http://www.quakelive.com

Well the Quake Live open beta started tonight, and I'm guessing ID didn't expect quite so many people. I'm hearing there was an 80,000 person queue earlier tonight. It's at 15,000 at the moment.

For those that don't know, Quake Live is a free very enhanced version of quake 3 that runs entirely in a browser with a skill based matchmaking system. There's tons of stats, game history with summaries, and all sorts of other stuff. I played the closed beta some a few months ago and it seemed to have a lot of potential. It's interesting how they determine your skill level from the moment you step into the tutorial. You can simply step into the portal labeled 'beginner' to you right, or make a long jump and step into the 'intermediate,' or pass that and rocket jump to "advanced," and even more after that.

The queue dropped down to 2k earlier and once I got in things went real smooth. Once they work out the kinks with the massive player rush this could be real good, here's hoping. My ID is... DiscW.

I waited in queue all morning, got to the front, and it told me I needed to download/install a plugin and restart the browser. Restarted, and gee golly, right back to the end of the line AND THEN THE SITE WENT DOWN.

Grumble.

Finally got it earlier. It's actually pretty fun. They got the rocket launcher right, which is what I hated about every sequel to Quake.

A bit laggy to play well though, at this point. Maybe after it calms down.

Just finished playing, they seem to have fixed the queue issues, it was 30ish for me and a friend. Still a few bugs but it went smooth for me. I had forgotten how insane and fun the longest yard is with a 12 person ffa all of somewhat similar skill level.

And I'd hope all the weapons are good, they've been refined by competition for god knows how long. I quickly got back into a groove with my lovely grenade launcher.

I bet I'll be playing a lot of this in the near future.