Rage producer thinks id ready for Quake and Wolfenstein

Rage senior producer Jason Kim talked about the changes at id and how he thinks they can freshen up Quake and Wolfenstein in my interview with him.

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I recently spoke with Jason Kim, senior producer at id Software, currently working on Rage. In relating some of the higher level thinking behind the decision to do a new IP as the big game out of the gate for id tech 5, Kim talked about how the studio has evolved.

Our studio has grown a lot, not just in size but also in design and art process, and even a technology standpoint. John has admitted he can't do everything on his own. There are a lot of smart guys that are required to be able to make a game these days. He can't just lock himself up in a room, come out with an engine, and say okay, make a game with this.

With that change in philosophy and a larger studio, projects that previously went to outside studios could return to id.

We have Quake; we have Wolfenstein. If people want that, we have the IPs to deliver it. And we have a different approach now; we're forging a new path. I think we can freshen those things up...we don't have anything in the works right now but I think when we start talking about different things we can do with the other properties that we have I hope people are receptive to what we want to do and what we think would be fun for players to experience coming out of id Software.

With Rage coming out later this year, it wouldn't be out of the question that id could announce a new project at QuakeCon later this year.

Look for the full version of my conversation with Kim tomorrow here on Shack.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    April 29, 2011 3:30 PM

    Garnett Lee posted a new article, Rage producer thinks id ready for Quake and Wolfenstein.

    Rage senior producer Jason Kim talked about the changes at id and how he thinks they can freshen up Quake and Wolfenstein in my interview with him.

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      April 29, 2011 3:36 PM

      A new Quake would be nice. However, another new IP can't hurt either.

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        April 30, 2011 7:34 AM

        (Commander Keen), Wolfenstein, Quake, Rage. That's not actually that bad.

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      April 29, 2011 3:40 PM

      You're such a cocktease Garnett

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      April 29, 2011 3:41 PM

      How many times are they going rehash the same old idea?? How many times are they going to remake Wolfenstein ?!! Didn't we just had Wolfenstein remake by Raven two years ago? So this is going to be the 5th Wolfenstein reboot?!

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        April 29, 2011 3:45 PM

        Nothing is definite.

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        April 29, 2011 4:04 PM

        The Raven one wasn't a reboot. They only rebooted it twice. RTCW is the first reboot. The second reboot is Wolfenstein RPG on mobile devices.

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        April 29, 2011 4:05 PM

        The new Wolfenstein kind of blew

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          April 29, 2011 4:20 PM

          I thought the sp was fine, good even, the mp however.........

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            April 29, 2011 6:42 PM

            It was fine, I'll agree. For a sequel to RTCW I was expecting more I suppose. Never touched the mp

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      April 29, 2011 3:49 PM

      i'd be incredibly surprised if Rage wasn't a humongous success.

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      April 29, 2011 3:51 PM

      I think Quake has run its course. Same with Doom after Doom 4. I'd like to see another id made Wolf, since RTCW was Grey Matter/Nerve and the last one was Raven, but I think one more is all that is left in that franchise too.

      Another new IP would probably be the best option for them as they need to keep evolving their gameplay to avoid becoming obsolete.

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        April 29, 2011 5:47 PM

        I don't agree about Quake. I think if they did a Quake more along the lines of the original with crazy ass monsters jumping at you.. Daemons and Shamblers etc... Sci-fi mixed with creepy horror stuff and medieval environments thrown in just for fun... that would be awesome for me. I'd pay money for that... twice even!

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          April 29, 2011 11:39 PM

          ^^THIS! They need to take the new tech and go old school. Back to roots :)

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          April 30, 2011 1:00 AM

          You should check out Shambler's Castle Quake Mod for Doom3, it's fucking awesome fun. Basically one level that I've played over and over again. id hired the mapper(?) that worked on it, so there is hope.

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          April 30, 2011 4:45 PM

          AGREED!

          The original Quake was fantastic. I'd love to see a return to that setting. I think the loosely defined theme (you could set a Quake level in almost any environment and it would work) would let id's artists go really crazy too.

