The demo then switched to the next stage as we headed to the marauder's location to take care of some "business." This is perhaps the part of the game that will appeal to id's long time fans. It was basically a straightforward first person shooter sequence that involves entering a complex shooting up the place with shotguns, machine guns and even crossbows that can take out enemies silently.

There are a few new wrinkles, though. One is the ability to have items that can help out. One was an automated sentry that could be set up by the player to take out opponents without having to get your hands dirty. Yet another is a sentry bot, a spider-looking AI that moves on its own to kill your foes with its tiny but deadly machine gun.

Your enemies are not defenseless. They have their own tricks such as driving tiny RC cars that explode on impact. You can actually turn the RC cars against them, however, and even move the RC cars into areas you can't get into. This was helpful in the Rage demo to blow up certain sections of the marauder's base and continue to move inside. At one point a heavily armored character was trying to take us out. It took a while to take him down as we tried to chip off parts of the armor to get to the meat inside. Overall this section of the demo showed that id was still concentrating on making Rage an action game first and foremost.

That's not all, however. Not only will Rage feature vehicle combat as part of the main game but will also have actual races in the wasteland. We got to see a quick demo of that part of the game where we went up against two other dune buggies. The racing was fairly standard stuff as you drove in a closed course for three laps. There is the added wrinkle of other vehicles that are not racing against you but are trying to blow you up anyway.

The final part of the Rage demo showed yet another aspect of the game; arena-style combat in the form of the world's version of reality TV. Bash TV, hosted by the bloated A.J. Styles, gives you a chance to win some money and respect. The Rage demo showed our character going through a twisted version of a carnival fun house with about four different stages. each with their own special features.

One stage had us in an arena that had spikes coming out of the floor as mutants came from all sides to attack us. Yet another had a revolving monkey statue with knives that made moving about hard. The final arena had us going up against a larger mutant with tentacles for arms that were used for attack from a distance. Overall the arena mode of Bash TV looks like a fun side game and id will support leader boards to keep track of how you are doing compared to others.

While that was the formal end of the demo we still had a few questions. One, of course, was, "When is Rage coming out?" Naturally Hooper didn't want to comment on a release date but he did say, "We are definitely on that slope down" in terms of the game's status. They are still adding missions and content to the game. One will apparently allow players to get to the top of one of the wasteland's peaks and have some fun sniper action.

Rage certainly looks incredible and it also looks like it will retain the fast action that id Software fans know and love. However with things like actual conversations with NPCs, vehicle driving and combat, an RPG-like inventory system for making new items and more, Rage reminds us a bit of Fallout 3, at least on the surface. The big question is, will all of these new elements come together in a cohesive whole? It will be at least a year (and most likely longer) before we get an definite answer to that question. For now, our first impressions of Rage are promising.