QuakeCon 2010 News Round-up: Everything in One Place!

Posted 08/14/2010 at 12:30am | by Nathan Grayson

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Between all the blaring heavy metal music, impromptu Pat Benatar concerts, and five hour-long John Carmack manifestos, you could be forgiven for thinking that QuakeCon is not a place for serious business. And you'd be right. Well, mostly.

Fortunately, we were on hand in an effort to collect whatever scraps of news might fall from id's table, and we came away surprisingly sated. So, without further ado, here's what happened.

Doom 4 Nowhere to be Found, Check Back Next Year -- It was the perfect storm. John Carmack tweeted that he was working on a little something special for QuakeCon, and Todd Hollenshead – who is incapable of lying – said we'd see Doom 4 this year. One eternity in a room with John Carmack later (rumor has it that he's still talking), and here's what we've seen of Doom 4. See it? Right there? Oh, is that a blank space? Huh. Imagine that.

RAGE Will be the Most Graphically Impressive Game Around... on the iPhone – John Carmack's iPhone is kind of like the woman your boss totally isn't having an affair with, who gets promoted for doing next-to-nothing and shows up everywhere even though no one really likes her all that much. Each year, everyone breathlessly gathers around Carmack at QuakeCon, and each year, he doesn't even take a single breath while describing whatever technological miracle he's managed to squeeze onto Apple's ubiquitous device. Is it impressive? Definitely. But when we were told to expect a sequel to one of the most storied shooter franchises of all time, we think it's perfectly acceptable to feel a little... what's the emotion we're looking for? Four letters? It's on the tip of our tongues...   

Shock: RAGE Gets a Release Date – Those of you who've been with id Software for the long haul know that id doesn't “do” release dates. We get a “when it's done” and then, much later, an “it's done.” But there it was -- smack dab in the middle of QuakeCon's RAGE presentation -- etched in stone. Well, ok, projected on a wall, actually. But that wall might have contained trace amounts of stone for all we know. Point is, RAGE is releasing on September 13, 2011. This is a fact.

Bethesda Buys Arkane Studios, Becomes Boss of Kicks – Arkane's not the biggest name around, but – in addition to developing sleeper-hit RPG Arx Fatalis – the developer made huge strides in the field of kick-based first-person combat with Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Seriously, kicking people into and/or off stuff was the high point of that game. Granted, combat in general was visceral, blood-soaked, and one of the few instances of first-person melee fighting done right. But still, 75% of our fights ended the same way, with boot meeting face, and face meeting ground/spikes/fire/multiple staircases until our poor foe's skeletal structure looked like the inside of a box of Nerds. Does that make us bad people? Yes.

Carmack: I Doubt We're Going to Do Another New IP in the Next Decade – Do you consider yourself a Quake, Doom, Wolfenstein, or RAGE fan? Do you fear change? Well then, John Carmack has a present for you: an entire decade of stuff you love. You'll probably want to mail him a thank-you note within the next two or three years. You know, for punctuality's sake.  

Hollenshead: id Tech 5 Won't be Licensed out – Looks like the 800 lb. gorilla-wrestling championship of the graphics engine world just lost a competitor. Sorry, folks, id Tech 5's taken. The engine that's giving RAGE fans raging... er, desires to play the game is now the sole property of Bethesda. Now then, with that out of the way, it's time for CryEngine 2 and Unreal Engine 4 to have at it. First one to develop a game no one can actually play for about two years wins! 

Check back over the next few days for pictures from the show floor and previews of QuakeCon's biggest games!