Quakecon 2007 Coverage
id Keynote and id Tech Demo 5 Announcement
On Friday evening, the second day of the show, id Software held its annual keynote address to the gamers of Quakecon. First up was CEO Todd Hollenshead, who announced that Quake Wars:
Also mentioned at the keynote address was that id Software’s full catalog of games through Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, are now available through Valve Software’s Steam distribution system. The entire collection, ranging from id’s first game, Commander Keen, to Doom 3 : Resurrection of Evil, can be purchased on Steam for $70.
But the biggest news of the keynote took place when John Carmack, the creator of the modern first person shooter, came on stage. Carmack used his speech to officially announce id’s newest game currently in development, titled Rage. Originally showed off with Steve Jobs at an Apple event in June, Rage uses Carmack’s latest graphics engine, titled id Tech 5 and simply looks stunning.
Based in a post-apocalyptic world that resembles the Mad Max movies of the 80’s, Rage is part first person shooter, part driving game, part adventure, and all id. You play the role of a man living in a shattered society that was destroyed by a comet and is now ruled by an oppressive regime. You find yourself aiding helpless people abused by the regime and end up fighting the regime yourself. Throughout the game, you’ll be able to drive great distances, get out of your fully customizable vehicle, and go explore the enormous world that id creates. Carmack noted in his keynote that the game has about 80GB of uncompressed data, which is already more than triple that of Doom 3. Another big part of the id Tech 5 engine and of Rage itself is that it is “platform agnostic”, meaning that it will work equally well on a PC, a MAC, an XBOX 360, and a Playstation 3. Carmack said that no one platform will have an advantage or disadvantage over another and id mentioned that the game should be released on all platforms at about the same time, if not simultaneously.