I played Q3 online for quite a while. I think it's still the best multi player game there is. In a multi player game what really counts is the engine and the network code. Both of which John Carmack is the undisputed master of.

Since we now have intelligent and demading shooters the id run and gun you hero stuff has gotten really old for some of us.

I mean they could have at least given us a game for our $60 instead of just another stupid tech demo.

Yeah I dunno dude. We'll never agree because I obviously like the action shooter running and gunning stuff - as well as - the... it'll take you an age to get from this side of the road to the other as you move from cover to cover in a prone position, while painstakingly head-shotting AI camped in insanely advantageous firing positions, as puffs of dust nearby, and exploding debris farther away gives Johnny Q "got across a road in two hours of gameplay and is satisfied" ARMA-fan... an erection. I don't think it's one or the other. Can deliver a story through an action shooter, or just an experience with reasons tacked on a la Doom3 which I still think is a frickin' masterpiece.From ARMA to BioShock (poor excuse for a shooter IMO, great game though), whatever I'm easy. But id is id and what they do they do well...

... but if they gave me control over the rules of the Nightmare setting, jus' saying, it would deserve to be called the Nightmare setting once again. Guess that's my only point in this thread. Heh ha. "MAKE IT HARDER id Software!"

RAGE is altogether too large and complete to be justifiably called a tech demo. Since I mentioned it already, s'bigger than say... BioShock. *shrug* Just lacks the story. Had it even an inkling of an active antagonist and had it arrived before the apocalyptic setting became saturated by so many titles (meaning had it his shelves in a timely fashion) it would have been lauded for its beauty and setting and what have you.

Edit: I also agree with ComboBreaker in that I can't think of a reason other than laziness that map designers have dropped the health pickups for the free and easy regen system, which just asks you to create a pretty environment, but not think about placement or quantity of pickups for balance. They're robbing themselves of a reason to give a player pause to stop and admire the assets they take for granted in games that resemble a version of reality. So when they see an epically designed environment, they barely even think about what it took to make it, and barely even pause long enough to appreciate it. Heh ha.

Oh I would play it again then. I made it through at least half the game on nightmare without getting killed. That is just weird.

I could do about 6 levels on Doom2 in nightmare but I knew every inch of the damn levels. My son could get a few more but my daughter can dominate Quake 3 games even though not playing for years in about an hour. She scares both me and my son.

It's just... wrong. Isn't it. Weird *is* the word. We've dropped into some jaded alternate timeline in which id games got insanely easy. There's a version of me crying with joy that he's been stuck on the Authority assault on the prison on Nightmare for almost two weeks of one hour daily sessions - with 20 health at the start of his save. Lucky son-of-another-but similar-mother-of-mine! ... or something.


Epic twitch-shooting daughter pwning nightmare Q3 bots... I'd be proud. lol

But that's exactly what i meant with my predecessing post: It depends on the gamers personal expectations if what Willits&co. are saying is interpreted the right way.

If you're a guy like me that doesn't play open world RPGs there is no misunderstanding as i never would expect an ID game to be like Skyrim.
If you're more like an RPG guy that usually doesn't play ID games, you can actually misunderstand what Rage is all about.

And there's the problem:
ID should have made it perfectly clear that Rage is a first person shooter that also has some RPG elements and that it is NOT like Skyrim or Fallout.
You never know who might buy your game...

I've also seen some of this stuff you're mentioning. Especially the scene where you're attacked by muties at Joe's swamp.
I guess they threw lot's of stuff out of the original content due to space restrictions.

I remember that (i think it was Carmack's personal speech before Rage's release) there was talk about the game being too big in it's final stage for distribution and that they had to cut it down.
In the end it still has 21 gigabytes which is absolutely enormous compared to other games.

If everybody would have a bluray drive and there was no digital distribution yet, this wouldn't have been that much of a problem.
But i guess there's a profitable limit for how many discs you can use to distribute a game.
In the end, it looks like this is ID's tribute they have to pay for their memory intensive megatexture stuff.

As always, ID games push the limits of existing hardware...