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        April 29, 2011 9:18 PM

        I thought RtCW's single-player was amazing. Better than Half-Life, even. Didn't play the new Wolfenstein yet, but I've never liked Raven shooters, so I may never bother.

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      April 29, 2011 3:53 PM

      Jason Kim is a fine gentleman. I had the pleasure of meeting & talking to him at quakecon 2009

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      April 29, 2011 3:54 PM

      [deleted]

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      April 29, 2011 4:01 PM

      A new Wolfenstein multiplayer would be great fun.

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      April 29, 2011 4:01 PM

      Quakenstein!

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        April 29, 2011 4:23 PM

        Quake Forever
        Wolfenstein Forever

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        April 29, 2011 4:59 PM

        Return to Space Quake Delivering Rage of Doom!

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      April 29, 2011 4:03 PM

      I totally want Id software to make the next Metroid... :(

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        April 29, 2011 4:27 PM

        Fat chance of that ever happening! Nintendo hasn't let too many Third-Party devs touch their big IPs. I gotta say though, Metroid on Id Tech 5 would be amazing. Maybe gear it towards the more "Mature" audiences with gore and blood and whatnot. That would be pretty awesome. I just hate to imagine how they would have Samus portrayed like though...

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        April 29, 2011 5:48 PM

        WHAT?! Hah.. not that it wouldn't be cool... but that is just such a random thing to say.

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      April 29, 2011 4:04 PM

      Raven did a decent job with the Wolf SP in 2009, but please develop a Wolfenstein MP like RTCW. That's what we wanted with Wolfenstein 2009, not more SP.
      Just don't release in the same year as Splash Damage's games please.

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      April 29, 2011 4:19 PM

      at the rate they (iD) are releasing games, John Carmack probably has two titles left in him before he dies of old age.........

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      April 29, 2011 4:20 PM

      I'd love a new Quake, with Rocket Arena as the main focus. Think of the children, every generation needs Quake.

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        April 29, 2011 4:23 PM

        Went to my first LAN in ages a few weeks back, and I forgot how fun Rocket Arena 3 could be. We had all kind of new games there and RA3 and Quake 3 CTF were by far the most fun I had.

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          April 29, 2011 8:51 PM

          A new Quake Arena game with Rage engine plz! Simple, fast, and raw. I'd be happy with a dozen levels out of the gate and tease us with arenas every few months. Yes, on the face.

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            April 29, 2011 9:11 PM

            An updated DM game is what they gave with Quake 4, and it sucked and nobody played it. :/

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              April 29, 2011 9:21 PM

              The levels were kinda shit. I only remember one being cool.

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              April 30, 2011 1:04 AM

              That game was terrible. I loved how much console hacking people did to basically make it look and run like Quake 3. And even then it didn't run like Quake 3.

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              April 30, 2011 6:34 AM

              The problem was it wasn't much different from Quake 3 except it ran poorly on top of the line systems.

              Recently even 'cutting edge' games like Crysis 2 don't use high end PC's to capacity, and I see it as a good thing in a way. The more people we have that can run these games the better.

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      April 29, 2011 4:24 PM

      Give me a Quake that is a BF3 competitor. Large landscapes, tons of destructible environments and 32 people.

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        April 29, 2011 4:40 PM

        They kinda already tried that with etqw

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        April 29, 2011 4:41 PM

        Quake Wars and no one bought it.

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          April 29, 2011 5:50 PM

          It had some great idea though and was actually a lot of fun.

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            April 29, 2011 8:54 PM

            It was fun but something was missing. Perhaps it was the engine, it felt pokey for something from id software. Overall not nearly as compelling experience as ET.

            Do a new WW2 ET with the Rage engine and I'd pay top dollar.

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            April 30, 2011 9:03 AM

            Agreed. I had some absolutely great times with that game. I wish it were more popular.

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          April 30, 2011 7:41 AM

          Didn't they release same day as Orange Box?

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            April 30, 2011 12:01 PM

            Even worse, extremely close to both TF2 and Modern Warfare 1. Not only did those two games eat its lunch, Activisions marketing was definitely behind MW instead of ETQW.

