As you may or may not know, Quake Live is making its debut for the Mac today. And, as a Mac user with a sweet tooth for PC gaming, I thought I’d take it upon myself to show you the ropes before you get thrown into the cutthroat world of Quake Live. But worry not, with a little bit of know-how and a steady hand, you’ll be fragging from your browser window before you know it.

So, grab your mouse, and let’s get started!


1. You work around Quake Live, Quake Live doesn’t work around you

While initially Quake didn't play well with WebKit browsers, the newest incarnation of the service works with both Firefox and Safari.

Quake Live supports: OS X 10.4 or higher, Safari 3.0 or higher and Firefox 2.0 of higher

2. Quake Live takes minimal setup time

Getting started in Quake Live takes only a few minutes (depending on your Internet connection). In order to do so, you have to head on over the Quake Live website (duh) and register for an account. Once you’ve done so, you’ll be prompted to download some software. Don’t worry about it though, this software is pure of heart – its purpose is to install all required plug-ins to play the game, and nothing else.

Once you’ve taken care of that, you’ll go through a small installation process, and boom – you’re set to go!

3. Quake Live will only let you play with those as good (or as bad) as you

Quake Live comes with a clever skill placement system, which pits you against a low-level bot to test how efficient you are at killing. If you manage to pound the bot’s brains straight into the ground, you’ll be placed against players of a higher caliber. Should you end up losing to the bot, which turns only using its virtual keyboard, you’ll likely be placed in the playpen with others of the same skill level.

This system can be easily abused, though. So don’t always expect to come up against other players of similar skill level. After all, if you’re a semi-pro that deliberately lets the bot kill you time after time, you’ll play against other players that pose no threat.


4. You can play Quake Live from just about any Mac

Quake III Arena was released all the way back in 1999 – a year that introduced to us the Graphite PowerMac G4. So know that even if you’re on a low-end machine, you’ll be able to play with the other boys and girls. Now, I can’t say for certain that the PowerPC chip architecture is supported along with Intel (after all, EVE Online won’t let a PowerPC user like myself play), but if it does, you’ll be able to run the game smoothly.

So, what if you’re on a tangerine clamshell iBook and the game is chugging along? First of all, congrats on keeping that baby up and running for so long, but secondly – hop into the graphics settings and notch it down! That’s right, just like any other desktop game Quake Live comes with it’s own built in graphics settings. Everything from antialiasing to screen resolution is at your fingertips.

5. You can play Quake Live with friends – easily!

On top of placing you in a class with your peers, Quake Live makes it easy to team up with friends. The built in friends list lets you easily add players by their account name, email address or last name.

Once you’ve got a friend added to your friends list, you’ll always be able to keep one eye on them, thanks to the list’s constant presence. No matter what screen you happen to be on (with the exception of the game itself), your friends list will show up on your browser window.


So, what to expect?

As I’m sure you already know, Quake Live is a free to play, browser-based port of the extremely popular first person shooter Quake III Arena. And, like Quake III, Quake Live offers countless hours of great gameplay that will likely keep you coming back for more. Whether you like Deathmatch or Capture the Flag, there’s something for you.

Thanks to Quake Live’s easy to use server browser, it’s easier than ever to find a game near you, see how many people are in it, what game mode it’s playing, and how much time is left until the map switches.



But, bear in mind that Quake Live is a beta. There will be bugs, there will be errors – just be sure to enjoy the game for what it is! A free, high quality shooter brought to you as a labor of love.

Happy fragging.