id Software suffers layoffs, development continues on future projects

Bethesda Softworks confirmed to Joystiq today that an unknown number of employees have been let go from RAGE developer, id Software.

"As part of its standard business practice, id regularly evaluates staffing to ensure it has a workforce that meets the needs of the studio. As part of that process, some id employees were recently let go," the statement read.

However, the studio is still "recruiting and hiring qualified developers," and "development on future id titles continues unabated." Namely, this means the studio's next project, DOOM 4.

RAGE demo now on the PlayStation Store

RAGE is on sale practically everywhere this holiday season, though if you still need incentive to pick it up, you can queue up the newly released demo on the PlayStation Store today.

You'll wander the town of Wellspring, where a murderous group known as The Ghost Clan has taken over. Their intent is to poison the town's water supply, and it's up to you to stop them with your wits, courage, and weapons! In the midst of doing so, you can also talk to the town's inhabitants, hit the Speedway, and play various mini-games.

The demo will be available throughout Europe later today.

RAGE demo now available on Xbox Live, PlayStation Network in December

Late to RAGE yet are thinking about getting it? The RAGE demo is now available on Xbox Live to sate your curiosity. Its timing is quite impeccable, too, since RAGE will be available for $29.99 during Black Friday at GameStop, as well as at Kmart and Best Buy.

Unfortunately, Playstation Network folk will have to wait until December 6 to give it whirl, after all the Black Friday sales--though, we suspect more opportunities will arise in December.

Kmart on Black Friday: Discounts on Battlefield 3, RAGE, Gears 3, MGS HD, more

Wal-Mart and Best Buy have some hefty deals for this year's Black Friday hullabaloo, but that other retailer, Kmart, is not to be left out in the cold, cold November weather. They have their own chock full of deals starting at 5 a.m. November 25, including Battlefield 3 and the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for $35 each, Gears of War 3 for $40, and RAGE and Call of Duty: Black Ops for $30 each.

Those who have a backlog of games to buy can also pick up Transformers: War for Cybertron and the Gears of War Triple Pack for $15 each, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for $20, Killzone 3 for $30, and Uncharted 2 for $15.

Console-wise, the 4GB Xbox 360 is on sale for $150. And of course, the games listed above are not all that are on sale, so check GottaDeal for the full skinny on the savings, savings, savings.

[via Joystiq]

Best Buy's Black Friday Specials: Battlefield 3, Gears 3, RAGE, and more for $30

Best Buy is no stranger to good deals, and their Black Friday deals usually prove to be the best of the bunch. "30" appears to be this year's lucky number, with a ton of hot games selling for that price, including Battlefield 3, RAGE, Gears of War 3, and last year's Call of Duty: Black Ops. 

Those who pick up any of the above mentioned games will need to use some communication, so opting for the $40 Turtle Beach X12 headset wouldn't be a bad bet. 

Among the other titles and accessories on sale, Best Buy is selling the 250GB Xbox 360 Holiday Bundle, complete with Halo: Reach, Fable III, and a 3-Month Xbox Live subscription for $199.99.

GamerDeals has the full scoop on everything on sale, which are the non-Respawn-centric titles, so head there to see what else will be slashed. 

[Update: Still alive] DOOM 4 said to be "indefinitely postponed" due to lackluster RAGE response

[Update: Pete Hines, Bethesda Softworks' VP of PR and Marketing confirmed DOOM 4 isn't postponed, tweeting, "RE: DOOM 4 rumor, games are done when they are done and no title under development at id has been postponed--indefinitely or otherwise.]

id Software's next chapter in the DOOM series has been said to be "indefinitely postponed" due to a less than stellar launch of the recently released RAGE, an anonymous source close to publisher Bethesda Softworks told Kotaku.

RAGE's mixed reviews--low 80s on Metacritic--and technical issues surrounding it has portrayed "a serious lack of confidence in the project management at id" in the eyes of both Bethesda and its parent company Zenimax Media, and launched with a barrage of negative feedback across the PC, resulting in multiple post-launch patches.

DOOM 4 was announced quite a while ago, though was not talked about much during RAGE's development cycle. The last time we heard of DOOM 4 was back in August, when John Carmack revealed the game's single-player component was locked at 30 frames per-second.

Bear in mind, this all comes from the ambiguous "anonymous source" who claims to be close to Bethesda, though the reasoning behind DOOM 4's postponement is quite plausible.

Those RAGE textures on PC will soon look better

id Software's John Carmack tweeted that a PC patch for RAGE will soon be coming, hopefully remedying its blurry textures.