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            May 1, 2011 9:14 AM

            Pretty sure they released the TF2 beta for preorders the same day ET:QW came out, which pretty much killed it. Sucks too; ET:QW was such an awesome game. The class based objective/xp stuff was so sweet, it was great to see people working towards objectives and whatnot instead of just playing TDM in the middle of the map.

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            May 2, 2011 9:34 AM

            Yeah. Extremely unlucky. Game was solid, awesome gameplay, but dude... TF2.

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        April 29, 2011 4:49 PM

        ETQW didn't have the level of scale of destructible environments and (ihmo) went too far with the class differences. I want to invade some planet as space marines to find and fight very similar classes. ETQW went with classes that really weren't comparable.

        Loved ETQW, but I was always fighting against servers with bots -- no hoomans!

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          April 29, 2011 5:56 PM

          If you only played bots you probably played on consoles, very different experience. Playing a full human game on a good server was epic.

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            April 29, 2011 9:14 PM

            My point was: there were very very few servers with humans -- there were all filled with bots.

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        April 29, 2011 6:38 PM

        That's not really Quake though, why even call it that?

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      April 29, 2011 4:36 PM

      Give me Wolfenstein of give me death.

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      April 29, 2011 5:16 PM

      [deleted]

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        April 29, 2011 7:13 PM

        This, this is what I want. Throw in a DOOM2 SSG and we're in business.

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        April 29, 2011 8:56 PM

        yes plz.

        I'm pretty sure in one of Carmack's quakecon's a few years ago he mentioned the possibility of churning out a new Quake Arena with the Rage engine.

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          April 30, 2011 1:05 AM

          Not sure if that's as likely these days- QuakeLive hasn't been wildly successful, and I don't think there's much faith that a quake-like game would ever work on consoles.

          Fact of the matter is, there isn't much to be gained by doing a quake3 like game with modern shaders/graphics- it already looks as good as it needs to.

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            April 30, 2011 7:11 PM

            It's not wildly succesful because it isn't on steam. Sadly it's *one* reason I don't play it often. It's just not discoverable enough. There are just too many games on Steam vying for my attention. I love Quake and I think Quake Live is great. But I need it in my face and I need to see my friends joining a game while I'm in the middle of playing BC2 to remind me that I should be playing Quake Live.

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        April 30, 2011 9:09 AM

        doubt we'll see that again after UT3's relatively undeserved failure

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        May 2, 2011 9:35 AM

        While this is what I want, there's absolutely no way this is being done and therefore I don't even think about it.

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      April 29, 2011 5:22 PM

      I want a catacombs remake!

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        April 29, 2011 8:08 PM

        Holy crap... I had totally forgotten about that one!

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      April 29, 2011 5:29 PM

      I'd like to see a new Quake 1. No Strogg; take it back to Quake, slipgates, runes, arcane traps, and so on. At times, make the level be the "boss". It could even be larger scale, like a quasi-open-world setup, with randomly seeded elements.

      "An enemy codenamed Quake, is using his own slipgates to insert death squads inside our bases to kill, steal, and kidnap.

      "The hell of it is we have no idea where he's from. Our top scientists think Quake's not from Earth, but another dimension. They say Quake's preparing to unleash his real army, whatever that is.

      "You're our best man. This is Operation Counterstrike and you're in charge. Find Quake, and stop him ... or it ... You have full authority to requisition anything you need. If the eggheads are right, all our lives are expendable."

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        April 29, 2011 5:31 PM

        Quake 3 was the closest we got to them continuing the Satanic medieval Lovecraftian theme which was always better than the gay ass Strogg.

        Lamest enemies in gaming history.

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          April 29, 2011 5:55 PM

          Yes, yes to both of you. I want a true sequel to Quake 1. Quake 2 was very cool for its engine and what it could do (colored lighting, interpolated animations which didn't look so jerky, openGL texture filtering etc right out of the box... ) but it was a departure from the crazy creatures and wacky medieval stuff from the original Quake which made the single player in that game so much fun.

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            April 29, 2011 8:59 PM

            The SP in Quake actually scared the shit out of me. The barking dogs, rounding a corner and hearing the grunt of a ...Grunt. Or hearing the *shink* the sword makes of the Death Knights. Bajeezuz.

