I have been through this game several times now and I am feeling so ambivalent about this game.

There are some many things in the game, that could have been so much more. Take the bandits out on the wastelands in there supped up cars with lousy drivers. Where are they coming from? Could there be a bandit car base somewhere, with a boss that I could destroy? ......

And then there is the movement of the character. There are many things in the game, you can't jump over or get on top of, not to mention being able to lie flat on the ground in a fight. And the invisible walls are just annoying!! ......

Then there is the texture thing to add insult to injury, but then I remember this is a console port and it the textures probably look great at 800 x 600 instead of 1920 x 1200. I know there are good reasons for this, megatexures and disk space. If they couldn't do all they wanted with the Tech 5 engine, why didn't they just use another one ... O yah, this is a console port!

I could go on and on, with things like going through each area twice, even the sewers, but I think I made my point.

Don't get me wrong, I like the game but, ID, Bethesda, and ZeniMax ...... it could have been so much more!!!

Honestly, the game is pretty good, even with all the stuff you listed, kinda minor if you ask me. the ONLY thing I could say that woulda made this GOTY worthy is if it lived up to its B-lands/Fallout/Dead Island comparisons and actually had SOME type of player development/skill tree, that woulda really gave it the RPGness that got labeled with this game.

You can't just toss in skill trees and expect it to fix everything. There is far more than that wrong with the game. Since you mentioned it in reference to the comparisons that have been made, and I myself have been using Dead Island as an example, I'll refer to that game.

Much of what makes Dead Island a successful title with good replay value is not just lots of skills but being able to go as far as level 60, with weapons and enemies leveling with you, having 4 character types each with unique attributes, having a good variety of maps and quests, having LOTS of quests, many with multi stage objectives, having both melee and firearm weapons, having good challenge that often requires you to think on your feet, having lots of good roads to drive on, and having a good variety of enemies and weapons.

Aside from that there's LOTS of exploring to do with tons of things to find and use, the graphics and effects are very good, and yet it runs at 85-120 FPS even on mediocre spec and is less than 7GB in file size. Getting to level 60 XP can take 2-3 play throughs, and you have the option of carrying over your skills, inventory, money, weapons and upgrades when starting a new game. Dead Island just has SO much more depth. To imply Rage merely needs skill trees to bring it up to it's level is very short sighted. It takes a lot of time and effort to put together a well thought out RPG based melee and/or shooter game, time id wasted making an IDiotic engine.

About the only limitations the two games share that I can think of are lack of destructible environments and lack of a day/night cycle. However Dead Island DOES have weather effects and a a dynamic vs static sky that can cause clouds to come in and considerably darken the sky, adding MUCH depth and atmosphere that Rage lacks. Most of the NPCs are interactive vs dead to the world too.

I hate RAGE so much.

I see ur point but to me, the graphics in Rage are better and I did own DI when it came out but to tell u the truth, after about 12 hours of doing the main and side quests, it got VERY stale. I mean, I can only hack and slash for so long which at the end was the deal breaker for me. Dont get me wrong, I understand what the devs were doing with DI in trying to not make it a str8 up shooter so maybe in that aspect, it wasnt the game for me so I shouldnt knock it. You are right, DI is a MUCH deeper game when you break it down with the points u made above but Rage is a game in its own and I guess I was hoping for a skill tree type since it was hyped so much as a B-lands/Fallout type of action/rpg.

And to me, DI was way more buggy than Rage, especially on MP (which I preferred playin, the SP mode got boring like I said) and the save issues, so that was another reason in selling it, to buy Rage as a matter of fact :wink_smile: . I actually think DI was a bigger let down to me b/c I absolutely LOVED it in the beginning but like I said, the SP campaign got boring with the same hack n slash routine and yes, it has a lot of quest but they got repetitive as well, I hope DI2 will be better. Am I disappointed in Rage, yes I am but do I still like it, yes I do, more than DI. To me, the perfect game would be a hybrid of Rage with its fight style and graphics and Dead Island with its open world, player development, and deeper game but thats gonna be B-lands 2, just svcks we gotta wait almost a whole year for it. N I dont need destuctibility, I'll get that in BF3 when it comes out this week, I cant wait for that!!!!

I am sorry you feel my comments I listed are minor in your opinion, that's fine and I respect that. But to me its the minor stuff that makes a grate game, when done right, a legend.

Take the AI for instance, I love the AI, the animation are great, there fast and hard to hit. But when they take cover it all of a sudden turns into a duck shoot. They stick there heads up, making them a perfect target, and even after you blow the helmet off them, they do the same thing again. Its just that little detail that holds it back. I had this in my first post, but I took it out because I decided to try it on nightmare and it is better, but its still there. I have gotten halfway through the game and the only area I had trouble with was Mash TV, I got all the way to the end and the whip mod killed me quick.

In all honesty I have never been able to get through any id game on nightmare, maybe one level, but never any more then that.

IMO, its the minor thing that turns a great game in to something special and I think id dropped the ball, and I think that's what has got a lot of players so upset, right down to the driver issue!

* just did some minor editing

Dead Island is one of the worse most disgusting examples of propaganda in video games I have ever seen which I've been informed that their last game was even worse but on a different angle.

