Rage

First, there was Darkness.

“It followed the id formula,” muses creative director Tim Willits of the codenamed first-person shooter initially planned to be id Software’s first new IP since Quake, “but we had to do something different.” Rage unapologetically taps into id’s core competency as an action game, but by blending car combat and racing with colorful characters in a stylized environment powered by the very latest rendering technology from legendary programmer John Carmack, it will bring to Xbox 360 fresh ideas amid its action-packed gameplay.

“We could do space corridors ’til the cows come home…and make money from it,” adds Willits of the company’s historic Doom- and Quake-powered legacy. Willits doesn’t accept that the company had to do something different just to prove that they could, but Rage allows design and creativity muscles previously left dormant in sterile off-world corridor-focused shooters to be flexed in ways you won’t have seen before, especially from an id game. “With idtech5 [the HA HA!: id’s Steve Nix revealed that the Rage name was trademarked but wasn’t protected. So id filed to claim the trademark, the owners didn’t contest it, and now it’s id’s! new engine powering Rage], John has created a tech that allows uniquely textured stuff and lets us gear the design how we want,” says Willits.

“John can give you all the tech blah-di-blah,” adds the game’s lead designer, Matt Hooper (to which Willits quickly interjects to his colleague, “Please don’t describe it as blah-di-blah,” a nod to the respect expected — probably demanded — of the high-end tech-creation process from the company’s figurehead co-founder). “But the great thing about the tech is that it doesn’t matter,” continues Hooper. Unfettered by the constraints of a technology restricting their visual goals, Rage will probably be the best-looking game you’ll see on 360. Possibly ever. So not having to worry about whether the tech can handle the vision, the designers are free to go to town on gameplay mechanics, story, and characters that will power a truly memorable experience.

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