I would guess it's only a matter of time before the wonderful mix of themes seen in the Quake universe are resurrected.

You mean it's only a matter of time before yet another classic experience and one of my precious memories is ripped to shreds and trampled on, right? In which case, yes. 

id should stop re-inventing their games and bring something fresh again. 

And with how much money they're making not doing it why would they? 

Hmmm.

I wanna see more on Q4 regardless... 

After watching the HL2 movies........I would say it is possible the only environment that is going to matter is the one in that game.

It appears Valve is knocking id off the perch.....simply getting by making semi-decent games with amazing graphics will always make you money....but the days of doom and quake scale innovations appear to be over for id.

If you haven't seen the 600mb monster .mov of HL2 now is the time to see it. It is impressive to say the least. 

...no prizes... 

4/5 cynical response.

Not bad. 

I think I was expecting that :)

It was just a silly thought I had; I personally don't think it will happen due, in part, to Shambler's view that in fact there was no 'theme', no grand overall design document.

It is of course an amalgam of three or more obviously different themes that somehow came together to be much more than the sum of their parts.

This is partly the secret of it's longevity but also why it won't ever be done again.

Sometime in the near future...

<id designer> We are going to do a Quake sequel
<Suit> Great! What's the theme?
<id designer> Well, we thought we'd mix some Base styles with lots of brown textures, but also have some blue/grey metal environments and also a whole lot of black and red fantasy stuff.
<Suit> That's crap, it'll never work - give me Castle Wolfenstein, the Third Coming.
<id designer> Have you ever played the original Quake?
<Suit> Err, no; I was only 5 when it came out. I've seen screenies, though, and it looked dull and mostly brown. You're sacked! 

I don't think you'll find suit men making those decisions in id tho. 

with hot pogo-stick action hehe 

:P 

it seems as though 'realistic' settings are the paradigm for FPS games. Unless DooM3 sends you to some crazy and imaginative freaky settings in the hell domain, I think that the unforgetable experience of exploring truly creative worlds and not knowing what you will see next will be limited to what we now have with those SPQ1 mappers that carry on. I'd love Q4 to have the creative range of worlds that Q1 had but I'm not getting my hopes too far up. Perhaps the game design world does miss some of Romero's imagination.

If you can find a copy of Undying, pick it up. While the game follows a very linear path, it does have some cool environments (although most of the settings are realistic). Zen had rich atmosphere and would have been way better without those temper-blowing jumping puzzles. I did like the feel and sound of Zen and it was very imaginative.

Also, listen to Elek. If you have the bandwidth, grab that 600+Mb video of Valve's E3 presentation taken by the Gamespy people. It has been a very long time since I've been so impressed by the sheer magnitude of the leap forward in gaming that HL2 is going to bring. 

... that the prey engine is portal based. That should be pretty cool. 

... 

btw does anyone have links to quake4(except http://home.ntelos.net/~fallom/q4concepts.rar) and maybe more doom3 concepts 

Quake III [Nobody knows]

Oh, and, lets pray to god they don't get the idea to do a quake 1 remake. I am sure they will rape the original gameplay as much as they're about to do with Doom. 

of course, quake's gameplay was already raped and its name devalued: that was quake II & III. quake V cannot have the same effect anymore as doom III will have. 

it seems as though 'realistic' settings are the paradigm for FPS games.
Yes it does :( I have bleated about this enough in the past. Mind you, I was looking at the True Combat website yesterday and some of the screenies are very sexy. I must be coming down with something.
Unless DooM3 sends you to some crazy and imaginative freaky settings in the hell domain
Well, I should bloody think so. That's the whole, classic, linear FPS progression - industrial/techy, increasingly hostile human environment gives way finally to an image of otherworldliness. Be it a metaphorical or, as is more usual with id, depressingly literal vision of 'hell'. Black Mesa -> Xen is the same thing, but more intelligently done.
I'd love Q4 to have the creative range of worlds that Q1 had but I'm not getting my hopes too far up
Wise move. From the unofficial leaked WIP shots, Q4 will be as highly technical and 'Aliens' like in appearance as D3. Spooge-worthy level of detail...but no runes, or rotting timbers, or unnameable places.
Perhaps the game design world does miss some of Romero's imagination.
I don't think it was so much Romero - his vision was always a rather default D&D/RPG kind of thing, just with a lot more splattergore. It was more a combination of Romero, McGee and Peterson plus the artwork of Adrian 'No Relation' Carmack and...the other dude. All visionaries with their own wild flavours, but the same engine. Quake's technical limitations - and time constraints - didn't really allow for extensive, highly specific themes; just a general artistic 'groping in the dark'.
Zen had rich atmosphere and would have been way better without those temper-blowing jumping puzzles. I did like the feel and sound of Zen and it was very imaginative.
Xen was obviously designed to look like a 50's/60's B-movie version of an alien world. Like the pitiful sets they had for the original Star Trek series. Its garishness was the biggest criticism players had against it, but alongside the rest of Half-Life's elements it made perfect sense. It's not an environment I'm in a hurry to revisit - The Netherworld is far cooler - but it was fun at the time. I think there's more chance we'll see that sort of 'alien wierd' theme than the more unique, arcane settings of Quake. 

I'd love Q4 to have the creative range of worlds that Q1 had but I'm not getting my hopes too far up

Unless they abandon the whole "stroggos" thing, i doubt Q4 will look like quake. 

Yeah, Quake4 is basically QuakeII 2

:P 

No, I left Quake III out deliberately; primarily because it was not SP and secondly because it did not have a particular location/theme. 

 

more likely we'll see a comander keen fps before they do something 'new' again... 

more likely we'll see a comander keen fps before they do something 'new' again... 

before they do that I wouldn't mind a catacombs 3d remake.