Quake Champions Has Familiar Voices & Big Eyeballs
wait, are those... colours?
I do not believe that I shall ever come to terms with the fact that Quake III's announcer was not, in fact, voiced by Michael Dorn. I believed that to be the case for so long, having been told it was so by someone at university. Watching this trailer for upcoming online shooter Quake Champions [official site], my heart leaped when I heard the familiar refrain in that familiar bass voice: "Excellent." Worf! You're back! No. It was never Worf, Meer. It is not Worf now. But maybe it is the original Q3A announcer returned. That would be something. You can hear Not-Worf for yourself in this first in-game footage of Champions, which rather looks like Quake III and Unreal Tournament had a baby. The speed of the former, the more vibrant palette of the latter.
It's fast, which is the main takeaway. There's various marketing chest-thumping about unlocked, 120hz framerates, which is good news for about 5% of us, but for the rest the prettiness and the Q3A-style no forgiveness combat will be the draw. We get a look at the range of characters and their powers, and also there's a really big eyeball? Dammit, this is the closest we're going to get to Orb appearing, isn't it? I miss Orb. All online shooters should have an Orb.
Bright colours aside, it's the most Quake 3-like Quake I've seen in a while (free to play demi-remake Quake Live aside). I want to give it a spin, and I hope ancient Q3A skills still live in my withered veins so that I am not immediately humiliated in it.
Quake Champions goes into closed beta early next year, but no word on a final release date as yet.
