id: All Versions of Rage Scaled Back as Concession for Xbox 360 (Update)
Posted 09/16/08 at 08:48:45 PM by Nathan Grayson
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Update: Looks like this one got blown out of proportion. Willits, after a glance at his inbox, released the following statement: "During my talk at Austin GDC I mentioned that we originally wanted to have around five or six smaller wasteland environments but later decided instead to have two larger wastelands - mostly because we were going to be shipping on two DVDs for the 360 and felt that it would play better with one large wasteland on each disc so there would be no loading between wastelands. Not loading levels while you drive around is a much better decision regardless of platform. There was NO CONTENT removed from RAGE because of the 360--NONE AT ALL. Moving from multiple wastelands into fewer but larger wastelands was a far better decision and is actually giving us more gameplay in the game. We feel the 360 is a great platform and will provide a fantastic Rage experience."
So, nothing to see here. Move along.
Carmack and co. already tempered the force of this blow at QuakeCon, but a punch in the mouth is still a punch in the mouth, no matter how many fewer teeth are scraping the bottom of your glass of milk afterward. Said id Software lead designer Tim Willits at the Austin Game Developers Conference:
"The PC is limitless in the amount of data you can put on it.The PS3 has about 25GB. But the Xbox 360 roughly has 6 to 8 GB of data. We're hoping we can squeeze the game down to two discs for the 360 version."
"I wouldn't say the overall story was changed in any way in order to fit on the Xbox 360 version," Willits explained, "but how the player experiences Rage's story has been altered."
Foremost, he said, the game's overall structure has changed significantly. Whereas before, Rage featured "several" wastelands in which players could run race and gun, now only two remain. Don't worry, though; the two wastelands have been split into multiple, hardware-friendly instances, so it'll be just like traveling through multiple areas!
Somewhat perplexingly -- though probably in order to wave the game out the door by "When it's done" instead of "When your great grandchild begins balding" -- id elected to take the razor to all three versions of the game, as opposed to merely the Xbox edition.
This, it would seem, is only the beginning of a very slippery slope.
Sad
Submitted by Talcum X on Wed, 09/17/2008 - 8:30am
New software has always driven upgrades. When you dont make new software to use new hardware, yes, it makes it easier on those who have older hardware and no need to upgrade, but then the hardware makers think 'why bother making the stuff if new games wont take advantage of it'. Just not a good plan for progress.
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Quality
Submitted by Velcrow on Wed, 09/17/2008 - 7:15am
As long as the game is still good and a reasonable length I'll still get it. Of course, if the game turns out to be crap, they'll probably blame it on the limitations of the medium. Which is a cop-out, and the rest of the world will still hold them accountable. I know I will. Don't forget, Oblivion came out on a single DVD, and that game is huge. As was Morrowind.
And I'm unsure what he means by the PC being 'limitless'. It's not. And I don't have a Blu-ray drive. They would still need to distribute the game on multiple DL DVD's in physical form like they're doing now. I'd probably just download the 20+ gigs from Steam, but they'd still need the physical medium. I'm not so sure the Xbox was as big a restriction as everyone wants to believe.
(As an aside, I'm PC hardcore. Haven't owned a console since the N64. So no bias.)
Limitless
Submitted by patrickmaher on Wed, 09/17/2008 - 11:15am
PC isn't limitless but what they mean is they can install to the hard drive and so the limit is the users hard drive, which can be upgraded easily on a PC.
Microsoft is not going to let them install it to the hard drive on the 360. Your correct that it will take the same number of DVDs on the 360 as the PC but on the PC you install once and then you are done juggling discs. On the 360 if they used more than 2 discs people will get upset with having to swap the discs all the time. As it is people wont like it being 2 discs.
Submitted by bobthegoat2001 on Fri, 10/10/2008 - 12:40am
"On the 360 if they used more than 2 discs people will get upset with
having to swap the discs all the time. As it is people wont like it being 2
discs."You won't have to swap games all the time. Once your done with disc one, you
just go to disc 2. It's as simple as that.I don't hear people complaining about changing discs whenever you want to
switch to a different game.I think people are blowing this way out of proportion. I don’t think it’s
that hard to get up and change discs once you get to a certain point in a game.
Look at some of the games on the PSone like Final Fantasy where the game was 3
or 4 discs long.
Submitted by bobthegoat2001 on Wed, 09/17/2008 - 4:01am
Submitted by zioburosky13 on Wed, 09/17/2008 - 3:18am
Not really...
http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?story=54780I don't care. Just make the game moddable like id's previous titles.
Look what people have done by creating Portal. Proofs that the mod community is still active. even though its golden age has gone.
Submitted by Rltyg on Wed, 09/17/2008 - 2:44am
Using consoles as an excuse for going soft, pathetic Carmack
Submitted by TheZomb on Tue, 09/16/2008 - 7:29pm
Considering how Sony and microsoft say they will keep their current counsels around until 2012 and already games are having to be scaled back for them. Short of releasing new SKUs. There going to be screwing the industry for four years. If new counsels follow the trend of releasing new SKUs after few years when the old hardware is inadequate the counsel gaming industry will start to turn into sort of gaming specific PC industry with new games being to advanced for older versions of the same system. PC gaming FTW
WTF Consoles
Submitted by b_boy_69_00 on Tue, 09/16/2008 - 6:20pm
Another reason why consoles ruin the gaming industry. First the Wii has great game companies making scaled back, casual games, now the 360 is screwing us out of a great game. Sony is about the only one getting it right and they are in last place in the console war. If MS would buck up and accept that Sony won the HD format war then maybe we could get an HD addon for the 360 and we could get the games that we are supposed to have instead of what we are getting now.
Not exactly
Submitted by Vahn16 on Tue, 09/16/2008 - 6:52pm
The fact is, the Rage cuts are due mostly to id's desire to cater to the lowest common denominator. Thus, even with an HD addon -- that obviously, not every Xbox 360 owner would buy -- Rage and games of its ilk would still be scaled back.
Submitted by b_boy_69_00 on Tue, 09/16/2008 - 6:55pm
True, so I guess that no matter what MS does with this Xbox we are screwed until they release a new console.
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