New iD Interview w/ Todd Hollenshead

[Udderdude]

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/46571.html

Mostly info on Rage, some Doom 4 info as well.

[Technician]

Still no Rage for this year?

[chungy]

I read somewhere, I think from Carmack, that the Doom 3 source code isn't coming out before Rage is released... he seemed solid that both would happen in 2009, this interview also strongly suggests that Rage is coming out in 2009.

Anyway, the worst thing that could possibly happen is that they rush the game and come out with a sub-par game. I don't mind them taking time to perfect it, although Duke Nukem Forever's status might be stretching it a bit...

[destx]

Good lord. That interviewer is a gigantic faggot.

[myk]

I liked the parts where they showed E1M1. Best part of the stream.

As for Rage, it's almost like they don't know what to do with it yet, even though they plan to release it this year. They've got an engine, some art, some concepts, and the idea that it'll be a bit of this game and a bit of that. It doesn't sound like they have a solid design in the works, and Todd Hollenshead doesn't sound very inspired.

And if he wasn't ready for an interview that day, maybe he should have punched the guy with the camera, revenant-style, and walked off, or something awesome like that.

[geo]

I watch Game Trailers TV all the time, I've seen the host Geoff Keiley back when he was the host of another show that was the exact same thing. He can barely keep his eyes open, but he asks good questions and tries to get info out of game makers, but they never fall for it. btw Geo in my name is short for Geoff.

With RAGE they probably don't know what to do with it yet. Its a big world where you drive around looking for places to raid (I mean instances). Yeah... um... what a game. Is it called Fallout 3: Vehicle Edition? The phrase "Get it up and running," was the key phrase there. Doesn't sound like it will be released in 2009 and if it is it will be eh. I love the 2 minute ramble from Todd... that was excluded from the 30 minute TV show.

No vehicles in Doom? The host asked. There were vehicles in Doom 3. They just weren't that good.

[Sporku]

geo said:

No vehicles in Doom? The host asked. There were vehicles in Doom 3. They just weren't that good.

Not the last time I checked, unless you mean that the engine supported vehicles but weren't actually used at all in the game. Aaand I don't think riding a monorail counts. :P

[kristus]

geo said:

With RAGE they probably don't know what to do with it yet. Its a big world where you drive around looking for places to raid (I mean instances). Yeah... um... what a game. Is it called Fallout 3: Vehicle Edition?

No wait. It's called WoW. No wait it's called Morrowind. No wait it's called Midwinter. And Id stole the gravity gun from HL2.

I don't see what is the problem? it's a fairly open world game where you can explore with story instances like in so many other games. Though they're usually referred to as Quests. Just like in these games you got something else to keep you busy too. In this case dune buggy racing.

IMO, that sure as hell beats the shit out of looting and selling it for 1/5 of it's set price from cheap ass vendors that never got anything useful to sell you anyway.

It's not Id who are confused. It is you guys.

@Agent Spork. Well to be fair. There were two vehicle models included in the Doom3 SDK. And probably rudimentary code in there to get them running. :p

As for the engine supporting it. I did not like them in Quake4. But quite love them in ETQW.

[Reisal]

Doom 3 source code? After RAGE? I guess that means the community will push out source ports to fix the annoying problems in the game whenever that happens.

[geo]

AgentSpork said:

Not the last time I checked, unless you mean that the engine supported vehicles but weren't actually used at all in the game. Aaand I don't think riding a monorail counts. :P

Technically the monorail is a vehicle and even the drop ship the DOOMer comes down on are vehicles. They are just either lame or unrideable. There could be vehicles in Doom 4... drop ships and monorails.

If they did not leave up to speculation, there would be no confusion. Leaving things up to speculation and using vague rambles that go no where means... we've got nothing.

[Aseph]

As uninspired as a title like Rage is, I still have to say that the game itself doesn't look like the exact same thing yet again from what we've been shown. As for similarities to Fallout 3, indeed they are noticeable. But I loved Fallout 3, thought it was a great game, and I think I'd be rather excited to see what Fallout 3 would've looked like if Id Software had made it. I'm sure they'll find ways to diversify it anyway.

And dear ol' Todd's claim that it includes vehicles but is NOT a "racing game with guns" makes me think of a little game very few of you might remember called Necrodome. And that game kicked ass. I'd love to see someone take that idea to new heights.

It hadn't really sunken in that Id's last original game was the first Quake. God, that takes me back. I loved Quake to death and personally found it to be their last great game. I was bored by Quake 2, blasphemous as that is, and didn't like the wave of multi-player only games like Quake 3. Doom 3 was good, but I want more scares. It'd be great if they took a gameplay aesthetic like FEAR but instead combined the action and the atmospheric scares into more of a consistent thing. I think now that they have the technology, they should make a Doom game that is simply the scariest fucking thing ever. Doom 3 just wasn't up to my expectations, apart from the Hell segment, which was fucking amazing. Quake 4 was alright, I guess.

I'm excited to see them starting something new. Something that could potentially be as good as they once were.

[myk]

Aseph said:
It hadn't really sunken in that Id's last original game was the first Quake.

