Quake III Arena goes gold

Id Software announced Monday that its upcoming game, Quake III Arena, has gone gold and is ready to be shipped out for manufacturing. The eagerly anticipated sequel to Quake and Quake II departs from previous Id efforts by focusing solely on multiplayer gaming, rather than offering a single-player version as well. However, Quake III Arena does support "single player multiplayer," where the user faces off against an army of computer-controlled "bots" that emulate real-life opponents. And unlike previous efforts with this type of technology, the bots in Quake are intelligent, life-like, and even offer up a selection of trash talking that is sure to get anyone prepared for the real thing.

Quake III Arena will eventually ship in versions for Linux and the Mac OS, though they will follow the Windows version by a bit. Id hopes to have the game available for order on the Web and in retail stores soon. In the meantime, you can download a stunning (though large, at 52 MB) demo version of Quake III Arena that sports four sample arenas and a sampling of bot opponents. Best of all, there are already Q3A servers all over the Internet, so you can get out there and frag some friends.

For more information and the free download, please visit the Id Software Web site