Quake 3 Fortress

If Wolfenstein is the granddaddy of first-person games, Team Fortress is the old man of multiplayer mods, appearing as it has for any and every first-person game you'd care to mention, Half-Life being the most well known. Now, however, it's back in the loving arms of Quake's latest incarnation, Quake 3 Arena, and although Team Fortress S original coders are safely holed up in the Valve camp, you could be forgiven for thinking they and the Q3Fteam were one and the same.

Building on the recognised wow factor of the Quake 3 Arena engine and the unmistakable atmosphere of the game, Quake 3 Fortress gives Arena owners the opportunity to see what the hugely popular Team Fortress Classic is all about. There are ten maps in a variety of Capture The Flag and Duel flavours and they're all impressive.

It's unusual to see open spaces in Quake 3 - dark corridors with occasional big rooms have always been the id style - but the maps in OJFhave ample sniping and long-range mayhem opportunities, as well as the up-close-and-personal gorefesting that has made Arena itself so popular. Some maps have that typically gloomy Quake feel, but don't let this put you off.

Since the original Team Fortress for Quake, the cast of available player classes has been set in stone. Q3F fans have the familiar choices of Sniper, Soldier, Medic, Engineer and others. Weapons too are the standard TF arsenal, although a couple of tweaks here and there have made things interesting. The sentry gun, for instance, is one of the best.

Setting up Q3F was trickier than expected. The mod needs version 1.17 of Quake 3 and configuring the controls is something of an art, thanks to an annoying bug that the developers have promised to sort in the next release.

Once running, though, the game is a joy. Fast, furious and bloody - the way it should be. No single class has an outright advantage (unlike the sniper in TFC1.5) and although not an easy game, it was also one that was difficult to put down -always a good sign. For Q3F, a 56K modem is quite sufficient, but ISDN is better.

Q3F is a welcome addition to the Quake III armoury. Well thought out, fun and good to look at. Not yet finished or as good as TFC, but well on the way. Give it a couple of months and Quake 3 Fortress will be spot on.