"We have a bicubic-unsample+detail texture option for the next PC patch that will help alleviate the blurry textures in RAGE," the official statement proclaims.

RAGE has been off to a so-so start since its release on October 5, with the PC version even being called "a real cluster!@#$" by Carmack himself when the last PC patch released. Here's hoping that things get better for the post-apocalyptic romp.

[Videogamer via Destructoid]

RAGE PC patch attempts to address id Software's "Cluster !@#$"

A major PC patch hit RAGE this past Saturday addressing the graphical hitches that plagued its launch, as id Software's John Carmack labeled it as "a real cluster !@#$." Problems arose from the release of incorrect video card drivers that was partially solved last week.

"The original release of RAGE does not expose many video/graphics options for people to tweak because some of these settings, although desirable from a quality perspective, simply will not work on specific configurations either due to hardware limitations and/or driver bugs," the patch notes state. "Due to popular demand for more video and graphics options, this patch updates the video settings menu and exposes several quality and performance settings. However, not everyone may be able to increase the settings due to hardware limitations and/or driver bugs."

New video settings include VSync option to address screen tearing, texture cache and anisotropic filter to improve texture loading. A patch summary is listed below:

• Implemented workaround for AMD driver crash right after intro cinematic on Win 7 32-bit systems.
• Disabled UBOs because they are causing animation issues with AMD drivers.
• Don't allow swap-tear to be enabled on AMD while extension is not exposed because it may crash.
• Support for new video settings: "texture cache", "vsync" and "anisotropic filter"
• Automatically adjust vt_maxPPF based on the number of available cores.
• Improved performance for SLI cards when GPU transcode is enabled.
• Fix for GPU Transcoding option being disabled after exiting gameplay.
• Added safe mode to restore video settings to default values.
• Allow g_fov to be changed from the RAGE launch options in Steam.
• Server now forwards text chat from clients to all other clients while in-game.

AMD/ATI RAGE Catalyst drivers out now

Those having trouble running RAGE on their PC rig may find a solution with the new RAGE Catalyst drivers for AMD/ATI graphics cards. The drivers are said to offer a boost in single GPU configs, and are compatible with AMD Radeon 6000 and 5000 series graphics cards.

The RAGE Twitter feed urges players to "grab them quickly," probably in hopes that you'll forget your horrid experiences yesterday that much sooner.

RAGE pesters PC gamers with graphical hitches

RAGE looked sweet in screenshots, trailers, and gameplay videos, however, it's starting to annoy PC players with  glitches, poor texture loading, and screen tears, according to NeoGAF.

As a hopeful remedy, id Software's John Carmack  advised players to update their video drivers.

Will a patch be released and nurse the wound? Or will enraged PC gamers switch to console to play id Software's latest work? What have your experiences been thus far?

[via Destructoid]

Pre-load RAGE on Steam -- half-day 'til it drops

Oh my god. It's almost here. RAGE is almost here and if you pre-ordered on Steam, they've got you covered with pre-loading the game now so you can play it immediately once midnight EST hits. That's only 12 hours away. It beats the hell out of downloading it at midnight, sleeping til it finishes, and waking up to cure your gaming itch.

This game will unlock in x hours... patience is a virtue.

Rage's "Jackal Canyon" gameplay video welcomes you to the Jackals' home

A new trailer for Rage shows how Jackal Canyon natives give visitors a warm welcome to their home. When I said warm, I meant launching flames in your face, rolling explosive barrels, and setting flying explosives while you encroach their base. See what all the rage is about in the video above.

Rage storms in on October 4.

Rage installation details -- 8 GB on PS3, three discs on Xbox 360

Rage requires 8 GB to install on PS3 and 22 GB through three discs on Xbox 360, id's Tim Willis confirmed. The Xbox 360 discs include 2 campaign discs and 1 multiplayer disc.

Willis recommends Xbox 360 players to install the game, "but you don't need to install all three discs. If you don't have the space available on your hard drive, don't stress. Install the first disc, the first chapter, the first half of the game, then when you're done, uninstall and install disc two."Also, "You don't really need to install the multiplayer disc if you're really tight on hard disk space."

Get ready to free up some space for future rage-inducing action on October 4.

[via Kotaku]

Here are those RAGE specs

Planning on playing RAGE on PC when it releases next month? Well, these are the minimum--and recommended--specs you'll need in order to play id Software's upcoming bonanza. Based on my incompetent PC gaming mind, I'd say the list doesn't look too demanding. Again, the keyword in that sentence was "incompetent."

