quakecon-2010 posts

Tomorrrow there are some Gamescom-related press conferences planned. Will there be some interesting announcements from the PC side? Stay tuned:

• GoG.com has lowered the prices of its two Oddworld games to $5.99 each.
• Check out some pictures of the cool custom PC case mods at QuakeCon 2010 last weekend.
• More hints of a new Might and Magic game come forth (in Czeck)
• The fighting game BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger finally is due for release for the PC in Europe on August 20 (still no word on a US release date)
• It's not exactly a shock but id has confirmed it has post-release DLC plans for Rage.
• The indie game Foreign Legion Bucket of Blood is now available for the Mac via Steam and is priced at just $2.49 until August 23.
• Digital Illusions is promising "something great" for Gamescom
  
• New Madballs in Babo: Invasion skins are now available via Steam for $2.49.
• Big Download received word from Warner Bros Interactive that F.E.A.R 3 has indeed been delayed until sometime in 2011 as we speculated was the case on Sunday. No reason for the delay was given

Wow. It's been such a busy weekend that we had to actually get a Bits & Bytes post up.

• If you are a Mac user you can sign up to try out the Mac beta for the upcoming MMO Lego Universe.
• A demo for the recent action-RPG Numen: Contest of Heroes is now available for download via Steam.
• Crytek will be showing off Crysis 2 multiplayer to the public for the first time next week at Gamescom
• id Software's John Carmack gives his QuakeCon 2010 thoughts on 3D gaming, cloud-based gaming and more.
• That whole Medal of Honor "playing in multiplayer as the Taliban" dealie has gotten Fox News' attention.
• Why are there no ladders in Fallout 3? Now you know.

QuakeCon 2010 may be the biggest single US-based PC gaming LAN party. It may also be the place for major game presentations and announcements. But it's also a place where first person shooter players can show their stuff in the Quake Live-based cash tournaments.

For the first time in QuakeCon history, regular attendees could put their name to be picked to play in an official Quake Live tournament to win some cash. Player "jovire" won the Open tournament and collected $1,500. In the official Quake Live CTF tournament, the US team Evil Geniuses won over European team fnatic for a $15,000 first place finish. Finally the big Quake Live 1v1 tournament was won by "cypher" in a very close match with opponent "coolleR" and picking up $14,000 for his efforts.

While QuakeCon 2010 is just a few hours away from shutting down until next year the organizers have posted up a video showing some of the activities in its BYOC area that you can check out after the jump:

As QuakeCon 2010 continues to its third day today, so goes the special id Software-Bethesda Softworks game deals on Steam. For the next 24 hours folks can now purchase and download Bethesda's most recent internally developed title, the RPG Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition, for just $24.99. That's a 50 percent price decrease for the game and all of its five downloadable mini-expansions.

And here's another reminder: the QuakeCon 2010 pack featuring a ton of Bethesda Softworks and id Software games is still on sale from now until Sunday, featuring 27 games priced in a $69.99 bundle. It's pretty sweet.

In a bit of a break from id Software's normal "when it done" philosophy for game release dates, the developer revealed at its QuakeCon 2010 presentation for Rage that its next first person shooter now has a specific release date in mind. As per a report from Kotaku, the post-apocalypse themed first person shooter is scheduled to come out on September 13, 2011 on the PC. Europeans, as usual, get the game a few days later on September 16, 2011.

Rage was first announced three years ago at QuakeCon 2007 and with today's reveal of the release date it means that the game will be shipping over four years since its inital reveal. It will also be id's first major game under its new owner and publisher Bethesda Softworks.

QuakeCon 2010 is in full effect in Dallas but people who can't attend can still get some cool related sales. Starting now until noon Eastern time on Saturday you can get the Doom Pack of games on sale via Steam. All of id Software's Doom first person shooter games (The Ultimate Doom, Doom II, Master Levels for Doom II, Final Doom, Doom III and Doom III Resurrection of Evil) can be yours for just $13.60. That's a 66 percent savings from the pack's normal price of $39.99 and much lower than the $79.94 price if you bought all the games separately.

Don't forget the QuakeCon 2010 pack featuring a ton of Bethesda Softworks and id Software games is still on sale from now until Sunday, featuring 27 games priced in a $69.99 bundle.

When id Software first announced its plans for its next first person shooter Rage back in 2007 it also marked the debut of its all new id Tech 5 graphics engine. In the past all of id' Software's graphics engines have been available for license by third party developers. Indeed, in May 2009 id's head man Todd Hollenshead said that they had "seeded tech out to a few licensees" for id Tech 5 already.

Now it looks like there's been an about face on those plans in the wake of id's acquisition by ZeniMax Media later in 2009. Eurogamer reports from QuakeCon 2010 that Hollenshead has confirmed that id Tech 5 will "be used within ZeniMax, so we're not going to license it to external parties." It looks like the only way a third party developer will gain access to the technology will be if its game is published by ZeniMax's publishing arm Bethesda Softworks. Besides Rage, the id Tech 5 engine will be used for id's other big upcoming game Doom IV.

While there was nothing revealed about Doom IV during John Carmack's QuakeCon 2010 keynote, the master programmer for id Software did reveal something that will make some mod authors happy. Carmack announced that the game source code for the first person shooter Return to Castle Wolfenstein and the later stand alone free game Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory are both available to download now from id's FTP site.

As with previous source code releases from id, these fall under the GPL agreement which basically states the author is able to use the code for both free and commercial games as long as he or she does not claim the code is their own creation. Return to Castle Wolfenstein, developed by id and the now defunct Gray Matter Studios, was released in 2001. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, developed by Splash Damage, was released in 2003. You can get both the PC, Mac and Linux versions of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory right here at Big Download.

Download the Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory GPL Source Code at Big Download (6 MB)
Download the Return to Castle Wolfenstein GPL Source Code at Big Download

[Via VG247.com]

Described as a "side project" during the Quakecon 2010 keynote speech, John Carmack revealed development of Rage for the iPhone. A working demo showed the game operating at 60 fps using the Rage Engine (complete with megatextures) on an iPhone 4, but Carmack assures viewers that it will also work on a 3G. Graphics are on par, if not better, than anything that can be done on the original Xbox or PlayStation 2. The mobile version of Rage is a small, cheap, version that's meant mainly for showing off. Ultimately, id is aiming to release Rage, then follow-up with smaller titles that tie into the big one.

Carmack also states that iPhone projects can be ported over to Android devices, but that won't happen for some time. They'll see how things work out in about six months or so. The iPhone version of Rage is expected to be be hundreds of megabytes, which may be a consideration for people looking to conserve space on their iPhones and iPads. It will also be a huge power drain, so a 30 fps version will be made available. No estimated release window was announced.

[via Kotaku]

The privately owned Zenimax Media, home to Bethesda Softworks, has just acquired another game developer. VG247.com reports that during the QuakeCon 2010 keynote it was revealed that Zenimax has bought Arkane Studios, the developer behind the first person action-RPG titles Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Arkane, which has offices in France and in Austin, Texas, is working on a currently unannounced game for Zenimax. In 2006 the company revealed plans for a title called The Crossing, a first person shooter that mixed single and multiplayer elements. However that title was later put "on hold". It's also the current home of Harvey Smith who was the design director of the first two Deus Ex game titles.