Rage

It's looking like one of the biggest PC game developers, id Software, could decide (and we emphasize "could") not to offer dedicated servers for online multiplayer in their next game Rage. In an article on Variety, id Software' John Carmack is quoted as saying, ""It's not cast in stone yet, but at this point no, we don't think we will have dedicated servers."

The specific reasons for such a move are not really spelled out in the brief article, stating that Carmack felt "the servers are something of a remnant of the early days of PC gaming." However he hasn't closed the door to such a move saying, "We'll see how it works out for everyone else." At the moment Rage won't likely be out until sometime in 2010.

QuakeCon 2009 is now officially over and id Software's annual free LAN event-game convention reached new attendance records this year. Perhaps it was the promise of the first public demos of id's next game Rage or perhaps the last minute move to the larger Gaylord Texan hotel and convention center caused more people to show up. Regardless, id's Todd Hollenshead revealed to the crowd that QuakeCon 2009 had over 7,000 attendees this year.

The final event of the night was the QuakeCon tournament finals. The Evil Geniuses team won the $12,000 Quake Live CTF final match while "Flysher" won the first Quake Live Open Tournament (where anyone could enter) and picked up $1,500. The Quake Live Masters Championship was a truly epic event as "Rapha" came back from losing the first two matches to win the final three over "Spart1e". "Rapha" picked up $14,000 for his first place win.

We have some pictures taken during the final day of QuakeCon including shots of the QuakeCon tournament winners picking up their "big checks". Plans for QuakeCon 2010 are still to be determined as id has not yet secured a location for the event.

The day after Big Download got to see the first playable demo for Rage (which attendees at QuakeCon 2009 will get to see later today) we got to sit down and chat with four members of the first person shooter's team at id Software; art director Stephan Martiniere, lead designer Matt Hooper, producer producer Jason Kim and creative director Tim Willits.

While Rage is still a first person shooter game it also incorporates all sorts of gameplay and features that have never been in a game created by id. Willits told us, "We knew that we didn't want to look like Quake or Wolfenstein." The actual idea behind Rage came as id's master programmer John Carmack checked out satellite data of the US. Willits told us that they thought it would be cool "if we could drive through that." From there they came up with setting the game in a post-apocalypse era and having drivable vehicles with guns.

As far as enemies, Willits said, "We were careful. We knew we didn't want to do Doom demons." While there are mutants to fight in Rage there are also plenty of actual humans to deal with and interact with in the game which is another first for id.

Check out more from the Rage chat after the jump:

Rage was first announced by id Software two years ago at a previous QuakeCon. Since then the notoriously silent developer has been working mostly in stealth mode on the ambitious action game, coming up for air last year only to reveal that Electronic Arts would publish the title.

However, id now feels that enough of the game is done to begin showing it to the press. It began with last month's Game Informer cover story but on Saturday, id will show off a public demo of Rage to the thousands of people attending QuakeCon 2009 this week. Before that happens, however, we have a sneak peak right now. Big Download got a chance to check out an extensive live demo of the game being played by its lead designer Matt Hooper.

The demo begins with a little back story. In the near future a global killer asteroid is discovered to be coming to Earth. So a group of humans launch the Eden program. Some humans are selected to be put into pods all over the planet before the asteroid hits. The plan is that after the impact, the humans come out of the pods to repopulate the planet. However it wouldn't be a fun game if things go according to plan. Your character comes out of the pod and discovers a blasted wasteland full of both humans and various mutated creatures. The identity of your character is something of a mystery and id is apparently keeping that aspect unknown for now.

