• Fixed demo playback for demos with long file names.
• Fixed the accuracy menu to update properly in Clan Arena.
• Fixed the players-left-alive count to update properly in Clan Arena when an alive player disconnects.
• Fixed banned players’ profile pages to once again report the status of their suspension.
• Fixed issues that had arose with the Match tool-tips.
• Changed ‘cg_gibs 0′ to now entirely disable the death spark effects.
• Changed Cobalt Station – qzdm16’s max player limit to 8 players in CTF mode.

Quake Live is currently in open beta release, a state which it has been since February of this year. There is no word on the actual release of the game, but it seems quite stable as it is. You can check out Quake Live on the official site here.

Here is the full changelog:

• Fixed lightning gun sound, no more loud enemies.
• Added team_say for spectators so they can chat only among spectators.
• Increased the speed of nailgun nails.
• The powerups now spawn at the same time after match start.
• cg_lagometer 2 will now display the client ping estimation along with the standard lag-o-meter graph.
• cg_chatBeep allows you to enable/disable the audible beep when you receive a message.
• cg_teamChatBeep allows you to enable/disable the audible beep when you receive a message from a teammate.
• cg_selfOnTeamOverlay toggles whether you see yourself in the team overlay.
• cg_fov lower limit is now 10.
• Changed demo autorecord naming to more easily sort and locate.
• cg_autoaction 0-3
  0 – do nothing
  1 – auto record demo
  2 – auto record a screenshot at end of game
  3 – auto record demo and screenshot
• cl_autoRecordDemo has been removed in favor of the new cg_autoaction system.
• cl_demoRecordMessage 0/1 allows you to toggle the “RECORDING…” message on the hud when recording a demo.
• cl_conTimestamps can now display values in game time.
  0 – Do nothing
  1 – Show values in game time (affected by cg_levelTimerDirection)
  2 – Show values in servertime
• Fix for several keys becoming unbound (2,e,u,o,s,m)
• Spectators will no longer get the “Internal combustion” message upon respawn after following a player that was mined.
• Fix for a dropweapon bug that could cause other players in the game to auto switch to another weapon.
• Removed setu/sets commands.
• Fix for odd sv_maxclients values.
• Warmup delay is now disabled for bot games.
• Zoomed fov calculation now takes aspect ratio into account.
• Some FireFox users were experiencing crashes while loading into maps, these issues have been resolved.

Competition mode changes:

• Added support for limiting the amount of timeouts called, and configuring their default duration. Time outs remaining are indicated on the team scoreboards.
• Server owners can deop other clients with the ‘deop’ command.
• Pause and Timeout events print to the console.

Select organizations will now be able to launch private servers directly from the official Quake Live website, meaning league play will become a lot easier to handle. These private servers will “include extensive competition features such as calling timeouts, locking teams, aborting matches and designating match referees.”

New commands and prerequisites for game modes have also been added, making customization go even further with the game. Several user interface changes have also been made to the website.

Make the jump for the very extensive changelog.

Code Changes:

• Competition features (calling timeouts, locking teams, referees) available in private servers
• Wood footsteps (present on QZCA3 – Quarantine).
• Raw mouse mode performance optimizations.
• Added cl_mouseSensCap (default 0/disabled) to cap the mouse speed if you are using acceleration. Pass it an equivalent sensitivity with no acceleration value, and the acceleration code will not go beyond that.
• The game can’t start right away after a map change, in order to let everyone get in and participate in votes (g_warmupDelay).
• CTF requires 2v2 before starting.
• cg_marks no longer disables cg_shadows.
• handicap in instagib is now disabled.
• r_subdivisions limited to either 4 or 80.
• Flag capture time is reported with milliseconds.
• Flag items are no longer predicted (fixes ghost pickup sounds).
• pro TDM config MG start ammo at 50
• cg_forceEnemyModel/cg_forceTeamModel now honored while spectating a player
• cg_forceBlueTeamModel/cg_forceRedTeamModel added (For shoutcasters, cmds override cg_forceEnemyModel/cg_forceTeamModel)
• spec command:
  spec fc – follow/cycle through flag carriers
  spec blue – follow/cycle through blue team
  spec red – follow/cycle through red team
  (more options on the way)
• cg_followPowerup now supports a value of 2, which will not switch to a lesser power-up if already following a flag carrier
• cg_followKiller issue in Clan Arena fixed
• fixes for several possible flag dupe cases in CTF
• spwin/splose/testgun cmds removed (exploit/griefing)
• callvote VO fixed (vote now/vote passed vo played in unison)
• Bitterman drowning sound added/fixed

