What I don't want to see in Q4? Well, you asked for it.

First, I wanted a fast paced SP game with a lot of action. Well, I got it: Serious Sam and Serious Sam: The second encounter.

Now all I want is a GOOD story told in a new and exciting way. I don't want another Q3-based fast paced clone. Believe me, there are more than enough of them out there.

More than anything else, I don't want Raven to lose focus on the Quake universe.  It's bleak, violent and frenetic.  Creative direction is going to be very important for this title - that may seem a truism, but let's face it: Quake's storyline needs to be gathered and tightened up.  To that end, I do not want to see Tony Hawk Pro Hostage Rescue Railroad Tycoon Grand Theft Space Station Alien Invasion.  

You get the idea - keep it clean, simple, and do it well: one man, on his feet, facing off against an unspeakable threat.  Make it visceral, make it feral.  Keep that hungry, angry Quake feel in there.

raven tends to be good with its sequels. both in being true to the original but making it different enough that it is a new game and is fun.

I just hope they don't cheap out on content. I've noticed a trend in their recent SP games. They are short, extremely linear, and often missing content that I wouldn't expect a company of their stature to miss. Jedi Academy for example was pretty poorly planned from a delivery perspective. We have basically one set of voices, so depsite being a masked alien I still sounded like a regular schmo. Then if you chose a chick you'd have others referring to you as "he" and all that. I mean that's pretty bad any way you look at it and just shows how little time they spent in planning stages of the story. SoF2 I couldn't even come close to finishing because the AI was so bland. I think raven has the talent for the coding, models, textures, and mapping. But they have been subpar in the story and multiplayer department and they will really have to make this game shine to gain back my respect, and by the sounds of it the MP will be lacking.

they should see if they could hire some of the people from rockstar that did max payne 2 away, that game had genious story and storytelling elements, despite its linearness it is a compelling sp game.

SoF2 - well, I played on custom difficulty with the AI cranked, and I found the AI reasonable.

I didn't walk in on them inventing Cold Fusion or anything, but they pursued you in teams, used alternate weapons, fell back when appropriate, and did several other interesting things.

If the same guys get a crack at honing up AI even further, I think things are actually pretty promising for Quake 4.

Anyone else read Hofstadter's "Eternal Golden Braid"?  People into logic and systematic thought might find it interesting.

yeah, in JA (JO, SOF2, and JA all use different versions of the lich AI system) Raven did a pretty good job with the AI, so I guess it is more a matter of is Activision going to rush this game out like they did with sof2 (the game could have used about 6 months more spit and polish and it would have been amazing) or are they going to allow raven to do what id does and release when its finished.