As Bob Dylan once wrote, “The times they are a-changin'” and id Software may be ready to change with these times. They’re talking at Quake Con about both DOOM 4 and their next title Rage (a first person shooter car driving game) both utilizing the same engine, the Tech 5 engine, and being developed simultaneously.
Now, this doesn’t mean you’ll have dual release games but it shows that id Software is ready to work on more than a single project at the same time, a big step for them. Although they’re usually working a big engine while finishing up a title to run on such an engine, they’ve got two titles in the works. This is very unlike the little FPS company but it shows they’re ready to meet the challenge of a larger industry.
When the original DOOM arrived there was nothing to compete against them and through the years and into Quake their competition was light years behind. Developers like Epic Games, Bungie and other first-person-shooter genre developers have proven themselves in the industry with many titles and sequels while id releases, seemingly, one game every five years.
For a company with only one or two franchise titles they do take a long time to release another game. This may be due to their engine licensing, no longer under the “Quake” engine name and sticking with its own independant naming convention like ID Tech 4 and ID Tech 5, they’re showing us the company is about engine design seperate from any demos or game prototypes they provide to show off the engine.
To many gamers DOOM 3 was more of a prototype to show people how far graphics have advanced in the last twenty years. Many folks were excited to play but grew bored when they realized it was very much like DOOM 2 but with a graphic revamp. Nostalgia only goes so far before you realize the story and depth behind games like Half-Life, Unreal and Halo have far exceeded a extreme graphical FPS gaming.
It’s time for id to grow from their roots and expand into many game genre’s and build out new independent properties (like Rage) to show the industry they’re not just a one-hit wonder with a huge fan base.
But, you can’t argue with a huge fan base. They’ve got a full conference to show off their stuff, not even Electronic Arts has that!
(Thanks, 1up)
Hey guys,
I missed last week’s comments so let me just add that I did indeed remove the PS4 camera plastic covers and it works well with other games/apps such as Playroom. Just Dance 2014 looks like it has not been tested/optimized at all as far as tracking is concerned on the PS4. Shame on me for getting it without researching it enough.
@PS4/XBone attach rates
I mentioned it last time but I will say it again. I try to buy as many physical copies of games as possible, especially when it comes to big titles. I did not buy a single digital PS4 game, not including the PSPlus free downloads. On the other hand, I only have two or three boxed Vita games but I would say this is mostly caused by the fact that the majority of games on that platform don’t come in boxes and are only available digitally.
I suppose that the publishers want to convince the public that going all-digital is the way to go and showing stats like that is one way to do it. Still, I don’t think this will work just yet. As far as I know, the Internet availability is not that good in the USA and a lot of users have data caps, which is a showstopper when it comes to games which require 10GB+ of download (including the obligatory day-1 patch). Also, as I previously mentioned, no one can take away your physical copy (except for a thief, obviously) but it is possible that the servers you donwloaded the game from will not work at a certain point in the future. Bah, it’s even certain that this will be the case. As much as people now go back to PS1, XBox or PS2 and play the older games, because they are still in boxes, if people in the future want to do the same with PS4 and XBone then must not rely on digital distribution methods.
@E3
Even though I’m not eligible for the giveaway (what if I give you a US address? 😉 ), let me jest say a few words about what I read and watched about E3. I went through all the briefings, including parts of the Nintendo digital event. I really liked the emphasis Microsoft put on games, including indie titles, and you could tell they learned a lesson from last year’s performance, staying away from the entertainment qualities of the new console. I’m not going to play any of the exclusive games they showed, as I’m not getting an XBone, but Sunset Overdrive looked fun and I wouldn’t mind giving it a go.
I was extremely excited about the Grim Fandango announcement. I love those old adventure games and I played most of the SCUMM titles but I somehow missed Grim Fandango. When I tried going back to it a few years ago, I had to jump through those hoops you mentioned with running old games on Win7 and then there was no sound so I decided to give up. Having the game on the Vita is amazing and it’s a great follow-up to the recent release of Broken Sword 5. And if they are really working on a sequel to GF that’s even more exciting.
I’m obviously looking forward to Uncharted 4 although we still don’t know much about the title. I really liked the first three titles in the series and I don’t believe Naughty Dog will screw the pooch on this one (get it? get it?) despite the internal turmoil.
I didn’t pay much attention to the hardware presented during E3 and I also mostly don’t care about things like Powers or the Halo TV series so I’m not going to comment on those.
I use this to play Grim Fandango on Windows 7. It works perfectly.
http://www.residualvm.org/
Hey Guys thanks for reporting on E3!
I have to admit that Littlebig Planet 3 and Uncharted 4 are pulls for me to get that system.
@PC Master race: I always have to laugh when I hear this, I myself don’t feel snobbish about it. I know I’ve said it before I just don’t feel the consoles have done much to bring me back to them. This E3 may change that with some games for the PS4. However I find I can’t imagine playing a First Person perspective game with a game pad, the movements are always too slow and clunky and aiming is a pain. Where as I enjoy using a Gamepad for platformers and such. I also love the ability to mod various games, which you can’t do with a console.
QotW: As I mentioned above Sony is releasing some games that my family and I are interested in playing. So Sony has piqued our interest again with this showing. Also the kickstarted game Pillars of Eternity showed there as well, so not all companies are staying the course as Paul said.
I also live in the US so I guess I qualify for the swag bag, my wife loves the Sims.
I forgot to respond to the part about the Beyond Earth Tech Web. I wanted to add that all the previous Civ games we’ve had a fairly straight forward Tech tree, all civs will research the same techs and it’s just a race to get those techs. The Web is designed to make it so that not all the techs will be researched by any given civ, that they will focus on one section for their faction.
What bothered me about Civ 4 and a little about Civ 5 is that there’s often a tech bottleneck in which you have no choice on what to research.
Exactly Jonah, and hopefully Beyond Earth’s Tech Web is balanced to give us a choice and decision and not just a railroad to the end tech.