Quake III Arena

The essence of Quake is in its community, the ability it gives you to log on to a multiplayer network, and proceed to frag everything in sight. Now the Dreamcast will let gamers join this online community, with the release of Quake III Arena from Sega, as it will be the first title to allow real-time networked gaming between the Dreamcast and PC platforms.

A first-person action game, Quake III Arena is a crisply detailed, highly violent, fast-paced game of multiplayer shooting action. The Dreamcast version features exclusive new arenas, new menus and interface, and six different gameplay modes. The split-screen mode divides the screen into four sections and lets up to four players battle at once. The free-for-all mode is a brutal battle where it's every man for himself, while the single-player mode lets you take on computer-controlled opponents. Other gameplay modes include tournament, team deathmatch, and capture the flag.

The large array of weapons, characters, and gameplay options are all interesting enough, but how will this decidedly PC-specific game control on the Dreamcast? Sega hopes to ease these control issues by using a unique system where you can use both the keyboard and Dreamcast controller simultaneously. Whether this ultimately creates a seamless control interface is yet to be seen, however.

id Software - the developer of the PC original - Activision, Sega, and Raster Productions, are all involved in the development of Quake III Arena on the Dreamcast. Because it is one of the first online games to be released for the console, gamers are expecting big things from Q3 Arena, including crisper visuals and faster gameplay on the Dreamcast. GameSpot will bring you details with hands-on impressions of Quake III Arena from the E3 show.