Blu-ray/DVD, standard HDD and struggling with PS3, the id/RAGE circus

[BRisJesus]

New id FPS needs two discs on 360, one Blu-ray on PS3

Posted Aug 3rd 2007 8:49PM by Andrew Yoon
Filed under: Blu-ray, News

idTech is real ... and it will finally arrive in a brand new game, Rage. Simultaneously developed for PC, Mac, PS3, and 360, Rage will use the second generation of id's "Megatexture" technology. What does that mean? 20GB worth of texture information will be squeezed through the engine's technology to deliver visually stunning scenes. Regardless of the compression, the game will require two DVDs for all platforms ... but the PS3.

The need for added space in the HD-era of games is clear. Blu-ray's added storage allows the game to run on a single disc. The game itself is a departure for id, where it will try to combine "60 percent shooting and 40 percent driving." After a comet smashes into the Earth, players will have to fight the monsters that roam the wasteland.

id plans to make Rage a 20 hour single player experience, and plans to offer co-op. Also, in a surprising change of pace, their aiming for a suspiciously safe Teen rating. The game will ship "when it's done."

[jermwhl]

This once again confirms Sonys' vision of the future.

[Shin-Ra]

Changing disks in a FPS? Crazy stuff.

[JonD7]

*slaps knee while laughing* ah man, even a PC funny crap.

[joeorc]

more about this game..it looks like fall out will have some challenge for the throne ....

QuakeCon 07: id Rage-ing on PC, Mac, 360, PS3
Doom-maker crafting all-new driving-shooting actioner set in open-world, post-apocalyptic wasteland; Activision to publish with a T-for-Teen rating in mind.
By Tor Thorsen, Jason Ocampo, GameSpot
Posted Aug 3, 2007 5:00 pm PT


In June at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), id Software cofounder and chief technical officer John Carmack took the stage alongside Apple CEO Steve Jobs to show off a technology demo. Cryptically titled "id Tech 5," the clip showed a scene reminiscent of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Dune buggies raced through a canyon dotted by what looked like post-apocalyptic settlements, and then the camera zoomed inside a hut for a first-person conversation with a merchant straight out of Bartertown.

At the WWDC, Carmack promised to have the same demo--which features over 20GB of texture information--running in real time on the PC, Macintosh, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 at the E3 Media & Business Summit in July. However, by the time the scaled-down expo was done, there was no sign of the demonstration anywhere.

Today, though, id Tech 5 surfaced. Behind closed doors at QuakeCon 2007 in Dallas, id CEO Todd Hollenshead revealed the demo was actually the first look at Rage, an all-new IP. As mentioned at WWDC, the game is in simultaneous development for the PC, Mac, PS3, and 360, and will use the second generation of id's "Megatexture" technology. The game will be come on a single Blu-ray disc for PS3 owners, while all other versions will require two DVDs.

Speaking to a small collection of game journalists, Hollenshead explained that Rage was a deliberate departure from the corridor shooters that made id famous. Its gameplay will be "60 percent shooting and 40 percent driving" between villages in a postapocalyptic wasteland. Its setting will be a far future which has seen civilization decimated after a comet smashes into the Earth. Players will aid the villages' inhabitants in fighting both an oppressive regime and various mutants and monsters roaming the wasteland.

According to Rage lead designer Tim Willits, the game's title has a threefold meaning. "You're fighting against a post-apocalyptic goverment, so you're raging against the machine," he said. "Then there's driving combat, so there's road rage." Willits also said that "you can't spell garage without 'rage,'" and then revealed the game will have shops where players can extensively customize their vehicles.

Rage will have open-world elements, allowing players to exit their vehicles and explore caves and other parts of the landscape. The game will feature a single-player campaign that will clock in around 20 hours, but will allow individual missions to be played in co-op mode. No other multiplayer details were announced.

In another major departure from the infamously gory Doom and Quake games, id is developing rage with a T-for-Teen rating in mind. As with all games from the famously reclusive studio, it will ship "when it's done" and will be published by Activision.

During a presentation at the QuakeCon keynote, Carmack quashed hopes of a Wii version of the game, saying that the id Tech 5 engine could not be ported to Nintendo's latest system. Nintendo fans needn't be too crestfallen, however, as Carmack told reporters earlier in the day he'd be happy to make Wii games, and has toyed with the idea of making a Quake Arena-themed game for the DS. There's nothing official about such a project yet, but Carmack said he likes the machine's Wi-Fi and game-sharing capabilities.

Carmack also described his "inverted" approach to developing new intellectual properties to reporters, saying id started Orcs and Elves on a cell phone, and then moved it up to the DS. If it works there, Carmack said he'd like to bring it to the Wii as well. Such an approach to building new properties makes sense, Carmack said, because the initial investment put at risk is much smaller.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6176188...stnews;title;0

[mischa316]

Since it's a driver shooter I'll definitely get this for my PS3!! I wonder when it's going to be comming out!!
Mischa.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by JonD7

*slaps knee while laughing* ah man, even a PC funny crap.

A PC is different, though.

You install the ENTIRE game and either keep a disc in there for the drive to know you're aren't playing a pirated copy or you employ some other method for convenience.

No, you don't swap discs to play on the PC and that will include this game.

Perhaps this is where the 360 and PS3's hard drives will have to come into play as well, like a PC's does. Certainly that's the only way I can see 360 people getting around "swapping discs." It won't happen to PC folks one way or the other nor PS3 folks obviously.

It's high time we started seeing the hard drives get employed on all of the game consoles for something past just downloading stuff off the Internet.

