quakecon-2010
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Bethesda's new game is for current platforms, 'pretty far along'
After two years of silence, Bethesda is very used to deflecting questions about its next, still unannounced game. But executive producer Todd Howard finally shared some info about the forthcoming project at this year's QuakeCon, telling Eurogamer that it's "pretty far along." Around 90 people are working on the game, and Howard predicts that the stretch between the project's announcement and launch will be the "the shortest it's been for us" (Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was announced in September 2004 and released in March 2006, and Fallout 3 was announced in July 2004 but not released until October 2008). Additionally, he pointed out that the upcoming project will run on existing consoles and is built on the same engine that powered Oblivion and Fallout 3. "That's our starting point -- the Fallout 3 tech. It started with Morrowind, we went to Oblivion, we did a lot between Oblivion and Fallout 3 because now we had final hardware -- with Oblivion we had six months on final hardware, so Fallout 3 technically does a lot more than Oblivion. The new stuff is an even bigger jump from that," he said. He wouldn't get too specific on when we'd hear more, saying he didn't want to disappoint people by announcing an ... announcement that might shift later on. Hopefully, Mr. Howard knows that disappointment will be harder to avoid if that announcement turns out to be anything but Elder Scrolls V.
QuakeCon Steam sale ends with 75 percent discount on ... Quake
How incredibly appropriate! The final day of Steam's QuakeCon 2010 sale has resulted in a 75 percent discount on every Quake game on the platform. Click past the jump to see how little you'll have to pay to grab id Software's classic shooters today. (A pittance, we tell you! A pittance!)
Brink pre-order bonuses include Doom and Fallout equipment
Brink developer Splash Damage's Quakecon 2010 panel played host to a few neat announcements about its FPSRPG, the highlight of which being the reveal of the game's cameo-tastic pre-order bonuses. Folks who reserve the game through GameStop will unlock the Doom pack, giving their Brink characters access to armor, guns, hats and a tattoo based on id's seminal FPS franchise. Those who pre-order the game from Best Buy will receive a similar pack based on Fallout 3. Of course, if you're looking for more unique duds for your Brink avatar, several online retailers will offer "Psycho" and "Spec Ops" equipment, which will make your character resemble a psycho and special operative, respectively. Neither of those sound quite as enticing as "Space Demon Fighter" or "Nuclear Wasteland Savior," but we suppose they'll do.
QuakeCon Steam sale discounts Doom titles by 66 percent
So, you're disappointed that there wasn't any hot Doom 4 news in yesterday's QuakeCon 2010 keynote. Buck up, bronco -- Steam recently knocked the price of every Doom game in the store down by 66 percent, making it that much easier to drown your sorrows in pure, gib-filled nostalgia.
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Return to Castle Wolfenstein source code available
As part of the QuakeCon festivities, id's John Carmack revealed something that should excite the modding community: source code. Authors can now access source code for both Splash Damage's multiplayer-focused Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and 2001's series reboot, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, through id's FTP, which we've linked below. Both games' sources are made available through the GNU General Public License agreement, which states that the code is available for both free and commercial use, so long as the individual using the code credits id Software and doesn't try to claim it as their own. If you want to tinker with either game, check out the convenient Big Download link below. Happy modding!
QuakeCon: Rage to be released Sept. 13, 2011 in the US, Sept. 15 in Europe
id Software just announced during a QuakeCon live presentation that Rage will be hitting store shelves on September 13, 2011 in the US and September 15, 2011 in Europe. Kotaku reports on the release date via its liveblog, highlighting one of the reasons the game still has another year of development time -- the Xbox 360 version crashed during the presentation. If you're really itching to jump into Rage's universe, the iPhone/iPad version of the game will launch sometime this year. That could help tide you over until the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC versions arrive next September.%Gallery-99359%
id Tech 5 exclusive to Bethesda-published titles
What's the common thread between American McGee's Alice, Call of Duty and Quake 3? They were all powered by id Tech 3. Like Unreal Engine, id Tech was heavily licensed amongst third parties, used in a wide variety of console and PC games; however, it seems that id (and new parent company Bethesda) is no longer interested in pursuing the middleware market. In an interview with Eurogamer, id's Todd Hollenshead said that Rage's id Tech 5 is a "competitive advantage and we want to keep within games we publish." Certainly, the awards the game picked up at E3 -- including "Special Commendation for Graphics" -- provide testament to that claim. From Bethesda's perspective, the engine is simply too good for anyone else to use. "We're not going to license it to external parties," Hollenshead explained. "If you're going to make a game with id Tech 5 then it needs to be published by Bethesda, which I think is a fair thing." By restricting id Tech 5 to Bethesda games, id has essentially exited the middleware market, which is largely dominated by Epic's Unreal Engine. "Epic's made a good business out of that so kudos to them," Hollenshead said. "But I wouldn't change the way we've done things."
