Two cents worth of Quake II vs. Jedi
Cliff Hilburn
I finished playing Jedi Knight, Mysteries of the Sith and Quake II. First
let me say I think both games are good. Some comments, though.
Graphics:
I think Jedi Knight's graphics are underrated. I think part of this stems
from the demo level LucasArts released. They picked one of the most
unattractive of all the levels (I guess because it was one of the longer
levels) and inflicted it upon the public. And another thing, these are
supposed to be alien planets – give us some interesting skies to look at!
But, those huge drops really rocked and there is something to be said about
the great frame rates in Jedi. Quake II character animations are the best,
but my machine (300 Mhz - 64 Mb – Orchid Righteous Voodoo) was brought to
its knees every time I stepped outside. Admittedly, I could greatly improve
performance by tweaking, but I really like all the textures and effects and
dammit I spend three grand on a game machine I expect to be on the cutting
edge. In some ways I wish I had waited for Voodoo II before playing Quake
II. Quake II lighting effects are ultra cool though so I give a slight nod
to Quake II.
Weapons:
Quake II has Jedi whipped here. The weapons in Quake are way better than
Jedi (although I like Jedi grenades better). The light saber did nothing
for me. Sith really sucked because I had to saber fight a good portion of
the way through it. As for force powers, I could barely use them in combat.
I am one of those people who can't change weapons in the middle of combat.
I have my two mouse buttons, the ctrl on one side and the num pad 0/Ins
buttton on the other side of the arrow buttons – that's it. So I bound
force speed to one and force seeing to the other and that's all I can use
in combat. All those lightnings and pulls were useless to me.
Plot:
I think Jedi Knight's plot is overrated. I think part of this is because of
the rich Star Wars universe. It gives a false impression of depth. Still it
was a bit stronger than Quake, but the acting and/or writing in the
cut-scenes sucked - and the vaunted Lucas Arts level design wasn't that
much better than Quake's.
Sound:
Quake had good sounds, but nobody does sound better than Lucas Arts.
Attitude:
This, to me, is the most important aspect of first person shooters. Jedi
was pretty white-bread. Even being evil didn't really grab me. I wouldn't
know a wookie from a wampa (is there such a thing?) but it has always been
cool to recognize these creatures from the movies, but after Dark Forces,
the Tie Fighter series etc… that thrill is starting to wear thin. Quake
took a number from the best first person shooter of all time – System
Shock. Quake II was creepy, and I really like that in shooter. The Strogg
pissed me off and I found myself wanting to kick their asses – and I felt
damn cool doing it.
Multiplayer:
I don't play multiplayer – no free time.
Overall, although they were both good games, but I liked Quake II a bit
better.
------
Cliff Hilburn
University of Arkansas
Allen
So far I LOVE Quake II, but I have not been able to get into Jedi Knight
yet. After all the configuration options, scripting, aliases, binding,
etc., that Q2 offers, JK just seems too sluggish to me. And I agree the
weapons are alot better in Q2. And of course, multiplayer Quake 2 just
ROCKS!
Later.. Allen
Steve Phelan
Well, I'd agree up to an extent. I actually liked JK, apart from the levels
with the light-saber.
MOTS (the JK add-in) I found very disappointing.
Steve Phelan.
Allen wrote in message <6e3l6g$5kv$1...@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM>...
alintl
Hi,
I finished Jedi Knightand Quake2. Quake2 is a great game, but Jedi Knight is
more difficult. I like the fights with the light sabre. It's cool - But one
mistake is to compare these two great games. Each one is almost perfect.
Adrian
Cliff Hilburn schrieb:
Mike Ching
On 10 Mar 1998 09:11:12 -0600, Allen <all...@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM> wrote:
>
>So far I LOVE Quake II, but I have not been able to get into Jedi Knight
>yet. After all the configuration options, scripting, aliases, binding,
>etc., that Q2 offers, JK just seems too sluggish to me. And I agree the
>weapons are alot better in Q2. And of course, multiplayer Quake 2 just
>ROCKS!
>
>Later.. Allen
I haven't been able to get into Jedi Knight either. My problem is that I
can't set up the controls so that I can play the game instead of trying to
figure out how to move/shoot/jump/etc. I had similar control problems with
Dark Forces but eventually came up with a comfortable configuration (although
I got stuck in one of the later missions and never finished the game). It
seems to be much easier to come up with a control configuration that becomes
second nature with the id games even when I had to learn a new set after
mouse look became necessary.
Werner Spahl
On 11 Mar 1998, Mike Ching wrote:
> On 10 Mar 1998 09:11:12 -0600, Allen <all...@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM> wrote:
> >
> >So far I LOVE Quake II, but I have not been able to get into Jedi Knight
> >yet. After all the configuration options, scripting, aliases, binding,
>
> I haven't been able to get into Jedi Knight either. My problem is that I
> can't set up the controls so that I can play the game instead of trying to
Very strange, I play and like both games and it was completly easy for me
to setup the controls exactly the same for both! I only miss the zooming
which seems to be in MOTS though...
Werner Spahl (ui2...@sun1.lrz-muenchen.de)
"The meaning of my life is to make me crazy!"
Phil
On Tue, 10 Mar 1998, Steve Phelan wrote:
> Well, I'd agree up to an extent. I actually liked JK, apart from the levels
> with the light-saber.
