official Rage

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Developer: id Software

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Engine: id Tech 5

Platform: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, iOS, Mac (release date not confirmed as of September 2011)

Release Dates: North America (Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360): October 4, 2011; Europe: October 7, 2011; NA (iOS): November 18, 2010

Description:

The user plays as a survivor of the 2029 Apophis meteorite impact who has just awoken from an Ark (a world-wide movement which took scientists and other significant people, and froze them underground in cryo-pods so they could rebuild Earth). Soon, the player comes to realize that his Ark has malfunctioned and that he is the only survivor. Apparently this environment is perfectly suited to the rough-and-tumble dune buggy racing seen in games like MotorStorm, as that sort of gameplay will be an important feature of Rage. Players will have the ability to augment their cars with various items and upgrades they can gain by completing races, but the game is not specifically a racing title, trailers have shown a mix of mainly first person shooter elements as well as driving elements. (Racing is optional in Rage.)

Rage will also feature some role-playing game (RPG) elements—an inventory system and the capabilities of weapons will be based around types of ammo. Players will also have the option to customize their weapons. There will also be side missions. More on the RPG elements have not been detailed. At E3, Tim Willits stated that at the game's core is a first person shooter with car-combat added in and without the racing being the sole and central focal point. The world will be populated by the human survivors of the impact who were preserved from the asteroid by being buried in the Arks. The world will also be populated by mutants, who will serve as the player's main enemies at least for the first half of the game, as id is currently talking of a major change taking place at the midway point of the game. [Source]

Story:

In Rage's story, the asteroid strikes on August 23, 2029, and the few pockets of survivors are forced to begin a new civilization.

The world is populated by human survivors of the impact, who have come together to form settlements around oases and other practical or habitable locations, including racetracks. These fragile homes are diligently defended by the inhabitants against bandits and mutants, which are divided into various gangs and organizations of their own. Bandits and mutants serve as the player's main enemies for much of the game, and later races, although id Software has hinted at some sort of significant change around the halfway point in the storyline, where races become relevant.

The player emerges into this setting after being preserved inside an underground shelter called an Ark. The Arks are the direct result of the Eden Project, a massive international undertaking in which hundreds of Arks (cryogenic pods) were sealed under the surface of the Earth with twelve people inside each. Each passenger possessed a special ability or trait that, combined with those of the other members, would help them rebuild society. The Eden Project, however, was far less successful than hoped. The player's Ark in particular is in sorry shape upon the start of the game - all of the other residents of the player's Ark are dead (presumably because of the impact), and the equipment of the Ark is destroyed as well, and so the player wakes up alone and uninformed. With no memory of his identity or objective, the player is forced to head for the surface to find sustenance and allies. [Source]

Hostile Factions

The Authority: Very little is known about the Authority. While their motives are unclear, they offer rewards to anybody who turns in an Ark Survivor. Obviously, avoiding them is in the player's best interest. It is also hinted that the Authority has been experimenting on the mutants, resulting in such beasts as the giant mutants.

Mutants: While not necessarily organized enough to be a distinct faction, mutants are nonetheless a common presence in the wasteland. Although a few have been wrangled for use in entertainment on Mutant Bash TV, plenty remain loose in the wasteland. Few details have been released, although one trailer depicts a mutant over two stories tall tearing apart a billboard, indicating that many victims of mutations have been altered dramatically. It has been evidenced that the Authority has conducted experiments on the mutants, resulting in the giant mutants.

The Wasted Clan: A dim-witted bunch that enjoys mechanics, home-brewed alcohol and fighting. The Wasted are most commonly found in (what used to be) industrial areas, where more scrap and parts are on hand for their automotive projects. In fighting, they'll sacrifice any semblance of tactics for the sheer effectiveness of blunt objects to the face, and prefer to reach for the nearest club and come at the player from any direction they can (although they will use guns on occasion). According to legend, the Wasted Clan are the last remnant of the United Kingdom.

The Ghost Clan: Sinister and stealthy, fearsome and fearless. The Ghost Clan is arguably the most id-like of Rage's enemies, dealing in the occult and staging gruesome sacrifices in order to gain a seat in the afterlife. Feared even by the other clans, Ghosts use the environment to their advantage while fighting - climbing around walls, leaps of faith, and hanging from beams are some of the many ways they evade the player, while their boomerangs provide both melee and ranged opportunities for them to cut intruders to ribbons.

The Scorcher Clan: The asteroid Apophis was the steed of a demigod - so says the Scorcher Clan, who believes that tapping the energy of the asteroid (and thus its supposed supernatural owner) will make them invincible. As their name suggests, the Scorchers like fire - lots of it - and they make this abundantly clear with the amount of it they paint onto their bodies and cars. Their leader, a brutal fellow named Reaver, absolutely despises the Shrouded Clan, and displays his leadership with a picture of the asteroid itself, emblazoned on his car. He likes fire, a lot of fire.

