Rage

We expected that the month of June would generate a ton of huge PC game stories thank to E3 2009 being held in the first week of the month. We had no idea that the biggest PC game story would actually happen near the end of June. Yet that's exactly what happened and today Big Download looks back at what we think were the top 10 biggest PC game stories in the past 30 days.

Yes, E3 2009 was in fact the source for many of the stories on June's list but as you will see it wasn't the only source; not by a long shot.

Click on the image to the right to read more of the top 10 Biggest PC game stories of June 2009.

Even with id Software's purchase by ZeniMax Media last week, plans for QuakeCon 2009 are continuing. However the annual free LAN event-game convention is getting a last minute venue change. Instead of the previously announced Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, the venue has changed over to the Gaylord Hotel in nearby Grapevine, Texas. The Gaylord Hotel previously hosted the 2004 and 2005 QuakeCons.

According to today's press announcement, this change will allow QuakeCon 2009 to have a bigger BYOC area, a biggest exhibitor area and "totally new events and entertainment." Folks who had made QuakeCon resevations at the previous hotel will find that those reservations have been canceled. id plans to announce when reservations will be made available for the Gaylord Hotel soon, at equal or lesser rates. The dates for QuakeCon 2009 have not changed; it will still be held August 13-16.

The fallout (pun intended) from Wednesday's news of id Software being acquired by ZeniMax Media is still being felt and today our sister site Joystiq and other media outlets got to speak with id co-founder John Carmack and the other principles involved. Here's a quickie summary of the important bits:

• Joystiq asked about the possibility of the id Tech 5 graphics engine being used in other games that are being developed by ZeniMax Media. It's CEO Robert Altman said, "We'll certainly take advantage of the expertise and brain of John Carmack throughout the organization. Specifically, what we will do with the technology, the id tech engine, and the proprietary technology that's been developed here, is to be discussed. We haven't determined how we are going to handle that proprietary technology, going forward. So, it's just one of the agenda items for us as we integrate these organizations."

E3 2009 turned out to be a huge week for the game industry. Lots of new game announcements and projects were revealed and new builds of previously announced titles were shown. However that wasn't the case for quite a number of titles that were previously announced, and even shown in playable form.

For one reason or another the ten games on our list didn't make the show floor or a behind-closed-doors meeting room. We picked games that were either announced via a press release or even shown (in either playable or trailer forms) at previous E3 and other press events. As you can see many of the games on this list are among the most anticipated PC titles. While E3 was a huge event, lots of games stayed at home this year.

Click on the image to read more about E3 2009: The PC Game No-Shows

As the days get closer to the launch of E3 2009 in early June, Big Download has been compiling wish lists of games that we would like to see during the revamped and larger trade show. We start out with a long list of first person shooter games. Some of the games on this list are indeed confirmed as being at E3 this year. Other games on this list are titles we think will be there. There are ever a few that we are just hoping might make an appearance at the show.

With that in mind let's head over to our list. Next time we will give our E3 2009 wish list over to the action game genre

Click on the image to continue reading Countdown to E3 2009: The FPS Games We Want To See

It just goes to show you that even if you get it on video and audio you still sometimes can't quite get what's going on in an interview. In a DICE Summit interview at Gametrailers.com id Software's Todd Hollenshead commented on the release date for their next internally developed game Rage.

The truth is Todd's statement sounds an awful lot like, "No, we'll be out this year". That's something we and other sites reported. However, Gametrailers's Geoff Keighley, who conducted the interview, mentioned on his Twitter site that Todd actually said that Rage won't be out this year Admittedly Todd's audio statement wasn't clear and many on the Internet made the same mistake we did. Still, it was a mistake and Big Download apologizes for mis-hearing Todd's words. Hopefully next time he will make sure to speak clearly into the mike.

Officially id Software's stance on the release date for their games is "when it's done". However it looks like id CEO Todd Hollenshead is confident enough to give a guess about the release of their next major internal game project Rage.

GameTrailers's latest TV episode had a chat with Hollenshead during last month's DICE Summit. When asked if Rage would be coming out in 2010, Hollenshead said, "No, we'll be out this year." Rage, which will feature the debut of id's latest graphics engine courtesy of their master programmer John Carmack, will be the first major id project that will be published via Electronic Arts (EA has also published id's mobile phone games).

On Wednesday we introduced you to the concept of the BigAss 25, a list of the 25 most exciting PC games that we will be covering a lot of on our site. These are also the games that you as fans will be playing and talking about more than most. We started with the first 13 titles and today we conclude with the final 12 in alphabetical order

We have games that were released in 2004 and games that won't be released in, well, we just don't know yet. We have shooters, RPGs, RTS games, MMO titles and much more. Remember this list is not set in stone; we plan to revise the BigAss 25 list every few months.

Click on the image above to continue reading Big Download's BigAss 25 for Spring 2009 - Part 2

It's been a while since the QuakeCon web site has gotten an extensive design revamp but this week the site that promotes id Software's annual free LAN event/convention got a new look that's far more slick than the previous design. The revamp also includes an all new logo for the event that's also much different than previous versions.

