Hey, not bad.
Graphics:
Back in its day, quake 3 looked absolutely amazing. if you crank the settings to maximum (need a good shader vertex to do this) it looks very good. The only issue i had with the graphics are that the gibs (blown up bodies) have no physics, they always are the exact same size and shape and in the same place. Fortunetly you just wont have time to be paying attention to the gibs when the gameplay is so fast. Even by todays standards the graphics are well done, so the graphics get a 9/10.
Gameplay:
Here comes the bulk of this review, and what makes and breaks team arena. Team arena comes packed with new weapons, powerups, and maps. While this seems like the best thing for quake 3 arena, it truly isnt. The god mode powerup is just way to crazy to be a good idea. if you have a god mode powerup near you, you could just get it, and camp with a railgun without worrying about getting killed. it completely destroys some parts of multiplayer and makes things feel really broken. However the new powerups and weapons are not all bad, not at all. The proximity mine launcher is a great addition to this game. allows mines to be placed ANYWHERE on a map, or other players. However if a skilled railgun shooter comes across a guy with a proximity mine launcher, the guy with a mine launcher will get ripped. The new weapons are balanced good additions to the game. As anyone who has played quake 3 would know, the machine gun was really sucky. it did very little damage and pro players would rather not even have it in their arsenal. The new minigun and nail gun are 3x as powerful, but not effective at long range. These additions make medium ranged gameplay very fun, and even more fierce. Some new power-ups make the gameplay even more fun by adding more gun power and ammo regen. These powerups help the gameplay by making subtle additions that dont change the entire mold of how the game is played. These changes are nice, but seem more like a simple mod instead of an expansion. The fact that this game costs as much as it does and offers so little makes the value plummet.
7/10
Sound:
The sound in quake 3 team arena is nothing stellar. the new sound effects added to the weapons and powerups seem old, and like youve heard them before. The voice acting is just atrocious, all the dialouge in the game is cliched and nothing all too special. The weapon effects are slightly redone, but just dont sound realistic what-so-ever. another problem that was also in quake 3 is that every time you jump, the character makes a very annoying UGH noise. As you become good at the game, bunnyhopping (jumping repedetively to go faster, also makes you harder to hit) is a requirement. 5/10
Overall:
Quake 3 team arena is nice if your looking for small additions to a great game, but dont expect stunning new features. The sound and value of this expantion take a hard beating, but the gameplay is still as fun as ever.
7.0/10