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RAGE On iOS Shows Promise
Vigile writes "RAGE from id Software for iOS devices is finally available and has been tested over at PC Perspective. The game obviously looks impressive with a nearly 750MB download (and about double that when uncompressed) and not much else can rival it on the platform. The game itself is a rail-based shooter, making the touchscreen interface more intuitive and less cumbersome but it does take away some of the feeling of control in the game. Video of the game running is also included in the short review."
Instead of (or in conjunction with) a d-pad, why not use the internal gyro to sense the user's direction?
Not that I'm unhappy for the IOS users... but I hope the pc version ships soon. The QuakeCon coverage of it had me drooling. Carmack is pretty excited with mobile development at the moment though, so I understand why he released it on IOS first.
Gorgeous graphics or not, is anybody actually still interested in rail shooters? I thought they went out of style about 10 years ago. I'll grant you that FPS are rather awkward on these devices when implemented with on-screen controls, but seems to me that there's even less room for innovation in this genre than in FPS. Is there anything gameplay-wise here that we haven't experienced before?
http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/11/20/rage-hd-sets-bar-iphone-gaming/
I've heard that part of the reason why Rage looks so amazing is that many of the same assets used for the "real" game were also used in the iOS version...just scaled down.
Posted anon for obvious reasons.
The game is very impressive from a texture and polygon perspective, but I am getting progressively sicker of this massively dull pallet being used in games. It seems if there aren't magical powers (BioShock, Mass Effect) all the color in the world goes away (Fallout, Gears of War, Rage).
I wasn't always like this, but as time goes on, I like environments to be realistic & attractive. I am sick of wandering around in worlds that are just plain ugly. Impressive, realistic, but ugly.
What I don't get is why it's called Rage HD being an iPhone game... low-res = HD? Even the iPad's resolution is meh.
Moreover... wtf, iD? Why does everything have to be brown again? What the heck is it with iD games and all-brown palettes?
(trivia: Quake 1 was all-brown because of limits with the game engine)
That being said, aren't most shooters these days just guided on rails anyways? Except for stuff like Bioshock & Fallout, most shooters are now just guided corridors where scripted cutscenes trigger at preset points & you can't run around and explore as much anymore.
I suppose that's also a side effect of what most engines pay these days for such high detail -> Maps tend to be much smaller. Deus Ex 2's maps were waaaay smaller than Deus Ex 1's.
http://www.object404.com
Am I the only one who thought, "750mb is kind of large for a phone"? I know you can use a WiFi when you decide to buy/download, but it still seems pretty excessive to me, for a phone.
It seems like everyone is more impressed with the size then thinking it's kind of ridiculous. Maybe I'm getting old..
Watching the video was majorly disappointing for me. Who wants to play a shooter where you have to stand immobile while shooting? They even show a sequence where the player had 2 seconds to sidestep an incoming projectile, but he didn't (more like couldn't).
Is it even possible to implement strafing without using the gyroscope sensor? I don't think a human could provide three distinct inputs to a tiny multi-touch screen (1 for shooting, 1 for direction and movement, 1 for strafing).
Decrease gamma, increase contrast, imbibe illicit substances :-P
Meta will eat itself
RAGE Mobile, as id call it, is not a port of RAGE to iOS. It is a much smaller game using the same technology and the same setting. These distinctions matter ...
Can other games that use Rage reuse these already downloaded libraries on iOS? Or is the bulk of this size unique textures and assets exclusive to each game?
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
On the iPad it's a stunning tech demo. But at 3 short levels, I wouldn't go so far as to call it a game.
Carmack's primary interest in game development has always been graphics related. And that is perfectly fine as far as an individual developer is concerned. After all, that is what set Wolf3D and Doom apart were the visuals. In actuality they are pure 2D games, and can be played purely from a 2D top-down perspective as there aren't any vertical aiming or other height elements. Yet all that mattered in that day and age were the visuals, so the games were stunning successes.
Quake brought the rest of the game engine totally up to par, in that it was a true 3D experience with 6 degrees of freedom.
What seems to be happening with id on iOS is a more extreme version of what Wolf3D and Doom were, which is primarily a visual experience. It's a shame that id cannot figure out how to couple the graphical side with some decent game play. I seem to hear gamers often lamenting that gameplay elements have staled for many years now, which is perhaps why the Wii (and likely Kinect) are such a success - they bring new gameplay elements (and ironically, Wii is a step backwards visually, yet it was still a huge success).
