Shack reader Atari. sent in his own games write-up, covering all the games shown at QuakeCon which ended on Sunday. Called Quakecon 2001: A Brief Overview of the Games Shown, Atari. has written impressions on Soldier of Fortune 2, Return to Castle Wolfenstein (single and multiplayer), Game Boy Advance DOOM and Jedi Knight 2. Here is a snip from the Jedi Knight 2 : Jedi Outcast impressions since we didn't write anything on that ourselves.

The second Jedi Knight game looks to take what the last one did and blow it out of the water. Everything from visuals to sound to interactivity with the environment had my jaw gaping open during the entire presentation. Another game built on the Quake 3 engine, the graphics could do no wrong. The snow flying into your face, the look of the work done on the models, and the level design were all top notch. The presentation started out on a cold, arctic level at a base of some sort. Starting out with the blaster drawn, it looks like standard looking FPS a first sight. Then the presenter takes a step around a few crates and all hell breaks loose. A few Storm Troopers heading across a bridge towards our Jedi were soon taken out by a few shots from our blaster, while a third Storm Trooper took sniping shots at us from a far suspended walkway [...]

And for those wanting to see the Shack QuakeCon pictures, they are now available. A lot less shots than previous years, but really there are only so many shots you can take from the BYOC area and such.

The QuakeCon Quake3 1on1 tournament has concluded with Zero4 taking the win and of course $30,000 for his efforts. ShackES has a bunch of coverage/wrap-up.. and hopefully comments will get fixed today. :) Matt also goes on one of his wacky tirades here:

Because at Razer CPL on a Friday/Saturday night, even when the tourney was over for almost all the players, the future was still wide open. Everyone was crazy serious about practicing for the next tournament. Razer CPL was early Q3. We all knew there were more, bigger! tournaments in our future, and everyone there was thinking how good a player they'd be next time. And you could talk about how good you were going to be next time with your friends, and sometimes even wake up in the morning thinking about it.

That was a fun time, but now there is no next time. There's online leagues, and maybe another online tourney from Cache, but really, what's out there for a Quake 3 player? We like the game, and we'll keep playing the game, but what is there to look forward too. Where's the reason to practice hard?

So, as expected about every gaming site on the net had some sort of Doom / Quake 4 coverage. A quick overview:

• There's a whole lot of Quakecon goodness going on at ShackES. Competition results, impressions, the whole deal. Excellent stuff.
• Stomped had some basic coverage.
• JKII.net posted their impressions of the Jedi Knight 2 demonstration.
• Achtung! Wolfensteid posted their impressions of the new Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
• Gamespot on DOOM, DOOM GBA, Wolfenstein and SOF2
• Homelan posted some pictures.
• Gamespy posted their Wolfenstein impressions too.

So at QuakeCon today DOOM was shown off for the second time publically. This time around they had a few new scenes to show as well as mixing in some of the stuff that was shown at Macworld. Because it's all about the indented list, here's some of the things that I noticed and/or were said by The Carmack:

- It looked amazing. The Macworld video did it no justice.
- Saw a bathroom scene (described here) which looked like present day earth mixed in there. Different than the previous space/future tech stuff that was shown before.
- GeForce3 is expected to run the game at 30fps.
- Most likely have 6 different renderer backends specific to videocard manufacturers.
- By the time DOOM is released, next-gen cards will be available (GeForce4 or whatever)
- Characters are around 250,000 triangles (Yes, odd figure.. I'll double check)
- "Real time" tweaking for level designers etc,
- Map compile time is still in the air. Probably 5minutes tops on most systems.
- Dolby 5.1 support is the default
- Total new rendering code base, departure from methods used in all previous Quake engines. Carmack suspects this will be the new technology "template" used for the next 5 years.
- AI? Here's a brief explanation.
- They are "just getting started" on implementing the game.
- A Playstation2 port, if done, would be a total hack-job.
- XBox port sounded like an almost certainty.
- No cameras or videos were allowed during the presentation, doh! Here's some old screenshots!
- Trent Reznor of NIN has agreed to do the music (&sound?)
- It'll be released in 2 weeks!

There was a fair amount more stuff discussed during the press conference which I'll get to you guys later. Here are the screenshots from our DOOM archive since it's uh.. something to look at I guess while we all hope for some kind of release from id although I dont really anticipate one... but you never know. I'll try and get a definitive answer on that one tomorrow.

