I just pre-ordered Rage and Skyrim and I'm curious about a couple of Rage details:

1. How much open exploration is there likely to be? I understand there are levels and areas and we travel from one location to the next via dune buggy, but am I free to go back and forth to any "dungeon" or town location in any order I please?

2. Do levels respawn if I don't visit them for a while, or is it the case that once I clear a level there's never any point in going back?

3. Do I have to complete all the levels in a certain order, or are there branching paths or some degree of non-linearity?

4. Roughly how many towns or locations with non-hostile NPCs are there in the game?

5. I understand we can craft our own special bullets and other things, but roughly ow many different types of items can we craft? Do we collect ingredients and recipes for the crafting?

6. I understand we can choose which armor type at the start of the game, which will affect the style of gameplay, but how much can I customize my character's appearance? (and do we ever see our character, or is the entire game first person?

1.There is a huge map, and you can explore every bit if you want. 2. If by levels you me areas where you do side missions, I have no idea but i do Know that there are odd jobs on billboards or something to clear out bandit hideouts. If you clear out said hideout, another bandit clan can move in or mutants so you can replay it but with slightly different gameplay because of the different fighting styles of each enemy. 3. It is what id software calls "open, but directed". This means you follow the story [levels] but you can explore as much as you want (you also can continue exploring and doing side missions after you beat the story).4. There are quite many cities or settlements for the parts of the wasteland they have revealed but there is going to be quite a few more. Out of these settlements there are big towns that are more industrial and a lot bigger than the others. Two of these big towns are wellspring and subway town however they have said there is a third one, but haven't said what it is. The wasteland is broken up into parts, kind of like countries, but you can move freely between them without loading a new section. The names of these parts are The Wasteland, The Bone Wilderness, The Eastern Territories, and The Southern Territories, however it might be different, but these are the names i've gotten from gameplay and interviews. 5. Its not released, but there is alot that they've talked about and more, there is atleast 10 to 15 or more that thaey've shown and possibly more in the final game. 6. As far as they have released, all you can do is customize armor pieces or sets, and possibly things like gloves and shoes, but not much else ( might be more in final game). Hopefully this is helpful.

Fantastic, thanks very much for the detailed responses and I'm really liking your answers to questions 1 -5. I hope there is a little more we can do with character customization, but based on your advice it's already sounding like there is a lot freedom of choice and exploration in the game.

Looks like it will be a very fun game.

1. I would hardly say the map will be huge compared to say Skyrim, it might be but I doubt it, map size isn't confirmed anyway.
2. I don't think this is confirmed, if you can post me a link I'd appreciate it.
3. I believe "open, but directed" refers to the map rather than the story (there are set pathways in some areas).
4. There seems like there will be a few, but other than those three they will not be very large, and even those three are hardly what I would call metropolises from what we've seen.
5. There is supposedly atleast four for each weapon.
6. All that has been said is that you can change your outfit/armor, and that includes all parts, unlike an Elder Scrolls game in which you pick your greaves, boots, cuirass, helmet, ect. I'd say it is more like Red Dead Redemption's outfit system, in that you can't customize individual parts, but you can pick which one you want to wear and they all come with different benefits.

How about the character's face, hair, etc., is there a character creation menu?

And do we ever see our character in the game or menu screen, or is it entirely limited to first person?

Does the armor type choice at the beginning of the game have some deeper consequences for playing style, like a sort of class?

It might be worth you trawling through all the recent Rage previews. I read some answers to your questions recently.

Haven't seen or heard about character creation such as physical appearance. Doubt that'll be in the game.

The character can be seen when controlling RC bombs and in the Uprising trailer - which includes a clip of the game's intro (where the character is in a cyrogenic state). You might be able to see the character when controlling the vehicles (3rd person). Also read reports that if you crash, your character can fly out of the cockpit. On the PC version, there might be a way to bring down the console and change camera. I'm sure one could do this in Doom 3, although the 3rd person view was never meant to be playable.

I think the choice of three armours (could be wrong) was a one-off decision, couldn't be changed later, and affected certain skills, like bartering.

Might sound too nostalgic,but I wish this game had secret areas and collectible gold like Wolfenstein and Doom did!
:D

I don't know what you're expecting from RAGE but it is not an RPG at all, certainly not TES: Wasteland.

For number two there is an interview from e3 2011, not quite sure which one, but I'm pretty sure its the gamspot stage demo which can be found on the website but not on youtube for some reason

Once areas are cleared, other clans can move in making the return to an area different each time? I haven't read / heard anything about that but if true, it would be great. Please could you provide a link / source to that?

I wonder if it will have more, little or about the same amount of map space as fallout 3 or new vegas? i Know it's not supposed to be an rpg but id has been talking alot about exploration like the OP said so im thinking there should be a good sized map

From videos and some demos of the game i get that the map will be big but itll be more of traveling to certain areas maybe with minor areas to explore
i dont think itll have exploration that rpgs demand because this isnt an rpg
that doesnt mean that it wont but there hasnt been many clues to lead to an assumption that itll have this and thats all this is an assumption
if you want to find out for certain i guess well just have to wait for the game

TBH, there are a lot of crappy videogame RPGs that provide less exploration that what seems will be possible in Rage.

That is very true, an explorable area is not a requirement for an RPG and certainly does not define an RPG.

I'm sure there will be secret areas. Money has been mentioned, but not gold.

I have one question and one only,Is there open exploration in this game like FO3?

I'm sure there is open exploration like in Fallout 3. Can't imagine being given a mission, and you absolutely have to go and complete the mission right then and there. What will they do, lock the rest of the world until you complete the mission? I think there has to be open exploration in a game like this. Must admit, I would be pretty disappointed if it wasn't open exploration. I want to have my missions, and if I want to, just go off on my own and have my own experience. That's what makes Fallout so awesome. You don't have to complete the story or the sidemissions if you don't want to. Just go off on your own and just play. I hope you can do this in RAGE.

Yes there is, but I believe it will be more directed than Fallout 3.

Has there been any mention of the rough size of the map? (in sq. miles, for example, or in comparison to a previous game?)

there are also areas that will be available only to those who have bought the game new
places in sewers etc that not every one will have access to/ hidden areas

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/15/rage-buy-it-new-get-bonus-sewers/

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1220576-used-copies-of-rage-will-contain-locked-single-player-content/.