With the new column on PnF the ickle grey bits I stick in every so often will dissappear, I'll be using that for all my nutty ramblings. This weeks rant is about addictive games and I recommend you go over and read it. Also Peej and Fribs has a new look now. After going through a green phase, which I thought was ok, its now done up in a nice dark blue colour. Its very smooth looking.

The Big House updated with a couple of reviews earlier in the week. The Featured Review at the moment is SleepWalkR's Pain Elemental. Pop over there for your Quake 2 dose of reviews.

I also noticed Cranky Steve exploded after playing a map that he rated at -50, which is the highest (or should that be lowest?) score he can possibly give. The review isn't really that funny, just seems like a load of crap to me. I think the idea of his reviews are wearing a little on the thin side. Maybe its just that review though, I just wasn't impressed in the slightest by it.

I've canned the UT article for the time being. I was going to do a comparison type thing but since q3a is so behind it, I'll wait till thats sorted out until I finish it.

Heres my quote of the day from Weasl in an IRC chat. The sheep mentioned is good old Shambler!
<weasl> sheep: blow me little web boy

Some good news on the KTimPAKt, its now been released! The finished pak consists of 8 Quake 2 maps and a small mod has some new DM features. I've not properly played it yet but from just running about the map I've seen some pretty impressive stuff.

I now have the Unreal Tournament demo and have to say I like it over the q3a test. Yes, one is only a test (as I keep being reminded) whilst the other is fully finished product, but UT is just so much more fun to play. I'm working on an article about it and hope to have that up soon.

The Big House updated with a couple of new reviews earlier in week. Pop over to see some more quality Quake 2 maps.

I got an interesting email earlier in the week, heres a cut & paste of it:
If you didnt already know we are running a quake 1 mapping contest (More details at: www.converted2.com/bmd ), and the winning map gets inclusion in the new q22p map pack after being converted to q2 by me..  But to cut a long story short we are looking for people to enter the contest (is a 1 on 1 map)
Its an interesting idea, but its not something I'd be interested in doing. If thats your thing pop over to their site for full details on.

The master of hype, El Shambino, caused a bit of a shit storm in the last week or so with his DKT vs Q3a article. Again, another well written article, pop over to speKtrum for more.

First Update
Good morning! Here is an odd numbered batch of Quake reviews for you to enjoy.

The Unreal Tournament demo is out and I'm nearly halfway through downloading the 50Mb monster. Reactions I've heard from various peeps in #terrafusion have been good so I'm looking forward to playing it.

I do have the usual ramblings, but I'll put them up later.

Maybe you've heard the saying Contrary Mary. Well maybe, just maybe, you may see some Quake 2 reviews. Rush seems intent on bugging the f**k out of me until he gets his way so I've let someone have ago at it. Not sure as to if it will work out or not. Can't say I'm all that bothered either.

Must mention the The Big House, a site dedicated to reviewing the best Quake 2 and Quake 3 Arena maps out there. The reviews are in-depth and detailed. Very nice writing style. I think the site design is a little graphic intensive and took me ages to actually get it loaded, but once you're there expect some good reviews.

Also could any of you out there help out this map author. He seems to having a particularly odd problem with his map, Shaft.(551Kb). Heres what he said was the problem, and here is the screen shot for you to look at.
Hello again,
To answer your question, yes, the map will compile, and compiles just fine and normal.  When I put ammo on dry land, then look at it at the right angle, the floor seems to "de-texture," i.e. I get enormously large pixels of the same color.  This is very unfortunate, because it drastically limits the type  of level I can create and how the various rooms can be connected.  If not for that problem, "Pipeline" and "Shaft" most likely would not have had water areas in the first place.  I tried changing QBSP and LIGHT compilers, but the problem is still there.  It could be that this only happens on my machine, and no one else's.  Attached is a screenshotof what I am talking about. Interesting tidbit!!!!!! I just tested a small level that had distortion, and  it only occurred when using Quake.exe.  It did not distort when I ran it with winquake.exe
--Steven
If you can help, then email Steven.

