Posts Tagged ‘rage’
Id Software’s Rage unlikely to use dedicated servers
Hot off the heels on the whole Modern Warfare 2 PC dedicated server debacle, Id Software, long time PC developers and enthusiasts, have revealed that it’s unlikely that Rage, their new IP slated for 2010 release, will support dedicated servers on the PC, and this comes from Id head honcho himself, John Carmack, who revealed the news in an interview with Variety. We’ll see if this news is met with the same controversy and revolt as Modern Warfare 2 was.
20 games to look forward to in 2010
While 2009 is drawing to an end, and with all the great AAA titles only weeks away, keep in mind that 2010 is going to see more top-notch titles released than the last few years. Here are 20 games that should/will make an impact next year, and while a lot more games are coming out, we obviously couldn’t include them all — our list grew from ten games to twenty games simply because even we were surprised how many title are lined up for 2010. Here’s our 20 games for 2010, in no particular order.
Postal 3 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Running With Scissors, Q2, 2010)
The original Postal was both hailed and damned for its controversial content, and the sequel, Postal 2 only made it better (or worse, if you’re a politician looking for some media attention). Postal 3 will expand on the sandbox style gameplay, and will even feature director Uwe Boll (who made the 2008 Postal movie) in a cameo role.
APB (PC, Xbox 360, March 2010)
After developing Crackdown for the Xbox 360, which has since become a cult classic on the console, Realtime Worlds shifted all their manpower to APB (All Points Bulletin), a revolutionary MMO set in a huge city where players battle each other as either law enforcement agents, or criminals. A kind of GTA online, as creator David Jones (the man behind GTA) is noted saying APB is “the bastard child of everything we’ve been striving towards over the 15-20 years”.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360, March 2, 2010)
Battlefield: Bad Company almost managed to perfect something no other FPS had done before: creating a fully destructible battlefield, where walls would no longer provide infinite cover — one tank shell and you better be looking to hide somewhere else. Coupled with a single player campaign and a solid multiplayer, Bad Company has been one of the most played FPS on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Bad Company 2 will bring “destruction 2.0″, taking destruction to a whole new level, this time, entire buildings and towns can be leveled to the ground.
Heavy Rain (PS3, February 2010)
Heavy Rain has been highly anticipated ever since it was first showcased at E3 2006 for the PlayStation 3, the film-noir, thriller-styled game will feature an intertwined storyline, with four playable characters, all looking for a serial killed going under the name “The Origami Killer”.
Halo Reach (Xbox 360, Q4 2010)
The next chapter in the Halo series and Master Chief’s battle against the Covenant was unveiled at E3 2009, without any further details other than the game would be the last Halo game to be developed by Bungie. Owners of Halo 3: ODST will have a chance to check out the game’s multiplayer beta in the middle of 2010, by then we should have more details on Reach.
Red Steel 2 (Wii, February 16, 2010)
The original Red Steel was the very first Wii game that was revealed, and rode a wave of anticipation until its release — as a Wii launch title — where it showed a flawed control scheme, dated visuals and uninspiring gameplay. Red Steel 2 is said to correct all those issues, and will require (and be bundled with) the Wii Motion Plus accessory, giving it a true 1:1 control input, paving the way for some great sword fights. We sure hope so.
Crysis 2 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Q4 2010)
The original Crysis is still bringing even the most powerful PCs to their knees, and is still hailed as the best looking game available, at least if a tropical island is what you crave. Crysis 2 continues the story where the original left off, and will use the new CryEngine 3, creating an even more immersive world. There aren’t many details of the game yet, but one thing is for sure: start saving for a new PC rig.
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id Software is commited to fixing RAGE
In response to an Edge Magazine article regarding RAGE’s performance on the PlayStation 3, id Software has posted on their Twitter page that they are “committed to ensuring that gamers on all platforms have a great RAGE experience.”
id Software’s John D. Carmack commented that the “PS3 lags a little bit behind in terms of getting the performance out of it.” The article reported that the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game were running at a full 60 fps, while the PlayStation 3 port was falling behind at a mere 20-30 fps.
