Poll: Unreal Tournament vs Quake

[Dizchu]

Coke vs Pepsi, Metallica vs Megadeth, Unreal Tournament vs Quake. Age-old questions that continue to this day with people swearing allegiance to one or the other.

The arena shooter genre is widely considered to have two primary originators, Epic's 1999 Unreal spinoff titled Unreal Tournament and id Software's Quake III Arena released a few days later. Sure, earlier games had multiplayer modes, most notably id's previous titles Doom and Quake. But UT and Q3 were focused solely on the multiplayer experience, even if they allowed single player experiences with bots (which mimicked other players anyway).

Personally I find Unreal Tournament to be the vastly superior product with its more cohesive and varied design, but I know that others swear by Quake III. So what do you think?

 

[KraQ]

It kind of depends on what you're looking for in a game.

Unreal tournament is better in the sense that it has more stuff. It has more game modes and more weapon variety. If I were going to get a group of twenty friends together-- none of whom have ever played an arena shooter-- and I wanted something we could all have fun on, I'd probably go for UT in some form or other.

Where Quake outclasses Unreal is in terms of pure skill ceiling and a tighter, cleaner design. Unreal Tournament certainly gives players more options, but each of those options tend to either be incredibly contextual and gimmicky, or overlapped with other options. "Cohesive" is probably one of the last words that I'd use to describe it. In contrast, all elements of Quake have a very set function. What's more, I'd say that Quake tends to have a bit less of an emphasis on twitch reflexes and more of a focus on movement and map control. This makes Quake decipherable and consistent, and therefore much better suited to competition than UT.

tl;dr
In the end, it's really just a matter of personal
Unreal is a party game for hipsters that don't want to play CoD or Halo. Quake is for people that can git gud.

 

[Dizchu]

I remember that I really disliked that gun with the green snots for bullets and that... Flak cannon? that I think was totally useless.

The snot gun you're talking about is the Bio-rifle, and I don't think there's many people that enjoy using it. It's a highly specialised weapon that a small group of people love and everyone else hates.

As for the flak cannon? The thing is a shotgun and a grenade launcher combined, I personally consider it my favourite video game weapon of all time, even better than Doom's super shotgun.

"Cohesive" is probably one of the last words that I'd use to describe it. In contrast, all elements of Quake have a very set function.

Well to clarify I was mostly talking about visual/sound design rather than mechanics. I've never liked the aesthetic of the Quake series, it all looked too muddy and indecipherable for me. I kinda liked the orange hues in Quake II but that's about it.

Unreal Tournament on the other hand is beautiful, even UT3 which hasn't aged particularly well has some stunning level design.

 

[chrissx2]

Character controls, rocket launcher and railgun makes Quake the winner for me. I love both games, but quake just feels 'sharper'.
If UT had the same movement system as Quake, I might've love it more. The way character moves in Quake is just perfect.

The new UT has some cool mechanics, but it's still not the same.

 

[The Enquirer]

I've looked it up and it's probably the impact hammer I'm thinking of, counter intuitively shaped like anything but the close ranged weapon.

That's a niche weapon that's really used for utility more so than as an actual weapon, similar to how one would use the shield gun (as a utility). The thing with the biorifle was that it's primary fire was mostly useless. However it's secondary fire, if landed, would kill in a single shot. But it's really a weapon that most people would rather not use at the end of the day.

OT: UT isn't quite as refined in gameplay mechanics, but the level design and... actually basically just this bit here:

Its not quite as refined but its a lot more varied, exciting and fun due to all of the extras, level designs and weapons. It looks much better as well. The settings are fantastical and the architecture is fantastical, mirroring a reality in which people would play blood sports in the future.

It's basically how I would suspect futuristic gladiator matches would be fought. That or like War World on Justice League.

 

[wings012]

As far as the series on a whole goes, I'll go by UT.

UT is still live and kicking for one. I recently had a few spins in the pre-alpha and its jolly good fun and the guns are still the guns we know and love. Also the series developed from arena shooting to full blown Battlefield type modes. I really enjoyed Assault and Domination in 2k4.

Quake kinda just tapered off. Came back with Quake 4 and not a peep was heard since.

If we're doing a flat comparison with UT99 and Q3A, I think I might lean towards Q3A.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

In my case, I consider neither the superior series, since both scratch a similar, but still distinct itch of mine.

UT is what I play when I want to do some good ol' fashioned fragging in a more casual way[footnote]By which I mean relaxed and not all that serious, not the stupid casual vs hardcore gamers thing[/footnote]. And the sheer variety of ways in which you can do that means I can binge on UT for a good while and I can enjoy it whenever I want.

Q3A is what I play when I really want a quick, but highly refined dose of fragging. I get a huge rush from a good round of deathmatch, but I can't sustain it that long. After a while, I need to take a break and let it all sink down before I can have another go.

To me, UT is a big bowl of Gummibears of all flavours and Q3A is a high-class dessert. Both are delicious and fill a need for sugary goodness, but you have them for different reasons.

And now that I wrote it, I have no idea if it makes any sense at all, but I don't know how to describe it any other way.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

A lot of people are kinda dumping on Unreal Tournament and unfairly at that. That's because UT has had two major sequels, and I've only ever once had more fun with multi-player than in Unreal Tournament 2004, seriously it had tank with a giant AOE ion cannon... Any arguments against that are totally invalid. The only game that beats it is Starsiege: Tribes but Tribes automatically wins multi0palyer games, because it gives everyone jet-packs.

