Our hero spews some lead at the alien scum...

With Midway's ham-fisted port of Quake still fresh in the mind, Future Gamer takes a look at Activision's attempt at the sequel. But can the N64 really do the PC classic any justice?
Andy Ashwin

Not likely.
You'll be surprised. Developers Raster Productions have pulled out all the stops with this one. The results are looking stunning, especially when you consider the relative costs of a PC and an N64. You will definitely want an Expansion Pak to experience all of the fancy lighting effects though.

Fancy lighting? Really? Examples please...
Technically speaking, there's realtime lighting, particle explosions, transparencies...

... Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb!
Aw! You know the sort of thing, all the dandy finery you'd expect from a graphically accelerated PC. An example of realtime lighting... um... a-ha! Okay, imagine you're standing in a dingy corridor and you launch a rocket.

Oh... ki... dokey...
As the rocket travels down the corridor, the walls will be temporarily illuminated as the projectile passes. Which is pretty bloody fantastic for a console game.

Too true blue! So I guess the frame rate will duly suffer.
Miraculously, Raster Productions have managed to keep the frame rate very high, even with all the posh effects. Fair play to them.

Bless 'em. So on to the game proper...
Yes, of course. I must have been temporarily blinded by the prettiness. Well, this game is definitely not just a pretty face. Whereas Midway essentially did a direct port job on Quake, Activision have made sure that Quake II was redesigned from the ground up.