Alliance Q3
When id software's Quake III Arena was released toward the end of 1999, members from two capture-the-flag development teams (LMCTF and Q2 Expert CTF) got together to create Alliance Q3. The idea was to combine their resources in an effort to, in the words of John "Mr. White" Keffer, the lead level designer and 2D/3D artist on the project, "put out the [best] CTF mod ever." "Like both its predecessors, the mod [has] an offhanded grappling hook and many other features," explained Keffer, who is a TV director in real life. These features include ultrafast speed and increased mobility, especially when using the grappling hook and the "pogo," a rocket jump. "Your ability to move is as important, if not more, than your ability to aim," Keffer said. Additional features include a new gameplay type, hold the flag, and tougher bots. "You could say regular CTF is like a Ford and Alliance is more like a Ferrari," Keffer said.

Alliance Q3 combines colorful characters and unusual level design.

The mod can be downloaded at this site.

Urban Terror
Another extremely popular multiplayer mod for Quake III Arena--even among the developers at id Software--is Urban Terror. There are several different game modes available in this mod, but the most commonly played ones are team survivor, which gives a point to the team with the last player(s) standing, and team deathmatch, in which players must frag the other team until they hit the frag limit (in other words, until they reach a predetermined number of frags). There mod also has a capture-the-flag mode, and new game modes will be included in the next beta update.

Quake was never this realistic.

But the gameplay in Urban Terror was tweaked considerably during the next two years, as a common passion and focus drove the mod's core development team to perfect it. "I'm proud of the staying power of the development team since we began in 2000," Toumi said. "We've become friends and we work well together." Toumi also pointed out that members of the mod's development team have been hired by studios such as Bungie, 4D Rulers, Krome Studios, and Raven Software. "It gives a real sense of accomplishment to know these guys worked on Urban Terror," he said.

Gamers can read up on this mod and download the necessary files at the official Urban Terror site.