210 Minutes of Direct Access To Carmack's Brain
It says something about John Carmack's status in the gaming industry that he can hold a talk that lasts for three and a half hours and the majority of watchers are simply delighted. So, if you've got nothing else on for the next 210 minutes, here is said relaxed, cheerful, full-throttle, ad-libbed and fascinating QuakeCon speech in full. id's brain o'brains chats about the problems with Rage and its messy PC launch, his love-hate relationship with the PC as a platform, those Oculus Rift VR goggles that are getting Kickstarted hearts all aflutter, Doom 3 BFG, 3D displays, just the tiniest smidgen on Doom 4 and, of course, a sustained stream of characteristically uncensored techspeak about the past, present and future of computing. Such as viewing images by firing laser beams directly into people's retinas. Er...
Impressively, as well as talking for so damned long, he doesn't sit down until the 90-minute point.
The more positive PC stuff is fascinating, in terms of reflecting the current industry seachange on the front. While no-one's denied that it's been technically superior to current gen consoles for a long time, it has had naughty stepchild status - no-one seemed to want to mention it or make a big deal of their games being on it, presumably for fear of losing those MS and Sony fun-bucks.