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Xbox Game Pass has more than 15 million subscribers
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Original 'Doom' games hit PS4, Xbox One, Switch and mobile
Quakecon 2019 is underway and one of the first big announcements from the event is that the first three Doom games are now available on PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. You'll also be able to carry around the first two entries in the classic FPS series on your iOS or Android device too.
John Romero gifts 'Doom' 18 new levels for its 25th birthday
Ready to feel ancient? The original Doom is 25 years old -- and co-creator John Romero wants to make sure you know it. He's preparing an add-on for the 1993 game, Sigil, that serves as a "spiritual successor" to the classic shooter's fourth episode ("Thy Flesh Consumed") with nine single-player story levels as well as nine multiplayer deathmatch levels. The expansion will be free if you're just looking for some nostalgia-fueled demon slaying, but you can also spend a lot of money on it if you're determined to flaunt your fandom.
'Rage 2' serves up open world mayhem on May 14th, 2019
Bethesda, Avalanche and id Software have nailed down a release date for Rage 2. The Mad Max-like open world shooter will be available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One on May 14th, 2019 -- almost exactly a year after it was introduced, in fact. The accompanying new trailer doesn't tell you much that you don't already know, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Essentially, you can expect punks with guns, a thorough mix of vehicular and on-foot combat, and many creative ways to kill your foes.
'Quake Champions' cribs from 'Fortnite' with a paid Battle Pass
Even the developers of a back-to-basics shooter like Quake Champions can't resist the siren's call of Fortnite's business model, it seems. Bethesda and id Software are rolling out a December update that introduces a "totally new" progression system for the competitive multiplayer game, including a familiar-sounding paid Battle Pass that will arrive on December 20th. Champions is still free to play, but paying for a Battle Pass each season unlocks more items than you'd otherwise get and is more likely to include genuinely new items. Paying users will also get an "immediate" bonus item, and will see additional weekly challenges that promise more rewards.
'Doom' co-creator John Carmack ends legal fight with ZeniMax
The messy legal battle between Id Software co-founder and Oculus CTO John Carmack and ZeniMax is over. Carmack tweeted that his "personal legal disputes" had ended, with ZeniMax having "fully satisfied their [sic] obligations" to him. Consequently, the pair have dropped their lawsuit and countersuit between each other, although the courtroom drama between Oculus and ZeniMax rages on.
'Doom Eternal' doubles the (destructible) demons
Bethesda and id Software teased Doom Eternal at E3, but now we've got a much better look at it. id promises twice as many demons as last time, including reimagined classic enemies from Doom 2 like the Arachnotron. There are destructible demons now too, with chunks falling off as you rip and tear through them.
‘Quake Champions’ is free-to-play forever
Id Software released Quake Champions out of beta and in to Steam Early Access a year ago as a revival of its predecessors' arena shooter gameplay. Later, the studio stated that the game would be free to play, but only once the game fully launched. But at QuakeCon today, it announced the title is F2P, now and forever.
'Rage 2' brings the frenetic action of 'Doom' to an open world
Bethesda's initial teaser for Rage 2 may have been long on hype and short on substance, but it's making up for that with the full announcement. The team-up between original Rage creators id Software and Avalanche Studios (best known for Just Cause and, appropriately, Mad Max) promises to be a significant expansion of the first game's post-apocalpytic open-world concept. The premise is familiar -- you're still fighting gangs, mutants and the oppressive Authority through a mix of on-foot shooting and vehicular combat -- but the mechanics have changed. Even at this early stage, it's clear the title is borrowing a page from Doom's book.
Bethesda announces ‘Rage 2’ with a hype teaser
Rumors of a sequel to id Software's 2011 post-apocalyptic shooter Rage have been swimming around for years. But thanks to Walmart Canada accidentally spoiling E3 announcements last week, it was pretty clear that Rage 2 was coming -- especially after the game's twitter account roasted the superstore on Twitter. Lo and behold, the title's publisher Bethesda released a hype trailer confirming its existence, with the promise to upload a gameplay video tomorrow.
The next 'Doom' movie won't play in theaters
Do you remember the original Doom movie from 2005? You'd be forgiven if you didn't -- while it had recognizable stars (most notably Dwayne Johnson), it was a critical and commercial flop that only really found life after it left the big screen. However, that isn't stopping Hollywood from giving it another shot. After years of rumors, NBCUniversal has confirmed to Variety that a new Doom movie is in the works, no doubt meant to capitalize on the game series' revival. Actress Nina Bergman has already revealed that she'll play a role in the movie, which reportedly has a "super cool director."