Original as in "DOOM done 3D"? Don't get me wrong, I like Quake but it isn't really original. It did exploit multiplayer very well, which made it popular (in addition to sustaining good gameplay, like in DOOM). I think there was a certain valid evolution between DOOM, Quake and Quake 3 which made them all validly great games (you can mix in Wolf3D for the basics before multiplayer came in). The others (Quake 2, DOOM 3) were decent, but more to "keep going" than to hit the nail on the head design-wise.

For this game to be "original", it will depend on whether the influences on it will generate something fresh, or whether they will just be a mish-mash of genre qualities in an only somewhat fun game.

[Khorus]

Aseph said:

It'd be great if they took a gameplay aesthetic like FEAR but instead combined the action and the atmospheric scares into more of a consistent thing.

What's the difference? Bullet time?

[chungy]

Mr. Chris said:

Doom 3 source code? After RAGE? I guess that means the community will push out source ports to fix the annoying problems in the game whenever that happens.

The engine is more than capable; unless I'm missing something, there's nothing about Doom 3 that can't be fixed with some mods or a re-visioning project even using the same engine.

Don't get me wrong either, there's plenty of cool things that could be done to the engine once it's released as free software; just look at Nexuiz, it's based on the Quake 1 (yes, the first one) engine and it's up to part with the Doom 3 engine itself, don't tell me people aren't talented :)

[Aseph]

Khorus said:

What's the difference? Bullet time?

In FEAR you go through periods of wasting bad guys and then you have segments of the game where you're just seeing spooky shit and wandering through cinematic sequences.

Doom 3 was too much repetitive violence and not enough scares. There are basically two shit-your-pants type moments in the game; when you visit Hell, and when the invasion first happens.

I definitely don't want Id to rip off the bullet time thing from FEAR who in turn ripped it off from Max Payne, who in turn ripped it off from The Matrix. Bullet time is an idea that should die unless they come up with some new way to use it, if you ask me.

[purist]

myk said:

Original as in "DOOM done 3D"?

I think he meant original as in as opposed to being a sequel. Doom 2 could also be considered a "keep going" game design wise, even more so than Quake 2 and Doom 3.

Not that I consider it a bad thing.

[kristus]

purist said:

I think he meant original as in as opposed to being a sequel.

Quake2, Quake3 and Doom3 were sequels in name only though.

[myk]

purist said:
Doom 2 could also be considered a "keep going" game design wise, even more so than Quake 2 and Doom 3.

DOOM II is more precisely a chunk of DOOM, the second or final part. By "keep going" I meant more on the lines of "we are confident can do another game, which will be decent and will sell" rather than being in one of those moments where things come together more momentously ("wow, this is going to rock"). It's not just about the differences in content and style, but in how much of an impact the game is design-wise, which comes together both during development and as a result, to different degrees.

[Enjay]

I'm not a huge fan of Hollenshead. Despite appearances, he usually comes across to me as the "say what I am expected to say" grey-suit mouthpiece of id. He is always unflinchingly enthusiastic about whatever id are doing in the superficial way of a PR or sales man IMO.

However, I actually found this interview with him a bit more genuine and human. It's actually the first interview that has made me think that Rage my well be a fun and worthwhile experience. However, like others, I also got the impression that, whilst the tech may be well on the way, what to do with the engine seems to be very much up in the air. That, unfortunately, does seem to be how id develop their games these days: craft an excellent engine then tack some ill thought through gameplay on to it to show it off then license the tech to someone else who will use it to make an actual game.

One thing I noticed, I haven't kept tabs on this but, for a while at least, it was perceived wisdom that Doom4 was going to use basically an enhanced version of the D3 engine. However, this seems to be saying that the Rage engine (or significant parts of it) will be used for D4.

[Khorus]

I was always under the impression id tech 5 would be the engine for Doom 4. I recall carmack saying something along those lines earlier on.

[kristus]

Enjay said:

One thing I noticed, I haven't kept tabs on this but, for a while at least, it was perceived wisdom that Doom4 was going to use basically an enhanced version of the D3 engine. However, this seems to be saying that the Rage engine (or significant parts of it) will be used for D4.

No one from Id ever said anything remotely like that.

Anyway. Aside from the name. I like everything I've heard about Rage so far. I'm really looking forward to roaming through the desert landscape towards some kind of clan base to kick their asses old school style. Then go back to town and enjoy myself with some racing and wenches.

[Zaldron]

Doom4's supposed to be a better showcase of the new engine because they're not concerned about making racing/combat driving an integral aspect of the game, reducing the need for smoother framerates. Carmack said something along the lines of Doom 4 having twice the graphical demand than Rage because of the slower pace (stating what's expected to run at 60hz in Rage with target hardware runs at 30hz in Doom4).

[kristus]

Actually he said it was gonna look 4 times as good. I don't think he said anything about the demands.

[Georgef551]

DooM IV: Trinity

(What ever happened to that "Trinity" project, anyhow???)

[PhilibusMo]

Rage sounds an awful lot like Fallout Theft Auto with a garnish of Half Life 2 for good measure. All great games though so may end up being a mix better than apple and cheder. (if you havn't tried that then do it NOW)

[DeumReaper]

I wouldn't be suprised if I find Rage to be like Quake 4 (I know its by Raven) -- a solid shooter with not much to make it a must buy; I'm not basing this prediction on the footage released, but from recent games (especially the Doom 3 engine games). I think the driving aspect could be good if done right, but like others said, id hasn't really established how much of the game it will consist/influence of as a whole.
The engine still looks cool though.