Publisher: Activision
Developer: Splash Damage and id Software
System: PC
Minimum requirements: Pentium 4 2.8 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 2800+processor (Pentium 4 3.0 GHz or equivalent for Windows Vista); 512MB RAM (768MB for Windows Vista); 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 5700 or ATI Radeon 9700; 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card; 750MB of free hard drive space, plus 200MB for Windows swap file; Broadband connection and service required for full gameplay and downloads; Windows XP/Vista (Windows 95/98/ME/2000 are unsupported
Genre: First-person shooter
Release date: Available now
Review by: Michael Smith

It’s a marvelous time to be a PC gamer. In the last half of this year alone, no fewer than a half-dozen top-shelf, AAA games are being released, making 2007 a gamer’s paradise lost since the late 1990s. Included in this embarrassment of riches is Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, id Software and developer Splash Damage’s first-person, squad-based shooter that incorporates a major technological advance likely to revolutionize PC gaming.

Dark days have arrived for humanity in 2060. An alien menace known as the Strogg has arrived and is systematically wiping out Earth’s cities and recycling its inhabitants for food and spare body parts. But all is not lost, as a determined organization of soldiers known as the Global Defense Force (GDF) has vowed to drive the invaders back out into the depths of space from whence they came. Intense battles have begun on several worldwide fronts, and both sides need recruits to help them achieve their ultimate objectives.

ETQW is more or less a prequel, taking place shortly before the events of 1997′s Quake II, in which the GDF tracks the Strogg back to their home planet after forcing them to flee Earth. The game offers three modes of play: Objective (taking place on a single map), Campaign (three maps for each of four scenarios) and Stopwatch (an interesting variation in which the two armies take turns attacking and defending, then compare the time it takes to complete their objectives).

Before diving into ETQW‘s online experience, I decided to take on the computer-controlled bots in the game’s offline mode. The well-organized menu screen walked me through the setup, allowing me to select a game mode and one of five difficulty levels, including a Custom setting that provides the ability to set the skill and tactical proficiencies of the bots. Bot matches accommodate up to 16 players, defined by sliders that permit either balanced or unbalanced sides. Also, time limits for the maps can be changed from the default value of 20 minutes.