Product Description

Quake 4 takes you back to the front as you fight against an unrelenting alien enemy. Armed with advanced weaponry and vehicles and aided by an elite squad of marines, you take the battle to the heart of the Strogg home planet and become Earth's only hope for victory. They're regrouping but with their planetary defenses ruined, you have a chance to deliver a full and final assault. You are Matthew Kane, an elite member of Rhino Squad, and part of Earth's next invasion wave. With the Makron assumed dead, your squad is taking part in an operation to take advantage of the disarray and mop up the rest of the enemy forces on the Strogg planet. But your drop ship gets hit and comes down hard, killing a large chunk of your squadmates at the opening of the game. From there, you'll pull yourself up out of the muck and get down to business.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3552 in Video Games
• Brand: Activision
• Model: 47875329737
• Released on: 2005-10-18
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platform: Windows XP
• Format: CD-ROM
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 1.10" h x 5.50" w x 7.75" l, .45 pounds

Features

• Arena-style multiplayer that allows players to play as Strogg or Marine in deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture-the-flag modes
• Fight alongside other marines in both small squad missions along with large, epic battles
• Diversity of combat with indoor and outdoor environments along with mechanized walkers and hover tanks to pilot
• Battle through the early portion of the game as an elite marine, then after your capture as a "Stroggified" marine with enhanced abilities
• DVD edition includes Quake II plus two expansion packs, Making of Quake 4: Behind the Scenes, developer interview, and concept art

From the Manufacturer
In the mid-21st century, a barbaric alien race called the Strogg launched a massive invasion on Earth. Originally believed to be an attempt to strip the planet of its natural resources, humans soon discover that the Strogg are simply after only the human remains of those they kill. Through a horrific process, the limbs and flesh of the fallen are fused with metal and machinery to create the monstrosities that are the alien Strogg.

Defeat the Strogg on their own turf

The Strogg and humans battle for years on Earth, but as resources become depleted, Earth mounts a counter-assault on the Strogg homeworld. The first assault force is launched from the fleet and encounters overwhelming resistance--most of the drop-ships are destroyed by the Strogg homeworld's massive defense weapon known as "The Big Gun." However, one surviving Marine breaks through and is able to destroy the big gun and ultimately defeat the Strogg leader, the Makron. But the war did not end there.

You are Matthew Kane, a member of the elite Rhino Squad and part of the next massive invasion that spans across the entire Stroggos planet. Equipped with hi-tech weapons, vehicles and teamed with Earth's top marine squadron you soon realize that this war is far from over. In fact, your worst nightmare is soon realized when you discover that the only way to defeat the Strogg is to become one of them.

This Special Edition package of the game also includes:

• Concept and Production Art Gallery
• Quake II plus expansion packs Reckoning and Ground Zero
• The Making of Quake 4: Behind the Scenes
• Interviews with id Software and Raven Software

Customer Reviews

Rezet's Xbox 360 vs PC Game Review: Quake 4
Sometimes, very rarely a 3D shooter playes better on a console than it does on a PC. Well, it's not one of those times. As a matter of fact for those who have played a PC version of Quake 4, playing it on Xbox 360 will be a huge step down. Surely the HDTV graphics are there and overall the game looks similar to the PC version, but controls are again the weakest link here.

Well, since the opening was about the "bad parts" of the game, let's go ahead and get though them before we get to the "good ones".

Having played Quake 4 on PC, and deciding to be a hot shot by start the Xbox 360's verion right away on the "corporal" difficulty, I quickly realized how bad of an idea that was. Aiming is certainly something that takes a good time to get used to with a controller. But even after about 5 hours I was still no where near good at locking into enemies and strafe dodging shots as I was on a PC after only 10 minutes of play.
Surely by switching to the "private" difficulty I was able to get though the game with a relative ease but the excitement wasn't there. All underminded by the fact that 3D shooters are meant to be played with a keyboard and a mouse.

The graphics in this game while not "Half-Life 2" realism like, are certainly pretty. And if you enjoy watching people get cut in half with saws, you will certainly appreciate all the character, textures, particle effects (yes, blood) and lighting quality of this game. (On the same note, if you enjoy it TOO much, you may want to see a doctor *wink*).

The problem, however, lies in the inconsistent FPS (Frames Per Second). Many times FPS plunge into low teen numbers, making the game a slide show for a few seconds. It wouldn't have been a problem if that happend every now and then but frames don't stay consistent for more than a couple of minutes at a time. Combined with already hard to work with targeting system, it can bring pure hell in certain situations and quickly lead to death. Which then leads to perhaps the last big problem in the game - long "loading" times. Loading times can last in excess of 30 seconds. And although they don't appear often if you progress though the game (about once every 30 minutes), they can become enormously irratating if you keep dieing. In situations where it takes more than simply shooting at the enemy (usually boss fights), it may lead to situations of running into a room, getting nailed with one hit and looking at "loading" screen. It can test a patience of those who are not sure what they are doing and die in seconds only to look at spinning Quake logo for half a minute, over and over.