Download the Rage Quakecon 2009 HD Trailer

Check out more after the jump:

Id Software's annual keynote by its co-founder John Carmack at QuakeCon 2009 ran well over two hours with Carmack seemingly not taking a breath as he unloaded on id's plans for the future, his own feelings on next-gen games technology, his rocket company and even his new electric car. Here are just some of the highlights:

• Carmack doesn't see id Software's recent acquisition by ZeniMax Media as a sell out. Indeed he finds it liberating because, "I don't have to attend any more board meetings" which means he can concentrate on doing programming work at the office. id Software has been an acquisition target for a long time; Carmack said that just after Wolfenstein 3D was released, id was almost bought by Sierra Online.
• Speaking about their upcoming game Rage, Carmack referred to it as a "people game". Unlike previous id games which were mostly about monsters trying to kill you, there are real characters that you interact with in the game.
• Carmack is a big believer in the iPhone for games. Indeed he said its likely that all of id's mobile game products will be exclusively made for the iPhone. Carmack sees id making three kinds of mobile games; the classic id game ports, the variant RPG games like Doom RPG and Wolfenstein RPG, and all new original products. Carmack said in that latter category you can expect a Rage tie-in game. Carmack predicted that id will release a new mobile game every other month for the next year or so.

Check out more tibits after the jump:

A brand new trailer for Rage shook things up at QuakeCon 2009, showing off the graphics and some of the characters the upcoming shooter will offer. As revealed in the presentation, Rage will be a more character focused game in comparison to many of id software's previous projects. Of course, a we're guessing that a healthy dose of shooting and extreme off-road driving combat won't hurt the game either.

Download HD Rage Quakecon 2009 Trailer (114 MB)
Check out all Rage downloads

id Software's annual LAN fest-convention QuakeCon is now in full swing here at the Gaylord Texan hotel in Grapevine, Texas. The free gathering of gamers to play on a massive 3,000 player LAN network combined with a mini-E3 exhibit hall area and lots of activities is one of the more unique game events in the US. Some gamers who didn't register in advanced have been waiting since 9:30 pm Wednesday night for a chance to be admitted to the event's BYOC area

Big Download will be here for the entire event where id Software will show off, for the first time in public, actual gameplay from their next major title Rage. Their master programmer John Carmack will also be making his annual QuakeCon keynote address later today (expect things to get highly technical) and lots of other stuff are planned as well from now until Saturday night. You can check out some quick pictures from the event in our new gallery.

Oh and while this isn't PC gaming related it's still pretty cool. Today at QuakeCon they were showing a playable version of the previously unannounced Doom II for Xbox Live Arcade. The neat bit? In addition to porting the entire PC game, the development team at Nerve Software are also making an ALL NEW EPISODE that's exclusive to the Xbox Live Arcade version.

QuakeCon, id Software's annual free LAN fest-games event, is getting some interesting content for this year's installment. Part of the reason is due to id's recent acquistion by Bethesda Softworks who will be bringing their own content to the show. Case in point; the first public demo of Brink, the recently announced sci-fi shooter from Bethesd and developer Splash Damage, will happen during QuakeCon next week.

While id has shown trailers and given live engine demos of their next game Rage at two previous QuakeCons, this year's show will finally have actual live gameplay demos from the game for the first time in publich. Also, Bethesda Softworks' Todd Howard will be making a presentation at the event and as always id Software's master programmer John Carmack will make his annual QuakeCon keynote and Q&A with the audience.

Once again, QuakeCon is totally free to attend and is being held this year at the Gaylord Texan hotel in Grapevine, Texas from August 13-16.

While we will certainly get flooded with new info and images about Rage next week at QuakeCon, an unexpected source has yielded some new screenshots from id Software's upcoming action game. A paper submitted by id's senior programmer J.M.P. van Waveren for the SIGGRAPH 2009 conference is the source of the new shots.

We have added the six new screenshots to our gallery and while they mostly show the game's environment they do look pretty incredible as they show off what the id Tech 5 graphics engine is capable of. The paper itself is highly technical and definitely not for the layman but those of you who are interested in getting behind the scenes at the making of Rage and the engine should check it out.

