Nothing fires up factionalism like competitive multiplayer. And few multiplayer face-offs burned as intensely as the great Quake 3 VS. Unreal Tournament war at the tail end of the nineties. The original Quake quickly despatched of it's closest competitor Duke Nukem 3D in the mid-nineties, but id Software had a bigger fight on their hands up against Epic Games' frantic, team-work focused shooter. After the awkward storytelling attempts of both Quake II and the original Unreal, Q3 and UT basically ditched the idea of narrative completely - by 1999 we were all about twitch reflex multiplayer deathfests. The two camps were equally fanatical in their support, and there was very little grey area between them. You could love one, or the other, but not both. Which is quite odd, really, because the core experience was rather similar. Blisteringly quick, this was multiplayer FPS gaming at its most distilled. Can we call a winner? It's hard to say, but considering that Quake 3 Arena was still a standard feature of numerous professional gaming tournaments for almost a decade after its release, we might give id Software's creation the nod in this contest.
Game-obsessed since the moment I could twiddle both thumbs independently. Equally enthralled by all the genres of music that your parents warned you about.
