Wirehead Studios

So is anyone getting rage? I've already gotten it pre ordered.
Gameplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSNtIeLxcMg
(I borrowed an HTC and I'm using it right now; I feel like god with this. :ninja:)

I will definitely be picking it up. I mean, it's Id Software, how could I not? Especially since I have an actual, honest to goodness gaming PC now...

Side note, I hope you don't mind that I fixed your link to the video. ;)

oh k thanks.
Just wait and see till what the pho says....

I'll definitely be wanting Rage.  I just don't have $60.00 to drop on it right now, so I'll have to scrape together some cash first.

Hah, so much for a savings account.......
lol are you scared of turning the blockbuster on fire? :D

I'm with Phoenix. I'm definitely interested, but am hard pressed to shell out $60 for any game nowadays.

Ehhh why don't you rent? Although buying a fresh copy is better  :slippy_thumb:

How exactly does one rent a PC game that installs through Steam?  :doom_?:

Has anybody picked up a copy yet?  I am hoping to get my own later today, and I am curious as to what you guys think about it so far.

IT'S TERRIBLE :shout:
just kidding, i still dont even have it yet; pho can't you go to blockbuster ;)

Blockbuster 1) is out of business, 2) didn't rent PC games anyway (and neither does anyone else).

I picked it up last night. A number of my friends are Gamestop employees, so I went to the midnight opening the company had mandated they do for Rage, Dark Souls and NBA 2K12. None of them really worth the expense of being open an extra four hours... but whatever. I won't have the opportunity to play it until sometime tonight, but I'll be sure to report in at that time.

Just for jokes, I'd threatened to sit in their store and play Doom on my laptop from 9PM until midnight, and made good on that. I'm hardly a Doomgod -- my preferred game was always original Quake, after all -- but I made it through to E3M5, and only died once... when a few enemies pushed me backwards into a crushing ceiling. Oops.

Not a speed run, and not exactly impressive, but I'm so rusty at FPS titles in general (and Doom especially) that I don't think that's too bad.

1) hmm, in my area there's a blockbuster
2)Pc's- true. Im forced to use my xbox because my crapshack of a computer might EXPLODE :chainsaw: (although the xbox has gotten crappy too)

Whatever in a couple of minutes................. RAGE!!!!! :evil:

Not to mention that me showing up in the feathers asking to rent a video game would be awkward to say the least.  :surprise:

A brand new Id game on your Xbox? That makes me a sad panda. :(

Tell that to my pc, the old coot; anyways just because my pc blows doesn't mean i'm not gonna play RAGE :evil:

Wolfenstein, Doom, And Quake Easter Eggs! :slippy_love:

http://www.ign.com/wikis/rage/Easter_Eggs

Well, I've played through the first little mission, mostly just to get a basic feel for how the game plays...

Though I knew it going in, I'm a little disappointed that the game uses "iron sights" like all other modern FPS games. I fully understand why they would do this, but it takes away from the run-and-gun style that Id's previous titles are known for. It doesn't necessarily detract from the game, just something I was personally hoping would have been avoided.

Enemies seem to be mildly intelligent, though I did my little test run on the lowest difficulty setting. They use cover, and will sometimes stay behind it for annoying long periods of time. Of course, if there's nothing to hide behind, melee enemies like to rush at you head first, and enemies using firearms will just stand there and shoot at you.

And... really, that's all I have so far. The first mission is a bit of a snoozer, and the music is a little too dramatic, I think.

I do have a couple of nitpicks. First, the mouse sensitivity setting carries over into the menus. This makes navigating them nearly impossible if you have it set high. Second, I'm experiencing massive graphical tearing, though that is likely a driver issue. I'll have to update and see what happens... but that's for another day.

Edit: Updating to my card's newest official drivers has fixed the graphical tearing, but now I get random artifacting in the menus. I don't understand. There are beta drivers that are supposed to make everything work perfectly, but I think I'd rather wait for an official update...

Edit 2: But at least Loosum is kinda cute.

I'm using the Nvidia beta drivers, and I've found the only real serious problem that I'm encountering is sometimes the world model gets corrupted and everything turns into strange colored triangles.  Saving and reloading fixes the problem.  It mainly seems to hit when loading a new level, such as first starting the game in the Ark, or switching between the wastelands and a mission area like the Ghost Hideout.

I've also found that proper refresh at resolution is extremely important to FPS.  At 1024x768, I can run a nearly consistent 60 FPS, but only if I sync the monitor to 60 FPS.  I do this by setting r_displayrefresh to 60 in rageconfig.cfg in the game's "base" folder.  Normally my monitor runs at 100Hz at this resolution, and before I set that cvar it was throwing my FPS all over the place.  I do notice occasional texture popping but it's something I can live with.

As for the game play itself, the pacing overall is a lot slower, which I don't mind so much since the combat makes up for it.  To me this is more of a combination between an RPG and action game, and I like the scavenging element to it.  There is currency used for purchasing upgrades, ammo, and other special items, and once you get to Wellspring you can make money by winning card games and dice games, among other things.  I'm playing on hard difficulty, and the enemies do seem reasonably intelligent as far as seeking and firing from behind cover, recognizing when you throw a wingstick or grenade, and shouting stuff about being hurt, and responding to the situation.  If there's a lot of bad guys around they'll feel confident, if you start kicking their asses they'll chicken out.  Wounded enemies will still shoot in desperation from the ground, and there does seem to be locational damage.  Hitting someone in the head folds them quicker than hitting them in the stomach.  There is regenerating health, and unlike what I remember reading at one point, it is not optional.  I believe there was supposed to be a way to disable the nanotrites and use pickup health kits, but instead the nanotrites are mandatory and always on.  You can equip bandages for quick healing during combat if you're getting your butt kicked so you don't have to sit and hide behind a rock for 30 seconds after a bandit gets a lucky shotgun blast in, so that does kind of help make up for it.

