Posted 11/07/09 at 02:26:28 AM by Nathan Grayson

Well, we now have absolute proof that at least one member of the PC gaming community wasn’t living in the hornets’ nest Infinity Ward stepped on when it announced that Modern Warfare 2 won’t support dedicated servers. Unfortunately, that one person is none other than id Software’s John Carmack.

“It’s not cast in stone yet, but at this point no, we don’t think [RAGE] will have dedicated servers,” Carmack told Variety’s Cut Scene blog. “The great thing is we won’t have to be a pioneer on that. We’ll see how it works out for everyone else.”

If it’s any consolation, RAGE is primarily a single-player game. But then, knowing id, we imagine that the game’s multiplayer component will still be better than most.

Guess we’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?

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Posted 09/09/09 at 01:52:15 AM by Nathan Grayson

Remember Prey? No? It looked like Doom 3, but had portals (before they were cool) and doors that, well, let’s just say we felt like they should’ve been wearing pants. However, Prey was a pretty solid shooter, and when then-developer Human Head Games announced a sequel, we nodded our human heads in approval. Then came the silence.

Now, two years later, it seems that id Software/Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media has plucked Prey from development purgatory. A recent US Trademark Office abstract states that ZeniMax can basically do whatever it wants with the license, including movies, videogames, comic books, and “entertainment services.”

So then, what does this mean? Well, ZeniMax owns id, and id kind of, you know, invented the first-person shooter. Seems like a nice enough fit for Prey, if you ask us. What do you think? We think we’re right, and that there’s no room for argument, but that commenting field below – which literally presents a space in which one is encouraged to argue -- begs to differ.

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Posted 08/26/09 at 03:27:43 AM by Nathan Grayson

Racing and shooting? Sometimes at the same time? Gee whiz, that sounds complicated. Surprisingly, though, id Software’s Todd Hollenshead thinks RAGE can pull off such a tricky balancing act in only one go and – as such – sees no need for an open beta. He said as much in an interview with VG247.

“I doubt there will be an open beta,” he stated, simply.

Well, what about a demo, then? RAGE may look, sound, and perhaps even taste great, but what if we’re still not sold on it? Is there hope for us yet?

“The demo question is hard to answer, because I don’t know what the development cycle will be like. We don’t have anything against demos or tests; we typically do that – probably – to a greater extent than almost anybody else in the industry, so my guess would be that we will have something, but that’s far from set in stone,” said Hollenshead.
 
So then, what will the demo be called? MILD IRRITATION?

Er, yeah... So, uh, what's the deal with airline food? 

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Posted 08/14/09 at 12:07:16 AM by Nathan Grayson

Day one of id Software’s annual ode to the art of frag is in the books, and as with any slain beast, that which was inside it (usually blood, sometimes candy, but – in this case -- news) is now out in the open for all eyes to see. So, without any further ado, here’s today’s installment of the QuakeCon Times.

Premium service coming to QuakeLive, Carmack confirms – There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, and Quake Live’s learning that lesson the hard way. According to id’s John Carmack, in-game ads simply couldn’t rocket-jump the game into profitability, so a subscription-based tier was needed. Fortunately, it’s optional, so – whether you’re filthy-rich or dirt-poor – blowing anonymous people into tiny giblets will always be a viable option.

New RAGE trailer makes us feel another emotion: envy – Guys and gals who are play-testing this game right now, we hate you. RAGE looks amazing, but one can only watch a trailer so many times before they start longing for something more. Luckily, we hear RAGE will include that newfangled “gameplay” feature that so many games these days support. Now if only we could try it out…

Carmack says id will put three AAA titles into development – So let’s see, that’s RAGE, Doom 4, and…? Don’t think id’s trying to pull a fast one on you, though; even Carmack and co. don’t know what their third team’s up to – mostly because they haven’t decided yet. Odds are, though, we won’t find out for quite some time, especially because…

Want to see Doom 4? Wait until QuakeCon 2010, says Hollenshead – Sorry, Doom fans. As a reward for your patience after last year’s announcement, you get an IOU. “When we show it to you you’re gonna love it,” Hollenshead added, only breaking our hearts further.