I don’t think that the Twitter post was necessary though, it’s in any developer’s best interest to fix a game, especially one with as much reputation as id. The comments were most probably directed on the development stages of the game, and not the final product.
Rage runs poorly on the PS3, 360 and PC superior
id Software’s very own John D. Carmack had a few words to say on the performance issues Rage is seeing on the PlayStation 3. According to Carmack in an interview with Edge Magazine, the post-apocalyptic FPS runs better on the Xbox 360 and PC than its console counterpart.
“The PS3 lags a little bit behind in terms of getting the performance out of it,” John Carmack told Edge. “The rasteriser is just a little bit slower – no two ways about that.
Unfortunately, it’s unclear if the PS3 version will be fixed. The alleged framerate is only 20-30fps, as opposed to the full 60fps the PC and 360 are getting.
“The RSX is slower than what we have in the 360. The CPU is about the same, but the 360 makes it easier to split things off, and that’s what a lot of the work has been, splitting it all into jobs on the PS3,” he said.
Rage will be out sometime soon next year. The Mac version is currently under development.
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Rage teaser site debuts
A website for id Software’s upcoming first-person-shooter Rage has spawned. Players can navigate the site, hunting for subtle clues about the game’s storyline and such in a “Follow My Journey” theme. As shown by a Tweet by id, the site will be updated every day this week with new content.
The post-apocalyptic FPS will be out for the PC, Mac OS X, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Linux operating systems and will be out sometime next year.
id CEO Teases Major Announcements
Following on from word yesterday that id Software is going multiplatform, the Gamespot interview carries a teaser from company CEO Todd Hollenshead who noted that they plan on revealing some unannounced “new stuff” at E3 this June.
"I’ll leave that as a tease," said Hollenshead when pressed for more details. The studio is currently working on three projects – Wolfenstein, Rage and Doom 4. Additionally, they are working on improving the beta project that is Quake Live.
The CEO did tease that Doom 4 will “not [be] a sequel to Doom 3, but it’s not a reboot either.”
"It’s a little bit different than those, and if I told you why, I would get my ass kicked.”
However, it won’t abandon its gorey, action-ey roots anytime soon. "Everything I’ve seen on it is classic Doom, so I don’t really have worries that people aren’t going to like it and start talking about it.”
id Software on Rage Going Multiplatform: Xbox 360 is Primary Development Platfrom
id Software has, through the years, been a premier PC development house, producing great technology mostly exclusive to PC. However, the company seems to have been affected by changing times, as they recently went wholly multiplatform with Rage, their upcoming shooter, ditching PC-exclusivity for console release.
Gamespot talks with company CEO Todd Hollenshead about the shift. And here’s what he had to say:
Well, actually it’s been a fundamental, sort of philosophical shift at the company, is that we really have transitioned from, first and foremost, a PC developer to a multiplatform developer. And so when John [Carmack] developed id Tech 5 (see below), it really was targeted from the initiation as a multiplatform technology solution.
Now, there’s no question that our roots are in PC gaming. And when I play a first-person shooter, keyboard and mouse is the configuration that I want to play on. I’m devoting my gaming time right now on the PC to Quake Live. I like a little Rock Band on the console, to be honest about it. But we feel like, in terms of your triple-A, big-budget, big-market title, that you really have to be cross-platform to be successful, unless you’re a first party.
So as an independent developer, we feel like we have to be on all the relevant platforms. So we don’t really view ourselves as PC first. I think I would say that John says that probably the primary development platform for Rage is actually the 360.
So, there you have it: Rage is primarily being developed for Xbox 360. Let the online game boards flame up.
id: No Rage This Year
Bearing bad news for us all is the latest episode of GameTrailers TV where id Software’s CEO Todd Hollenshead revealed that the studio’s open-world shooter Rage definitely “won’t be out this year”.
