quake ii
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The long-rumored 'Quake II' remaster is out now on PC and consoles
The rumors were true: Bethesda has announced an upgraded version of Quake II. Best of all, you can play it today on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. The enhanced edition is on Game Pass on PC, console and Xbox Cloud Gaming. Those who own the original game on GOG or Steam are getting a free upgrade.
'Quake II' is free right now from Bethesda, 'Quake III' next week
Fans of old-school first person shooters can easily access these classics for free via the Bethesda Launcher. 'Quake II' is available right now, followed by 'Quake III Arena' on the 17th.
'Quake II RTX' update delivers more realistic ray-traced visuals
NVIDIA is still committed to sprucing up Quake II RTX's graphics after the novelty has worn off. The GPU maker has released a 1.2 update that adds significant realism to the ray tracing effects -- insofar as you can have realism in a sci-fi game, anyway. Water is now considerably more realistic, with "god rays" that are visible even in reflections and refractions. Many textures have been updated to look sharper or just plain better. Glass is also considerably more realistic, including more "god rays," tinted glass and an experimental option that calculates the reflection and refraction inside thicker glass.
The free 'Quake II RTX' demo is now available on Steam
To show off the capabilities of path tracing, NVIDIA has released an updated version of id Software's classic 1997 FPS Quake II. You can play the first three single-player levels of Quake II RTX for free, and if you own the full game, you'll be able to play the whole thing in path tracing mode, including multiplayer.
NVIDIA is giving away the 'Quake II' ray tracing demo on June 6th
Earlier this year, a team inside NVIDIA took Quake II and ran it through its ray tracing system to see if the 1997 title could be gussied up. The resulting tech demo, shown off at GDC, received more than half a million YouTube views and more than a little hype. From June 6th, the company will allow people to play a limited version of the game — Quake II RTX — for free.
Quake II GWT port proves HTML5 isn't just for video
There's no question that HTML5 is good for more than just video, but if anything will put that misconception to rest, it's Quake II running in a browser. Apparently built by a trio of Google developers in their spare time, the Quake II GWT port uses a HTML5 canvas and WebGL for graphics acceleration (also seen demoed on the N900), which seem to get the job done remarkably well -- although it's still a long ways from running on certain non-Flash-equipped devices. Then again, this project was revealed on April 1st, but quite a few folks have already reported success in getting it up and running -- so, unless there's a global conspiracy to dash our hopes and dreams (always a possibility), it seems to be the real deal. Head on past the break to check it out in action.
Quake II X goes Universal
Thanks to an independent developer, Quake II has perhaps become the oldest game to have been updated as a Universal Binary on Mac OS X. In order to use this software to play Quake II, you will still need a full copy of the game to grab some of the core game files, and I think the full source from id Software themselves (scroll down about two thirds of the way) might do the trick. While the source code there is listed as a PC version, I think the core game files you need to use this UB enabler for Mac OS X will work just fine. If anyone else knows better, feel free to sound off and list a link, if you could be so kind.Either way, it sounds like setting up this software is pretty simple, and in no time you too could be fragging aliens circa 1997!
