Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Could it be a premium service with the capacity to create private matches? Id’s Marty Stratton talks about the possibilities in this extensive interview on Bethesda Blog.

We’re toying with a number of ideas for features, functionality, and even content that will translate well and represent a real value for players wanting an affordably-priced premium service. One of the most requested features in QUAKE LIVE and something that I think would be at the core of any premium service, would be the ability to very easily and quickly start a private match (that only you and the players you invite can join). Right now, all of our matches are open to the public and started by our back end systems. So, what we’re looking at creating is a totally integrated and very easy to use method for starting and running a personalized private match.

And that is basically what I want from Quake Live, as well as some kind of pickup team functionality, and Rocket Arena 3. I used to live for that and CTF pickup games back in the day, and if Quake Live offered a similar service I would be all over it. They’d need to add Spider Crossings, too, obviously.

Id’s bossman Todd Hollenshead (pictured above, thinking about stuff) has conducted a huge interview with internet newshounds VG247. In it they cover a bunch of stuff about Id, Rage, and the Bethesda deal. They also mention that there’s likely to be a demo for Rage, but no multiplayer beta. The most interesting points elucidate about about Rage, explaining how it’s an action game (and a “directed” open world) with some extra bits added on. Hollenshead also explains that the previous Id project – named “Darkness” – was cancelled due to changes in the tech. “We really didn’t expect the ability to have the massive texturing and the outdoor environments,” says Hollenshead, “the game wasn’t designed or conceived to take advantage of that. So we were like, ‘Not taking advantage of this technology would be a shame.’” All of which sounds like the megatexture stuff that Carmack came up with for the Quake Wars guys has ended up allowing Id themselves to move away from the corridor-shooter. What is that going to mean for Doom 4? Well, that’s left answered. Lots me through the link, anyway, so go read.

Polish games mag CD-Action (who, according to these videos, seem to have their own drink?) have posted an enormous John Carmack interview to the web, and we’ve reposted it below. In it Carmack chats about Rage, stepping away from graphics to work on player experience, the problems of contemporary developments, the challenges of modding in the “post-Doom 3 era”, and so forth. Thanks to Pat at VG247 for the heads up on this.
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Raven’s reworking of the old lone Wolf will soon be upon us, August 18 for North American and August 21 for Europe. I’ve post the two most recent game-footage trailers below, in which we seen BJ using his supernatural vision and a flamethrower to clear the decks of a Zeppelin. I’m wondering whether that bit of the game ends in an explosion. It’s a fair bet, eh? More on this, no doubt, when we take a look later in the month of August. There’s a bunch more information over on the official Wolfenstein site, obviously.
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Via Shacknews, we see some new shots of Rage from SIGGRAPH 2009, where a talk given by id Software senior programmer J.M.P. van Waveren included a whole bunch of stuff about the “virtual texturing” in the new engine. There’s a handful of environment shots on there, and they look incredimentary. This could well be the next game you build a new PC for. The full PDF is here.

Oh, and in case you’ve not seen it, there’s a big old Rage teaser site here.

But which maps? And will they ultimately disappoint? The first isn’t too inspiring, it’s Hidden Fortress from the Dreamcast version of Quake III. Not a bad map, it seems, but still not one of the classics. Will one of the new maps be my ultimate CTF dream date, Spider Crossings? What would you choose, readers? (Link ‘em for classic Q3 download if you can be bothered.)

John Romero has posted some long-lost video of Id Software in the days just before the release of Doom. It’s a good half hour long, and you can hear various people from Id, as well as the film-maker, commenting in awe at deathmatch in the early FPS. It’s embedded beyond the click. (Thanks to Tim for the tip.)
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Well, that’s what the trailer should have been titled. Actually it’s more about the goofy occult horror angle of the reworked shooter, showing off the reality-hopping “veil” effects and the green-emitting monsters that Nazi scientists have created to destroy Freedom, jazz and apple pie. There are also impossibly large guns. That’s right: it’s Wolfenstein, it’s coming this summer, and it’s a first-person shooter videogame. We like those.

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Playing Quake Live is a troubling experience. It feels like a kind of monetised nostalgia. A browser-based themepark, or a visit to a mummified stately home. It’s wonderful to find servers heaving with people again after all this time – even though finding a game was seldom a problem – at least for a quick and dirty free-for-all. I still adore Quake 3, and my install has not left my hard-drive in a decade. But playing it like this made me realise what a mutant creature I actually fell in love with in the earliest years of this decade. What’s missing, particularly for an obsessed capture-the-flagite like me, is one particular map: Spider Crossings, or Q3WCP9. Without it, Quake Live cannot earn my love.
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Carmack was talking up Quake Live today over on Gamasutra. “A lot of this project was about doing something that the PC was going to be better at than the consoles,” he told the big G. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Carmack’s comments is that he wants to see some of the web functionality from things like social networking sites to find their way into the browser-based game platform. “”For years, I’ve often thought about the fact that a lot of people spend vastly more time on websites and forums about the games that they’re playing than they actually spend playing the games themselves. We hope to have some aspect of that here.”

Quake Live went into open beta last night.