Sony's latest PlayStation VR bundle takes on the 'Doom' hellscape
Sony is clearly determined to get PlayStation VR on to your head no matter what game genre you prefer to play. In addition to its recently announced Skyrim bundle, it's launching a Doom VFR bundle that includes id Software's hellish virtual reality shooter alongside the headset, PlayStation Camera and the latest PSVR demo disc.
'Doom' arrives on Nintendo Switch November 10th
Turns out that you won't have to wait too long to raze some Hell on your Nintendo Switch. That's because Doom will be released this November 10th, only a few short weeks from now. How's it look? Based on the video below, good and it seems to play just as fast, but it's a little soft/hazy compared to the PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions. That's to be expected though, because the Switch is running on a standard NVIDIA Tegra X1 chip versus the PS4's and Xbox One's AMD Radeon processors. What's impressive is that the game's fancy lighting tricks appear to be intact. However, the video doesn't indicate if the game footage was captured during handheld mode or in TV mode.
Trent Reznor blows dust off the 'Quake' score for vinyl reissue
Quake was a groundbreaking game in a number of ways, and that included its soundtrack -- id Software scored a coup when it got Nine Inch Nails (technically, Trent Reznor) to score the grim first-person shooter. Until now, though, listening to that soundtrack has usually meant digging up your circa-1996 game CD or (let's be honest) finding a YouTube rip. Thankfully, you'll soon have an alternative if you own a turntable. As part of a larger wave of back catalog releases, Reznor is making the Quake soundtrack available on vinyl -- you too can listen to that memorable theme in your living room.
John Carmack sues ZeniMax for unpaid acquisition money
Oculus CTO John Carmack has personally joined the litigation war between his company and ZeniMax. He has just filed a lawsuit against the media firm for refusing to pay the rest of what it owes him for id Software's $150 million acquisition in 2009. Carmack co-founded id Software in 1991, and it's best known for developing the Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake video game franchises. The CTO says ZeniMax still hasn't paid the last $22.5 million of the price they agreed upon. It also sounds like the company has no intention of paying up.
Exploring what made the 'Doom' and 'Titanfall 2' campaigns tick
The new Doom was almost one of my favorite games last year. While it was edged out at the last minute, there's no denying how refreshing the game was. Developer id's laser-focus on speed, making the player throw caution to the wind and tossing modern shooter conventions out the window was incredibly exciting. Titanfall 2 on the other hand took a major complaint levied at its predecessor and delivered one of the most unique shooter campaigns we've seen in an awful long time. As Mark Brown of YouTube channel Game Maker's Toolkit points out, the story modes put fun ahead of everything else.
Palmer Luckey insists he didn't steal VR code for Oculus
Yesterday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand to testify in a lawsuit against Oculus, and today it was Palmer Luckey's turn. The founder of Oculus VR -- who has remained out of sight since his role in funding political trolls came to light -- sold his startup to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014, but ZeniMax (parent company of iD Software) claims its tech is based on code Oculus CTO John Carmack wrote while still an employee. According to Bloomberg, Luckey testified that while the company's software ran in a demonstration for investors, he also said "I didn't take confidential code...I ran it and demonstrated it through the headset. It is not true I took the code."
The MacBook Pro Touch Bar plays 'Doom' because of course it does
Doom is the rice of the video game world. It's a staple of the industry and it works with everything, running flawlessly on ATMs, printers, pianos, calculators, e-readers, chainsaws and even on a terminal within Doom itself. This week, Facebook iOS engineer Adam Bell got Doom running on one more unlikely appliance: the Touch Bar of the latest MacBook Pro.
Doom's multiplayer patch adds a messy free-for-all deathmatch
The new Doom had a bit of a different strategy for multiplayer when it launched earlier this year. The team at id Software focused on playing to the game's strengths by offering play-as-a-demon game-types alongside Freeze Tag, riffs on traditional modes like Warpath (king of the hill) and the tried but true team deathmatch. The game's next update adds free-for-all deathmatch (no cooperating with strangers on the internet required) and private matches, while an arcade mode for the single-player campaign is slated for later this fall.
Play Doom's premium maps for free (if your friends bought them)
Id and Bethesda want to make sure that the action never stops in the new Doom's multiplayer. That's regardless of whether or not you're buying the recently announced premium map pack, "Unto Evil." With PartyPlay, so long as someone in your party has bought the add-on, everyone can keep playing together and vice versa.
