There are a few, what I consider, really good games that have been built on top of the Quake 3 engine (I use 'Quake 3 engine', 'Q3A engine', and 'id Tech 3 engine' interchangeably, they are all the same thing), some with similar game play to Quake and some which are completely different. I think the majority of these games started as total-conversion mods. This means they replaced everything and it ran like it's own game, the only catch was you would go into Q3A and into the mods and run it from there as a mod (this has been done for other games as-well, "battlefield" with total conversion star wars mods, and I think "Counter Strike" was originally a total conversion mod of "Half-Life").
Since the release of the source code under a GPL licence, these total conversions have been able to 'ship' the engine with the data, meaning you get a whole game. But as a result, a few of them don't work with the original Quake 3 engine (don't hold me to that, you'll have to try it yourself, or sometimes the website lets you know). I think this is also due to the fact that ioquake3 developed new features, such as "ogg" playback yet doesn't compile it by default, if you compile ioquake3 with the extra features you may have better success. If you try to run them as a mod you usually end up with Q3A aspects leaking into the game, such as the models and maps from Q3A, as-well as some of the voice overs, though some of the games just don't run al-together. You can also try it with the W:ET data in a Q3A mod, it almost runs fine but not quite.
Enough jibber jabber, let's see some games. All free to download and play on Linux, Windows, and Mac.
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| World of Padman |
World of Padman
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| (taken from the WoP website) |
Despite looking like a kids game this is plush violence. The latest version is 1.6. The last time I tried running it as a Q3A mod it didn't seem to run properly, but also, WoP does use ogg for music and has other features which I don't think are compiled by default with ioquake3, so compile it with all and it should run.
World of Padman is ultimate joy. A single player mode was planned but it only got so far before they decided to discontinue it, but the multi-player mode is great fun.
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| (taken from the WoP website) |
It features your normal slayer modes, team death match, capture the lolly (flag), spray your colour and other game styles which I still haven't figured out how they work. You play as bug characters that push sexism to the extreme, male muscle bugs and hot lady bugs. Being that the characters are bugs, the maps are oversized rooms which give you the feel of being tiny. There are some great weapons and pick-ups which all look like toys but bring destruction to the extreme. The game play is very Quake 3 like, 10 weapons which you can pick up at the same time, health, armour, jump pads, although what I like about WoP over Q3A is the colour, Q3A is a very dark lot's of browns and reds in everything (giving it it's normal Quake feel), where as WoP uses your whole pastel colour palette just giving a fun vibe. The WoP servers used to be full of people battling it out, but now all the servers seem to be empty or filled with bots, sad days.
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| Urban Terror |
Urban Terror
Fun over realism... but still enough violence and blood sprays to satisfy you, And for anybody who hasn't been in the war I don't think there's anything to give away that it's not entirely accurate besides the fact that you can re-spawn. The latest version is 4.1.1 with a new planned game of Urban Terror HD which will replace everything along with the engine. This game does actually work as a Q3A mod, and I've started running as one as their compiled engine is compiled with the old bug that stopped 64bit versions running the game.
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| (taken from the UT website) |
Urban Terror is fantastic. It is just a multi-player game, and from what I can remember of W:ET it is very similar. UT game-play is very different to quake, you select the weapons and accessories that you want to fight with and it is game on with game modes such as free-for-all, team death-match, capture the flag, and some bizarre other one that no one seems to play.
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| (taken from the UT website) |
There are lots of maps and some are incredible, some are just a pain to play over and over. The models aren't the best looking of creatures but this is the Tech3 engine after all, on the other hand the reload animations and the weapon models are fantastic. They've also implemented some agility skills which always come in handy, sprint, jumping off walls, climbing over walls and shimmying up pipes. There are many people playing and many servers to choose from and many people to whoop your ass.
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| TREMULOUS |
TREMULOUS
Human vs Alien. This is FPS meets RTS. There are two versions out, 1.1.0 and 1.3 Beta. This is a multi-player game and unfortunately there are no bots either, so if you want a feel for the game you can only run around the maps. The screen-shots for this game always failed to impress me, but looks can be deceiving and when you actually play it this game has a fantastic concept behind it. When playing as an alien race they have the ability to evolve, and as you evolve you get different skills. The most fun is when you're at one stage of the evolution and you can run up the walls and onto the roof, it's extremely disorientating but it has been done really well. Only ever exploring this game on my own I don't know much about game play, but I believe you can set turrets and various other objects and I would think when you have a few people playing it would get real fun.
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| Smokin' Guns The Game |
Smokin' Guns
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| (taken from the SG website) |
Country western warfare. Latest version 1.0. I haven't had a real go at this game. It has your various game modes, the usual slayer styles, and then some other modes such as things like steal the gold or rob the bank and what not (can't quite remember it's been a while). This game is pretty well done and has a nice feel with cowboy style maps and weapons. It has always felt a little empty and difficult to me, the models are a little blocky and some of the maps are a little plain. Although I have only ever played this by myself, it is not a single player game, I can assure you once set up with multiple people it would be a blast, because it does have a fantastic cowboy western vibe.
Next I will be looking at some other mods.