>
> MOTS (the JK add-in) I found very disappointing.
>
> Steve Phelan.
Funnily enough, I enjoy MOTS and JK BECAUSE they do have the Light
Saber. It means you have to try and manouvere the person into a position
where you can take a swipe at them and quickly dodge their response. In
my opinion it is more fun than just selecting the biggest gun you have
and blasting repeatedly until they fall down. You have force powers to
use and the Light Saber is used to block their attacks too.
Mind you, it would be useful to have some indication of your opponents
health.
This is my opinion and I realise that a lot of people will not share but
I just thought I'd give it anyway.
>
> Allen wrote in message <6e3l6g$5kv$1...@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM>...
> >
> >So far I LOVE Quake II, but I have not been able to get into Jedi Knight
> >yet. After all the configuration options, scripting, aliases, binding,
> >etc., that Q2 offers, JK just seems too sluggish to me. And I agree the
> >weapons are alot better in Q2. And of course, multiplayer Quake 2 just
> >ROCKS!
> >
> >Later.. Allen
>
>
>
>
Phil
ccx...@coventry.ac.uk
Trainee Programmer ,.'
Computing Services PjP
Coventry University (-)
Mike Ching
On Wed, 11 Mar 1998 12:55:22 +0100, Werner Spahl <ui2...@mail.lrz-muenchen.de> wrote:
>On 11 Mar 1998, Mike Ching wrote:
>
>> On 10 Mar 1998 09:11:12 -0600, Allen <all...@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM> wrote:
>> >
>> >yet. After all the configuration options, scripting, aliases, binding,
>>
>> can't set up the controls so that I can play the game instead of trying to
>
>Very strange, I play and like both games and it was completly easy for me
>to setup the controls exactly the same for both! I only miss the zooming
>which seems to be in MOTS though...
It's not a matter of setting up the same but needing more controls than can
be used without having to look down at the keyboard. It's pretty difficult
even for a touch typist to use function keys. It really detracts from the
1st person experience to have to take your eyes off the screen.
Joerg Rodemann
> Funnily enough, I enjoy MOTS and JK BECAUSE they do have the Light
> Saber. It means you have to try and manouvere the person into a position
> where you can take a swipe at them and quickly dodge their response. In
> my opinion it is more fun than just selecting the biggest gun you have
> and blasting repeatedly until they fall down. You have force powers to
> use and the Light Saber is used to block their attacks too.
Hm, I could not agree more. I like the variety of the game in contrast to
real first person shooters like Doom, Quake, Duk3d or Shadow Warrior.
It seems there are different kinds of people who prefer one game over the
other. Probably this is due to the fact that JK and MOTS are not the
usual shooters (just shoot and run): there are puzzles, the scenery is
more realistic and varying and you are not rated by your kill count. You
actually have to fulfill some (to me most of the time reasonable) objectives
and you do NOT have to kill everybody. (Indeed most of the time I try to
kill just those who are attacking me at the moment or who may be very
dangerous. Forces Pull, Jump, Seeing and Healing are my favourites and I
use the first two very often. (Of course, if they start kicking my ass after
I pulled their weapons I have to kill them nevertheless.)
From my perspective Quake and Doom come from a different angle: this is
almost everything is evil, objectives are of minor importance. Since
everything is a threat you have to stay alert all the time. It is IMHO
a pure Adrenaline pusher like it was Descent for me (phooey, play through
some D2 levels or with some friends and even TRY to keep your heartbeat
below 120...) This means: storyline is not that important but the setting
is especially good for multiplayer games. Objective: Kill or get killed.
I feel Duke and SW are somewhere between those to categories, probably in
the following order:
(Q, Q2, Doom) -> Duke -> SW -> (Jk,MotS) ------> (games like Tomb Raider?)
Well, long thought...perhaps this is an model why there is so much discussion
about Q(2) versus Jk(MotS): at first glance they look like similar games
but they are of very differing underlying concepts. And tastes in gaming
are different as well.
One point to the graphics: they can not be the only thing that tells you,
if a game is good. Unreal looking scenery is as useful as realistically
rendered ones. Otherwise Cartoons, Books, and Audiotapes would have vanished
during the past years...
Greetings
Joerg
--
rode...@mathematik.uni-ulm.de | Dipl.-Phys. Joerg S. Rodemann
Phone: ++49-(0)711-5090670 | Flurstrasse 21, D-70372 Stuttgart, Germany
-------------------------------+---------------------------------------------
rode...@hlrs.de | University of Stuttgart, Computing Center
Phone: ++49-(0)711-685-5836 | Visualization Department, Office: 0.296
Fax: ++49-(0)711-682-357 | Allmandring 30a, D-70550 Stuttgart, Germany
W. Benjamin Fletcher
On 12 Mar 1998 00:53:36 GMT, mtc...@flash.net (Mike Ching) wrote:
>It's not a matter of setting up the same but needing more controls than can
>be used without having to look down at the keyboard. It's pretty difficult
>even for a touch typist to use function keys. It really detracts from the
>1st person experience to have to take your eyes off the screen.
I use this setup. Try it if you want..
A: strafe left
S: secondary fire
D: backwards
F: strafe right
G: jump
V: crouch
QWERTYZXC: force powers
Space: use
0-9 weapons
Inventory keys are the default setup, as is the enter for use
inventory item
Mouselook and run on all the time.
Ben
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