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        April 29, 2011 5:51 PM

        I totally agree... I mucho mucho loved Quake 1 back in the day

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        April 29, 2011 5:54 PM

        The main problem with the Quake IP is they will never ever make another Quake game that has multiplayer that makes people happy... it will either piss off the old Quake fans, or alienate everyone else.

        Singleplayer-wise though, yeah, I would love something even vaguely similar to the tone of the most memorable parts of Quake 1.

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          April 29, 2011 5:55 PM

          Quake MP today would resemble MW2. And that shit makes my inner rapist twitch.

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          April 29, 2011 6:05 PM

          I think level design is just too different these days.. things are so much more about realistic sprawling expansive levels.

          Quake levels were clever tricks lots of enemies and well confusing layouts. Plus the difficulty was never right. Who knows what a redone quake would like like

          Bottome line though... Quake doesnt' need fresh ideas. Quake multipalyer was some of the best ever made.. and well has the best MP maps ever... DM3 (TDM) and DM6 (Duel)

          too bad we'll never get back the extremely fast control oriented MP play.

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            April 29, 2011 6:09 PM

            Any game design can thrive today if it's executed well. You can't throw something like what you see in BC2 into something like Quake.

            It's bottled that way and that formula works inside of that game because of those mechanics you stated.

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              April 29, 2011 6:13 PM

              Look I'd love to see it. I just think the atmosphere of the market and id talking about 'freshining up' just makes me very pessimistic. I am NOT excited about rage at all, just haven't liked the direction of ID for awhile.

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                April 29, 2011 6:27 PM

                I don't understand how any shooter fan could NOT be excited about Rage. It looks amazing.

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                  April 29, 2011 9:03 PM

                  I'm not excited either. Cars with guns and open deserts....errrm? Given me old id software back. I want pentagrams and lava!

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      April 29, 2011 5:52 PM

      Commander Keen 7

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        April 29, 2011 8:52 PM

        theyll probably release it for iphone ipad if they ever do it :\

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      April 29, 2011 5:55 PM

      you are damn right. the world needs quake 5 with RA5 and CTF5. it is time.

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      April 29, 2011 6:44 PM

      best news ever, now show me a gameplay video of doom4, im dying to see how it looks like

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        April 29, 2011 6:50 PM

        Seriously; we had two QuakeCon punts on Doom 4 info from Todd Hollenshead; hopefully they're ready this year.

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          April 29, 2011 8:16 PM

          and hopefully its not another closed in-door demo

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          April 29, 2011 8:17 PM

          I'm expecting a short teaser vid or maybe even just a screenshot. Obviously the main focus of this Quakecon will be Rage, Skyrim, Brink, and Hunted but it would be nice for id to finally reveal their next project so people can start getting excited about it.

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          April 30, 2011 12:06 PM

          Why would they show Doom4 off when RAGE's biggest selling point is the graphics? They've already said they're dropping two or three times as much detail into D4, there's no way they'll show it next to RAGE before it comes out. What they should do is put a DOOM4 demo on the RAGE disc- that'd sell moneybags.

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      April 29, 2011 7:28 PM

      Where is are Heretic and Hexen fanboys? I'd love a remake of both of those, or a sequel to Heretic 2...loved those games to death, I'd die for a reboot of both series on modern gaming engines. They'd have to do a reboot anyways instead of continuing the storyline due to all of the contradictions, etc.

      I miss D'sparil :(

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        April 29, 2011 8:10 PM

        I thoroughly enjoyed both Heretic and Hexen... I'd definitely sign up for a updated version of those games. There is a pretty cool fan-made update of Hexen done in the Doom3 engine I believe. I need to look into that again.

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        April 29, 2011 8:57 PM

        Aren't those Raven owned franchises? I'd love to see a sequel to them though.

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        April 30, 2011 1:27 AM

        hexenmod.com it's a great reason to dig up your doom3 discs (works with steam version too)

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        April 30, 2011 1:43 AM

        *Where are the* I need to stop rewriting sentences lest I accidently merge them and look dumb in the process.

        That said, I think they are Raven owned, ahh...that's why I thought it was ID for some reason, they used the Quake 2 engine for Heretic 2.

