I am 27 years old and have been gaming since I can remember. I was there for Wolf 3d, Commander Keen, and of course Doom. When I was about 11 years old I remember playing on DWANGO's New York sever and embarrassing 30-40 year old's with 40-2 scores... Of course, id software has been and still is my favorite game developer. I've been following RAGE for about 5-6 years now, drooling over screen shots and counting down the days until I could get my hands on it and I finally got it for Christmas (I waited because I was playing Skyrim).

This game is nothing short of amazing. I cannot believe how fluid and great this game looks at 60 FPS, and Carmack should get a Nobel Prize for getting this game to run so well on consoles.. The gun play is spectacular, the animations are some of the best I have ever seen in a game, and I honestly expected nothing less from id.

But...I think RAGE was victim of an identity crisis which was not id's fault. Unfortunately, in the time it took to develop RAGE, we had Borderlands and Fallout 3 come and steal some thunder from the "Wasteland" theme. I think when people played RAGE for the first time, they were expecting it to be more like Fallout 3 where you can go and explore everywhere. This is not what this game was meant to be... it was meant to be a FPS set in a wasteland. When I played Doom for the first time... I wasn't mad I couldn't go over the walls and explore the mountains off in the distance. So really, lack of being able to explore an open world is a poor argument against this game which I hear all the time. Could the story use a little work...? Maybe. But really... who cares when you are having this much fun shooting bandits and racing around a beautifully realized environment with the best graphics this generation.

Playing RAGE for the first time with my history with id software almost made me a little teary... as I have seen the progression over the years from Wolf 3d, Doom, Quake, Rage. It really is a beautiful work of art which got lost in today's shuffle of yearly franchises and shooters.

I've just updated my AMD Catalyst driver -- initially I was dissatisfied -- but now that Rage has begun to work for me, it's beautiful, nice game, nice art. Thanks ID software.

You sort of hit the nail on the head....I think that there were some very preconcieved notions due to Fallout and Borderlands. But since both games came out years ahead of RAGE those games didn't steal the thunder...they created it. It made it look like RAGE was trying to steal their thunder.

As far as FPS set in the wasteland....they should have not had such things as money, shops, missions, modifying weapons, roads leading to nowhere and not try to give it an open world feel....and they DID try to give it an open world feel. They should have stuck to the rail shooter and maybe looting weapons and ammo off of fallen opponents and totally dumped the defib thing.

But I do have to honestly say if I had played RAGE before Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas or Borderlands I probably would have liked it better....until I got around to playing those other games then it would have taken a backseat.

Was I the only one who found myself in the sewer missions wondering what fallout 3 would have been like with megatexture?

The art direction for many of the levels in RAGE was nothing short of gorgeous IMO. The clutter and little details of the interiors powerfully evoked the feeling of a decayed and ruined world.

I was impressed with this game, but... The ending could have been better or had more work done on it. It would be cool if you could play through again with everything on you when you beat it.

Also I think that there could have been a ton more missions.

I couldn't agree more about the wonderful art direction in the game, it makes most other games you play look bland compared to Rage imo. I have been playing through Rage again the last week or so and the attention to details in the bandits hideouts can be overwhelming in a good way, i love it. It saddens me that it has more or less been overlooked but games like COD are celebrated as one of "the best FPS" of the year". It all goes to show that a rough launch and the "hate this game" bandwagon can really hurt a games success, and\or reception. We can only hope that it won't be forgotten and receives the attention it deserves, but with the "day one blockbuster" mentality i do not see that happening.

they can't touch id tech. let them keep gamebryo to make next game (skyrim with guns). all bethesda games are the same for me. cry for one of the best IPs before 2000 - Fallout - fall in the wrong hands

You don't know how relieved I am to see a thread celebrating the awesomeness of RAGE

I agree about the post-apocalyptic theme, RAGE entered the scene so late that people already knew the environment and felt like it was old. Had RAGE released alot sooner it would have impressed many more people and even blown them away.

The megatextures indeed are a thing of beauty, after playing RAGE I get really irritated seeing the tile work that every other game has. Not that it's always noticeable, since games have gone HD, but only RAGE has a true world. The other games have a map.
I agree, and thought of much more.

