Q3A/Quake III Revolution

Quake III Revolution (Q3R or Q3:R for short) is the "port" of Quake III Arena for the Sony PlayStation 2 game console.

Unlike the original PC game and the Sega Dreamcast port, it does not support online playing, anyway it supports up to four human players by split-screen, and has got a different "single player" mode (which is not limited to deathmatches).

The game isn't bad, even if loading times aren't fast (but there are some games that have worse) and it lacks mouse support. Control responses cannot be the exactly same as the original game... but anyway, there are various controller layouts that you can choose from, and if you select the right one for you, with some practice you can do something good. The one called "Advanced" resembles the original Q3 controls enough (with the left stick to move forward/back and strafe left/right, and the right stick to look up/down and to turn left/right).

Being a PS2 game, you can't download and add extra stuff to the game, but there is already enough inside it. Quake 3 Revolution contains some features from Quake 3: Team Arena (like its three new weapons), and some new gametypes that were not part of Q3:A or Q3:TA.

Unlike Q3A and Team Arena, Quake 3 Revolution source code has not been released under a free license, so the only way to add its particular gametypes (e.g. the "Possession" gametype could be nice!) to OpenArena would be to program them from scratch. If you think you can help our developers in doing that, take a look to our forums... in this thread we talked a bit about that.

The game has got two main sections: Arena and Campaign.

Arena

Arena mode may resemble "Skirmish" and "Multiplayer/Create" modes you can find on Q3A or OpenArena. It allows to select a gametype that you wish, and to play against bots (that you can choose) or against human players (locally, via split-screen), and to select some options (like friendly fire).

Available "Arena" gametypes are:

Deathmatch - Everyone against all others. - Standard OpenArena already has this mode.
Team Deathmatch - Red team against blue team, with scores from team members summed. - Standard OpenArena already has this mode.
Single Weapon Deathmatch. - Everyone against all others, but for the entire match duration all players will have only one weapon (decided before match start). Items (health, powerups) are not removed from the map, but the only ammo you will find around will be those for that weapon. - Standard OpenArena does not contain a mode similar to this one, but you can achieve something that resembles it by using a mod like No Items Quake 3 (NIQ3) or using OA's Elimination features to achieve a similar thing -but this would remove items from the map (not only the other weapons, but also health and armor bonuses), so it is not exactly the same gameplay-. In practice, you could use g_gametype 0 with g_elimination 1 and setting "elimination" variables that control ammo accordingly with the only weapon you want your players to use: see Configuration examples/Weapon rotation for more info.
Single Weapon Team Deathmatch - Like the above one, but with players divided into red and blue teams. - OpenArena does not contain it at the moment, but again you can try something similar (but not identical) by working with the elimination cvars (this time, using g_gametype 3).
1 Flag Capture the Flag - There is a white flag: your team has to pick-up it and to bring it into the core of the enemy base. - OpenArena already has this mode.
Capture the Flag - Red team has to travel to the enemy base, steal the blue flag and bring it to the red base, while trying to defend their own flag from the blue team attacks. And vice-versa. - OpenArena already has this mode.
Team Possession - There is a white flag and players are divided into red and blue teams. Each team has to keep the flag as long as they can, until a team reaches the required (total) time of flag holding. The team that does not have the flag tries to kill the flag carrier and to get the flag, while the team of the flag carrier tries to protect him. - OpenArena does not contain a mode similar to this one (it may somehow resemble "domination" a bit, but that is different because there are some fixed points to keep control over, instead of a flag to bring around the arena); the Q3 Catch the Chicken mod has a similar idea (to keep something in your hand, avoiding to be killed), but has got some different game mechanics (changes gameplay from standard more than Team Possession).
Possession - There is a white flag: you have to pickup it and to hold it as much as you can before other players kill you and take the flag. Then you have to kill the flag carrier and keep the flag as long as you can again, until you reach the required (total) time of flag holding. - As for Team Possession, base OpenArena does not contain a mode similar to this one (even if it could be nice... if you think you could program it, visit our forum!); again, Q3 Catch the Chicken mod has a similar idea, but has got some different game mechanics.

Campaign

Campaign in the main mode of this game. It's a single-player set of pre-defined matches you have to win, but unlike Q3A single player "tiers", here there are not only deatchmatches, but also other gametypes. And by playing, your character gains better "stats" like speed and maximum health. At the end, there is a "boss" to fight, a Vadrigar (Vadrigars are the "superior" beings that, in the background story of Quake 3, take fighters from all worlds and make them cruely fight just for their entertainment).

Note: from "Campaign" mode, you have to access "Stats" --> "Edit player" --> "Controller" --> "Setup" to effectively change some control options such the "auto weapon switch" -that is enabled by default but you may probably want to disable-, because the "Options" --> "Default Controller" from the main menu affects only new player profiles (and auto weapon switch option is not reachable from the in-game pause menu).

As told, the Campaign mode will "force" you to play in various game types, trying to give some twist to the game: e.g. some of them are like classic deathmatches, but that require you reach the required fraglimit before the timelimit; others are completely new gametypes, like the Elimination.

Q3R's Elimination is not the same Elimination of OpenArena. It is closer to OpenArena Last Man Standing mode, but it's not exactly the same. To sum up: Q3R Elimination is like OA Last Man Standing with multiple lives active, but without removing items.
Extended explaination: OpenArena Elimination removes items from the maps (giving pre-defined health and ammo to everyone), and divides players into two teams; when one is killed, he has to wait to the end to the round to play again (the team with at least one member alive wins). OpenArena Last Man Standing removes items from the maps (giving pre-defined health and ammo to everyone), and each player plays for himself; when killed, he has to wait the end of the round to play again (in order to win, he has to be the last one alive); by default, each player has got only a life per round, but it is possible to set a variable to give more lives, allowing players to get killed more times before really losing. Q3 Revolution Elimination gives all the players (that are not divided into teams) a certain number of lives, and they are "out" when they run out of lives, but does not remove items and weapons (and you spawn with the standard machinegun only). At the moment, in OpenArena, while it is possible to use g_elimination variable to remove items from other gametypes (like deathmatch, TDM, etc.), it is not possible to play OA Elimination or OA Last Man Standing mantaining the standard item collection gameplay.

External links

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