This week’s episode is full of computer roleplaying game goodness, as well as some of the disbelief of a Nintendo-owned Harry Potter franchise. All that and Civilization VI and Turok excitement to boot.
The news includes:
Let us know what you think.
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)
This week, Paul can’t make it, so we bring on a Paul substitute, Dan Quick of the PolyCast podcast – and the show doesn’t skip a beat thanks to Dan behaving like Paul without realizing it. This week’s Gaming Flashback explodes like a blood sausage with Wasteland.
This week’s news items include:
In addition, we have Reader Feedback for Paul’s Pixie Diamonds contest – the winners will be determined next week. The contest’s Question of the Week remains the same: “Who is your favorite Disney Prince or Hero, and why?”
This week we’re talking about pre-owned video games and ask the question, do you buy new or do you buy used? Do you sell your games? We answer some listener comments and hit on a few hot topics:
We’ve also got a bit of history on The Golden Age of Arcade Games and we take a gaming flashback to Mario Brothers, the original non-super version.