I was browsing through cdrom.com looking for Quake maps when I accidentally downloaded a Quake 2 map. A quick examination of it proved that it was a Cranky Steve map, so I sent in over to him. Go read the Cranky Steve review of Deathmatch on Ice. Reading the review made the download worth while =).

I finally managed to get my grubby mitts on a beta of Warfare3 by Gonzo and has to say its an amazing map. Screen shots don't do it justice. Its apparently a teamplay map (boo, hiss) but its pretty damn good in FFA. Gonzo says we'll have to wait until October 3rd for the final release. Talk about keeping us waiting!

Want to see who is the most keyboard happy in #terrafusion? Well Aardappel, using mircStats has taken all the chat logs he has recorded in the last 3 months and chucked them in there to create this pretty amazing stats list.

I did try to email Chris 'Appendix' vd. Linden earlier this week but my email got bounced. If you're reading this email me can you give me your correct email address. Thanks.

The poll that I mentioned last week has been redone but basically it had become a rigfest with some shitty Runners Delight map at the top. So once again go back and add your vote, that is if you can be bothered. I would like you to do it though because currently a rocketman sits at the top.
THE BEST QUAKE DM MAP EVER MADE
http://www.freevote.com/booth/quakemaps
There is also a best Quake bot poll as well and I think you know which bot starting with "O" I put my vote on and no it ain't the Oak bot. That thing couldn't tell its arse from its elbow.
THE BEST QUAKE BOT EVER MADE
http://www.freevote.com/booth/quakebot

Thresh's Firingsquad has a good article up on the Intel Roadmap. I don't usually read these things, but I decided to for a change. Continuing with the FiringSquad, there is also a couple (1 and 2) of extremely good articles on the Dreamcast. Something which I may buy. Unfortunately its release has been delayed by 3 weeks. It was originally pencilled in for the 23rd here in the UK, now its back to October, due to Sega in discussions with BT to get free internet access. Not that I'm all that bothered though, I don't intent on buying one until next year when there are more games are out for it.

My registered copy of Deep97 (Doom map editor) arrived earlier on in the week. I've started make some ickle test maps just to get back into using the editor, no real problems. Seems pretty easy. The reason I'm doing this is because on the Qboard there doom2 sp map project going on. Heres the link for the thread : Qboard Retro Mapping Project: Doom2 SP Megawad.

Some good news on the job front. I'm now employed! It happened in a similar way as to how Pingu got his job. Basically I turned up for an interview, had a good chat with the guys there, got home and found an email there offering me the job. Wahoo!

Carl Foggerty has won his fourth superbike championship with races to spare. Unfortunately in Formula 1 Mika Hakkinen is trying to make things as hard a possible when he comes to him keeping the championship title. I'm a little bit miffed at him for completely screwing up his race by spinning his car off the track when he was clearly ahead. Poor guy then went and cried in the bushes. Hehehe. Lucky though those scummy Ferrari's didn't score that many points.

The Stanley Kubrick mini season they had on Channel 4 last weekend was pretty good. I finally watched The Shining and Full Metal Jacket properly. Both good films but questionable in that they leave so many unanswered questions. So what I did was popped over to Amazon and bought the book of The Shining by Stephen King. Apparently the film is only a loose interpretation of the book, but even so it was full of holes. I'm now a quarter of the way into the book now and things are certainly a lot clearer.

Looks like there were some mistakes in the archives. Like me forgetting XL Genocide Crush, Trondm1 and Efdm9-11. ProdigyXL sussed out that I'd left his map out on purpose ;).

The mystery of the funny map name on YOOM (reviewed on Sunday) has been solved. The author informs me that he has 6 cats and so he has named his maps after them. Which means we have 5 more maps on the way!

I got quite a few emails in from people about Quake 2 reviews. Thanks to everyone that emailed me with their kind comments.

