Well balanced? I see you have not played the game online, 90% of the people whore the grenades and the martyrdom perk, or sit in some corner with the LMG's.  But all you need to win at the game is the M16 with RDS, with the perks Bandolier/stopping power/deep impact.  You find some defensive postion and sit down and laugh as you get Air strike and the heli all game.

the graphics on etqw are quite poor compared to COD4. Also COD4 seems to be more easy for the beginner to grasp

Quake Wars is the best team-based shooter ever, and has more depth than any FPS I've played.

The great thing about it is that the only way to win a game is to play as a team. The spread-zone you have in the aiming assures that players don't start running alone for headshots.

You don't even need to kill directly to be useful to your team:
-Supporting your teammates as a Medic
-Defend areas as an Engineer (which you can deploy turrets and artillery that automatically targets the opponents, and plant landmines)
-As a Covert Op you can deploy a radar (very important!), or destroy the opponent's radar and turrets
-Field Ops can call airstrikes that would slow down the enemy.

The Soldier/Aggressor class is the only one that is the most oriented to direct kills, so it has available a varied arsenal of weapons. It is also a very important class, just like any of them.

Graphically, I'd say it's almost on par as COD4. It certainly has better textures.

For last, GET the PC version! The console versions are not worth it.