Quake 4 screenshots

[Canadian*Sniper]

GOD DAMN AMERICAAAAAAANNSSSS!!!! eh?

[Canadian*Sniper]

I just played some Quake4. The dm2 map came in the patch. Anywhere where you'd like to rocketjump or take the elevator, have been replaced by these bungee jump things.

The simple to jump across area near the Megahealth no longer requires buttons for any of the areas near it. It's an insult to my quake1 dm jumping skills. How I'd do a U turn jump across the lava to get to the megahealth without having to push the button and waist time.

The hallway leading to the RL doesn't have the tricky platforms below lava anymore and there's no button to press to open up the locked teleport which isn't locked anymore.

In the main area, the buttons to open the lava trap are still there but the teleports near the buttons don't transport you to your death anymore if you're hasty. You appear near the Quad area.

Speaking of the Quad area, some people joined my game while I was wandering about. They'd always take the bungee jump platforms because they never heard of RJing. They'd bungee near the quad but I'd just RJ near the quad and get the first grab.

I asked these guys if they ever played quake1, they didn't. Needless to say I have the advantage over them with quake1 experience. The physics is pretty much the same but it's still Quake3 with better graphics. On a plus note, the nailgun is back!

[Fuzznut]

I like Quake 4. To me it plays almost exactly like Quake 2 except for the return of the Lightning Bolt and the nailgun! That is in DM play. In Single Player it's different enough and good enough I think to warrant a look.

[hexed6]

Took me a while to squint and look at it, then I said, "HEY, IT'S CLAUSTROPHOBOPOLIS!!"

Haw, I did that too, only it came out more like "Claustrophobomofobopolopolis". Say that three times fast.

[golden_boy]

Yay for resurrecting old threads!

Contrary to what I said above, I of course bought the German version later, just to take a look. I wasn't especially impressed, and some parts of the game felt somehow weird...

Now I know why. I lately got the uncensored version, and while playing through, I discovered an entirely new game :-(

Why :-( ?

Because I'm right now pretty pissed, and also sad, about how I was cheated out of the game's true experience because of censorship.

Censorship in this game (German version) has to be seen to be believed. It is almost like finding out that half your life was a big lie - and other people knew it all along. The censorship breaks both the game's story (which I knew beforehand) and the intended atmosphere of the levels (which I didn't know). While playing the German "Quake4", I was wondering why some levels seemed somehow empty, and why certain things seemed to be set up and lit in a way as if they should be interesting, but weren't. There was also a subtle lack of details in the game, and places that felt unfinished or seemed to have no purpose. And finally, I simply didn't understand what some of the squad were talking about when there seemed to be nothing interesting going on.

There was this vague feeling that things were somehow missing all over the game. I just couldn't quite put my finger on it, it seemed like weird / bad level design at the time.

Of course I knew that the German version was censored. I was prepared to see no blood when shooting Strogg and things like that. I knew that they cut most of the Stroggification sequence. Well. Sure. That used to be about the usual amount of censorship in games. But boy, was I wrong.

They went so much further with this. The amount of work "they" put into "cleaning up" this game is simply breathtaking. They didn't just eliminate blood particles when shot. No, sir!

They went and changed the textures in most of the game. It turns out that the game was largely intended to look bloody. So, blood on walls, floors and ceilings was removed and spanky clean replacement textures were dropped in. I mean, gosh. That's crazy. Who would change so many textures in a game?

Next, models / prefabs were partly reskinned (wounded soldiers have no blood on them etc), and partly removed. Torsos and body parts, and prefabs that included them, were either taken away, or substituted with new models. Partly they were just walled off. All the bodybags were removed, along with most dead or injured soldiers. That's just extreme.

All Stroyent health stations in the game were exchanged with new, generic models that look like silver balls. Some Failed Transfers look like silver robots.

Loading screens were censored and removed for generic looking ones because of the tiniest "wrong" detail in them.

Cinematics and cutscenes were either cut (Stroggification) or corrected. For example, the intro has no more floating bodies. All you see is some wreckage floating through space - it's now devoid of any meaning. The cutscene where Medic Anderson gets mutilated and abducted by a Strogg was changed so the glass wall became solid - for seconds, you only see weird camera movement against a solid texture.

All this is really startling. I had no idea they went to these lengths now. Imagine the effort they put into it. They changed the game down to the tiniest details! It's insane!

Here's a relatively complete study, with pictures of the changes. Left is original, right is German, although the pics speak for themselves.

Quake 4 - Schnittberichte.com (Zensur-News und Schnittberichte zu mehr als 5000 Filmen und Spielen)

Needless to say, I'm a bit more fond of Quake 4 now that I played the game as it was intended to be. I finally know why the guy said "reactivate the torso things" (I was like wtf, what torsos?) and why another guy says "Just when you think the Strogg couldn't sink any lower, I see shit like this" (I was like, wtf are you talking about dude?) and another soldier remarks, "I guess that's what they planned for all of us" (again, I was like, Dude! What do you mean?). I finally know what a TSD is, and why so many empty glass containers were going through these pipes (turns out they aren't empty).