While there was an initial confusion over whether he said “will” or “won’t”, host Geoff Keighley confirmed via Twitter that the game isn’t coming out this year.
id has remained mum on the title’s release date so far. They are still sticking to their age-old saying: “when it’s fun and when it’s done.” Next year then?
id: Rage Could Get Digital Distribution
Digital distribution is all the rage these days, and id Software doesn’t want to be left out of it, too. Company creative director Tim Willits has gone on record to say that Rage just might head to online distribution platforms, despite the game’s large reported size.
"We have not written off digital distribution for Rage," he said. "We haven’t figured out what we want to do yet. But I do want to fix the fact that John [Carmack] said [digital distribution is] not going to happen. What I’m saying is that’s not true."
He explained that the confusion stemmed from the game’s final form on disc.
"John Carmack made a comment about the media size, which unfortunately wasn’t exactly correct because we haven’t crossed that bridge yet. He said it was going to be too large to download, and I was thinking to myself, ‘You know, uhhhhh, people can do lots of things.’"
The game is due out next year on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.
Rage Will NOT Support User Mods
Pissing off many gamers and modders, id Software’s Tim Willits let it out that Rage, the studio’s upcoming driving-action game, will not support user mods.
Willits comments that the horsepower required to process the megatextures used in the game may make full user modifications impractical. However, he sees gamers being able to create smaller mods that could be integrated into the game’s existing structure.
Disappointing news from the company who practically jumpstarted the whole modding bandwagon.
id on Rage Narrative, Quake’s"Identity Crisis"
Moving on from the Xbox 360 Rage debacle, id Software talked about the title itself and its narrative, with Tim Willits admitting that id is not the first company one would really associate with the topic.
Willits goes on to suggest that the story as presented in the game is only part of its narrative and that it also involves the gameplay experiences of the user. The developer also talks about sequels to the game, as well as how they might be named; he also talks about how the Rage story will play out, and how creating a multiplatform game presents various storytelling challenges as the company tries to appeal to a wider audience than before.
Following on, Willits also mentioned how this has affected the Quake franchise, which he notes is going through an “identity crisis”.
id: No Content Cut from Rage Due to Xbox 360 Limitations
id Software has been very vocal about the limitations of the DVD medium and Xbox 360 hardware, noting that this version of the game would ship on multiple discs and feature marginally worse graphics than its PS3 and PC counterparts.
Naturally rumors rose that the studio was cutting content from the game due to the limitations of the Xbox 360. This was fueled by a report that said id had removed “significant content” from all versions of the shooter so that it would fit on two Xbox 360 DVDs. However, id Software’s Tim Willits has denied the report, stating that there was “NO CONTENT removed from RAGE because of the 360 – NONE AT ALL.”
“We feel the 360 is a great platform and will provide a fantastic Rage experience,” he concluded.
The game is due out sometime next year.
Rage to Look Worse on Xbox 360 Due to Compression
Shacknews reports that the Xbox 360 version of Rage will look worse than its PS3 counterpart, thanks to the console’s lack of Blu-ray or other higher capacity optical drives. Compression will cause the game to look worse, with id noting that it will have to use a “different type of compression” to fit the game on two dual-layer Xbox 360 DVDs.
When asked just how bad it might be, Carmack noted that “hero shots” will look similar, but that Xbox 360 players will find the periphery of the world of lower quality. He also noted that the royalty fees to include a third disc in the Xbox 360 version is so high that it wouldn’t be a feasible solution, but hopes that Microsoft will make a concession.
Work on Rage Almost Done, Will be Ported Over to Doom 4
d’s John Carmack has proclaimed that work on the Rage engine is almost finished.
“We have very few things that are very significant left to be done [to the technology],” he said. “We are ‘light at the end of the tunnel,’ going into the home stretch.”
Carmack noted that a change in the animation system will be implemented soon, along with a couple of tweaks to the MegaTexture system, but that most of the work has been done. They began work on the engine three years ago.
“Here we are, three years later, still working on elements of it,” he said, noting that he has spent most of his time working on Rage.
Carmack added that most of Rage will be carried over to Doom 4 where they plan to focus more on level design and other creative aspects.