Quake 3.1

So the Quake Live Beta has been up for awhile now, and it's fun. However, it's not impressive. It is merely a free Quake 3.

You spawn. You find armor and a rocket launcher. You try to kill others while not dying. Sure, there are assorted game variants like Capture the Flag and Deathmatch, but nothing that hasn't been done before just as well. The graphics are about PS2 quality, a far cry from other PC shooters like, well, Far Cry 2.

It's not new, but it's still fun, and it's free. But a lot of older, similar games are just about as free. You can download the original Half-Life off Steam for $4.99 (or free on BitTorrent LOL). It's not a $60 next-gen game. But it does remind you why you play Quake 3 so much back in the good ol' days. Nostalgia is neat. But Street Fighter IV shows that it can be even neater than just a re-hash. Well, for $60.