Quake 3: Arena

Developer: Id Software/Raster Productions
Publisher:  Sega

I'm not the greatest fan of arena-only shooters, call me old fashioned, but I actually like a campaign in my games, oh sure the game /tries/ to give you one, but it's really just a series of progressively harder arenas with more and more bots.

Now to be fair, the game looks pretty damn good, I' say it resembles the PC version on high settings, but there are two main problems with playing this on the dreamcast, the first one is the fact that online features have been shut down over a decade ago, making this title almost unneeded from the get-go.

But the REAL issue is the controller, my god, the input settings were so sensitive that  I just could not control my character, it's bad enough that you're limited to one analog stick, but the dreamcasts' stick is just awful for First Person Shooters, it's hard, slippery and a huge pain in the *censored*.

Now, to be fair, if you can get used to the controller, there is still some fun to be had, but honestly not a whole lot, you're honestly better off just playing the PC version, not because of this being a bad port (actually its almost an exact replica of the original version) but because it's extremely hard to maneuver and the multiplayer was shut down.

Unless you're willing to buy a keyboard and mouse adapter as well as establish a custom internet connection for your dreamcast, this is one to avoid.

Pros:

- Looks just like the PC version on high settings

 
Cons:

- Extremely difficult to control with the dreamcast controller

- No campaign mode, though the developers try to mask this
- Unless you're willing to go to great lengths there's no online multiplayer

Final Grade: F

Really? Our cover is an in-game screenshot? Even by late 90's standards this wasn't appealing, can you guess how well it stood the test of time? I'm also not a fan of the PAL dreamcast game box, these look like PS1 cases, which is fine, but they break a lot easier.

Surprisingly, the manual is actually pretty good. it gives you a little backstory and gets into a lot of detail on how to play the game which is to be expected from Id Software's games, but what's really surprising is the fact that every character skin got his or her own background story, sure it's only three lines for each of them, but still, that's a hell of a lot more effort than I was expecting.

Overall, terrible artwork, with a good manual.

Packaging Grade: C+