The Shrouded Clan: Behind the gas masks and orange scarves, they are deserters - the Shrouded Clan is made up of those who abandoned their own clans in disillusionment, and banded together to disguise their identity and motives. They are skilled engineers, and use their cunning to booby-trap their lairs, as well as craft RC bomb cars and automatic turrets (like those the player can make).

The Jackal Clan: aka "The Jackie Clan", howls in the night signal the coming of the Jackal Clan. Part animal and part human, they are a savage group of hunters and combatants. The Jackals act more like a pack of wolves on a hunt than a well-trained military force. They adorn their bodies with bones, furs and animal scalps that give them an appearance more beast than man. They are savage in nature and vicious in combat. They are feared even by mutants, as a group of large mutants (who themselves had just slaughtered a bandit clan) fearfully back down from a fight with only two of them.

The Gearheads: The Gearheads are the most intelligent of the wasteland's factions. Not relying solely on brute force for survival, these bandits have built advanced machinery and weaponry that make them a force to reckon with. These bandits look to technology for their salvation and vow to never let “mother nature” destroy them again. Some believe that founding members of this group may well have been Ark survivors that gave up on society and went their separate ways. [Source]

Timeline

• 2004: Scientists detect an asteroid the size of Manhattan spiraling in deep space. Excitement turns to concern as predictions have it passing dangerously close to Earth’s lunar orbit sometime in 2029. The asteroid is dubbed 99942 Apophis – after the Egyptian god of chaos.
  
• 2024: Apophis is privately assigned a Torino rating of 7, the highest ever on the scale to measure the likelihood of an object impacting Earth. Publicly, the US and other collaborating governments announce a rating of 4. NASA and the European Space Agency believe the rating will be increased to 10 within 12 months.
  
• 2025: The “Ark” project begins. Capsules are buried deep underground and designed to burrow out at preset dates several years after the disaster. The goal of the project is to preserve knowledge, genetic samples and other items essential for human life. Thousands of Arks contain groups of “inhabitants” who are injected with Nanotrites, an untested new technology allowing them to survive deep-freeze hibernation.
  
• 2025–2027: The government stockpiles massive arsenals of weapons and supplies within hardened fortifications deep inside the Earth.
  
• August 2029: News reaches the general population as smaller meteorites impact the Earth ahead of Apophis. The Ark project is initiated.
  
• December 2029: Apophis strikes the Moon and slams into the Earth carrying the force of 1,000,000 megatons of TNT. Entire countries are devastated, cities are erased, and lakes and rivers evaporate. The Earth is cast into a multi-year impact winter as the sun is blocked by dust and debris in the stratosphere. Within one year, 80% of Earth's life disappears.
  
• 2035: The dust starts to settle as survivors crawl out of caves and shelters to a world that is nothing like before. Civilization is gone, and little hope remains. People group together in loosely formed clans. Small settlements and camps are constructed as many try to find shelter from the unknown dangers lurking in the wasteland that Earth has become.
  

[Source]

Links:

Official site: http://www.rage.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/ragegame

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rage

YouTube: http://www.youtube.c...thesdasoftworks

System requirements:

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 Specs:

• 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
  

Screenshots:

Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyMWzzVf61o

Rage is ready.

http://www.bethblog..../rage-is-ready/

[trag3dy]

Those system requirements are surprisingly low. Also this game looks like great fun, I can't wait!

[LingeringSoul]

Good official thread, Anaron :).

And yeah, I'm surprised by how low those recommended specs are. Even my aging machine manages to pass (albeit slightly). That being said, I will probably end up getting this on the Xbox 360. From the last few trailers and videos, this game went from being completely off my radar to one of my most anticipated games.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Those system requirements are surprisingly low. Also this game looks like great fun, I can't wait!

Yeah, I was surprised when I saw it. I think it's safe to assume that a lot of the performance improvements were made because of the PS3 and X360. Their previous engine, id Tech 4, was a PC-only engine that ran poorly on non-NVIDIA hardware.

Good official thread, Anaron :).

And yeah, I'm surprised by how low those recommended specs are. Even my aging machine manages to pass (albeit slightly). That being said, I will probably end up getting this on the Xbox 360. From the last few trailers and videos, this game went from being completely off my radar to one of my most anticipated games.

Thanks! (Y)

I'm glad I don't have to buy a new video card to fully enjoy this game. I'll most likely buy the PC version because of the better visuals and the fact that I enjoy first-person shooters more with a mouse and keyboard.

[Motoko.]

