Slashdot Mirror
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."
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.
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..
It is a clever way to get around the fact that FPS games are ridiculously clumsy on iOS. Rail shooters were replaced by FPS games about a decade ago with the use of mouselook. No mouselook on iOS means we need to rethink what games are made for the device. Try Nova or EliminatePro for iTouch/Phone/Pad, those FPS games have controls which are much less precise than a console gamepad which is much less precise than mouselook. If you were the developer given a hugely detailed first person environment but were constrained by touch and accelerometer controls, what type of game would you make?
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 ...
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.