Rage demo'd at 60 fps on iPhone, id games on sale
QuakeCon is going down this weekend in AustinDallas, Texas -- the annual celebration of everything id Software (makers of Quake and Doom, among a few other classic PC titles) features tournaments and panels on some of the hottest PC games around. But there's already been one big Apple announcement: John Carmack has demonstrated id's newest game, Rage, running at a full 60 frames per second on the iPhone. We first heard of this game at QuakeCon a couple of years ago, and Carmack has always said that making sure it ran on the Mac would be a priority, but it looks like he's delivered the goods. The demo was run on an iPhone 4, but Carmack said it worked great on the iPad as well. Carmack said the iPhone version would be out sometime this year, before the full version of Rage arrives on consoles and PC. Oh, and icing on the cake? All of id's iPhone titles are on sale during the show this weekend -- Doom II RPG is down to just 99 cents, along with Wolfenstein 3D. Doom Classic and Doom Resurrection are US $1.99, down from the usual price of $6.99. If you're in AustinDallas, don't forget that QuakeCon is free and open to the public as well. All hail the great id!
QuakeCon: Rage coming to iPhone, running at 60fps [Update: now with video!]
Never one to back down from a challenge, id's technical wunderkind John Carmack has somehow – we imagine with the aid of The Dark Arts – managed to condense its latest game onto the iPhone. Speaking during a live keynote at the annual QuakeCon in Dallas Texas, Carmack announced that id's delivering a version of Rage (replete with MegaTextures and a 60 frames-per-second framerate!) onto the iPhone. While the demo was given on the iPhone 4, he said it could run on 3GS and looked best on iPad. The game came about from an experiment with something on the Wii and, in keeping with that experimental model, Rage for iPhone won't have a four-year dev cycle: It will be out this year, before Rage, and it will be cheap, in keeping with the iPhone App Store's model. A second Rage iPhone game will be released alongside the release of the PC/console release next year, and Carmack is still "spot-surveying" the Android market to determine if it's worth supporting. He said it won't happen "this cycle" but he'll reevaluate in about six months. More news from QuakeCon as we hear it. [Update: Now with video, found after the break! Update 2: John Carmack clarified on Twitter: "The iPhone demo was not "idtech5" on ios, it was from scratch new code. A tool in rage exported custom data for it."]
Arkane Studios acquired by Zenimax; new project to be announced soon
Even Bethesda can't resist releasing some (tangentially) BioShock-related news today. During QuakeCon, Bethesda's Pete Hines announced that parent company Zenimax has acquired Arkane Studios, who most recently worked on level design for BioShock 2. The developer is also responsible for Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. At the keynote, Arkane CEO Raphael Colantonio expressed his delight at being in the same company as id Software and Bethesda Softworks, and teased an unannounced game to be shown in the future, "including at QuakeCon." Which is, in fact, right now. So we'll find out about the product of this union really soon.
Respawn duo, Richard Garriott speaking at QuakeCon 2010
The official schedule has been announced for this year's QuakeCon, which is taking place August 12-15 in Dallas, Texas. In addition to the usual id gallery, none other than Jason West and Vince Zampella of the newly formed Respawn Entertainment will be in attendance. The ousted Infinity Ward heads will sit on a panel the Friday morning of the conference called "Building Blockbusters," talking with Tim Willits and Tom Howard of id and Bethesda about how to make big games (like the "huge summer blockbuster" they're supposedly working on). Todd Alderman, also of Respawn, will sit on a panel the previous day speaking about "The World of Design" with a few other developers. Elsewhere in the schedule, John Carmack and Richard Garriott will hold court on Thursday evening discussing rockets and space travel, and Friday and Saturday afternoons will bring preview panels for RAGE and Brink. Sounds like an excellent weekend of FPS gaming -- so if you're in Dallas (or plan to be there), the event is free and open to the public.
QuakeCon 2010 announced for August
Ahh yes, another year, another QuakeCon. The annual mecca for all things id Software (and now all things Bethesda Softworks, as well) will be returning to Texas this year on August 12-15, presumably with the usual three-plus hours of John Carmack keynote in tow (he goes on and on because he loves!). As usual, the goings-on will be free, with the 72 hours of pure, unfiltered nerddom sponsored by parent company Zenimax Media (alright, alright -- it's very likely that the Bawls energy drink company is putting up some money as well). Little is known about the actual events of the show this year outside of the aforementioned cursory details, though, yes, the traditional event-wide network will again be available for attendees who bring PC rigs. That means order the purple neon light for your PC today, friends, not tomorrow.