The weapons themselves are pretty decent, and I don't mind the iron sights aspect so much.  I do have a gripe in that how you acquire new weapons is VERY forced.  You either have to gain them through doing certain missions or purchasing them.  I found this out when fighting some bandits that were carrying assault rifles.  I went over to pick up a dropped rifle and it faded away and I couldn't do anything with it.  Sure, you can get ammo by searching bodies, but offing someone and just picking up their gun isn't going to happen.

I've just started into the part of the game where racing is involved, so there's not much I can say about that so far except that I'm glad I played Duke Nukem Forever first since I got used to the vehicle controls in Duke.  It's all third-person driving, which is my only gripe there.  I would have preferred a first-person mode option.  The vehicle controls seem to handle just like the RC car in Duke, including turbo boost and brakes.  If you absolutely hated driving in Duke that's something to keep in mind.  However, unlike in Duke, your buggy can carry weapons after you get to Wellspring for the first time, and at that point there's actual vehicular combat going on.  I haven't done too much of this yet, but I will say that it is fun to waste bandit buggies with miniguns.

As for the overall game play, I do like it despite some minor gripes.  It's different for Id, and if they can fix the remaining bugs I'd say its pretty decent.  The character animation is much tighter than in Doom 3, and being able to upgrade your weapons and use different ammo types helps add variety and options on how to deal with bandits and mutants.  I have the Anarchy Edition and the Fists of Rage are pretty good against mutants, or at least the scrawny ones I've run across so far.  Saves on ammo and they deliver a good pummeling.  I don't have the double-barreled shotgun yet.

Mak:  The mouse sensitivity issue can be tweaked.  There's actually two sensitivity values - one for gameplay, and one for menus.  It's not perfect but it does help a bit.  Also, there's a way to tweak the FOV as well if you don't like the default FOV and want a wider view.  There are plenty of tweak guides out there.

Whatever the flaws of this game, it's an id game so I feel like I just have to play it!  Let me just get the PC version... oh wait... my laptop is circa '08 and barely meets the specs.  No problem!  I'll just submit myself to playing an id game on a console.  Ahh... right, I don't have a current-gen console.
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Let me get back to you much later!

On closer inspection, it seems Starky has a stylized tattoo of ME on his right arm.  They would have to put it on the most arrogant and obnoxious person in the game.  Message there, Id?   -_-

LOL. :D

I'll have to look into that! Not that I'm having much luck with making an actual playthrough happen... the mouse and keyboard on my gaming PC have decided they only want to work about 70% of the time in-game. Which for me, makes playing it 100% impossible, and I haven't been able to figure out the problem. My guess: Once again, wireless peripherals suck. I have wired solutions at my parents' house, the issue is getting them...

I haven't played DNF yet, but I was hating the vehicle controls in Rage. My available solution: Connect a wired Xbox 360 controller and enable it. The driving is actually somewhat enjoyable for me with that, and the keyboard controls still function with the gamepad on, too.

For driving in Rage, I've found that tapping the keys quickly works better than holding them when it comes to making fine adjustments in steering and using the brakes on turns.  Also, get the performance tires as quickly as you can.  They make a huge difference in reducing unwanted drift on tight turns without sacrificing speed.

Some advice on vehicles.  After you get to Wellspring and start into the races, I wouldn't worry too much on doing too many upgrades on the Dune Buster or the Rat Rod (if you have the Anarchy Edition).  Do get the tires will help most for the track races, but upgrading the engine, shocks, armor, etc, is just wasting certificates.  You can get pretty much all the speed you need on the track by using boost on the straightaways.  Use the racing certs for upgrading the Cuprino once you get it and concentrate on that since it's going to be your battle wagon through a lot of the game and also in the harder races.  Don't bother buying a ramming grille either, just win the one off Starky.  I found this out AFTER I bought the default grille...  Also, if you're having trouble getting racing certificates by winning races you can also get them by working for Sally in the bar.  Races will give you more in one go, but if you're just a few shy of getting a needed item then helping Sally with her problem will definitely help contribute.

For vehicle quick use, I've found the Shield and Armor Restore rock, the Aftershocker is absolutely devastating, hover turrets don't do too much damage but help you keep track of where the bad guys are driving if they keep getting around you, and drop mines absolutely suck.  You can also never have enough minigun ammo.  5,000 rounds is reasonable, and I'm not joking either.

Out of curiosity, do you know if there's a way to bind a key to enable/disable the gamepad? Jumping in and out of the menu to do so is kind of grating, though it's worth it for me to have driving controls I can actually work with. The game is actually enjoyable with a proper control setup, though... like a working mouse and keyboard. Holy crap!

Also, re: finding items -- In a game with as many fetch quests as this, there's generally no reason to buy anything but the most basic equipment that isn't too common in the field. Since restarting the game after installing the Anarchy Edition items, I don't think I've gone to a shop to do anything but sell items and buy the monocular. The only thing I think I need to grab from there is the assault rifle, since I don't seem to be coming across one elsewhere. Not that I've needed it; the Settler Pistol does great at mid-range (and long, with fatboys), combat shotgun for charging enemies, and the double-barreled badass if someone gets in your face.

But that's my limited experience with a real playthrough so far. Something will prove me wrong... it almost always happens.

The Assault Rifle is nice because ammo is plentiful for it, and after adding a few goodies it becomes a lot more accurate.  Once you get to Wellspring, some of the items available for sale become much more valuable.  There are some recipes for making neat things, along with components for said neat things, that you can't always get in the field.  Once your vehicle is armed, that's the only way to get ammo for the miniguns and rockets, plus the quickuse vehicle items, is through the shops.