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        April 30, 2011 3:19 PM

        [deleted]

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          May 1, 2011 3:47 AM

          It would be quite awesome. There's a significant lack of high fantasy fps games in North America in general. I don't play modern fps games anymore...and haven't for years. They're much too cliche and dime a dozen these days because everyone thinks they can make a quick buck due to the success of Modern Warfare and whatnot.

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      April 29, 2011 9:30 PM

      Quake & Wolfenstein MMORPGS - fuck yeah.

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      April 29, 2011 9:31 PM

      I think id could pull off a very good sick and twisted western shooter.

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      April 30, 2011 1:02 AM

      Need a sequel to Quake 3. Focus on simplicity and getting the mechanics as smooth as possible.

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        April 30, 2011 1:10 AM

        If RAGE sells like hotcakes and there's a vocal demand, I could see them doing on-foot quake style deathmatch as DLC. I'd drop $15 on that.

        If not,, I hope it's one of the first substantial mods. From what I've heard of their focus on framerate and input latency, the engine is up to snuff. I think they got their ass kicked pretty hard with idTech4 out of the box, but they did put some effort into Quake4 post-release to get the netcode and input 'right'. Unfortunately people had already formed opinions and it didn't save the mp.

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      April 30, 2011 3:42 AM

      That's disappointing to hear. New IPs are the only thing that will interest me from id these days. Do we really need another Quake or Wolfenstein? I'm actually surprised there's mostly positive interest in this thread.

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      April 30, 2011 5:18 AM

      I really think theres nothing to add to the old IP's, also PELEASEEE sell your new engine to Bethesda ! hell merge both companies

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      April 30, 2011 6:12 AM

      The last Wolfenstein was a disappointment to say the least, I hope they come out with a good one in the near future.

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      April 30, 2011 6:22 AM

      [deleted]

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        April 30, 2011 6:24 AM

        I might agree if id's actually done a stale sequel. Guess it depends on how you feel about Doom 3 I suppose.

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          April 30, 2011 8:42 AM

          Doom 3 was good, but needed more double barrel shotgun and less stubbing my toe in the dark.

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        April 30, 2011 8:51 AM

        We need more monsters, more demons, more shotgun, more castle inspired design and less spacey (not Kevin)... Only then a Reboot would work.

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        April 30, 2011 9:04 AM

        Quake I couldn't care less about, but a really good Wolfenstein would be something I'd pay for.

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      April 30, 2011 8:25 AM

      Good luck, buddy.

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      April 30, 2011 9:22 AM

      [deleted]

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      April 30, 2011 4:42 PM

      Another Quake II universe Quake sequel is something I can live without, but I'd love to see a return to the Lovecraftian world of the original Quake done with modern technology.

      I don't know how the levels are designed in Rage, but something a little removed from the typical A-B linear progression of most modern shooters would be nice for a new Quake game, since the original somehow felt this way, whilst still giving the player a fairly clear route through the level. I certainly wouldn't mind a return to the old school mechanics of find the key to open the door, because this approach to design, whilst simplistic, encourages exploration, which is something missing from many modern action games.

      I should play the last Wolfenstein game. I really enjoyed RTCW, but after Quake IV (which I thought was very average) I didn't feel it was worth bothering with. I'd much rather see a return to the dark world of Quake I, with Fiends and Shamblers wandering about than more of the sci-fi WW2 world of Wolfenstein.

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        April 30, 2011 7:21 PM

        If Nintendo can push out a New Super Mario Brothers 25 (?) years later and have the same game play be successful then so can Quake. Certain game play is timeless. It just needs to be modernized tastefully and more socially integrated.

        QuakeLive almost did this. However it failed (IMO) because even though it auto updates it doesn't auto update in the background like Steam games. It updates right in my face. I don't play QL often but when I do it seems to *always* need to steal 5 minutes of my time (and require me to exit Chrome, with a dozen tabs open? No thanks!). Put the damn game on Steam so it auto updates and make the game launcher just fire up a URL to quakelive.com.

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      April 30, 2011 8:11 PM

      anything they release is dead to me without Romero. They are great tech demo's, but that's about it.

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      May 2, 2011 8:44 AM

      I want the quake 1 setting again

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