I know id isn't one for story, but RAGE had such great characters (Marshall, Dan, Elizabeth, mayor RED, etc.), that RAGE would've been at least twice as impressive with a full-on story, like an RPG. I DON'T mean openworld, because I don't care for games being open world or not, but damn... RAGE with an intricate story would've been a dream come true.

What I mean to say is, id could've made the perfect game, and they didn't, and it doesn't matter, RAGE is a great game and I know for a fact I'll be buying RAGE2.

This.

This, 25,000 times over.

It's quite awesome really, and I think that the Wasted Garage - to pull one example I recently played through - is almost a poster child for it. I don't know if anybody has ever been in a municipal dump, but the sheer level of clutter around all the rooms is on a very similar scale. I could almost smell the same stench there, it was so evocative and immersive. That's quite a powerful achievement.

I've said before that Rage's tech is somewhat ahead of it's time, and the tradeoffs chosen can shock one out of one's comfort zone a little. But once you get used to (or learn to accept) the lower texture quality when things are right in-yer-face, it's utterly breathtaking what was achieved in exchange for that.

Id is legendary. I knew this was money well spent.

I agree it is a great game and that the gunplay and art direction are fantastic. The MP, while I respect them for trying to do something new would have been better off as DM/CTF due to them capturing the essence of combat, it would have been received well and shown up its peers as the pretenders they are.

Whoever worked out narrative pacing needs a talking to though, it was very laid back and lengthy the first 'half' but short and random the second 'half'. Post support could have also have been a LOT more id.

Great thread - nice to see so many people who get the beauty & genius of this much under appreciated title.
For me it was like storming around in concept art, brilliant!

Our resident troll, PenGun will be along shortly to rain on the parade...

I'm not too bothered about the MP content, to be honest. Way I see it is that id have already done MP, and come quite close to perfecting their own particular brand of MP with Q3A. Doom 3 saw them trying somthing slightly different, and Quake 4 kinda bombed - it's MP had no real reason to exist. If they had put more MP content (and in a more trad-id MP style) into the game it would inevitably be compared to Q3A, I think. So this time I can see why they downplayed it and tried something different again; it makes sense.

Nah, he'll just be comparing it to BF3 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. again; I swear he wants a "my game is better than your game" war...

Too funny, Jimmy!
I'm replaying STALKER right now with Complete mod - awesome stuff, & remains one of my most highly rated fps titles. But a very different beast to RAGE.
I feel people missed the subtlety of RAGE: quality control, the incredibly slick interfaces, level design, variety of enemies, animations & voice talent, colour pallette, the geometry - that solidity & robust feel that, for me, is one of id's hallmarks.
Oh well - hope it gains a cult following & some quality dlc gives it a well deserved boost.

It had as much reason as Doom, Doom 2, Quake and Quake 2's, I don't get your reasoning for that?

Btw, Q4 was Raven and there were many reasons why it failed - non new player friendly yet a lot of changes older players didn't/wouldn't adjust to.

Yes, a Raven Software game project looked over by id.

Same with Wolfenstein, although that game was actually pretty cool

There is no war. There is not much game to Rage. That is my problem with it. A shiny tech demo with minimal content. They need to hire some people who have some idea about games, not just talented progarmmers and artists.

I prefer Rage over Borderlands and quite a bit more than the last two Fallout games, which I just cannot stand for some reason.

Agree to some extent with PenGun. I like RAGE, and it does control and feel wonderful, it's just the game is missing something in my eyes. If id Software still had John Romero the game design would be very interesting. I like Tim Willits but I can't help but feel he is NOT a game designer. He is a talented mapper hired from the community. I think the same goes for Matt Hooper. I'm not sure these guys are proven game designers.

Gray Matter (who later became Treyarch) and Nerve Software did an amazing job of Return to Castle Wolfenstein's singleplayer and particularly the multiplayer.

I'd say Willits is way ahead in terms of designing, already his first game is pretty cool, not nearly as bad as "John Romero's Daikatana"
(and I mean this with as little disrespect as possible, I'm a fan of John Romero's work at id)

Rage proves Willits and Hooper game designers, as Rage is at least good... not great, but good.

Great story no one cares