I've been told to mention this, so I will.
THE BEST CUSTOM QUAKE MAP EVER MADE
http://www.freevote.com/booth/quakemaps
I've had a look and whilst its a tad on the garish side, there are some good maps there. The list is of recent maps though which was a little odd. Maybe it should be a vote on the best of recent Quake maps. There are some classic maps which are just as good. Anyway I slapped my voted on P3a Domination.

Also my brilliant ISP upgraded over the weekend. It was meant to take about 8 hours, from late Saturday to earlier Sunday. Well things came back online today at 5 today, only 30+ hours after they said it would. So any email that was send to me over the weekend and today has been chewed up, so if you send me anything, please resend it.

First Update
I would have had all this up yesterday but PQ's ftp was completely knacked. Oh well.

Odd has popped by with an anatomical correct piccy of our lovable Shambler. Also here are a few Quake reviews for you all to chew on. I've put up part of the new archives as well. At the moment its just what was originally there before resorted but I am working on adding the rest of the reviews. Please do take a look at them and point out any mistakes you find.

Also here are the last Quake 2 reviews you'll see here at MPQ. I apologise for there being no piccys on them, but I'm buggered if I'm going to sort them out. My reasons for this decision are explained below:

No more Quake 2 reviews.
I've decided after some considerable thought to stop doing Quake 2 reviews here at MPQ. First of all I would like to apologise to all the authors who have submitted their maps which will, unfortunately, never get reviewed. We do have a list of maps, which I'll sort out so you all see what was meant to be reviewed.

The current staff due to all sorts of personal reasons have not been able to produce reviews at a regular enough rate. Please do not go flaming them. In hindsight I should have made sure I could get reliable people, but this is not an easy thing to do. You have to trust who you get in and unfortunately in this case things have not worked out.

Secondly I pondered on doing less reviews. Just reviewing good maps. For me there is a conflict of interests in that area, Inspection is meant to do that. Which incidentally is what Rush is now doing. He has moved to Inspection to do in-depth Quake 2 reviews there. Anyway, the second grey spot in this area is that it breaks the philosophy of "MPQ Reviews all." I don't think its right doing just good maps, simply because its unfair on authors who submit details and then we reply saying "Sorry your maps not up to it."

Third reason is that I'd rather have no reviews than some. A gradual trickle of half assed reviews is not good.

Then there are the annoying snide comments from various sources. I find it extremely annoying that I get shit when I've done nothing wrong. And thats part of the problem, nothing was being done. Well this is the action I've taken to remedy the situation.

With regards to changing my mind on this. The answer is firmly NO. I seriously doubt I'll get much encouragement to do so and even if I did, it would involve having to get more reviewers. In that case I've been burnt twice, I ain't doing it a third time. I would like to say thank you to the people who offered help on the Qboard but it is not required.

This does also cause problems for potential Quake 3 Arena reviews. My own opinion on it that the game in its current form is piss poor and the general style and feel of it all is definitely not to my liking. The gothic high tech stuff is shit. Maybe the full game will show more variation in this, I certainly hope so. I was originally going to switch some of the reviewers over to Q3A when the game came out but this will not happen now. This then rises the problem that outside help will undoubtedly be required and its not something I like doing anymore. Having to prompt people for reviews is not fun. In fact its turning more into an administrative job than just a fun thing to do in my spare time.

Rest assured though, my support for Quake will not change. I *will* continue with Quake reviews since it is a game I love.

Finally I would like to say thanks to Monsto, Agent Orange, Cauterizer and Christian for their work here at MPQ. Best of luck with what ever else you guys work on.

Thank you.

With that done, I'll ramble on a bit. I downloaded the Driver demo yesterday. I was hoping the faults of the games crappy engine would be sorted. Unfortunately it hasn't, whilst it does look alot better than its Playstation counterpart, it still suffers from huge amounts of pop up. Its annoying to just see the roads and buildings just appear out of no where. Midtown Madness doesn't have this problems! Admittedly it is fun to play with a steering wheel, but I do feel that the forcefeed back could be a little stronger.