Quake III Arena

"A great SegaNet game, a bad off-line game!"

I have played Quake 3 Arena for the computer before. I was really looking forward to seeing how the game would play on the Dreamcast and how it would play online. Surely enough, it wasn't half bad. Sometimes lag can get annoying, but that's what you can expect from 56k. The game is great online, but off-line, it is terrible. If you need an excuse to get SegaNet or just get your Dreamcast online, this game should be your excuse. As long as you have your Dreamcast hooked up to the internet, you will love this game.

In off-line mode, there is basically no story at all. You just go around and kill bots. Can it be fun at all? Yes, it is fun for the first 5 minutes, but then you just start to become bored. The online part of the game is basically a different story. While playing online, you have many modes to choose from. Capture the flag and team deathmatch are my favorites. The game also supports many mods for the PC version, like instagib and things like that for the people who set up a gaming server from their computer.

The game graphically is alright. The graphics do good for the Dreamcast and you do not have a slow down at all during the game. The game can become a fragfest online and the graphics keep stable. They also have some gore which make it crazy in a deathmatch game where blood is everywhere. The sound is alright in the game. You can tell what people are shooting far away in a map from the sound, which is something that I find really cool. Online is super fun with all the gore and it is basically just crazy gaming. I personally like to play it online in a small map with a large number of players, that way it is mayhem and super fun.

GRAPHICS- 8.9: Good for the Dreamcast and no slowdowns at all.

GAMEPLAY- 9.5: Very fun online and can keep you busy for hours.

SOUND- 8.3: Just alright.

REPLAY- 9.4: Online gaming is where it is at.

OVERALL- 8.3

FINAL WORDS:
If you can play your Dreamcast online, then you must buy this game. It is totally worth it and it is a purchase that you will not regret. Gamers who can not play it online would probably not like this game. It may be worth a rental for off-line gamers, but they may find themselves bored after only a few minutes.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/29/03, Updated 06/29/03