The rumored Quake remaster released on Steam and the Microsoft Store for $10 today—surprise! And if you already own the original Quake on Steam, you'll get the update for free.
The Quake remaster comes with 4K and widescreen resolution support, enhanced models, dynamic and colored lighting, anti-aliasing, depth of field, and a new theme song from Trent Reznor, who composed the original soundtrack, which itself was lost in licensing limbo for some time.
It also includes both of the original's DLC packs, the Scourge of Armagon and Dissolution of Eternity. MachineGames, the developers of the modern Wolfenstein games, contributed two entirely new expansion packs called Dimension of the Machine and Dimension of the Past.
Bethesda describes the first of MachineGames' new packs as such: "In the deepest depths of the labyrinth lies the core of lava and steel known only as The Machine. Crusade across time and space against the forces of evil to bring together the lost runes, power the dormant machine, and open the portal hiding the greatest threat to all known worlds—destroy it… before it destroys us all."
Quake isn't Quake without some friends, so the remake's campaign comes with online and local split-screen co-op for up to four players. Adversarial multiplayer supports 8-player online matches and 4-player local split-screen matches. And thankfully, there's dedicated server support and peer-to-peer support for custom matches. Crossplay support is also available for friends playing across different platforms. If you're out and about, the Quake remake is also part of the xCloud service for Game Pass Ultimate members.
Bethesda is letting players also download free fan-made mods and missions into the remake, including Quake 64, with more on the way. It's unclear if older mods will be compatible with this version, but we'll update when we know more.
Quake 2, Quake 3, and Arena are also hitting Game Pass today.
