Teiman
1801
He!.
Lets meld a asia dev with a western dev, and have everything good of asia devs (like Vindictus) plus everything good from western devs (like RAGE) in a single game!.
Sarkus
1802
Dead City was my favorite level in the game, but in general I agree that the first half levels pale in comparison. But the problem with the second “half” of the game is that those better main story levels aren’t surrounded by much else to do, other then racing. Sidequests and job board stuff largely disappears.
I wonder about those poor bastards in those levels, especially after I finish one and then go right back to complete a job board posting. “OK, guys, look, that was pretty bad. That dude came out of nowhere and shot a bunch of us, but that’s OK. Let’s just concentrate on making more of those little explodey cars… What? He’s BACK? OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE, I HAVEN’T EVEN REBUILT THAT DOOR YET!”
D:
WTF
Regarding the Ending…?
Where is it? I get giant gun, and no boss to shoot? Let me guess DLC is going to be coming in hot and heavy with a “proper” ending…
Overall, many ups and downs in this game.
B-
mono
1805
I loved the physics and control in this game. I loved the graphics, the art design, sound design, and level design. Great color palette, for an id game no less. The shooting was awesome. Some guns (fatboy pistol and pop rocket shotgun!) were simply outstanding. I had a blast with the racing, and I enjoyed pimping out my car and getting involved in random bandit auto duels.
The game design was absolute crap. The shootouts grew tedious, not because the gunplay was poorly implemented, but because there’s just no reason to get involved, no escalating tension. I’ll keep banging the drum that Willits has just got to be excised from the creative controls at id. He’s been at the helm of creative director/lead design since Doom 3, and it’s pretty obvious that id has stagnated under his leadership.
I still enjoyed the hell out of the game overall, but it’s ultimately forgettable. Man, if they could just freelance Ken Levine over there for one game…
LOL. I was sorta thinking the same thing.
Sarkus
1807
Returning to that level was particularly bad since at the end of your first run you hear them talking about how everyone has to get out because the place is going to collapse. Apparently not since you get to go through it again.
I prefer intense, epic levels against “normal” enemies like in Halo or in the end of HL2 Ep2, than
end
a huge boss where you have to shoot at his weak points. Combat against normal enemies is more fun than fighting a boss! And in the end videogames are about fun. But the end also disappointed me, it didn’t reach the epic fights i wanted, and let’s not talk about the narrative side.
Sarkus
1809
Lets be honest, though, most end of game boss fights don’t live up to the hype anyway. Some are downright stupid or require you to totally abandon the basic strategies that got your there or give you enemies that have specific weak points that require skills and tactics you may not have. I have to go back aways to find one that actually came close to meeting the ideal.
I’m not sure what Rage could have done, really. Thrown more enemies at you? Introduced a new super enemy?
Let’s see:
-a longer “end arc”, doing the bridge mission and the final mission were what, 40 minutes? The end section was too short.
-A new final level in proper Capital Prime, the game gives the feeling you only were a military outpost around the outskirts. Even in games which aren’t plot heavy, the location and presentation of the levels can give the player a proper epic feel.
-Yes, more enemies. I had enough ammo in me to kill around 150 more baddies.
-Side vs side fights. Put some point where shit happens and the Authority loses control of the mutants. Firefights of Authority vs Mutants with you would be pretty fun, like the multiple sides fights in Halo
-More and bigger arena setpieces, the last level was mostly corridors.
-Now that i namedropped Halo, use your car in the last section to run away while shooting and hitting baddies with your car.
Sarkus
1811
Sure, but I should have clarified that what I meant was “what could they have done in the context of the levels they actually created.” If they had the time to create more levels and expand the game, then great, but they clearly didn’t, so its kind of irrelevant to talk about adding stuff.
In this case it comes down to throwing more enemies at the player, maybe introducing a new major enemy (with all the issues that can entail), and perhaps redesigning the final fight area. That’s about all they had to work with.
