Rage + Xbox 360 = BFF After All

Shacknews has what I sincerely hope is the final word in the Xbox-360-is-screwing-up-Rage saga that's been raging (ugh) the past few days. Short version: id Software designer Tim Willits was reported as saying at the Austin Game Developers Conference that the amount of content in all versions of id's post-apocalyptic shooter was being constrained by the space limit of the 360's DVD format. Willits rapidly came out of the woodwork bellowing about a "miscommunication" and clarifying that it was merely the arrangement of the game's major areas--from "five or six" smaller areas down to two larger ones, at one per disc--that changed with the DVD in mind. Oh, and he made sure to clarify Microsoft is "not being dickheads" about all this.

You can almost hear the company reps and spokespeople scurrying frantically behind the scenes as you read that.

More interesting than all these shenanigans is this tiny bit of new gameplay info that came out of Willits' AGDC appearance.

"The wasteland is big, and then you'll drive up to something like an old bunker, and then you'll get out of your vehicle and you'll enter that bunker," added Willits. "And that will actually load the level, and it will be like a Doom 3 level--not like Doom 3 technology, but a first person, classic id style level. Then you complete your mission, and you'll come back into the wasteland, and drive back to your settlement, or you'll drive to another level, or you'll drive around and blow up bandits."

Loading times between outdoor and indoor environments! You heard it here first! Wait, no, you heard it on Shacknews first. But his description at the end there does make this sound like a traditional open-world game, with a number of different activities available to you at any time.

The attentive among you will remember Rage was announced back at E3 as the first game to be released under id's new publishing contract with EA Partners, which is soon going to be handling just about every major game release ever, if this trend continues. Harmonix, Crytek, Valve, and now id are not a stable of developers to scoff at.