Hold on to your controllers xbox fans... look what I just found over at xboxlive.ign.com!!!

Levi Buchanan - September 5, 2009 - Bethesda's PAX booth is home to two upcoming Xbox Live Arcade shooters. Each is a familiar face: Quake and Doom. Quake Arena Arcade arrives this holiday with 45 total maps, including 15 brand-new ones built specifically for the XBLA release. The remaining 30 have been taken from Quake III: Arena, which remains a fan favorite with a still-loyal following.

Quake Arcade Arena is pretty fast, but the booth attendant did note that the game has been slowed down a touch for console players. While giving the game a whirl, I was reminded of the speed setting for the Dreamcast edition. The slightly slower pace is designed to help compensate for the console controllers, which I know so many players still claim in grossly inferior to a mouse and keyboard combo. I'm not so sure. I didn't seem to have too much trouble chewing people in half with the shotgun or ripping through some skulls with the lightning gun.

I just finished reading an excellent series of articles over at the EG (Evil Geniuses) site. These articles are titled Chance's Quake Bible and I highly recommend them to any one who seems to be "stuck in a rut" with their game. Take a look at this excerpt:

So discipline is largely about staying focused, and staying focused has a lot to do with your emotional state. You can't be getting too angry, excited, or relaxed when you need to be completing a crucial task like timing red armor or dodging behind a pillar. An example of the kind of excitement that creates problems is when that energetic excited feeling takes your mind out of the game. i.e. "I'm doing so good! That shot was amazing! Wait.. what was the armor time again?" Herein lies the difference between an amateur and an expert. The expert player will simply move onto the next frag, perhaps increasing or maintaining the same level of energy and readiness whenever necessary.

As most of you are aware, EG was the victor in this year's QCON 4v4 Capture the Flag Tournament. Congrats, EG on your international title win!!!

Hope on over to their site and read these articles, you'll be glad you did!

Story from the Planet Quake Site:

Another all-free Quake 3 project is alive and putting out, and it's called Q3min! There are version downloads available right now, and the mission behind this project is to create a free, high quality version of Quake 3 that's all legal and will work with custom maps and mods created over the years, and in the future. Here's the official blurbage:

This is a community project managed by dedicated Quake III Arena enthusiasts. Its purpose is to provide a freely distributable minimal version of Q3A that is fully compatible with the original game created by id Software. We wish to make a package that can use different mods as well as custom maps made for the original game Q3A. The package should have a reasonably small size for easy downloading.

We do not intend to stop when the first fully functional package is released. We would like to implement, test and maybe permanently integrate different enhancements suggested by people on Q3A forums. We want to make a game even better than the original!

Mesquite, TX – May 7, 2008 – id Software announced today that production has begun on DOOM 4™, the next journey into the legendary DOOM universe. id Software is expanding its internal team and is currently hiring to work on this highly anticipated title.

“DOOM is part of the id Software DNA and demands the greatest talent and brightest minds in the industry to bring the next installment of our flagship franchise to Earth,” said Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software. “It’s critical for id Software to have the best creative minds in-house to develop games that meet the standards synonymous with our titles.”

The DOOM franchise is one of the most recognizable and important in gaming history, having been named “one of the ten most influential games of the decade” by PC Gamer and “the #1 game of all time” by GameSpy. DOOM 4 will join the award-winning series which has consistently topped sales charts throughout the world.

id Software is looking for talented, ambitious and passionate individuals eager to join its accomplished team of developers working on the industry’s most innovative and anticipated games. For a complete listing of available positions, visit www.idsoftware.com. Resumes can be submitted via email to jobs@idsoftware.com. All applicants must be authorized to work in the United States.

The QUAKE 4 1.4.2 Point Release Patch is now available for download at FilePlanet. This update includes a host of features added during the 1.4 beta program, such as: refined hitboxes, optimized sound and network code, configurable fps caps, weapon balancing, server direct autodownloading, addonpak fixes and Q4TV, to name only a few. The full patch is just over 250MB and the upgrade patch is in the neighborhood of 50MB, available for both Windows and Linux. Read more about pure servers and server compatibility at id Software.

In addition to the new Q4 Point Release, id announces that they will also be releasing a new QUAKE 4 1.4.2 powered Multiplayer Demo soon! If you haven't purchased the game yet then stay tuned for more information!