Quake 4

Quake 4 has a stronger emphasis on single-player than its predecessor, which emphasizes multiplayer gameplay, and features a campaign that continues the story of Quake II. However, it lacks the bot matchmaking offered in Quake III without the use of third-party mods.

Multiplayer modes are Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Tourney, Capture the Flag, Arena CTF and DeadZone. Players at QuakeCon reported the multiplayer gameplay to include elements similar to those in previous Quake games such as strafe-jumping or rocket jumping. Notable additions to play are the ability to send shots through the teleporters and the advancement of the game physics provided by the new technology including the ability to bounce grenades and napalm fire off of jump-pads.

The Quake 4 single player mode continues the story of Quake II by pitting the player against cyborg alien race known as the Strogg. The game follows the story of a Marine Corporal named Matthew Kane who is joining the elite Rhino Squad. Following the success of the protagonist of Quake II in destroying the Strogg's leader, the Makron, Rhino Squad is tasked with spearheading the mission to secure the aliens' home planet Stroggos. In the course of the invasion, the squad ship is shot down and crashes in the middle of a battle zone, separating Kane from his companions. Kane rejoins his scattered team members and partakes in the assault against the Strogg.

After performing a number of tasks, such as destroying and capturing Strogg aircraft hangars and defense systems, Kane and his remaining squad members make it to the USS Hannibal. There they are given their next mission: infiltrating one of the Strogg's central communication hubs, the Tetranode, with an electromagnetic pulse bomb in the hope that it will put the main Strogg Nexus in disarray. Kane is tasked with defending the mission convoy, which takes heavy casualties. After many setbacks, including the destruction of the EMP device by a Strogg ambush, Kane is left to complete the mission, assisted only by Private Johann Strauss (Peter Stormare) and Lance Corporal Nikolai "Sledge" Slidjonovitch (Dimitri Diatchenko).

The Xbox 360 version of Quake 4 was released at the launch of the Xbox 360 and is Xbox Live compatible. com Best and Worst of 2005 list. In addition, the Xbox 360 port of Quake 4 has very long load times and Xbox Live glitches that result in problematic multiplayer experiences, as documented by game review sites as well as on Activision's support pages for the Xbox 360 version. This version was initially priced the same as the PC Special Edition DVD and features the same content.

Aspyr Media published and released Quake 4 for OS X on April 5, 2006, initially only for PowerPC based Macs, but later as a universal binary compatible with both PowerPC- and x86-based Macs. id Software continued its tradition of supporting Linux, with Timothee Besset of id releasing a Linux version of the Quake 4 binary executable. The binary could be downloaded for free from id's servers and it requires a licensed copy of Quake 4 for Windows or OS X in order to run. The Linux installer was made available two days after the release of the game itself.

Quake 4's PC version received a "Silver" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom.

Quake 4 received generally favorable reviews regarding the PC version of the game, with game database Metacritic giving the game an aggregate review score of 81/100. Websites and magazines such as IGN and UGO praised its single-player campaign, graphics and Hollywood voice-acting, but complained that its multiplayer was too much like Quake III's. GameSpot gave Quake 4 an 8.0 and it also said: "The single-player is great fun, but the uninspired multiplayer leaves a lot to be desired". PC Magazine gave Quake 4 a good review for both singleplayer and multiplayer gameplay.