Midway through the second hour, even most of the die-hard nerds started to leave.

On stage was a man who, by all accounts, did not need to be there. Wealthy, successful, busy programming rockets and enjoying family life--id Software president John Carmack has plenty of excuses to be a recluse, not the least of which is his admitted lack of "people skills."

But there he was regardless, lecturing away on a Thursday night, professor to his students. Seemingly undeterred by his thinning class, he moved from topic to topic in Picard-like fashion, holding the microphone as the rock king of computer programming.

Though the overall scent noticeably improved with each departure, the buzz within the ballroom also noticeably quieted. Near the end you could almost hear the soft death rattles of fizzling laptop batteries, exhausted journalists resorting to pen and paper, or just plain giving up. Still he rolled on. And on.

Through hour one. Hour two. Hour three.

And then he took questions.... Read more

As Friday night approaches, many in Dallas are preparing for tonight's poker game, but it's not just any poker match. No, tonight is the 2008 IGDA QuakeCon Texas Hold'em Tournament, sponsored in part by Shacknews.

Sign-in starts around 6 PM CST at the Hilton Anatole Hotel, with tournament play beginning at 7 PM and all proceeds going to Child's Play.

It's a $30 cash-only buy-in, and during the first hour, you'll be able to buy back in however many times you can afford at $25 for a half-stack and $40 for a full stack. After that first hour, remaining players will be able to purchase one add-on.

Celebrities confirmed to be in attendance include Shacknews czar and resident hater Steve Gibson, along with his mother sHugamom, wife Aimee, lackey Nick Breckon, and a few surprise guests.

In an interview with Shacknews, id Software's John Carmack and Matt Hooper talked up new details on the company's upcoming shooter Rage (PC, 360, PS3). Revealed last year, Rage is a post-apocalyptic shooter that will feature a significant racing component. Though Rage will not be a traditional "sandbox" game, it will see players racing across open spaces towards instances that contain traditional shooter sequences.

Few concrete gameplay details have been released since the game's announcement, but today the developers did let a few extra details slip.

Highlights:

• Two player online co-op is confirmed for consoles and PC. Console players will also have the option of split-screen co-op.
• Co-op will be an entirely separate mode that will not include the story elements of the single player campaign.
• Hooper mentioned "armor" and "inventory" systems, and indicated that there will be some type of world economy that the player can participate in.... Read more

During an interview with Shacknews, id Software president John Carmack described Doom 4 as being "significantly different" than Doom 3.

When asked whether the game will be rooted in the horror genre, Carmack indicated that it will instead focus more on pure action elements a la Doom 2.

"One of the things that I come to in my limited contributions to the whole Doom 4 design process is, it has to still be you beating down the bad guys," said Carmack.

"It has to be a triumph of heavy weaponry over demonic forces in some way, and you have to be blowing demons all to hell all around you, and it's a more positive side of things there."

Carmack explained that he found some of the complaints of Doom 3's brand of horror to be "completely valid," saying that the "contrived nature of monsters hiding in a closet" and the extreme darkness were two things that caused the company to cancel its game Darkness and begin production of Rage.

Needless to say, there will be no scary little girls in the Doom 4.

"It's not that you're running around frightened down to your last bullet [in Doom 4]," added Carmack. "There will occasionally be that, but it should be much... Read more

Update: In an interview with Shacknews, id's John Carmack reiterated that the Xbox 360 version of Rage will look worse than the PlayStation 3 version.

Carmack said that the uncompressed build of Rage encompasses a terrabyte of data, and that id will need to use a "different type of compression" to fit the game on two dual-layer Xbox 360 DVDs.

When asked whether the difference will be significant, Carmack noted that "hero shots" should look similar, but that Xbox 360 players might find a rock that is more blurry when exploring the periphery of Rage's world.

Original story: id's post-apocalyptic open-world shooter Rage (PC, PS3, 360, Mac) will look worse on Xbox 360 due to the compression needed to fit the game's assets on two DVDs, programmer John Carmack revealed at tonight's QuakeCon keynote.

According to Carmack, the royalty fees to include a third disc in the Xbox 360 version would be so high that it simply isn't a feasible solution, with the programmer hoping for Microsoft to make a concession. He stressed that the issue is merely a storage problem and has nothing to do with the power of the Xbox 360 hardware, while adding that the PlayStation 3's Blu-ray format is Sony's one leg up on the competition.

Carmack also noted his belief that neither Doom 4 or Rage will be digitally distributed online, as id isn't looking into that sort of distribution for its major titles at this point.

During last year's QuakeCon talk, Carmack stated that the PlayStation 3 edition of Rage would ship on a single Blu-ray disc, with the PC and Mac versions likely to arrive in both Blu-ray and DVD form.

While id has remained rather tight-lipped about Doom 4, designer Tim Willits has suggested that the shooter sequel won't be known as Doom 4 when it eventually hits.