While the event is free to attend as always, registration is required, especially if you want to be in the massive BYOC area. Registration begins at 9:30 pm ET on Friday. The event itself will be held on August 13-16 and once again will be held at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas. We expect that id will be showing off upcoming game projects such as Rage and maybe (if John Carmack feels up to it) the fourth Doom game.

While id Software is obviously concentrating on the launch this week on Quake Live they still have a number of projects they are also working on, including iPhone projects, the upcoming Wolfenstein title with Raven Software and Activision and two internal games that will use their new idTech 5 graphics engine. One of the games is Rage (to be published by EA) and the other is id's fourth Doom game (which won't actually be called Doom IV).

Even though id signed with EA for Rage, our sister site Joystiq reports that they are still looking for a publisher for the next Doom title. id co-founder John Carmack states that they have some time, as the developer will "be able to get a better sense of how we think they're (EA) doing, holding up their side of the bargain." EA has certainly signed quite a few high profile third party developers to release their games via their company, including Valve, Epic, Crytek and others. Still id might decided to go with an entire new publisher for the next Doom game. That announcement is expected sometime in 2009.

Christmas is now over and we are now just a few days away from the start of 2009. As with the beginning of any new year there is a feeling of excitement of what the next 365 days will bring. For the PC game industry the new year is already looking very bright with a ton of highly anticipated game titles due to be released in the next 12 months.

Big Download has looked into our crystal ball (ok, it's actually a Bioshock bobble head doll) for all of the games we hope to be playing in 2009. The result is a multi-part preview we will be running in the last days before 2008 is over with that will give you some idea of what to expect. Keep in mind that our preview is not meant to be totally comphensive as there are a number of games our there that have yet to be announced. Also, release dates for games can and do change so many of the titles in our feature might not make 2009 (in fact we have put in some games that we know won't be released this year)

We even have some exclusive new screenshots to some of the games we are featuring in our preview article. One such shot is above from the upcoming Raven Software-id Software-Activision shooter Wolfenstein. For our first part of our 2009 PC game preview we take a look at a number of upcoming action and first person shooter titles. Stay tuned on Saturday as we will preview even more action games in the works.

Update: The second part of our action-FPS preview is now live

Click on the image above to continue reading our 2009 PC game preview on action and FPS titles

id Software's annual free gathering of gamers and tournament players now has a date and location for the 2009 edition. id's PR folks sent over word that QuakeCon 2009 would be held from August 13-16. While the event is free you still have to register to attend. That will begin on March 9.

The location will be the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, which has been QuakeCon's home for the past two events. Last August, id Software talked about and showed new footage from Rage, Wolfenstein, and more but talked only a bit about their next Doom game. We suspect that QuakeCon 2009 could showcase some more info on that particular game as well as other current and future id projects.

Some of you may know that John Carmack, the master engine programmer at id Software, has a side business in Armadillo Aerospace which has been working for years to create rockets for manned spaceflight. This past weekend, the company won a whopping $350,000 for completing the first stage of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge at the Las Cruces International Airport in New Mexico.

Armadillo and others in the contest made a rocket made to simulate a lunar lander. Carmack and his team successfully got their rocket to lift off, go to 150 feet, hover for 90 seconds and then land safely on another landing pad 150 feet away. To complete the challenge the rocket did the same trip in reverse within 2 1/2 hours. A second part of the contest, where teams were supposed to double the hover time of their craft and then land on a simulated lunar surface, could not be completed by any team this weekend.

id Software is working on two games using their new id Tech 5 graphics engine. One is the next Doom game while the other is Rage, their original action title that combines post-apocalypse action with some driving features. However it looks like a big feature of previous id games, mod support, may be tougher to do for Rage.

According to Gamasutra, id Software designer Tim Willits has indicated, "Unfortunately, Rage is going to be more difficult to mod." Willits, who made those statements during this week's Austin Game Developers Conference, said the reason is id Tech 5's use of megatextures. Unlike previous id games, which have used several smaller textures for levels, id Tech 5's megatexture support uses one large texture that takes a lot of processing power to me made into their final form. While full mod support may not be possible, Willits indicated that third party mod makers could create "modular chunks of gameplay that can be slotted into the extant Rage world."

Valve's weekend sales on Steam are usually just one or two titles but this weekend its a boatload of games that are now just 50 percent off for this weekend only. All of them are part of the id Software Super Pack that was introduced last year during QuakeCon.

That means all of the games in the Super Pack are really cheap via Steam; all the Doom, Wolfenstein, Quake, Heretic/Hexen titles and expansion packs are involved in this sale (except for Enemy Territory; Quake Wars and Quake IV, the latter of which for some reason has never been available for Steam download). If you want to get all of the games at once that's the best deal of all as the entire Super Pack, priced at an already resonable $69.99, is on sale this weekend only for just $34.99. That's 22 total games for less than the price for one regular retail new PC title.