Does this have a map? If I want to return to Wellspring independently of any mission, how do I find it?
Juste
1813
Just a local minimap. The area is small enough that you won’t get lost.
JD
1814
There’s a follow-up to the Gamasutra interview that was mentioned last week or so. Excerpt:
In my opinion, my interview with the Rage folks was unspectacular. It was the bare minimum we should expect from journalists. If something is said that doesn’t match what you saw, ask about it. If you’re curious about this or that, ask a question, no matter how “important” the interviewee may be. And sometimes the best answers can be gotten by playing devil’s advocate. In my opinion, developers should be happy to have this sort of discussion. It allows you to explain your game’s worldview and defend your gameplay choices, and your answers should tell you a lot about your own product.
Did I look like a jerk? Maybe a little. I would say a lot of the cutting done to the article makes my questions appear to come from nowhere, rather than being part of the hour-long conversation-space they occupied. But the interview addressed some rough spots that few had mentioned before, and which only surfaced once the game was reviewed.
The evening the interview went live, I received an email from an anonymous “AAA creative director,” saying that “on the basis of your hostile and clearly biased line of questioning I have instructed my PR manager to refuse any and all future requests from you and your outlet regarding our game. Having spoken to industry peers in similar leadership positions, I can assure you that I am not alone.”
While I highly doubt the veracity of this email, it’s interesting that something as simple as asking followup questions and not letting go of a topic would be viewed as biased and hostile. I have no bias against id. How could I? They’re an amazing developer, and have some of the best talent in the industry.
Good to see that the only proper interview/review/preview we’ve had as long back as I can recall (Back to Amiga Power! days) gets all this flack.
Might as well let the Publishers hire the journalists or give them pre-written reviews then, based on the feedback this one got.
Edit: Apparently BF3 has some weird Review issues as well now.
The interview wasn’t imo as bad as to need a “defense” or an attack in first place, it was just merely mediocre. Saying “your game looks like other games, what about that” is not accurate (do anyone here think after finishing Borderlands and Rage think it’s more or less the same game?), it’s not interesting or insightful, and he doesn’t present real arguments about it. He comes back to silly questions as the game being generic or mentioning a third party game again (He really likes Borderlands) or linear or “you use too much brown”. Hell, he even attacks in a passive-aggressive way the fact that bandits clans have lots of graffiti and sculptures in the game: “Within the mythology of the game, is there a reason why these guys are so art-inclined?”
The writing itself and tone of the interview is also not very good. Too informal and not very serious. Examples: “Why is he the only guy that can do the things that he does? He likes to murder dudes. I mean, there’s that, but what else?”
Third catalyst AMD drivers for the game, it’s supposed to fix issues which some people still had with some video card models. Other people says the game is still broken :P
http://downloads.guru3d.com/AMD-Cat-11.10-Preview-3-(8.901.2-October-16)-download-2801.html
Naeblis, did you finish?
What did you think of the ending?
I guess I should go back to playing this. I haven’t heard anything else about the enhanced texture filters. id probably have more testing and tweaking to do. I guess that’s another good reason to wait on PC shooters when the attraction is specifically the graphics.
Although even if I never replay the whole thing, once they add improvements I can always fire it back up and look at rocks for a few hours.
Yeah i finished it. I did several comments on the last pages about the game, including the ending ;)
The ending was crap, of course. Technically the last level, judged as a separate entity, wasn’t that bad, it was a fun level, but the end of the game form a more general perspective, wasn’t good. It was too short, too easy, it wasn’t epic and involved enough, it didn’t have that feeling of “climax” with ever increasing bigger and harder battles in good setpieces that it should have been. And from a narrative standpoint, it was like a cold shower, very anticlimatic.
As i mentioned some pages ago, Quake 4 had a much better end section, so it’s not like i am asking for a deep Planescape torment end or a end of the quality of Portal. I also liked the end in Prey (except the fate of the main character in the story). With “end” i refer to the last 45-60 minutes of the games, not the last 5 minutes.