On the good side, however, the game is a well made 3D shooter from the point of level designs, overall graphics, and a relatively deep storyline for a what most would consider "mindless shooter". The story is easy to get into: Stroggs are continuing the fight against the human race. So as one of the marines you get dropped off on their planet to show them who the boss is. The missions are the ones that tell you story from a "brotherhood" military point perspective. You know that the war is going on, but inside the game it's more about surviving together with fellow marines. Assigned to the squad, you constantly on the move to help others, and AI (CPU controlled NPCs) do a surprisingly good job helping you as well. Which certainly takes away the feeling many other shooters give you that you are actually "baby sitting" the NPCs instead of working as a team.

Through out the game you get to know quite a few peronalities and spend most of the game fighting along side of them. Never knowing who will live and who will die. It isn't until you get deeper inside enemy bases that makes you understand why this game deserves a strong "M" rating. The images of graphical torture of captured fellow marines, blood and gore are everywhere. But what can you expect from a complex called "Strogg's Medical Facility"?

The level and environemt designs are good, but at times can get a bit seamless. And the fact that many missions force you going back and forth though same rooms - certainly doesn't help. But it isn't significanly de-valueing the game overall.

There is a good choice of weapons in the game that get modified through out the game for a bigger punch. And there are a number of vehicles available for the use through out the short missions (usually outside). It seems fun but certainly nothing you haven't aleady seen before in other 3D shooters.

Multiplayer is pretty good and certainly adds a good amount of fun to the game. However, Xbox 360's version suffers from the same problems mentioned above. Where things like precise controls play bigger role than they do in a campaign mode. Making a PC version truly shine and leaving 360's version in the dust.

Overall, this game is an almost perfect example of what you would expect from "big hitter" companies like Raven Software and Id Software. But I wish they had taken a slight risk and tried to add something new to the game to spice it up and make it stick out from the rest.

PC version of this game strongly deserves 4.5 our of 5 stars. Xbox 360 version, however, is proabably somewhere in between of 3.5 and 4 stars out of 5. Mostly due to problems mentioned in the beginning of this review. One thing can be guaranteed is that you will have a blast playing it if you are into linear Gory, and Bloody 3D "twitch" shooters. The only suggestion here is to get the game for a PC if you have a powerful enough computer. If you don't, you will still have a blast on Xbox 360. Just probably not as a big one.

Fan-freakin'-tastic
The latest in the Quake series is just short of perfect. Quake 4 follows the story from Quake II (which is included in the DVD edition of the game), and, like Quake II, is completely unrelated to Quake I and Quake III.

The story itself is fairly well done, better than most shooters (hard to be worse than nothing, lol). A couple small things here and there are unexplained (like the multiple Makrons...), but they are definitely not story stoppers. Moves pretty well.

Top notch graphics, based off the Doom 3 engine. A little intense for most computers, but once you set it to what your box can handle, it still looks wonderful. I had mine set to near-lowest settings (since my hardware is nearly three years old), and it still looked and moved fluidly.

The gameplay is fantastic, with nearly non-stop action. There's a lot of unit-based action, with the player spending quite a bit of time with other soldiers and even developing a bit of a bond with his own unit, Rhino squad. Enemies are always coming from everywhere, though a cleared area usually stays clear (thank you id). There are a couple pathetic attempts to include puzzles later in the game, though they are easy enough.

There are a few vehicle levels (riding in a troop carrier, driving a tank, driving a mech, and riding in a tram) which are very well done, proving difficult but not impossible. I would've liked to see more tank or mech time, but the game is already pretty long.

The sound is pretty sad. I had to pull some tricks out of nowhere to get it to work, and even then it all sounds really tinny. It gets the point across, though, so it's not a total failure. Honestly, I'm not even sure if there is music in the game. I want to say that there is, but I can't remember any for the life of me. So I suppose the soundtrack, if there is one, is completely forgettable.

Scores:
Gameplay - 9/10
Sound - 6/10
Graphics - 9/10
Story - 8/10

Overall - 9/10
Well done and very much worth picking up when they support more hardware (or if you have the extra cash and an itchy trigger finger).

*Note: the above scores are my opinion, and are not based on any system. Also, I run Quake 4 on a AMD Athlon XP 2600+ with 512MB DDR400 and a GeForce FX5600 with 256MB vram, which is running SuSE Linux 10.0. [...]

Hold up! This is NOT a DOOM clone!
Whoa! Some folks are comparing this to DOOM! No way! Firstly, the AI is much improved. You aren't stuck in constant corridors where the AI doesn't have to have a brain. It just has to 'be' right in front of you, and come at you.
Not so here. I have actually watched the enemy AI step away and hide behind a pole until i passed the pole and shoot me in the back! You gotta keep your eyes on this one.
Of course, it can be a system hog. I have a P4 3200 + 1 GIG DDR RAM + 256 MB DDR PCI EXPRESS ATI VIDEO + SOUND BLASTER AUDIO. With those specs, i got a REALLY sweet framerate that hardly dropped under 75 fpm. That with a 1024X768 screen setting and *MOST* features cranked. I was glad they alowed key binding to be changeable, and that they included the save anytime feature also. NO FREAKIN' CHECKPOINTS! I see minor comparisons to HALO and DOOM and even F.E.A.R. But, not so much that the game feels derivative. I thought the graphics were sweet at the settings i chose. And, the weapons sound incredible. You can almost smell the gunpowder. This is worth every penny.