Quake Wars demo now available

Admit it: Releasing a big multiplayer shooter a few days after Halo 3 is just plain scrappy, and it's the kind of scrappy that calls for a sports movie analogy. If late September were a movie, we'd like to imagine that it would be The Mighty Ducks. We see Halo 3 as "The Hawks," strong and confident, while Quake Wars is the Ducks, short on hype, but big on heart.

Continuing our analogy, the newly released demo for Quake Wars could be the game that the team wins to clench their slot in the playoffs that gives Emilio Estevez the opportunity to start hitting on Charlie's mom. It could also be the game after Emilio is fired from his lawfirm and the team is so demoralized that they get beaten to a pulp. You can only find out by playing. We admit that the big game between Quake Wars (Ducks) and Halo 3 (Hawks) won't actually have much gravitas, what with them being on different consoles. But as long-time Quake fans, it would warm our hearts to see them pull out a triple deke.