbies expecting a typical flash-tetris-with-explosions game.


    Reply
  • captaincharisma
    this is awesome. i Hope they will do the same thing for the original unreal tournament too
    Reply