id Software has announced that it will release a major new free update for Quake Champions next Thursday, March 15th, delvering new ways to play and fun new looks. This will include the return of Instagib – the first new game mode added since closed beta – the introduction of ‘No Abilities Mode’ in custom games; a new 2v2 version of Ranked Play for competitive players and a variety of fresh seasonal cosmetics to commemorate the coming of Spring.
Here are the key features of the March update for Quake Champions.
- NEW GAMEPLAY – Everyone, meet Instagib – The fast-moving, gib-tastic classic will finally make its way to Quake Champions, introducing a fun, fast and casual game where every shot is a one-hit kill. Players will start each match with the only weapons available – the Rail Gun and the Gauntlet – and there will not be weapon, health, armor, or power-up pickups. Champions will still be able to use active and passive abilities, and cool-down hourglasses will spawn on the map.
- NEW RANKS – Introducing 2v2 TDM Ranked Mode – In addition to the head-to-head intensity of Duel mode, players will be able to grab a buddy and face off against teams from around the world in deadly 2v2 showdowns. Finding the right Champion and ability combinations will make the difference in the fight for the top spot on the leaderboard.
- NEW LOOKS – Spring Cosmetics – Spring is coming, so of course it’s time to refresh wardrobes. Quake Champions’ Spring cosmetics will let players outfit their Champions in a colorful collection of happy pastels for Weapon and Champion shaders. In addition, new Spring-themed profile icons, name plates, and festive headwear, including a unicorn hat, bird’s nest, and more. Nothing says fragging like happy pastels.
- NEW SETTINGS – Activate ‘No Abilities’ Mode – Players looking to go old school will have the option to turn off active Champion abilities. This play style is only available in custom games.
Quake Champions is available now in Early Access on Steam. It’s also worth noting that Bethesda and id Software plan to release a free version of Quake Champions in the future!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email
“Players looking to go old school will have the option to turn off active Champion abilities. This play style is only available in custom games.”
Doesn’t sound like this also stabilises the variable health and speed settings each Champion is subject to? Yes, it matters.
Instagib? No abilities mode? Alright,now,you have me attention.
Too bad online player base is already dead, take me hours to even find a game sometimes..
Guess that’s what happens when everyone only cares about Battle Royale games these days..
Different playerbases.
The main failure of QC is that the only existing Quake players who can enjoy it are those who mysteriously own ultra-high end hardware, and even those don’t get anywhere near the kind of performance you’d expect from a Quake game. id seem to think that because the old Quakes initially ran badly a new Quake can also run badly at the start. That simply isn’t how the genre works any more and it already wasn’t the case when they tried it with Quake 4 – which is why that game was dead on arrival. People have had over a decade of all notable arena FPS running at 120+ fps stable (NO drops) and nobody is going back after that. Nobody. New UT: 50 fps on the polished maps. Unplayable. QC: 60-100 fps with severe drops. Both games clearly CPU limited as lowering res doesn’t help. Who is supposed to play these games? Only people who bought hardware a month before crypto mining took off can. And AFPS players aren’t typically in the “buy new hardware” crowd, after all our games have been running perfectly since 2010 or earlier. You could even add Reflex to this list. Even on small maps Reflex has a hard time exceeding 80 fps on my machine. As perfect as Reflex’s input is (independent from framerate) it still just feels bad playing a fast game at 80 fps.
Those who don’t care about performance aren’t looking for AFPS and those who are looking find new AFPS unplayable, with or without high end hardware, but especially without, which is most of us. That’s the long and short of it and when people put their dismissals of these games differently it’s just that they aren’t aware of the connection between “feel” and performance.