Though still clearly labeled Doom, the game will sport a subtitle instead of a numeral, Willits informed Big Download.

However, id CEO Todd Hollenshead claims that a final judgment has yet to be made in the numeral versus subtitle debate. "We haven't made the decision about that yet," he told Kotaku. "There is probably a let's not make a numeral game and some say we should make it one."

Willits further noted that Doom 4 will not be a direct sequel to Doom 3... Read more

id Software's John Carmack today announced that work on the technology behind the company's upcoming shooter Rage is almost finished.

"We have very few things that are very significant left to be done [to the technology]," said Carmack. "We are 'light at the end of the tunnel,' going into the home stretch."

Carmack said that a change to the animation system is coming soon, and that a few tweaks need to be made to the MegaTexture system, but that the heavy lifting is mostly over.

The programming wizard reflected on the long development period for the id Tech 5 engine, which first began some three years ago.

"Here we are, three years later, still working on elements of it," he said, noting that he has spent the vast majority of his time working on Rage.

Carmack mentioned that the Rage code will mostly be carried over to Doom 4, where the focus will then be mainly on level design and creative aspects.

"We're going to have a working set of tools for them to do the most creative work with it," Carmack said of the Doom 4 team, while noting that his work on the engine won't end.

"I want to be able to provide at least one strong graphical hook for [Doom 4]."

A new full-featured Quake Arena title will probably not be developed if Quake Live is not successful, according to comments made by id Software's John Carmack today.

"The door is not completely shut for another Quake project, and I'd say probably the success of Quake Live is going to determine whether or not we do another Quake Arena project," said Carmack.

"But right now the publishers aren't all that interested in a multiplayer project on there."

id Software's John Carmack today said that Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory will likely not be revived as a free-to-play, advertising supported web title in the fashion of Quake Live.

"If Quake Live is successful, the next thing that we might look at is Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory," said Carmack, "but it's hard to see how we'd do the same treatment of it."

Wolfenstein's World War II setting was cited as the main reason behind the company's hesitation.

"You're running around fighting the Nazis and there's a billboard with [an advertisement] on it," said Carmack, noting the awkward nature of combining Nazis and Coke ads.

Though Quake Zero--id Software's free online version of Quake III--was announced at QuakeCon 2007, the name was subsequently changed to Quake Live with no explanation.

id co-founder John Carmack today revealed that the change of the name was due to an enterprising domain name squatter.

"This was an idea we had mere weeks before QuakeCon," said Carmack, emphasizing the freewheeling nature of the Quake Zero announcement.

As it turned out, the speed of the game's unveiling came back to bite the company, when a quick anonymous individual purchased the Quake Zero internet domain names.

"They offered us a considered buyout option for it," added Carmack. "We just decided heck, we're only a few months into development of this, we'll just change the name."

id Software co-founder John Carmack took the stage Thursday night to address fans at QuakeCon 2008 in Dallas.

While a few moments of new Rage footage were shown, and Doom 4 was briefly mentioned, Carmack began his talk mainly by speaking on iPhone game development.

"We have two different projects that are at least vaguely in the works on the iPhone," said Carmack.

"Pure graphics wise, [the iPhone is] about equivalent to a Dreamcast, but if you were to compare it to a console, it's pretty close to a previous generation console."

"While the graphics aren't that high up, you've got a lot more RAM," he added, adding that RAM is where developers typically run into technical problems.

Carmack also noted that his relationship with Apple can be rocky.

"It's a rollercoaster ride with Apple always. They make nice when they want me to come make a keynote there," he said, adding that when he speaks honestly about the company, he often makes their "shit list."

Raven today released a lengthier trailer showcasing its upcoming FPS Wolfenstein (PC, 360, PS3).

Wolfenstein is set in World War II, with American hero B.J. Blazkowicz once again called in to stop the Nazis from conquering the world with supernatural weaponry.

The game is planned to hit simultaneously on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, though no release date has been set. For more on Wolfenstein, check out our new preview.

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Wolfenstein is shaping up to be another Raven first person shooter.

Of course, this is not a bad thing, depending on your disposition: Raven has a made a name for itself as a dependable, if predictable studio. They typically manage to polish their shooters to an even finish, whether it be Jedi Outcast or Quake 4.

That being said, Wolfenstein (PC, 360, PS3) already seems a thoroughly developed title. As fans will expect, American hero B.J. Blazkowicz is back, along with Hitler, his Nazi crew, and plenty of supernatural weapons and enemies.

The producers are focusing on delivering a more story-driven experience in this entry to the series. At one point during a short single player demo, B.J. made his way to a resistance hideout, where he was briefed on a Nazi project to tunnel into another dimension. These resistance leaders talked around B.J., detailing current events as he quietly listened a la Half-Life 2.

This large scale approach is also reflected in the level design. Rather than... Read more