Quake III and the later Team Arena were graphically superior, sharper looking, but they actually kinda screwed up. They moved way to fast, the whole game felt like you were playing on rocket skates. Which could be fun, but it made any precision shooting absurdly difficult. Sure there were lots of great mods, there are still stand alone freeware games based in the engine being released, and it fueled games like Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy... But the IDtech 3 engine has aged worse than the Unreal engine, and the dynamics of Quake III made it falter pretty early, it just wasn't as fun as Unreal Tournament. Also Unreal Tournament's engine gave us Deus Ex, and the incarnations of the Unreal engine always are more versatile than the equivalent IDTech engine.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

That's a niche weapon that's really used for utility more so than as an actual weapon, similar to how one would use the shield gun (as a utility). The thing with the biorifle was that it's primary fire was mostly useless. However it's secondary fire, if landed, would kill in a single shot. But it's really a weapon that most people would rather not use at the end of the day.

The bio rifle was niche and very situational. Its' primary fire was a great deterrent against prolonged pursuit, as you could cover your own retreat with blobs that acted like mines. While a player could run through a few of them and still keep going, pursuing someone who sprayed a long stream of blobs after themselves was like asking to get ganked by them or their teammates. In regular DM or TDM it was shit. In Assault, Domination and Capture the Flag it had moments of pure genius, but was mostly outshone by every other weapon.

The Bio Rifle and the Shock Rifle are, to me, proof of Unreal Tournaments much better design. Both were weapons that could shine in certain situations (the Shock Rifle far more often) but also had interactions that could make them very useful in the right hands (the SR with its alt-fire/primary fire super combo and the BR with the map and tactics).

 

[Dizchu]

The Bio Rifle and the Shock Rifle are, to me, proof of Unreal Tournaments much better design. Both were weapons that could shine in certain situations (the Shock Rifle far more often) but also had interactions that could make them very useful in the right hands (the SR with its alt-fire/primary fire super combo and the BR with the map and tactics).

The Shock Rifle is a work of genius, it's a weapon that utilises both a hitscan firing mode and a slow-moving projectile and getting the most out of the weapon means that you have to master each of them. The Pulse Rifle/Link Gun has an element of this too but the Shock Combo is just such a rewarding aspect of the gameplay.

The extra weapons in UT2004's vehicle game modes were pretty interesting too, damn I miss playing Onslaught.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I thought it was Metallica vs Iron Maiden, not megadeth. Could be wrong though. UT for me, with added glee as i flee through giblets and ancient debris. Gotta loves the flak cannon and redeemer. The redeemer was UT, wasn't it? It has been a while. Quake always felt aesthetically boring, with the greys and browns and forgettable levels.

 

[Weaver]

While I agree that Quake is the only one of the two I'd consider to have e-sport potential; I personally don't really care about that and have more fun with UT. So, my vote goes to UT.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I'm bias to say Unreal Tournament since I played that 99% and 1& Quake.

Granted I will say Quake had abit more characteristic to their characters then the Unreal same body builds but with different faces.

 

[Jamash]

I thought it was Metallica vs Iron Maiden, not megadeth. Could be wrong though.

You are wrong on this one. Metallica and Iron Maiden are barely comparable bands, being from different countries and producing quite different styles of music and songs about quite different subject matter.

The main reason why Metallica vs. Megadeth is a thing (apart from them being similar bands from the same location at the same time) is because Dave Mustaine of Megadeth was briefly in Metallica before they had a falling out and he left to start his own (and some would say better) band.

In terms of comparisons, Metallica vs. Megadeth is like Manchester United vs Manchester City, whereas Metallica vs. Iron Maiden would be something like Manchester United vs. the All Blacks.

 

[Dizchu]

I thought it was Metallica vs Iron Maiden, not megadeth. Could be wrong though.

You are wrong on this one. Metallica and Iron Maiden are barely comparable bands, being from different countries and producing quite different styles of music and songs about quite different subject matter.

It'd be Priest vs Maiden if anything.

Also I'm quite surprised by how much UT is winning the poll, I always got the impression that it was the underdog in comparison to Quake.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

The Bio Rifle and the Shock Rifle are, to me, proof of Unreal Tournaments much better design. Both were weapons that could shine in certain situations (the Shock Rifle far more often) but also had interactions that could make them very useful in the right hands (the SR with its alt-fire/primary fire super combo and the BR with the map and tactics).

The Shock Rifle is a work of genius, it's a weapon that utilises both a hitscan firing mode and a slow-moving projectile and getting the most out of the weapon means that you have to master each of them. The Pulse Rifle/Link Gun has an element of this too but the Shock Combo is just such a rewarding aspect of the gameplay.

The extra weapons in UT2004's vehicle game modes were pretty interesting too, damn I miss playing Onslaught.

The shock rifle wasn't quite hitscan, but the primary fire beam moved really really fast, meaning that you had to be extremely lucky, or very far away to dodge it. Utilizing the primary fire to detonate a plasma ball though wasn't just rewarding it was also a good deterrent against ambushes.

Also people forget, you could hold the Bio-rifle with a full charge and a direct hit with that was an instant frag on the target, along with possibly being detrimental to anyone in company with the target. That made the bio-rifle pretty effective actually. If you were good with ballistic arcs you could effectively use it to take opponents down, to an extent that even a wall might not help if they didn't have a ceiling to go with it.

Still there are few unsung weapons here. The Ripper, which you could bounce off floors, walls, ceilings, often allowing you to decapitate people around corners. The other is the personal teleporter, because you could use the receiver as a weapon to tele-frag people. Also the Impact Hammer was probably the best melee range solution in games up to that point, secondary fire on full charge with it was another instant frag, an insta-gib no less... Pretty rewarding to creep up behind someone and nail them with that.

Speaking of UT2K4's vehicles, nothing is both sadder and funnier than managing to run someone over with the Leviathan, god was that thing slow.