[dividuum]

I'd like to add: 3. A huge (for the time) mod community. The amount of stupid mods I played in Quake 1/2 was amazing. So many original ideas that sometimes lead to the creation of completely new sub genres like action quake (a heavy influence for counter strike) or team fortress.

[raffraffraff]

I remember working at Compaq doing server support, clocking off at 5:30, and someone would fire up a Quaker 2 server. Roughly 20 people in the office would stay back to play for an hour. The mods were awesome. Someone had a Homer Simpson skin with about 10 different vocal samples for various damage. Best LAN sessions I ever had, I think.

I think the best commercial arena shooters were Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament 2004. Played the hell out of those at LAN parties.

For years I didn't game. I was never into solo play. However, about a year ago while working at a small start-up we decided to have a quick daily Deathmatch and settled on Xonotic (similar to Q3/UT2004) and I've actually been playing it a few times a week since. Absolutely love the fast pace arena stuff.

[vehemenz]

Funny, I think Quake 2 or Unreal Tournament were both better, respectively. Most likely an age thing. To be fair they were all pretty good.

[raffraffraff]

I remember getting Quake on CD, and playing it with the disc in the drive, so I got the atmospheric music/sounds produced by Trent Reznor. It was actually pretty scary playing that in the dark. I remember walk into a room. The music changes. The door slams shut behind me. Oh shit! A Shambler!