Quake Champions | |
---|---|
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Developer(s) | |
Publisher(s) | Bethesda Softworks |
Director(s) | Tim Willits [1] |
Producer(s) |
|
Designer(s) | Adam Pyle |
Programmer(s) | Billy Ethan Khan |
Artist(s) | Shinichiro Hara |
Composer(s) | |
Series | Quake |
Engine | |
Platform(s) | Windows |
Release | August 18, 2022 |
Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Quake Champions is a first-person arena shooter developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fifth main entry in the Quake series, following 2005's Quake 4 . The game was first released in early access on August 22, 2017; [4] since August 10, 2018, the game has been free-to-play. [1] [5] The game's full version was released on August 18, 2022. [6]
Quake Champions was announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016. The game features a large quantity of playable characters, with each having access to one or more 'passive abilities', and one 'active ability' [7] that must be triggered by a key-press. [5] The game was promised to be a "fast paced arena based shooter". It will not be released on consoles due to hardware limitations. [1]
At QuakeCon 2016, creative-director Tim Willits revealed that Quake Champions does not run on the id Tech 6 game engine, but instead works on a hybrid engine made up of id tech and Saber tech, which means a number of the features seen in Doom are not native to Quake Champions, [8] such as virtual reality, Vulkan API, SnapMaps and mod support, [9] although mod support is potentially planned after initial release. [9] It was revealed that Quake Champions was originally considered as an expansion to Quake Live , a revamped version of Quake III Arena released in 2010. [10] The game went into closed beta on April 6, 2017, [11] and was released onto Steam's early access program on August 22.
It is stated that the game would feature a free-to-play option, allowing players to play as Ranger, with additional characters available for purchase, similar to the model used in Killer Instinct . [12] [13]
At E3 2017 B.J. Blazkowicz of the Wolfenstein series was announced as a playable character. [14]
At E3 2018, Bethesda announced the availability of a free-to-play trial that is downloadable on Steam. Players who sign up during the free trial period will be able to keep playing for free after the game launch. [15] [16] Early access to the game was available for purchase at $30 on Steam. [17]
Andrew Hulshult announced on his Twitter that he will be composing new music for the game. Hulshult previously composed music for the modification Brutal Doom and Apogee Software titles like 2013's Rise of the Triad and 3D Realms' Bombshell . [18]
During Quakecon 2018, it was announced that Quake Champions would be free-to-play and open to all players on August 10. [19] At launch, the game made use of loot boxes containing random cosmetic items. It later transitioned to a battle pass model in December, with players earning "shards" from weekly challenges to unlock new cosmetics. [20]
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The game has been well-received by fans of the Quake series, but has failed to keep the player's attention for longer than other free-to-play games. [21]
The game was nominated for "Fan-favorite Shooter Game" at the Gamers' Choice Awards, [22] and for "Best Action Game" at the Titanium Awards. [23]
id Software LLC is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack.
A first-person shooter engine is a video game engine specialized for simulating 3D environments for use in a first-person shooter video game. First-person refers to the view where the players see the world from the eyes of their characters. Shooter refers to games which revolve primarily around wielding firearms and killing other entities in the game world, either non-player characters or other players.
Tim Willits is the former studio director, co-owner, and level designer of id Software. As of August 2019, Willits is the chief creative officer at Saber Interactive. He became a Director of 3D Realms with Saber Interactive’s acquisition of the company.
Splash Damage Ltd. is a British video game developer specialising in multiplayer first-person shooter video games. The studio is best known as the creators of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.
id Tech 4, popularly known as the Doom 3 engine, is a game engine developed by id Software and first used in the video game Doom 3. The engine was designed by John Carmack, who also created previous game engines, such as those for Doom and Quake, which are widely recognized as significant advances in the field. This OpenGL-based game engine has also been used in Quake 4, Prey, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Wolfenstein, and Brink. id Tech 4 is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later.
Doomguy is the protagonist of the Doom game series by id Software. He was created by American video game designer John Romero and was introduced as the player character in the original 1993 video game Doom. Within the Doom series, Doomguy is a demon hunter space marine dressed in green combat armor who rarely speaks onscreen, and his personality and backstory were intentionally vague to reinforce his role as a player avatar. In Doom Eternal, he is voiced by American voice actor Matthew Waterson, while Jason Kelley voices the character in that game's downloadable content The Ancient Gods: Part Two, and was portrayed by Karl Urban in the 2005 film adaptation. He has appeared in several other games developed by id Software, including Quake Champions and Quake III Arena.
