Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Just a few thoughts on a few hours of Raven’s latest suckling at id’s IP teat… Lest word hasn’t reached you yet – perhaps unsurprisingly if so, given the dearth of pre-release reviews – BJ Blazkowicz’s latest corridor-based Nazi-gibbing adventure seems disappointingly flat. Given id are now a part of the Bethesda/Zenimax machine, it’s highly unlikely Raven will ever get a crack at the game universes they’ve (for better or worse) helped build, making this something of a sad farewell. At the same time, there’s a relief to knowing that some of the most formative names in PC-based man-shooting are no longer left in the hands of an Activision-owned studio who’ve not truly excelled themselves for years. Hopefully this isn’t Wolfenstein’s last gasp, but from what I’ve played so far it’s not going to be its proudest legacy.
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You know what? I’m feeling lazy. I’m going to say that id’s Rage is looking like the midway point between Fallout 3 and FUEL. This half-arsed device allows me to indicate that it’s post-apocalyptic, involves shooting creatures in wastegrounds, and racing cars through dust. But it’s also incredibly unhelpful because it leaves behind notions of FO3’s turn-based combat, or FUEL’s mechanical world. It’s Borderlands with driving, okay?! Oh, it doesn’t help, does it? Everyone stop doing it. Instead, take a look at the trailer that’s just emerged from QuakeCon and coo and ooh at how impressive it all looks.

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Shock news, everyone. Bethesda Software – or rather Bethesda’s sinister overlords Zenimax Media Group – now own id Software. As in Quake/Wolfenstein/Doom id Software. It’s a wantonly strange turn of events for a veteran PC studio that’s always been fiercely independent (well, depending on how you feel about their unending sequel-suckling upon the Activision money-teat). It is not, however, necessarily bad news, for all the fact that the internet just exploded. Below, a short statement from id’s big-haired money baron Todd Hollenshead, some quotage from Lord Carmack, and, oh yes, some rampant speculation.
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Behind the scenes, in the gelatinous chamber where the RPS Hivemind’s life-sustaining anti-plankton is grown, Jim and I had a brief debate. “We should have a weekly iPhone post”, quoth he. “But so many people will be angered by such a thing”, quoth I. We both then stared at our own iPhones with a mixture of pride and shame, and we wondered. How would the goodly, but sometimes distressingly irate, readers of the Rock, the Paper and the Shotgun feel about such a thing? While we continue to wonder, we can at least justify this: John Carmack, the Great Brain of id Software, talking about the trials and tribulations behind the upcoming iPhone port of Doom, and the issues inherent in visually tweaking (or not) a true-blue PC classic.
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While adult-me might have baulked at Killing Floor’s testosteronal presentation, I still revert gladly back to dumb little teenage-me whenever I play the original Doom. To this end, I am diligently ensuring I’m able to play the thing anywhere and anywhen. There is nowhere in my house from which I cannot reach Doom within a matter of seconds, be it on my PC, my 360, my hacked iPhone. In case of grumpy, old-man-y emergency: fire up the game. This has become even easier now there’s a proper-shiny, free in-browser version of id’s medium-defining dumbass shooter. Bonus: it includes Heretic and Hexen too.
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Looks like id’s usually impenetrable marketing fortress had a crack in it after all. Actor Brad Hawkins chatted to GGL Wire about the motion capture work in the FPS sequel, which was enough to reveal that the game would feature large-ish squads of human fighters working together – a mixture of soldiers and civilians. Does this mean D4 will chronicle an invasion of Earth by Hell-sent legions? Who knows, but it was a snatch of gossip too far for Doom devs id, who summarily had the interview removed. It’s even gone from Google’s cache now too. Once again, the forces of light have won out against the terrible evil of people getting excited about an upcoming videogame. Hooray for truth, justice and corporate paranoia!

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We’re not out at this year’s QuakeCon, currently turning downtown Dallas into a frenzy of happy meatheadness, because we all have a pathological terror of large, whooping Texan men. Eurogamer’s Tom Bramwell is a far bolder fellow than we however, so he is out there, and already he’s wheedled some tasty facts on id’s next game, Rage, out of project lead Tim Willits. Who has apparently shaved off his moustache, which by my maths makes id 75% more attractive.
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id’s upcoming freeformish shooty-vehichley game in action, apparently now featuring Tusken Raiders and Him With The Face From The Goonies. The big news is that EA is publishing it, id having broken from long-time publishers Activision. Ooh, there’s probably some fun gossip behind that. Something to do with Quake Wars not doing so well, perhaps? Or resistance to the Acitivsion-Blizzard merger? Sorry, sorry, I’m being horribly scurrilous. It was probably just a big huge EA cheque.

It’s Wolfenstein 3D’s 16th birthday. Happy birthday Wolfenstein 3D! Now you can have sex with the other games.

Despite being an id game, it was published by Apogee, now 3D Realms, and they’ve taken it upon themselves to celebrate this momentous age.

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Id Software have announced they’re at work on a fourth version of Doom. You may not be aware of Doom – it’s a relatively minor PC piece of obscura which is only rarely talked about, but it’s to Id’s credit that they’re willing to follow this very peripheral piece of PC history. Among its many unusual ideas, Doom is played from the first person perspective and allows you to shoot monsters. While claimed by aficionados to provide a more immersive experience, it’s never really caught on. Maybe it will now, eh? They’re currently recruiting staff for the project, including a Lead Designer, so it’s clearly early days. We wish Id the best of luck in the Sisyphean task of bringing this curio to a marketplace that often shies away from innovative thinking.