Quake 3: Team Arena First Look

id has decided to include, actually introduce a new weapon in this demo --- the Prox Launcher. The introduction of the Prox Launcher is a logical extension to the Q3TA basic concept since the gameplay is pretty much split into offensive and defensive elements (dough, just like any CTF in existence). The Prox Launcher has proved to be a very valuable asset during combat, both as an offensive and a defensive weapon, and I dare say this is the most noteworthy tactics-wise innovation in the demo. Prox Launcher spits out proximity mines that detonate when an enemy player stumbles, or gets near it. They can also be pinned to your teammates turning them into these exploding Kamikaze units... used for well... blowing the enemy up(the demo also features the Kamikaze item). As I said, proximity mines can be used as a very effective offensive weapon if you manage to get to the enemy base in time. The mines don't detonate when near a friendly unit leaving you with the option of setting up a "defensive" assault:

HARVESTER: just get to the enemy base before the enemy does, deal with the defenders, and then lay mines all over the place. Works like a charm on bots trying to chase your guy carrying the skulls in the Harvester mode. Also, you can kinda "defend" the enemy base like that, or provide excellent backup for the flag carrier in CTF when you're near the enemy base. Each time an enemy trips on one of your deadly little buggers, you get "Defense" points, which I found to be strangely rewarding. Just like when you get a mark for railing the guy twice in a row.

Speaking of bots, they've shown some good path finding and some nifty team-oriented strategies. Q3TA bots actually exhibit all the characteristics that the Q3A bots lacked. Those being of course the intelligent team commands --- advanced tactics like: base defending, providing cover for teammates, and actually looking to score in a CTF game. We've played the bots in co-op mode on Hard Core and they posed a decent enough challenge for a while... However, as it is the case with most bots, it doesn't take long to figure out their favorite waypoints and kinda capitalize on that knowledge. Bear in mind that Team Arena is still primarily an online game geared towards the good-ol' Quake 1, and 2 CTF clans that I'm sure were just dying to play a decent, well-designed Qauke 3 CTF game. As for the Team Arena Demo innovations, Kamikaze and the Prox Launcher are the only novelties setting ground for new tactics. The so-called new game types are just variations of the CTF mod, lacking any genuinely unique features.

That's not to say of course that playing TA isn't a whole lot of fun. I mean I did mention that we've been playing the damn thing for 6 hours straight! Although Team Arena demo doesn't offer anything revolutionary, I've still found it to be a lot more intense than the classic deathmatch, and I'm sure there is a boatload of features hidden away in the final version. Still, I can't shake this feeling that Team Arena should've been a part of the original game to begin with.

PS: One other eye-candy feature worth a mention is the implementation of .AVI files into the real-time rendered scenes; a technique much ballyhooed in several DNF-related announcements. Finally, the new UI looks nice, and it's definitely more intuitive than the one in Q3A.