So, that’s that – for day one, anyway. QuakeCon still has plenty more fight left in it, though, and we’ll be on the show floor, bringing you all the news as it happens. 

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Posted 07/21/09 at 11:00:00 AM by Paul Lilly

Doom might arguably be the most memorable (or at least the most popular) PC game of all time, and with good reason. Prior to Doom's release, programmers found themselves in the stone age of game development. For the most part, building a game meant starting from scratch and compiling all new code, but like the invention of the wheel, the advent of the game engine forever changed the PC gaming landscape.

Now, we know what you're thinking, and we're well aware that game engines existed prior to Doom's release in 1993; we're even going to cover some. But it was id Software's now legendary first-person shooter that pushed reusable 3D game engines as a viable programming model, and videogame development has never been the same since then.

On the following pages, we look back at all the major PC game engines and what made each one special. As a prerequisite, be sure to check out our history of 3D graphics, which covers video cards from the Voodoo to the GeForce and everything in between. Once you've digested these two features, you're guaranteed to have a new-found respect for gaming on the PC!

Hit the jump to get started!

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Posted 06/25/09 at 02:19:36 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Zenimax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Software – the developer behind the Fallout and Elder Scrolls franchises, announced on Wednesday it has acquired id Software, the game studio credited with such massive hits as Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein. However, Zenimax has not divulged the financial details of the transaction. id Software’s top brass, including its founder and technical director John Carmack, will continue to be in charge. Bethesda will publish all new id Software titles from now on.

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Posted 04/14/09 at 01:31:05 AM by Nathan Grayson

Oh no! The sky is falling; PC gaming is doomed; they cancelled Firefly again, etc. After essentially tasting, feeling, and smelling like a multiplatform developer for a couple years, id Software – this time through the mouthpiece of CEO Todd Hollenshead – has finally come out and stated the obvious.
 
"There's no question that our roots are in PC gaming. And when I play a first-person shooter, keyboard and mouse is the configuration that I want to play on," Hollenshead noted. "But we feel like, in terms of your triple-A, big-budget, big-market title, that you really have to be cross-platform to be successful, unless you're a first party."

"As an independent developer, we feel like we have to be on all the relevant platforms. So we don't really view ourselves as PC first."

Is PC gaming The Future? Who knows – but multiplatform development is now, so excuse us while we don’t spit our cola onto the face of the nearest onlooker.
 
In other news, Hollenshead said that id will announce “some new stuff” at E3, and that Doom 4 will be like other Doom titles, but not – meaning that guns and demons are probably in, but that those of you who wanted conversation trees and complex interpersonal communication will probably be disappointed.
 
Read the full interview here, if you want. A word of warning, though: It’s long – and there aren’t many pictures.

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Posted 03/08/09 at 05:09:34 AM by Nathan Grayson

Update: Looks like we (along with a few other websites) spent too much time losing ourselves in Hollenshead's beautiful blues and -- hearts full of hope -- skimmed over his real meaning entirely. Maybe if they'd stop making these alarm buttons so red and shiny, we'd be less tempted to press them so often. 

“When it’s done,” you’re done. Go running back to Duke Nukem Forever. You knew what this was.

While speaking with GameTrailers TV at last month’s DICE Summit, id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead gave gamers the signal to look out over the horizon, because Rage is a comin’.

When asked whether his company’s latest monosyllabic murder simulator would blow its top in 2010, Hollenshead replied, “No, we'll be out this year."

Well, that’s good enough for us. Rage will be published by Electronic Arts and will probably aid F.E.A.R. 2 and Sadness in helping some website establish a “Best Game Ostensibly about a Vague, One-Word Emotion” award category for their best games of – take of whiff of that new release window smell – 2009. We can’t wait to hear more.

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