Link: http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/call-of-juarez-the-cartel

I have my qualms with Rage: Could have had more content, ending lame, Authority needed to be flushed out more. Needed more missions not just replay the same area missions.

but all that aside Rage was a way better game than Dead Island because at least at the end of Rage I felt underwhelmed not disgusted with what I had just gone through. At least Rages developers didn't sell us out to a political party and genually tried to make a decent game. And for that Rage devs I thank you. Good luck with DLC.

Having not yet played Dead Island, I'm very curious what this is about.

Having played Dead Island I'm even more curious. Especially considering that DI devs are Polish. Maybe I'm just blind. Or too old.

I think it's the focus of the game that made it the flawed jewel it is. It's interesting to contrast it with Stalker.

Now Stalker has a moderately good engine that used to be quite buggy because the game was focused on immersion. They did everything they could to svck you in. Dynamic everything and full day - night, the nights can be unbelievably beautiful, weather and very good ambient sound. They also let you completely off the hook. Just level edges and real barriers, fences etc. No invisible walls. A complete whole AI life that runs all the time all over the whole game. NPCs can get far from were you would expect them to be. A realistic and therefore brutal weapon set up. You die very easily. They had a lot of problems getting it to run well because of all this focus on immersion. Many people can't stand it but those who love it play it endlessly.

Rage is supposed to be, I think, it's a bit schizophrenic a classic id shooter wrapped in an amusemant park version of an apocalyptic RPG. They left JC to do his thing and no one really came up with anything new at all. The limits of the engine are surprising. A painted sky, static lighting and LOD (Level of Detail) implementation with no actual detail in the close layer. Still it's pretty nice in it's own way. Good guns and gun play. The game however is just the same old thing with fancy clothes and a 'fetch/trigger' mechanism lifted from RPG games. There is no actual RP though. You have one shot NPC transactions. The hot girl outside the store will only ever talk to you once just like all the NPCs except dealers of various things and events. It's an unfocused game on a strange engine that seems to have been built mainly for consoles.

I got less than 20 hours out of Metro 2033 in about 1 3/4 play throughs. I expect to get a bit more out of Rage because I am teaching myself to drive with a gamepad. I have many hundreds of hours playing Stalker. I expect hundreds more.

I have to be honest: game's short. I think the game is more a tech proof of concept "never intended to be a full" game rather than a refined coherent game.

To any of you that think you have experienced Dead Island, trust me, you don't really know what the game can be like until you level up well, amass a fair amount of cash and blueprints, and play with the latest patch, which fixes all those things complained about and adds leveling to 60 vs 50. Once you get past level 35 or so, ammo is dropped much more frequently. You can also make it at workbenches with the proper blueprints, which are easily found along certain quests.

Once you have lvl 2000 swords, fully upgraded and modded firearms, more frequent ammo drops, the ability to make ammo, and more cash to spend, which is plentiful on higher levels, esp with the right skills enabled, it becomes a completely different game. The ones that have stuck with it know this. You can also upgrade your headstomp skill to a two footed stop and easily kill zombies quickly after they're knocked down with no slashing or shooting.

Dead Island is NOT the game many speculated it was at launch, far from it. It has quite a bit of depth and replay value, probably more than any other zombie game. Look at Rage by comparison. Most whom bought it were shocked at how little there was to it for a game that took 5 years to develop and over 20GB of HDD space, and here they are talking about things other than Rage vs playing it.

Little bit of trivia for you. The Rage mp folder alone takes up more space than the whole Dead Island game, and it doesn't even have DM or CTF, or nearly as detailed graphics as DI for that matter.

WOW, YOU REALLY LOVE DEAD ISLAND..LOLOLOLOLOL...but really, im one of those that had high hopes for DI at launch, more than Rage actually, and thats why I traded in I guess after 2 weeks and 12 or so hrs of play, I was looking for my post B-lands fix :icecream: . u mighta been right, I think I got up to rank 18 or so, dont quote me but I know I stopped bout somewhere in sewers. it just got repetitive for me. but if u say they patched it, theres more variety later n stuff, I might give it a second go round after Rage, or if I get mad later today when I get my reserve copy of BF3. goin by what Ive read in the EA forums, its like 50/50 in liking it...thats bad for a game that was supposed to take the genre to the next level...

Lol....rage is soooo average people can't help but talk about any other game than RAGE....not a good sign for this game at all.

I loved and still love all three S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series games...so much better than this game.

Funny 'cos I'm trying to get into Deus Ex & just want to re play RAGE.
Not sure what all the fuss is about in Deus Ex yet

I know what you mean, while playing Deus Ex I discovered I don't really like stealth games. But don't get me wrong, Deus Ex is a great game and I am very glad that such games are still being made.

But the feel of Rage can hardly be matched by any game..

The SP is about average compared to other fps.

I really enjoy the gameplay and "gunplay" of ID games.
The SP is decent.

But really this game could have been AMAZING if they made a proper MP (deathmatch or similar).
I would have played for months.

Its a shame games die within 1 month these days.
The quality of games in 2003 was better than anything to come out these past years.
Stop thinking about profit (although thats nice) and care more about the game and the players.
Then your profit will be larger than you think.

/ME WANTS MP DEATHMATCH.