The latest edition of Game Informer has some new details of Id Software's latest game, RAGE. The developers, recently acquired by Bethesda, give some interesting insight in the development of the game on the four platforms it is being released on, such as the technical hurdles they had to jump.
One of those hurdles was disc space. They had originally planned 3 DVD's worth of content, but had to cut it down to 2 because the disc swapping would have been too prohibitive for the open world type of game that RAGE is. It can be speculated that the Xbox 360 version is the main culprit for this decision. PC's and Macs have a hard drive that one of those 3 DVD's could be installed to, whereas the Xbox 360 does not come with a hard drive standard in every unit narrowing the install base to only those units that had hard drives, which limits possible sales. That, and the manufacturing cost goes up with each additional disc (which applies to the PC and Mac versions as well). Here's the quote from Id's John Carmack:
(Originally posted on
NeoGAF)
"The Blu-ray issue
Since Rage is running on the powerhouse id Tech 5 engine, the developer is having a tough time squeezing everything onto strandard DVDs for the PC and 360 releases.
"We would love to set the thing up where it filled one Blu-ray disc versus three DVDs, which is about the right mix, but the game just... we can't cut it into a third like that," Carmack says.
"We can cut it into two pieces. We've got two large wastelands on there. We just couldn't make an arbitrary cut. But Doom 4 is being set up so that it's almost certainly going to be cut up to three DVDs versus one Blu-ray. At least they've got the ability because of the way it's structured."
"They also comment about all the versions shown, save for the Mac one (as that is a week behind), and say "they all looked quite comparable."
PC: more anti-aliasing, higher resolution, faster graphical page in times for textures.
PS3: took a lot more time early on learning it to ensure that it is up to speed with other versions, essentially. Carmack says more "sweat equity had to be put into" it and "there's a little bit more theoretical raw performance" that gave them "a little bit more headroom."
X360: easier to get where they are now.
Game is being developed with controller first in mind (X360 pad on PC version demo'ed) because Carmack says, " . . . the largest chunk of our market's going to be on the consoles."
Multiplayer planned, but unrevealed because they don't want to promise something and have to cut or change it before release.
[Rage] won't be like Doom 3, where you killed the bad guy and that was it -- turn the game off and you were done," says creative director Tim Willits. After the main story is complete, players can continue to explore the world, earn all of the upgrades, go for achievements, and compete for the best times on the racing leaderboards."
-Open World FPS using Id's new Tech 5 engine.
-Takes place 80 years after a devastating asteroid collides with earth and kills most of civilization.
-The player controls a character that was part of Project Eden, a program that buried hundreds of pods or "arks" containing 12 people in cryosleep that would aid in rebuilding society once they emerge from cryosleep. The players ark opens sooner than it was supposed to due to an earthquake.
-The asteroid caused mutations to some people so there will be mutants and stuff.
-You get a vehicle that you get to keep throughout the whole game (it appears that way anyways), that you can upgrade and personalize. "Unlike in other games where vehicles are disposable, in Rage, we want your vehicle to be an extension of you first-person avatar".
And here's some more details about RAGE from
NeoGAF.
-The hero will be a nameless silent protagonist.
-There appears to be quest like structure to the game, you get quests from people and complete them.
-No good/evil mechanic in the game.
-You can build stuff like weapons and sentry bots with an engineering mechanic, or you can purchase them.
-Regeneration health system so no med packs.
-There are races that you can compete in to get certificates used to purchase exclusive upgrades and parts. There will also be race leaderboards. You can do vehicle combat during the races as well and get bonuses for destroying opponents.
-There will be the ability to play stealthy if that's what you prefer over guns blazing. The article describes a mission that involves guiding a remote control car with a bomb on it to infiltrate an enemy hideout.
-There is a show called Mutant Bash TV that you can participate in, it's like a battle arena that is televised.
To get the full scoop on RAGE, check out the latest edition of Game Informer Magazine. They are featuring the game as a front page article.
Wobei ich mir schon sehr wünschen würde, dass dem nicht so ist. ^^