I sorta feel there's not as much hype behind this game, and it's John Carmack

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

I sorta feel there's not as much hype behind this game, and it's John Carmack

I agree. I think it's being overshadowed by the upcoming Battlefield 3 open beta. Hopefully, things will kick into high gear closer to the game's release date. It looks like it'd be a lot of fun.

[spy beef]

Will this game have DRM? If so, I'm not buying.

[Lexcyn]

Will this game have DRM? If so, I'm not buying.

I thought they were using Steamworks, but from the pic above it looks like they are using GFWL ... I am now confused.

[Knightwolf20024]

I thought they were using Steamworks, but from the pic above it looks like they are using GFWL ... I am now confused.

its steamworks if they were using GFWL it would say games for windows then have the orange live some where.

its also posted on the bethesda blog.

http://www.bethblog.com/index.php/2011/09/06/rage-system-requirements/

[YounGMessiah]

This game looks bad ass!

[Ayepecks]

I'm extremely iffy on this. I honestly don't think id has developed or produced a good game since Enemy Territory (and, before that, Quake II). I want to support them, but I just don't know. It looks alright, but nothing unique.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

I'm extremely iffy on this. I honestly don't think id has developed or produced a good game since Enemy Territory (and, before that, Quake II). I want to support them, but I just don't know. It looks alright, but nothing unique.

I wasn't interested at first but after seeing the recent trailers, screenshots, and gameplay videos, I'm convinced that it'll be a good game. The last id Software game I enjoyed was Doom 3 which I thought was really good.

[Ayepecks]

I wasn't interested at first but after seeing the recent trailers, screenshots, and gameplay videos, I'm convinced that it'll be a good game. The last id Software game I enjoyed was Doom 3 which I thought was really good.

I actually hated Doom III. To each his own, however. (Y)

[Dotdot]

Cant wait for new ID franchise. Game looks mint. Just hope my age-ing Intel Quad Core Q6600 and Radeon 4870X2 is up to it

[Soham]

so it is a continuation of brink lol

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Already preordered in full through Steam.

A friend of mine who is not a gamer at all, he will play a few EA sports titles with me over the years but he personally does not own any consoles or games on his PC, sent me the following text to email messsage at about 11 PM last night while he was watching Monday Night Football I believe...

RAGE looks ppphhhhhaaaat...

:laugh: So they definitely have the graphics and look nailed down. And for my friend who has little to no interest in games to send me that message at night means they are doing something right with their marketing.

Just releasing in such a tight, competitive time with FPS's, and as already stated in this thread I believe, I fear the game has a very good chance of being overshadowed by MW3 and BF3.

[shakey]

I'll be getting this for sure. Wont be overshadowed for me, because I have very little interest in BF3 or CODwhateveritisonnow. This will have a better single player experience for sure, along with a lot more to explore. And with online coop, get ready for some borderlands-esk type of play that can be fun if you know how to make it so.

[Dotdot]

Bah BF3 and Cod3 can take a back seat. This is gonna have a much better single player experience. Plus Cods a month or so away. Deffo looking to be one of the shooters of 2011.

[sanctified Veteran]

Deffo looking to be one of the shooters of 2011.

With Deus Ex HR already as the prime goty candidate? dont think so.

[Dotdot]

With Deus Ex HR already as the prime goty candidate? dont think so.

Erm not everyone loved Dues Ex, nor is it a true fps. Its a 3rd person game mainly. So I do think so, very much

[Marcus16]

Erm not everyone loved Dues Ex, nor is it a true fps. Its a 3rd person game mainly. So I do think so, very much

Did you play the game? Cause it was not mainly a 3rd person game... Only in cover was it third person.

[Dotdot]

Yip played a good portion of the 1st few levels and it did my nut in switching back and forth. The hacking wasnt fun, and the reason i say 3rd person mainly is that was how I felt I had to move about to be stealthy or use cover. Which I thought was the main premise early on while your ammos low etc.

Plus no offence but Deus Ex goty amongst critics and fans may well be but considering this isnt out yet, it could still be recieved to much applause and potentialy knock Dues into the back of minds.

Also I dont remember saying "this is GOTY!!" I said " it was deffo looking to be one of the shooters of 2011, which it is, no talk of GOTYs in that. People seemed to draw there own conclusions there.

Personally i think this will have a better SP than Dues but then I didnt really enjoy Deus after a while.

[NoLiMiT06]

When I was at GameStop yesterday they were unboxing the 360 version of the game, had over 50 copies of it.

[neoadorable]

awesome that this is coming out in a few days, like DL i have it on order with Steam. can't wait, this is the best time of the year for us gamers!

[null.]

Got it pre-ordered on Amazon, cheaper than Steam and still get the Anarchy Edition bonuses. Steamworks ftw! :D