Wolfenstein is a series of World War II video games originally developed by Muse Software. The majority of the games follow William "B.J." Blazkowicz, an American Army captain, and his fight against the Axis powers. Earlier titles are centered around Nazis attempting to harness supernatural and occult forces, while later games are set in an alternate history in which Axis powers won World War II.
William Joseph "B.J." Blazkowicz is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Wolfenstein series of alternate history video games starting with 1992's Wolfenstein 3D. An American spy of Polish and Jewish descent, he specializes in one-man missions behind enemy lines. In addition to fighting the regular German army he also frequently encounters bizarre Nazi experiments concerning biomechanical technology and the occult.
id Tech is a series of separate game engines designed and developed by id Software. Prior to the presentation of the id Tech 5-based game Rage in 2011, the engines lacked official designation and as such were simply referred to as the Doom and Quake engines, from the name of the main game series the engines had been developed for. "id Tech" has been released as free software under the GNU General Public License. id Tech versions 0 to 3 were released under GPL-2.0-or-later. id Tech versions 3.5 to 4.5 were released under GPL-3.0-or-later. id Tech 5 to 7 are proprietary, with id Tech 7 currently being the latest utilized engine.
Rage is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks, released in October 2011 for Microsoft Windows, the PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360, and in February 2012 for OS X. It was first shown as a tech demo at the 2007 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference and was announced at the QuakeCon. Rage uses id Software's id Tech 5 game engine and is the final game released by the company under the supervision of founder John Carmack.
Doom is a 2016 first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game is the first major installment in the Doom series since 2004's Doom 3 and was a reboot of the franchise. It was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in May 2016. A port for Nintendo Switch was co-developed with Panic Button and released in November 2017, and a version for Google Stadia was released in August 2020. Players take the role of an unnamed space marine, known as the "Doom Slayer", as he battles demonic forces within an energy-mining facility on Mars and in Hell.
Doom is an American media franchise created by John Carmack, John Romero, Adrian Carmack, Kevin Cloud, and Tom Hall. The series usually focuses on the exploits of an unnamed space marine operating under the auspices of the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC), who fights hordes of demons and the undead to save Earth from an apocalyptic invasion.
A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through the eyes of the main character. This genre shares multiple common traits with other shooter games, and in turn falls under the action games category. Since the genre's inception, advanced 3D and pseudo-3D graphics have proven fundamental to allow a reasonable level of immersion in the game world, and this type of game helped pushing technology progressively further, challenging hardware developers worldwide to introduce numerous innovations in the field of graphics processing units. Multiplayer gaming has been an integral part of the experience, and became even more prominent with the diffusion of internet connectivity in recent years.
MachineGames Sweden AB is a Swedish video game developer based in Uppsala. The studio was founded in 2009 by seven former employees of Starbreeze Studios, including founder Magnus Högdahl. After unsuccessfully pitching game ideas to several publishers, MachineGames agreed with Bethesda Softworks to develop an entry in the Wolfenstein series in July 2010 and was acquired by Bethesda's parent company, ZeniMax Media, in November. In the Wolfenstein series, MachineGames developed The New Order (2014), The Old Blood (2015), The New Colossus (2017), Youngblood (2019), and Cyberpilot (2019). The studio is developing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (2024) as well as another Wolfenstein game.
Wolfenstein: The New Order is a 2014 action-adventure first-person shooter video game developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks. It was released on 20 May 2014 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The game is the seventh main entry in the Wolfenstein series, set in an alternate history 1960s Europe where the Nazis won the Second World War. The story follows war veteran William "B.J." Blazkowicz and his efforts to stop the Nazis from ruling over the world.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is a 2017 action-adventure and first-person shooter game developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks. The eighth main entry in the Wolfenstein series and the sequel to 2014's Wolfenstein: The New Order, the game is set in an alternate history that takes place in 1961, following the Nazi victory in the Second World War. The story follows war veteran William "B.J." Blazkowicz and his efforts to fight against the Nazi regime in the United States. Gameplay mechanics are largely similar to those of The New Order, though the team introduced improvements such as allowing players to dual-wield any combination of weapons in the game. A binary choice in the prologue alters the game's entire storyline; some characters and small plot points are replaced throughout the timelines.
Doom Eternal is a 2020 first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks. The sequel to Doom (2016), and the seventh game in the Doom series, it was released for PlayStation 4, Stadia, Windows, and Xbox One on March 20, 2020, with a port for Nintendo Switch released on December 8, 2020, and versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S released on June 29, 2021.
Andrew Hulshult is an American video game music composer and sound designer. He is best known for his work with 3D Realms as well as his scores for several first-person shooters, such as Dusk, Quake Champions, and Doom Eternal.