id-software posts

How would you like to go to a school where, say, the developers of The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim came by to talk about making the upcoming fantasy RPG? Or perhaps team members from id Software showed up to speak about making its upcoming shooter Rage? If you attend the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, that's exactly what will happen.

Bethesda Softworks announced this week that it has an agreement with USC to have team members from their internal development studios like Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, and Arkane Studios show up to speak to the students who have enrolled at the school's Interactive Media Division. There's no word yet if John Carmack or Todd Howard will be making appearances.

Quake 4 has been the only PC game in id Software's Quake series of first person shooter that has been unavailable to download and purchase (legally at least). Today, over five years after the game was first released to retail stores, Quake 4 is now available to purchase and download via the Impulse download service.

First released back in the fall of 2005, this fourth installment of the Quake series was a collaboration between id and Raven Software and basically continued the storyline from 1997's Quake II. It was also one of the few games that used id's Doom 3 graphics engine. Originally published by Activision Quake 4 is now owned by id's current owner Bethesda Softworks. You can get the game now for $19.99.

Game retailer GameStop clearly knows that more and more games, particularly PC game titles, are being sold via download these days. Today Gamasutra reports that the company has hired someone to help bolster those efforts as has hired Steve Nix to be its new "general manager of digital distribution".

Nix was until now the digital distribution manager at id Software where he worked for the past four years. Prior to that he was the CEO of the now defunct Ritual Entertainment. In his new gig, GameStop states that Nix will lead the "strategic development and execution of GameStop's digital download business." While lots of companies already have extensive PC game download sites, GameStop's retail experience might help them gain a foothold on the competition like Steam.

This is one of the better trailers we've seen for Rage, as it combines our two loves - story exposition and game footage - into one delicious whole. This trailer gives a little background into the current mythos, showcases game mechanics for both on foot and in vehicle sections, and even has a fat man telling you about the rules of his little game. There's no developer interviews or walkthroughs here, just action and more action. It's a pretty interesting trailer and it just gets us more pumped for Rage's release.

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With less than a month to go before PAX East 2011 starts in Boston, the gamer convention has posted up the schedule of panels that will be held during the event on March 11-13. There's a wide variety of subjects on the schedule but a couple stand out. One is that id Software team members will be giving a live demo of its upcoming first person shooter Rage on March 11 and again on March 12.

The other panel of note is the world's first public gameplay demo of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, the upcoming single player fantasy RPG from developers Big Huge Games and 38 Studios. By the way, the official PAX Twitter page has posted up word this weekend that "we only have a few hundred 3-days (tickets) left."

After being down for most of the day on Sunday, the free-to-play first person shooter Quake Live is now back up and running for its users. According to its official Twitter page there were issues with a "faulty firewall" along with "interior routing protocols" that caused the downtime.

The team at developer id Software are making it up to all Quake Live players by giving free access to the game's Premium content from now through Tuesday. That means players will be able to access about 30 more maps than the regular free players along with other gameplay modes and features that are normally used by the $1.99 a month Premium tier players.

If you have tried to join the Quake Live web site this morning and was unable to join the free-to-play first person shooter, you are not alone. The game's official Twitter web site has confirmed that the Quake Live web site from id Software cannot be accessed at this time.

A second Twitter message states that while the actual Quake Live servers are up and running for some reason the servers are not accessible. The message adds, "We are working with our ISP to resolve the outage." The issues comes just a few days after the game got a content update that added three new maps. We will update this post when Quake Live is fully operational.

Last year id Software's free-to-play first person shooter Quake Live came out of beta with new premium pricing plans and a series of content updates for those users. This week the developer released the first such content update for the game for 2011, adding three new maps for those premium users.

One of the new maps is titled Concrete Palace which is designed to be a "midsized duel arena". Another is a Team Deathmatch level title called Dies Irae for eight to 10 players. Finally there's a new map of the dreaded (for some) "space" level variety, a CTF map called Skyward. The update also has some balance changes and bug fixes including one that fixes a lag on quitting games on Windows systems.

There nothing that says "good times" more than going over a game publisher's financial numbers in its press release. What fun!

• Steam has posted up the sixth patch for Magicka along with updates for Gratuitous Space Battles and Mafia II.
• Steam has also added Myst: Masterpiece Edition and is selling it and the related Cyan Complete Pack for 25 percent off their normal price for the next week.
• Telltale Games has revealed two new characters that will appear in the second chapter of Back to the Future: Officier Parker (Jennifer's dad) and Trixie Trotter.
• This week is the 20th anniversary of the founding of id Software. We suddenly feel old.

One of the game industry's biggest and most unique events has just announced the dates and location for its 2011 edition. Today id Software and Bethesda Softworks announced that this year's QuakeCon LAN and game exhibitor event will be held on August 4-7 at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas.

id Software has sponsored the free event every year since it first started with just a few people attending in 1997. It has expanded greatly over the years to become the largest LAN event in the US with thousands of folks showing up. It's also been the location for major game announcements from id Software. With its latest game Rage due out a month after QuakeCon 2011 you can certainly expect that game to be front and center at the event this year. The big question: Will id finally show off its next Doom game which was announced 2 1/2 years ago?