[Via Shacknews]

Howdy folks. Akela is taking a little vacation (he'll be back) but we didn't want to let the readers of our weekly Mac gaming article think we had forgotten them. Today we are doing something a little different for this week's installment. Instead of reviewing some new Mac games we are taking our crystal ball and checking out the prospects for future Mac games.

As you will see in our latest gallery feature Mac gamers will have a mix of older games that will finally make their debut on the platform alongside major PC game releases that will have a simultaneous release for the Mac.

Click on the image above to continue reading 10 Upcoming Mac Games

id Software's upcoming post-apocalyptic action game Rage may be coming to other platforms besides the PC but in terms of performance PC owners will love this bit of news. According to id's master programmer John Carmack (being interviewed by Computer and Video Games) the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game will run at a perfect 60 frames per second.

That's compared to the PS3 version which Carmack says runs only at 30 fps. He states, "The PS3 lags a little bit behind in terms of getting the performance out of it. The rasteriser is just a little bit slower - no two ways about that." Oh and for you Mac fans, Rage is confirmed to still be coming to that platform as well. We bet Macs go up to 60 fps too.

This year's QuakeCon event will have the usual stuff from id Software's free gaming event. A big Quake Live LAN tournament, a massive BYOC area, exhibits, sneak peaks of id's upcoming projects . . . but there's also a chance for someone to walk away from QuakeCon with a new car.

Yep, that custom 2010 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 Coupe pictured above could be yours if you attend the event from August 13-16 at the Gaylord Hotel in Grapevine, Texas. The car, valued at $52,000, is being given away by the gaming oriented communications program Ventrilo. 100 tickets will be given out during QuakeCon and folks can win a ticket in various ways during the show, including random drawnings. Of course just one of the tickets will be picked at the end of QuakeCon to win the Mustang.

For you gearheads, the version being given away at QuakeCon has a "six speed transmission mated to a supercharged 5.4 liter V-8 pumping out a brutal 540 horsepower and 510 lb-ft of pavement destroying torque." Anyway you size it, this is a true muscle car.

New details about id Software's next game Rage have started to leak out thanks to the new print issue of Game Informer magazine. Shacknews has done a little digging in the article and come up with some new nuggets of info about the long awaited action game.

The details include some info on the game's backstory which takes place on an Earth that's been devastated by an asteroid collision. Racing is a big part of Rage and so is vehicle combat with power ups and ammo on the race course. There will be different weapon upgrades and ammo versions in the game. There's also a gladiatorial-style game show and apparently the health of your character regenerates a la Halo. Look for the PC version to support the typical graphical upgrades like higher resolution support, better anti-aliasing than consoles and more.

Apparently Rage will be so big it might have to ship on three DVDs (it will fit on one Blu-Ray disk but it's unlikely that the PC version will have a Blu-Ray disk). We will certainly have more info on Rage next month thanks to id's QuakeCon.

We've already mentioned that id Software's next game Rage is the centerpiece of this month's Game Informer magazine but now it looks like the promotion for the next game from the Doom and Quake creators is ramping up even more than expected. Today a new Flash-heavy teaser site for the game, located at www.aftertheimpact.com, has launched with some adventure game point-and-click features.

Moving the cursor around the site highlights some elements that can be zoomed in. One is a literal zoom as you can see from the image above. Another part of the site allows you to zoom into what looks like a plane ticket for the year 2029. According to the new Rage Twitter site you can expect more to be revealed from the Rage teaser site in the coming week.

[Via Shacknews]

id Software has been mostly silent about their plans for their next in-house game Rage since QuakeCon nearly a year ago. That's apparently changing with this month's cover story for the Game Informer print magazine. The August 2009 date issue will apparently have lots of new info on the action game.

While the images and footage of Rage we have seen before have taken place in a desert-style setting the cover for the Game Informer issue looks like at least some of the game will also take place in a bombed out ctiyscape. You can bet id will be showing off even more of Rage at next month's QuakeCon.