Web Changes:

• The plugin upgrade and installation has been revamped, and you should no longer need to restart your browser during an update (some IE issues still being worked out).
• 24 awards are making a comeback and will start being awarded again!
• The match detail tooltips have been revamped, now allowing you to sort the list by each field. In addition it should be easier to toggle “Quitters / Switchers” now.
• All matches in the server browser will now show the country flag and corresponding city name for the location where the server is running.
• Dropdown menus have been added to the top-level navigation bar, allowing easy access to many parts of the site.
• A new option to “Show Private Matches” has been added to the Server Browser “Customize” pane. This option will toggle back and forth between showing only public or only private matches.
• While the player is in-game various features on the website will go into “sleep mode” in order to reduce the amount of resources used. This change is to help certain players who were having problems with the game stuttering while playing due to website activity.
• Created a new prompt system is used for all fatal errors and other cases where info needs to be presented to the player.
• Match tooltips will now show server name, allowing you to see where the server is located from your friends list.
• You can now toggle whether to show chat timestamps in your “Edit My Profile” page
• Added an icon that is now stamped onto matches in a player’s profile when they have won a particular game.
• Fixed a number of problems with cvars and binds not being saved or restored. Players should no longer need to use an autoexec.cfg to have their settings persist.
• Fixed a problem that was preventing the “Link to this match” button from working in IE8.
• Fixed a problem where clicking on a model icon on your friends list would take you to an undefined profile.
• Fixed a problem where the player could be stuck on the “Quake Live is Loading” screen when an error occurs during the initial site load.
• Fixed a problem where many pages were missing page titles.

Read (Quake Live)

"I’ll leave that as a tease," said Hollenshead when pressed for more details. The studio is currently working on three projects – Wolfenstein, Rage and Doom 4. Additionally, they are working on improving the beta project that is Quake Live.

The CEO did tease that Doom 4 will “not [be] a sequel to Doom 3, but it’s not a reboot either.”

"It’s a little bit different than those, and if I told you why, I would get my ass kicked.”

However, it won’t abandon its gorey, action-ey roots anytime soon. "Everything I’ve seen on it is classic Doom, so I don’t really have worries that people aren’t going to like it and start talking about it.”

If you didn’t already know the beta for browser-based FPS, Quake Live, has been unleashed onto the public. 

To sign up for the beta just head over to www.quakelive.com, click on Play Now Free and sign up.

The beta has been more that successful with 113,00 users already registered and another 20,000 put in a queue. It’s been so successful that the id was forced to temporarily turn the servers off. Impressive.

Read (StrategyInformer)

id Software has recently announced that a beta for their all new browser-based FPS, Quake Live, will be available on February 24th. But you know what the best news is? It’s an open beta and available for everyone.

Joystiq reports that Quake Live will be supported by ingame ads. Does this mean it will be for free? I mean it’s based on Quake III and is broswer based, so it should be, right?

id Software has said that the final game will be released “when it’s done”. In the mean time you can head over to the games official website and download an exclusive wallpaper. Woot!

“id has no interest in MMO development,” he said. Carmack added that despite being familiar with the technology, he is also “fully cognizant” of the challenges and risks of creating a game in the genre.

The studio is currently developing an online web-based version of Quake 3 Arena dubbing it Quake Live.

“This was an idea we had mere weeks before QuakeCon,” said Carmack. It was then an anonymous individual had purchased the Quake Zero internet domain names.

“They offered us a considered buyout option for it,” he added. “We just decided heck, we’re only a few months into development of this, we’ll just change the name.”