Id software's press conference just ended, announcing two new projects there. Besides the Wolfenstein multiplayer part, id is working with Nerve Software on an "untitled" multiplayer cooperative game. It won't be massively multiplayer, but it will be an online title. Besides the fact that Activision is publishing it, there wasn't much more information on that.
And as expected, Quake 4 was announced as well and is in development at Raven. It will be using the Doom engine, and set in the Quake 2 world of Stroggos. Obviously as the Doom engine is still very much in development, the game is ways off. The focus will be on the single player experience. Also ShackES has some stuff up.

QCon started a few minutes ago. Expect some news from that event later on.

Anyway, For the attendees we have a Quakecon Insiders Guide by Ritualistic, listing places to get food, to party and other useful resources.

For all the people who stayed at home, you can check out the happenings on the official website and listen to live reports on Quakecon Radio. Events today include broadcasts by Paul Jaquays, Activision and Quake III FFA tournament coverage.

Raven's Kenn Hoekstra updated his .plan file that he's off to QuakeCon to show Soldier of Fortune 2...as well as Jedi Knight 2. Good move by LucasArts. There wont be any hands-on JK2 play though, but there will be hour long presentations in one of the meeting rooms.

The QuakeCon website has posted a schedule for the August 9 - 12 event, showing what all you can attend when you are not playing games.

Paul Jaquays has a .plan update detailing some seminar plans that will take place during QuakeCon. It's mostly stuff that current and aspiring level designers would be interested in.

id's Paul J. updated his .plan file with an update on the QuakeCon model contest. The one with the Quake 3 models instead of the hot chicks. Basically reminding everyone of the submission date, and also announcing the judges.

Saw on Stomped that PlanetQuake has an interview with Tapper of the QuakeCon crew, talking about this yearly returning LAN event. It will be held August 9 - 12 this year.

PC Zone is doing some of it's own speculating about the new id games at QuakeCon story. They say it will be Quake 4.

id Software's PR company, The Bohle Company sent me along a cute little PR announcing that QuakeCon 2001 will play host to a new id Software game announcement. DOOM has already been announced a while back so you can pretty much count on it being something new. Here's what the PR says:

NEW GAMES FROM ID SOFTWARE.

QUAKECON 2001
AUG. 9 - 12 -- MESQUITE, TEXAS

Now given the known id Software franchises lets lookie.. We can assume by knowing that id Software is working on DOOM that it will be a contracted out title using a known id Software IP because it's being called "games from id Software" and where the PR came from. Now we know that Wolfenstein is being done by Gray Matter and DOOM is being done by id Software. So that leaves...

update: Keep in mind that it's "id games" being plural. Place your bets.

update by Maarten: From Gamespot comes this bit of news.

GameSpot has received word that id Software plans to show more of Doom III at this year's QuakeCon, which is being held from August 9 to August 12 in Mesquite, Texas

More Doom, yay.

id and the QuakeCon organization have announced the details for the NVidia Quake3 Championships which will be played at the upcoming QuakeCon event. The tournament will be 512-player, elimination-style one. Maps played will be Pro_q3tourney2, Pro_q3tourney4, and Pro_q3dm6 as well as ztn3tourney1. The winner of the tournament will receive a sweet $30,000, the second place will earn you $10,000 and the 3rd place is good for $5,000.

Over at Polycount is the announcement of the 2001 QuakeCon Map Model Contest. Like last year, people will be competing to create the best model for use in Quake3 levels. More info here.

If you're one of the hardcore folks you have probably already registered but for everyone else, Quakecon registration is open (and has been since last night). It's your chance to meet Shack people!

Registration for the yearly returning QuakeCon event starts today on the www.quakecon.org website at 8pm CST. This year will feature a $50,000 Quake3 tournament.

The QuakeCon website has been updated with word that the free LAN event sponsored by id Software and many others will be opening up registration next Friday.

id Software has announced plans for the next big QuakeCon event. QuakeCon 2001 to be exact. They are offering a $50,000 cash prize Quake3 tournament as well as quite a bit of other prizes. The event will be held August 9th to 12th.

A bunch of QuakeCon2K wrap-ups I've been meaning to post, thanks Redwood for the reminder. Check them out: Q3F , Elves On Tricycles , Gamewire , PlanetQuake , and a new/improved Carmack talk MP3. You can also check out the Shack QuakeCon pictures.