id are on a mission to bring team play to your Quake III: Arena experience. New modes, new models, new weapons and new maps.

The first id-developed mission pack since the Master Levels for Doom has been announced for Quake III: Arena. Named Quake III: Team Arena, it will concentrate, unsurprisingly, on new deathmatch team modes.

Monument mode involves the destruction of the other team’s base-located monolith. Each monument’s hit points deplete towards complete destruction, but will regenerate while not under attack.

An artefact mode will feature two team bases and a central spawning ground where an artefact appears every time that a player dies. The artefacts must be collected and returned to home base.

There will also be limited levels of class selection. Some new power-ups will include Doubler and Scout. Doubler basically makes a player a heavy weapons guy, increasing weapons damage. Scout increases running speed.

Only one person from each team can carry one power-up at a time. Their effects are not time dependent, but last until fragged, when the power-ups re-spawn inside the home base.

New weapons will include the return of a souped-up nailgun and a proximity mine launcher, presumably along the same lines as the one seen in the Ground Zero add-on for Quake II.

Models will have access to wide selections of user-defined logos and textures. New male and female models will be able to use unique heads so that identification within teams becomes easier and better team communication features will be built into a new interface.

Quake III: Team Arena will be on show at E3 next week and no doubt Matt will be taking a keen interest and sending me all the news as he gets it. You’ll also be able to get the latest news and more screens in the July issue of PC GAMER.

Writer: Steve Brown