I know what these moving thingies are for in the waste facility (I was like, wtf), and why there's an Alien-style hole in the floor after you kill the stroyent creature. I finally know what happened to Medic Anderson. And now, somehow, I am getting angry.

I feel cheated. Damn, I get pissed to live in this country!!!

What weird shit is going on here!

Some additional thoughts...

There is the question why DOOM 3 was released as-is, ie uncensored, in Germany, while they went to great lengths (in an uprecedented manner) to change Quake 4. It's not like DOOM 3 isn't disturbing.

And somehow it dawns on me that they might have been using Quake 4 as a test. To see how far you could go, and how much effort it would be. And if that is true, then I, and others, are nothing but labrats to them.

Gosh.

[mother]

The coffee smells good doesn't it?

[MaraST78]

As for the German version - what a piece of ... beauty.
I can only hardly imagine how it plays with all that stuff ripped off/modified. My condolences

I got Q4 rather late, about a year ago, fortunately english version, although I'm Czech. But strange is, when ordering english version of Doom3 about 2,5 years ago, I got english version, but with a German text on a Box! Funny. But it wasn't restricted, thanx Shamgod.

Well, AFAIK, in Czech, there are no such restricted versions and I hope it's gonna stay that way. There are some titles that really have a professional localization, but content intact, as it should be.

[dfsp_spirit]

I got myself the english version of q4 that comes with q2 quite a while ago and I'm not too impressed with the game. SP was pretty boring, I more or less played it because I felt I had to after I paid money for the game. MP was ok but by far not as good as q3/cpm so I never really cared for it. Many others felt the same it seems. Try searching for q4 servers and you'll see the game is dead - and it's been like that for quite a while.

If you don't have other things to play and you can get the english version for like $10 get it and play it on rainy sundays while recovering from your hangover.

I'm from de but I never buy german versions. It's not that I'm 13 and want to shock my parents by playing violent games but many of the 'adjustments' made for the german audience are just too stupid. With q4, you couldn't even play on international servers with the german version in the beginning (this was fixed by a patch). The german voice actors also suck more often than not.

[Efess]

The coffee smells good doesn't it?

I concur!

[Dreadlorde]

Can't wait to play this on xmas day, along with Wolfenstein.

[ninjamonkeyz]

q4 is only good for rail freeze tag and q4max servers

[Dreadlorde]

Bought it for $4.99 from gamestop. Couldn't wait. :p

Playing on normal has been kinda slow, and I hate the way crouching works on the Xbox 360 version.

[spooker]

jugendschutzgesetz uber alles!!!!!!

[golden_boy]

harhar spooker, the thing is that I'm 35 and they think I'm still not mature enough to play it :-P

Q4 is really a brainless, candy colored shooter that doesn't aspire to be any masterpiece. But if you drop your expectations, it's pretty enjoyable nonetheless. For what it is. You have to be a little willing to forgive its not being Quake, or Quake 2 for that matter. It's again a Quake game that's not really a sequel.

I appreciate some of the weapon upgrades and features like the Nailgun's seeker mod, the rail's zoom function, etc. If you start using these, it's a little more interesting. The player gets upgraded, too - once you're Strogg, you can run much faster. In the beginning, you're really slow.

Skill settings are a bit lame, though. The only difference in harder skills seems to be that monsters have more HP, aim better, and do more damage, so it's not like Quake (or DOOM 3 for that matter) where harder skill means "more interesting". I'm still trying to fully figure out what happens as you change skill level.

Strogg don't look like in Q2. I don't know what the people at Raven were smoking actually, but for what they are, they're not so bad. Some enemies' attacks are pretty cool, like the Berserker and Light Tank's acting like a faster Ogre, or the Maiden's "banshee wail" messing with your head. I happen to like that sort of stuff, but I can see how the monsters and weapons might appear obscure at first. There's more than meets the eye, though.

I do like the Harvesters (I think everybody does), and I'm starting to appreciate the orange guys (Tacticals) with their different weapons, too. You can never be sure what that guy behind the crate has in store for you until he attacks. The hyperblaster and rail variations are pretty nasty, even more so when they attack in groups with shotgun/machinegun support.

Some fun fights involve Teleport Droppers. Sure you can take him out quickly, but less so when you have two Maidens and a Light Tank in your face at the same time. He can also teleport himself (he drops spawn pads, and teleports, hence the name I guess).

In short, it grew on me. There are actually quite some cool secrets in the game, if you keep looking around, although not like DOOM 3 where there is an item in every dark corner. So it's still linear, but sometimes exploration IS rewarded. Although not nearly enough. It's just not that type of game.

8/10.

[dfsp_spirit]

There are actually quite some cool secrets in the game, if you keep looking around, although not like DOOM 3 where there is an item in every dark corner.

When I first played D3 with a friend we used to make jokes about finding the Easter Rabbit of Phobos all of the time. I mean there's 3-5 armor shards under every fucking stair and in every dark corner of the whole game!

Had they given all that armor to their soldiers instead of hiding it under stairs they wouldn't have lost a single marine during the fighting.