Eric Franck, staff writer, takes a look at id Software and tells you how id Software may save save the old-school multiplayer first person shooter from an untimely demise.

You can find the full article after the jump.

A New Life for Deathmatch: How id Software is Saving the Old-School Multiplayer FPS
Saturday, August 2, 2008 – by Eric Franck, Staff Writer

Good old fashioned first person deathmatch gameplay has hit some hard times recently. Though it was once a staple of hardcore PC gaming back in the days of DOS, the half-hearted reception of modern adaptations of the old deathmatch formula (like Unreal Tournament 3) suggest that most of the gaming world has moved on, leaving software made in the spirit of Doom and Quake behind to gather cobwebs. 

If you've kept a close eye last month's E3 coverage and the more recent news coming out of QuakeCon, though, you know that id Software, the group of guys who served up the gratuitous fragfests in Doom and Quake, hasn't given up on deathmatch just yet.  In fact, they have a nefarious plot to revive the high-speed ultra-violent play all over the world in one deadly shot.  It's called Quake Live, and it's not what you'd expect from a big blockbuster-forging studio like id Software, but it's definitely the last and best hope for the survival of our beloved deathmatch.

Here's the weird part: they're basically just repackaging a nine-year-old game.Yep, id Software is bringing Quake 3 back, but this time it's different.  Well, sort of. It still seems to have all the classic gameplay in place, and it still looks pretty much like it used to graphically.Actually, the big deal about Quake Live is that it's free, ad-supported and runs in your web browser. On top of that, the web integration will apparently allow for full fledged matchmaking and ranking systems.

Quake Live is a bold move from the kind of FPS giant, like id Software, which would usually depend on high-tech cutting-edge games to maintain gamers' interest.  It's kind of a less-is-more strategy, but really, at this point, it suits the FPS deathmatch just fine—after all, the deathmatch is about simple, fast play, so why worry about graphics when the important thing is hardcore competition?  Being as Quake Live is as-yet unreleased (although you can try to get into the beta now), we have yet to see for certain whether it will rekindle the old frag-fueled fires of twitchy gamer delight, but in the meantime it'll be interesting to see how id Software markets a remake of a near decade-old game.