The wasteland looks great and driving is enjoyable. The problem with it is:

1) There's nothing to do in the wasteland - random bandit spawns and car battles are not so fun, and the jumps just felt like filler. Grand Theft Auto's open worlds feels like a living, breathing place with many surprising and random things occuring; it has a dynamic feel. Either do it properly or not at all.
2) There's no reason to explore the wasteland. Much of it is blocked by invisible barriers and there's nothing fun to be found or discovered. Where are the on-foot enemies? What about random encounters? Where are the secret areas?

I like what id has tried to do, its just executed wrong.

EDIT: as was pointed out, the phrase 'open but directed' that was used in interviews is a bit misleading.

Ok I forgot about the nano stuff I played with came close to release. You guys are right and Im wrong the defib and the regen health make sense in the lore. In fact I cant beleive that went over my head. You can come back from near death of course you can come back from a bullet or two. So let me update my list regen health is only ok for halo, rage, and wolverine origins but the only games ive seen where its cool in gameplay is halo and wolverine(its awesome to he can lose so much flesh and it just grows back!). Also the reason it doesnt fit a game like rage and i does halo is halo you are essentially in a mech. I Bodysuit style mech but still heavy armor. IN halo you are kind of meant to charge head fisrt into conflict and its headshot vs headshot till someone goes down. Rage is more realistic with its aim down sight and human charactes so with its constant use of cover it seems like cheating to duck behind something and wait for health to come back.

I really like the battlefield 3 system where you health DOES regenerate but its not like other shooters. It might be like 30 seconds or something like that.Youll almost never see anyone regenerate mid gunfight.

Regenerating health added a flavour to the combat when halo first came out. The fact that someone running away could regenerate and turn around added a different layer of strategy to the point where if someone ran away almost dead chasing them could be a bad idea beacuse they might regenerate by the time you catch them and its too late you followed them around a corner hungry for a kil only to meet a one shot kill with the shotgun. A better strategy would be to report where he went to your team and advise a flank or a regroup. Most other games just did it because they liked that halo did it and it was easier than placing healthpacks at points that wouldnt leave the player stuck but also kept the challenge alive. Also in Halo you have a TON of health anyway. The gunfights in halo are a war of attrition wher ewhoever lasts teh longest often wins and time on target is important because it may take several shots to put them down. The first time I remember really noticing regen health in another shooter was cod 4. Regen health is great for 2 robots running at each othe full spead shooting each other several times in the face but in a game where positioning is everything regen health fails.

Regen health is a campers dream! Dont get me wrong there is nothing wrong with camping to a degree(no one has any obligation to hit the sprint button). But ina ny realistic combat situation Sitting in one room by yourself with your gun pointed at the door may get you a confirmed kill or two but eventually the others will find you position and kill you. The problem with regen health is you can nearly get killed 50 times but as long as you switch corners to avoid a grenarde you will go back to 100% health after a few seconds. Campers in games with health would usually get found out and killed because once their position was given away they would get worn down. Regen health offers ZERO benefit to do anything except sit in one room and hope someone doesnt headshot you because you can take hundreds of bullets.....as long as you dont take them all at once.

I found your post very informative, thanks for the review. I am considering buying this after I finish up New Vegas. May I ask to those here, would you recommend it to someone?

For twenty bucks what's not to recommend?

Definitely. Amazing game.

You need to understand this is a corridor shooter with pretty walls. It is nothing like FNV. There is no actual exploring and there are invisible walls everywhere.

This is in no way an open world.

@stokes:
If you like ID's first person shooters with extended gameplay and graphics: go for it!
If you expect an open world rpg: don't!

I guess that's why ID has chosen a "wasteland" as a scenario. There's not that much going on compared to a crowded city like in GTA.
But there actually is some stuff to find and to explore: Feltrite crytals, plants for potions, collector cards, fieldgoals...
You're right about the on foot enemies. Would have made Rage more interesting if the bandits were sometimes leaving their cars and you'd also have fps action in the wasteland itself and not just in the missions.

I'd recommend it at the drop of a, uh... bowler hat!

It's a (very good and polished) straight-up action-shooter first, and anything else second. As long as you go into it knowing that you'll be immensely satisfied by what's on offer.

I agree. Just finished my first play through where I started on Normal but quickly bumped it up to Hard without too much difficulty but still a lot of fun none-the-less. I would have prefered a more FPS-RPG hybrid like Borderlands but that aside I believe that Rage does what it does well. As a shooter with some minor additional eliments I have highly recommend Rage to all my friends.