RAGE Gets Release Window, New Screenshots

While id Software has long maintained that its post-apocalyptic shooter RAGE is due "when it's fun and when it's done," publisher Bethesda has now provided a timeframe of when we can expect that milestone to be reached and the game to hit stores: 2011.

All three versions of RAGE--PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360--are expected within that window. id isn't ready to talk specifics about the game's multiplayer component quite yet, however, today's Bethesda-issued "Fact Sheet" notes that you'll be able to "grab a friend for exclusive co-op modes, or go online for all-out multiplayer mayhem."

Though the game is, at least, eight months out, id claims that both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions are already running at sixty frames-per-second. I recently saw the Xbox 360 build, and it was certainly running silky smooth with no dropped frames or screen-tearing that I could see. The game itself looked gorgeous, the outdoor scenes in particular, to the point where I had a hard time believing it was running on a console.

During our presentation, creative director Tim Willits noted that some within id "think [the PlayStation 3 version] actually runs better [than the Xbox 360]" at the moment, with senior producer Jason Kim later providing us with some clarification on that point:

Jason Kim: The reason why that was said is because the PlayStation 3 is a different, a whole 'nother platform--the way the architecture on that system is so different from the [Xbox] 360--we've had to do some things to help performance on that more than we've had to do on [Xbox] 360.

They're both really capable systems. We have the [Xbox] 360 [version of RAGE] running, it was a pretty easy system to get running, especially with the PC base. It was just kind of a natural fit to that the [Xbox] 360 got up and running first.

When we did all this work on the PS3, it was pretty tough to get everything going, so we had a lot of threads that we had to create for the PS3 that make [RAGE] run efficiently for that platform. When we got around to actually getting all that stuff working, it actually was--just like the [Xbox] 360--running at sixty frames, it was butter smooth.

The reason why that was said was, and it should've been set up a little more, to really elucidate the fact that we have both platforms running at sixty frames, and they're both performing really well.

It's not like the PS3 is ten times faster than the [Xbox] 360, or the [Xbox] 360 is much better than the PS3. They are different platforms, but we've got everything running on both.

For more on RAGE, hit our preview for additional details and quotes from the id crew.