Quake Live (With Video And Scheduling Update)

This is an update to Want To Shoot Rich In The Face?

Quake Live is an FPS style game that’s completely in-browser, and that means it’s cross-browser/cross-platform compatible.

The plan here is to schedule an event to get a bunch of PCMech readers (yes, that means you’re invited) into the game to see if you guys and gals actually like it or not. Consider it a "mass review" to test out the game along with being able to play with an actual PCMech author, that being yours truly.

From the previous article, I’ve discovered a few things, with the biggest being that if you’re running things that block scripting and Flash such as NoScript or FlashBlock for Firefox, the game will not work. You will need to temporarily disable those for gameplay.

In addition there are several options you can set to make gameplay better per your computer’s specifications, such as adjusting texture detail, full-screen mode and so on. This is accessed in-game by pressing ESC on your keyboard and making the appropriate adjustments. The video below shows you how to do this, so be sure to watch it. Bear in mind you can go higher or lower, so even if you have an older computer, you can disable/downgrade enough stuff to make the game enjoyable and fluid on play.

Note on the video: My frame rate is crappy because my capture software isn’t designed to "grab" high-frame stuff like that. Believe me when I say the frame rate you’ll get will be a million times better and completely fluid.

This video makes note of my Quake Live ID:

http://www.quakelive.com/#profile/summary/frostedside

After logging in to Quake Live, you can add me in as a friend by going to the above link, or you can manually add by searching for the ID frostedside.

See video below for more details. There are also some scheduling notes below the video.

Scheduling notes

As for when I plan on getting everybody in on a game, it may happen this evening (as in today Wednesday November 18) during the PCMech LIVE broadcast from 8pm to 10pm EST.

Like what you read?

If so, please join over 28,000 people who receive our exclusive weekly newsletter and computer tips, and get FREE COPIES of 5 eBooks we created, as our gift to you for subscribing. Just enter your name and email below:

Nate
Hey Rich,
I wanted to give a little report on my experience…
When I read your post last week; “Want To Shoot Rich In The Face”, I immediately went and signed up for Quake Live.
I installed everything as prompted, but when trying to connect to a game or practice session, the screen is greyed out and I can’t see anything. I can hear gun fire and everything, there is just nothing to see.
Here is a screenshot of what I am seeing:
http://i36.tinypic.com/2mqs413.jpg
I tried disabling all my security applications, including anti-virus and firewall. Secondly, I uninstalled the Quake Live plugins then reinstalled everything. Still no luck.
This happens in both IE and FF. I’m running Win7 64-bit.

http://www.menga.net Rich Menga
The answer was in your last sentence.
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/000/6b3af6c9.html
“Adobe Flash Player is not supported for playback in a 64-bit browser. However, you can run Flash Player in a 32-bit browser running on a 64-bit operating system.”
..and with that said:
http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10.html
Flash Player 10 *might* solve the problem when used in Mozilla Firefox as FF is a 32-bit browser (Mozilla has no native 64-bit offerings at present). That in combination with Flash Player 10 should get some progress so you can actually, y’know, play the game.

Nate
Thanks, Rich.
I totally forgot about Flash not being fully supported on 64-bit. That explains it!
I tried installing Adobe Flash 10 and made it a little further, but then the game just greyed out again.
I’ll give it a try on my virtual machine. I shouldn’t have any problems here.
Anyway, thanks!