Quake Live adds 9 new maps and Steam trading cards

In news that will make at least some of you feel terribly old, it's been 15 years since the launch of Quake III: Arena. With Unreal Tournament, Quake III remains one of the defining early multiplayer FPSes of the late-'90s, and it's also one of the first shooters to be played as an e-sport. Its free-to-play spin-off is also still getting updates, including a big one that arrived yesterday.

The update includes 11 Steam trading cards featuring some very lovely art—the full set can be seen on the Bethesda Blog—that can be traded, sold, or crafted into badges that earn emoticons, profile backgrounds, and Steam coupons. There are also nine new arenas and one that's been "renovated," a new in-game medal earned by telefragging an enemy, changes to the announcer voiceovers, and various smaller updates and fixes. The nine new arenas, it bears mentioning, do not include any that were "trimmed out" in the August update, but the renovated one—"Sorrow"—is.

Quake Live debuted in 2010 but it didn't actually go to Steam until September of this year. Prior to that, it underwent some fairly fundamental changes designed to make it more accessible to newcomers—15-year-old game, remember—which did not go over well with quite a number of non-newcomers.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.