I think id needs a developer matching Carmack's talent and drive but in game design. Then instead of to trying to render a first person 3D scene as realistically as possible, and then after the fact retrofit it into a game, it can be developed from the ground up so the rendering and gameplay complement one another.
Better known as 318230.
I regularly load many movies ranging from 500MB to 1.4GB onto an iPhone (or iPad), this is no different.
Also other apps have been around this size, offline GPS navigators for one thing...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I grabbed this for my iPhone recently. The size may be excessive, but they're using some very high quality art assets, and have a variety of levels (I'm not sure how many).
I've always been extremely skeptical about first person games being playable on the iPhone, but I think id totally nailed this one. It works well not because they found a good way for you to control your movement and view, but because they took movement out of the equation. The "on rails" style like the old arcade shooters with the plastic guns may be antiquated on other platforms, but it works great on the iPhone as a quick and fun, but also very high quality, game. The controls felt almost immediately natural and I was able to focus on learning to better avoid injury and manage my ammo. The graphics are also fantastic, better than I expected, even after trying out Epic Citadel earlier.
For anyone wondering how this relates to the Rage game for PC that's still on the way, this is basically a mini-game. You are a contestant who is sent in to a location full of mutants with the task of clearing it out and surviving. (Think FPS Madworld on rails, complete with an announcer.) Along the way your character passes by ammo, health, and money pick-ups, and some you have to be quite fast to grab. Each level also has 50 bulls-eye targets scattered everywhere that you can shoot for bonus points, though even on Easy it's difficult to hit them all. There are even some cinematics (which appear to be rendered in real-time despite their high quality - it's hard to tell though, might be pre-rendered) featuring the grotesque man in charge of this show, who also provides a running commentary on your skills. Completing levels unlocks new ones, though all the levels I've seen so far are very similar in color palette so this doesn't feel like a big deal.
It's actually quite a fun little game, despite being a little disappointed that there aren't really any story elements in it. But well worth it for anyone who at least occasionally plays games on their iPhone or just wants to see the surprising potential in high-end iPhone games.
Blatant self-promotion: Jerek.net
For what it is (a mobile game, best played on something like an ipad), it is pretty good. The description screamed "action game" and it delivered.
At $2.99 I doubt it is intended to stand as a landmark title.
I had fun playing it - I'd expect to pay more for something better, really.
semantics are everything!
Epic Games has a pretty impressive 3D demo on the app store (free i believe). I only tried it on the the iPad but I think you can get it on other platforms. I heard they are making a game based on the sample world the demo has, which I think can certainly rival Rage (on iOS, anyways)
The iOS game is obviously just a tech demo, probably something to keep Carmack busy. But RAGE itself is nothing like that.
It has been seven years since Doom 3 was released. The RAGE engine was pretty much finished 3 years ago, and they still don't plan to ship until September of next year. RAGE has had a much longer development cycle than any other id game simply because they are spending so much time on content. They are taking gameplay seriously this time around, and they are sacrificing their core capabilities to do it. idTech 5 was very impressive when it was demoed at E3 in 2007/2008. By the time RAGE actually releases, it won't be nearly interesting.
Doom and Quake were fun games. Not all games need in-depth characters or plot to have good gameplay. A simple game with satisfying mechanics and high re-playability can be very entertaining, and id used to be great a creating these sort of games. However, considering how Doom 3 turned out, I don't have high hopes about games where id decides to take themselves seriously rather than just doing what their good at.
If they really wanted to experiment with focusing on content, they should have made RAGE episodic, so that the engine could have been released while it was fresh, and content creators would have time to fill things out without delaying the game so long.
The full games is currently scheduled to be released in September of 2011. Almost a year away assuming the date doesn't slip.
Dammit Carmack, Forget low powered mobile devices PC games NEED YOU!
Some of us are tired of rehashed COD games.
Carmack needs to stop focusing on mobile media devices and focus on pc gaming.
The current crop of bad ports and rehash titles (cod:15 mw3 anyone?) for pc makes you sick when you think about all the great titles that the mighty PC gave birth too in years past.
We need more innovates for PC, If not Carmack when who?. Who will save us from this current delirium of developers pocketing side money just to release their games on consoles first.
And yes their are still a handful of dev teams putting PC users first and I tip my hat greatly to them. It almost feels like we should but them on the endangered animal list.
Come back John Carmack, We all miss you ;)