Overall, yes: Sony's long term vision for BD is already starting to see justification with news like this.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by JTK

Perhaps this is where the 360 and PS3's hard drives will have to come into play as well, like a PC's does. Certainly that's the only way I can see 360 people getting around "swapping discs." It won't happen to PC folks one way or the other nor PS3 folks obviously.

Obviously it is possible to do on Xbox 360. But, Microsoft insists on perpetuating a HDD-less version and the HDD on these consoles are relatively small compared to PCs. TWO discs is up to 15GB.

Any space taken from the console HDD just to run a game well is that much less space to hold something purchased from Xbox Live.

I find it interesting that the claim DVD is enough fell apart so early. Even those that stated Microsoft made a mistake and Sony was thinking ahead probably didn't expect it to come to be true in 18 months of Xbox 360 launch.

Once the game designers start opening their minds to the possibilities, you have to wonder if it will become primarily a PC + PS/3 title world, with scaled down versions for Xbox 360.

I'm sure PC and PS/3 folk hope it isn't yet another least common denominator situation.

Gary

[kindredwolf]

Originally Posted by JTK

A PC is different, though.

Perhaps this is where the 360 and PS3's hard drives will have to come into play as well, like a PC's does. Certainly that's the only way I can see 360 people getting around "swapping discs." It won't happen to PC folks one way or the other nor PS3 folks obviously.

It's high time we started seeing the hard drives get employed on all of the game consoles for something past just downloading stuff off the Internet.

Overall, yes: Sony's long term vision for BD is already starting to see justification with news like this.

Check this article from Gamepro:
http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=127148

Seems like the 20-30% of Xbox owners without HDD's are in danger of being screwed.

[movies3]

Originally Posted by Shin-Ra

Changing disks in a FPS? Crazy stuff.

haha couldnt have said it better myself

[Dadds]

Sucks for them.

[School]

Originally Posted by Shin-Ra

Changing disks in a FPS? Crazy stuff.

Im Sorry But Im A Huge PS3 Fan But Id Rather Change Discs Then Have To Bear The Loading Of Call Of Juarez Every 5 Seconds

[Shin-Ra]

Originally Posted by School

Im Sorry But Im A Huge PS3 Fan But Id Rather Change Discs Then Have To Bear The Loading Of Call Of Juarez Every 5 Seconds

Im Not Sure I Understand What You're Saying.

[Rike255]

Originally Posted by School

Im Sorry But Im A Huge PS3 Fan But Id Rather Change Discs Then Have To Bear The Loading Of Call Of Juarez Every 5 Seconds

Something Doesn't Seem Right With This Post But I Can't Quite Put My Finger On It.

I'm just playing School, and ya switching discs doesn't really bother me that much either. I'd prefer not to, but in the end it's only 10 seconds.

[D1-2005]

I don't mind switching disc either, reminds me of the good ol' Final Fantasy days. It was an achievement in itself every time I got to the change disc screen.

[Simez]

Forget His Feelings, XbOx 36O is Ruining This Game! Didn"t They Cut The Content To The Game Only Having 2 Wasteland Because oF XbOx"s DvD9 (7.5)?/?

Lol he's a "Specia"l Member.

[Shin-Ra]

However, the last disc is so packed with end-game cinemas that there isn't enough room for the universe worth of content. That means if you want to go back to a planet from the beginning of the game to complete a side quest, grab an item for synthesis, or look for bonus bosses and dungeons, you'll be prompted to insert one of the previous discs.

Guess the recentish 3-DVD game!

Swapping DVD's isn't so bad when it's at two or three preset points (maybe after major transitions) during a lengthy game but returning to an earlier location and coming back causing two DVD swaps is unforgivable.

The other danger is large open-world games becoming not so free and open-world, blocking off places you should be able to return to, working round technical limitations resulting in a less obviously inferior product.

edit:

There is no original Japanese voice track included. Again, these aren't game killing oversights, but they're still oversights.

It's truly a shame that the Japanese voice work didn't make it into the US release. The lip synching in cutscenes is painfully bad with English dialogue and the voice work itself is not good. Some of the characters are just plain annoying to listen to.

This shouldn't be such a problem for RAGE but you can see how capacity is even more of an issue with certain types of game where fans expect the original voiceover.

[stockstar1138]

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53976

i can only access the URL from work, not the article, so I don't know what it says, but I read in another story, that I cannot find, that this game will be shipping to PC and Mac on both DVD and Blu-ray disc. I don't know how true that is, its just what the story said. This would mark the first time a system other than PS3 got a blu-ray game, which is a pretty big milestone.

[phranctoast]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53976

i can only access the URL from work, not the article, so I don't know what it says, but I read in another story, that I cannot find, that this game will be shipping to PC and Mac on both DVD and Blu-ray disc. I don't know how true that is, its just what the story said. This would mark the first time a system other than PS3 got a blu-ray game, which is a pretty big milestone.

multiple threads.

lets combine

[Jack Torrance]

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/ne...box-360/?biz=1

John Carmack revealed at last night's QuakeCon keynote that Rage will look worse on Xbox 360, reports Shacknews. He stated that the reason for this is that the compression techniques necessary to fit the games onto two discs would degrade the visuals; it's not a matter of processor power. According to Carmack, including a third disc for the the Xbox 360 would be unfeasible because of royalty fees and he hopes Microsoft will make a concession.

Currently, Rage is set to release on PS3, PC and Xbox 360, with the PC version likely to see a DVD and Blu-ray release. Carmack also noted that id isn't looking into releasing Rage or Doom 4 via online digital distribution, possibly due to size issues as well.