Minimum

• OS: Win XP SP3, Vista, Win 7
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo or Equivalent AMD
• Memory: 2GB
• Hard Disk Space: 25GB
• Video Card: GeForce 8800, Radeon HD 4200

Recommended

• OS: Win XP SP3, Vista, Win 7
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad or Equivalent AMD
• Memory: 4GB
• Hard Disk Space: 25GB
• Video Card: GeForce 9800 GTX, ATI Radeon HD 5550

DOOM 4 brings half the frame-rate, but twice the demons

Although id Software's upcoming shooter RAGE will run at a smooth 60 frames-per-second, their next title, DOOM 4, will only run at half of that. Mind you, John Carmack explained this is only in its single-player component, with the multiplayer locked at 60 frames.

The reason? Why, to have twice the amount of demons attacking you at one time, of course!

Carmack added that RAGE is set in 60 frames-per-second because it made sense for the game's driving scenarios, whereas DOOM 4, a game based on "just walking around," wouldn't require it.

Check out Gamasutra's full interview with John Carmack as he talks more about both RAGE and DOOM 4.

RAGE's "buy new" incentive is probably the best ever, seriously

Online passes and "exclusive content" for buying a game new are quickly becoming monsters in the gaming industry, with those who tend to buy games used feeling like they are being singled out in today's market. Some games offer exclusive weapon packs for buying them new (ahem, Bad Company 2), while others provide some sort of downloadable content, but id Software and RAGE  have basically said, "screw all that garbage, we've got something better!"

Those who purchase RAGE in shrink-wrap will be allowed access (through download code) to the game's sewers and other underground passages scattered throughout the wasteland. These are no ordinary sewers either, as they are said to contain "goods," as Destructoid mentions.

id Software's Tim Willits tried to rationalize the incentive by stating to Eurogamer "most people never even see it" or even "set foot in those things." The sewers are "outside the main path," says Willits, not detracting from anything. Well, all right, if you put it that way...

I have a feeling these sewers will be accessible to used-purchasers for a few bucks sometime after release, with Willits stating in the interview that new purchasers still have to download the sewers, but won't "have to pay for it." Give it some time, you'll see us post the headline, "RAGE sewers available on the Xbox Live Marketplace."

In my eyes, if the sewers are going to be anything like Fallout 3's subways, I'm certainly steering clear no matter how I buy RAGE.

[Eurogamer]

id: Why RAGE strays away from "cookie cutter" multiplayer

Some of you new-aged gamers may not be aware of this, but id Software (Doom, Quake) created the term "deathmatch," not the Halo and Call of Duty titles of today. So, it may be a bit odd that id's next venture into multiplayer with RAGE strays away from both the norm of shooters, and what the team themselves created.

Speaking with CVG, creative director Tim Willits commented on RAGE's multiplayer component, stating the team didn't want to follow the same "cookie cutter" formula that everybody else reverts to, although deathmatch is "something that we invented." Instead of your "standard on-foot deathmatch" offerings, RAGE features vehicular-racing multiplayer combat, as well as "Legends of the Wasteland," bonus missions which can be played co-operatively.

"We feel the vehicle aspect of it is a lot of fun to drive," says Willits, "to shoot guys, to fight, so we wanted to let people do that with their friends."

Kudos to id for providing the genre something different than what the aforementioned annual franchises shove out. Honestly, we have enough outlets in which to play deathmatch.

Rage's Xbox 360 install is a whopping 22GBs

Plan on roaming around a post-apocalyptic world on your Xbox 360 this fall? Then you better clear some space on that little ol' hard drive of yours, as Rage's install takes up a whopping 22GBs of memory. id Software's John Carmack stated that while it's rather unfortunate the install is so huge, if you plan on playing Rage on Xbox 360, "that's the way to go."

If you choose to not follow his words of wisdom, you'll just end up listening to your disc "churning around as it's pulling everything in."

[TheSixthAxis]

Doom 4 Update from QuakeCon 2011

While Rage is appropriately all the rage at this year's QuakeCon--seeing as how it comes out in a few months--people are beginning to still wondering where id Software's other heavy hitting title, Doom 4, has been all these years. Announced back in 2008, we haven't even had a little morsel to whet our appetites yet, and id Software president Todd Hollenshead says we still have some waiting to do.

"id Tech 5 is the basis for Doom 4, and I guess infer what you will...," says Hollenshead. "What we're really focused on is getting Rage out the door. Once we're to that point, then we want to transition to how we're going to present Doom 4, what are the talking points, how do we introduce it. Because that stuff hasn't even been determined yet. We're talking about that internally."

Hollenshead ended the topic stating, "I know everybody's interested. I am too."

Guess we still have quite a bit of waiting ahead of us, hm?

DevDiary: These are the enemies of RAGE