A year late, and a few features short.

Who doesn't like a good, solid Quake game? It's not a series that you can find a whole lot of fault with, so it's a real shame that the port of the PC Quake Wars title doesn't fare so well on consoles with the release of Quake Wars: Enemy Territory on the Xbox 360 and PS3.

It's not that the gameplays particularly bad, but it has more to do with how bare the entire experience feels. Both the 360 and PS3 versions are fairly identical in looks, but I've only spent time with the 360 version, so keep in mind I'm not aware of any bugs/issues the PS3 version has or doesn't have in comparison.

The overall "plot" of Quake Wars is intact in the console version, which features all out war between humans that make up the Global Defense Force, and an alien race called the Strogg. I use the term "plot" loosely though, since the game is definitely more focused on playing the combat out in real time than overly explaining the story behind these events. If you've never played a Quake game before, well, you basically shoot everything on sight. Granted, it's pretty simple stuff, but still quite a bit of fun with a few friends online.

The mayhem is played out across 12 different maps, all of which are pretty large, and cover the gamut of typical locations found in FPS games, such as jungle and urban environments. But what the locations lack in originality, they manage to make up for it in design and balancing. There's not a real unfair advantage to either side when it comes to map placement, and there's plenty of ground to cover to keep things from become a complete frag fest like Unreal Tournament 3. I'd liken the maps to something from Call of Duty 4 as far as size goes, if not a bit bigger. However, Quake Wars doesn't have the same sense of style, with some incredibly bland building design tossed into the mix.

Quake Wars just doesn't feel like a full fledged game in the same way that titles like CoD4 and Halo 3 do, and I have a hard time figuring out why anyone would drop those titles to devote their time to Quake Wars. Also, keep in mind that the game is lacking a traditional single player campaign (it only consists of the same multiplayer maps but with bots instead of players) so there's a steep learning curve involved when you're first jumping into a match. With not much of a tutorial to speak of, you're left with a lot of trial and error when it comes to figuring out how the five different classes the game offers work.

Also, the game has definitely been stripped down a bit from the PC version. Not only have the visuals taken a hit in the translation, but also you can only go online with up to 16 other players, which is half of what the PC version offers. Keep in mind that the game originally debuted nearly a year ago on PC, and it would have made a bit of sense to include some additions to a new port, but instead we're getting stuff taken away here.

However, the game does offer a bit of originality if you're looking for something fresh from an FPS title. The game places a heavy emphasis on squad based combat and objectives for each map. You'll not be simply annihilating your opponents thru gun-to-gun combat; instead you're tasked with three different goals on each map that you can only tackle one at a time. There's no sure fire to simply steamroll your opponents, unless they're standing still, so there's always a steady conflict going on between the two sides.

There are also a variety of vehicles to choose from on each map, ranging from your standard jeep style cars and helicopters, to more fanciful creations such as giant mechanized armor. You can create a ton of destruction on each map with the vehicle selection alone, and that's always entertaining to watch on screen.

The last disappointing aspect of the game is the full-blown price tag. At $60 I'd expect to get a hell of a lot more than 12 maps and 5 different classes, but that is exactly what you're getting here. This should have at least hit the price point of $40 at release, so don't expect to find a huge community of players online if you plan on picking this up. I'd definitely suggest going the rental route first, and see if you're able to acclimated to the game within that short time period, and see if the community is large enough for you to devote a bit of time to. Otherwise, while the game does have its share of decent features, it's just not quite enough to tear me away from the other AAA titles that have released in the past year or so.