I worked my way through quite a few of these earlier. So far my favourites are 'Systematic Lockdown' and 'Ravage'.

'Skylight' and 'A final roll of the dice' are worth checking out primarily for novelty value.

The others I tried were pretty unimaginative tbh. 

http://www.cybergen.hu/?q=node/288 

I got Quake4 late (like a couple of months ago). Fired it up, and played perhaps 4 levels on "normal" skill (yeah, right...), and then dropped to easy. Boredom took over and that was it. I almost ritually burnt the disk in the garden when a Quake1 friend came over, but it was a little cold out. 

I loved Quake 4 Singleplayer. After a slew of supposedly 'old skool' shooters like Serious Sam and Painkiller completely missed the mark, I found Quake 4 nailed what I used to love so much about shooters. It had no pretensions of grandeur and it wasn't held back by faux realism or some lame attempt at 'masterful storytelling' [I'm looking at you, HL2].

The multiplayer side of things hardly set my heart alight though and I think this map compo has come a little too late to reinvigorate the scene. 

There is one good screenshot in this bunch:
http://www.cybergen.hu/files/tartalom/quake4/quake411.jpg
Texture use isn't a circus, lighting isn't a disco. I hope the layout's inventive.

As for all the others, it seems that the q4 design community really, really needs to learn how to properly use an ambient light:
http://www.cybergen.hu/files/tartalom/quake4/quake49.jpg
http://www.cybergen.hu/files/tartalom/quake4/quake413.jpg
http://www.cybergen.hu/files/tartalom/quake4/quake416.jpg

can they all be that bad? I'm gonna have to download this today, because I suspect whoever took these shots was playing in whatever that ambient-only mode is, because ... come ON.

and OH GOD THE SHADOW VOLUMES:
http://www.cybergen.hu/files/tartalom/quake4/quake415.jpg 

Yeah, a lot of them have a bit of ambient overkill going on, but it is MP, and most people aren't caused physical pain by same. There's some cool stuff in there.

The map in the OMGSV shot is a bit of a novelty and not a "real" MP map IMO--symmetrical layout and basically one big room with two floors. More just something done (I suspect) because it could be, and the author was curious about how far the skylight gimmick could be pushed. Some of the ones I liked (from my Q3W post):

Atmos by Barbeerian: Very cool feel, and the fans and the shooter were nice ideas.

Final Roll of the Dice by dONKEY: Great geocomp-ish geometry.

Kat Fight! by Kat: Great lighting!

Deep Impact by dONKEY: Kickass compact gothic. (Gothic--hooray!)

Learning Curve by Blushing Bride: Very nice patchwork.

Popsicle by cuirass: Cool and different atmosphere to this one. Great feel...

City Heat by Method: Great layout, cool mood and lighting (improved from the beta )

Spiral by Lukin: Just felt very solid all the way around. The water was a nice touch.

Phrantic by swelt: Very solid compact map with great layout and flow. I liked the blood down low.

Arid Wastes by Quaker-X: This was probably my fave. Just solid all the way around. Great visuals and lighting that didn't seem to impact performance at all. (Although I did manage to slip out of the playable area and "behind" the map by squeeking past the edge of the bent-panel-slope-jump... )"

Then again, maybe I'm just blissfully ignorant/optimistic and no one knows how to map anymore and we're all going to die.

(Lun, I still have your book...) 

Never loan a book! 

meaning "give them away instead," not "be a book miser."

I'll buy another. then we'll both have one! 

I got it.

Thank you! 

1 month and no custom content makes for a really thrilling looking bunch of maps! Nice job id.

They should have done something like Epic & NVidia did with "Make Something Unreal" and given people a few months, put some money behind it, and attract some coders and artists to really do something interesting.

*shrug* 

go ahead with 'make somthing FEAR'

nice maps.
And I know for sure, no one wants lighting in MP. My q2 config looks about the same with "gl_modulate 20" or smth. And im not that hardcore. (btw ZTN2* maps are unplayeable in gl_modualte 1 or 2 ) 

the lighting makes ~all the maps look really bland, judging from some random screenshots. I mean, q1 at times has more concinving and moody stuff. Well, it's been ten years.

Maybe in the next gen there's gonna be a game that can graphically compete with QW (Q2 and Q3 looked ass, and it seems the same for Q4 now, not always but for most maps). Even for multiplayer.
Gameplay, I doubt we'll see one even in the next ten years. Not because QW is so awesome but because designers don't play QW themselves and don't understand what high-bandwith low-latency rigid control means. It means you actually feel like you're there, not like you're controlling some puppet with ten meter sloppy rubber strings. Hello, ping times have come down since 1998 or when was it that they invented the 10 fps for quake2 where they still haven't really rebounded from.

ending rant. 

<3 

graphically compete with QW

joke of the day 

I would argue that some custom QuakeWorld maps ran in a modern engine, 1600x1200 with all the shiznit (counting out the bad custom textures and particles and whatever) definately look better than many of the DM maps for Quake 4. 

I would argue that some custom QuakeWorld maps ran in a modern engine, 1600x1200 with all the shiznit (counting out the bad custom textures and particles and whatever) definately look better than many of the DM maps for Quake 4.

Without question. QW feels so much more solid, largely thanks to the lighting.

I bet Q4 players have to sleep with a nightlight on, the big pansies. 

having made some myself I think I'd question it. :) 

had the most fucking awesome and responsive netcode ever. Everything else is shit by comparison, including QW.

Er, the maps look generally meh, some look ok. 

Q2 netcode being more responsive than QW? Good joke. 

Are you seriously trying to say qw's gameplay won't be eclipsed for ten years, and the reason is *netcode*?

Did you take a fall and hit your head on something hard? 

qw does have great netcode :) 

qw netcode is king among netcodes. 

Maybe it was because Q2 didn't have a lightning gun. In QW and Q3 especially, the lightning gun always felt like shit to me (on dialup) whilst all of Q2 felt smooth as hell. The prediction in Q2 also seemed far better than either of those other games so the movement felt the same as it did in the single player game assuming I had a reasonable 48kbps with no background downloads.

QW was shite on dialup. Q3 was even shitter. Other games I could barely play - just Q2 and eventually CS when Valve upgraded the original HL netcode. 

Using dialup to judge netcode is like using an amputated leg to play golf! 

was superb for DM. No accuracy weapon has ever beaten the Q2 railgun for sheer satisfaction, and the rocket launcher is just different enough to the QW one to be appreciated for its own merits.

The BFG and Hyperblaster let it down somewhat. BFG was overpowered and HB really showed the lag.

The maps were pretty much perfect for the most part, in my opinion. Nothing's ever beaten The Edge. It's numerous remakes [even the official ones] just don't come close.

Hmm. Yea', I've got to admit I'd have trouble choosing which is the better multiplayer, between Q1 and 2.