RAGE: QuakeCon presentation highlights – out September 2011

By Stephany Nunneley

id Software took the stage with RAGE at QuakeCon this afternoon in Texas, and we had planned to liveblog the presentation for you, but id requested the presentation not be live streamed.

The game’s out on September 13 and 15, 2011 in the US and Europe, respectively, per creative director Tim Willits.

We pulled some highlights from Kotaku’s liveblog since it was sitting in the audience. Get all the best stuff below.

• id had three platforms and screens on stage for RAGE to represent and show the game on each of the three platforms – PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
• The game looks very “Mad Max” before Mel Gibson went insane.
• The town of Wellspring was shown for the first time.
• John Goodman is a voice actor in the game – he who did Roseanne, etc.
• Matt Hooper, one of the game’s designers, showed some vehicles.
• Four-wheelers and buggies were shown, as well as vehicle combat some with rocket launchers.
• There will be mini-games. One is called Tombstones, which showed  characters holograms on a board and whichever character gets to teh middle first is the winner. The characters have guns.
• There are racing competitions where you can earn money to spruce up or improve your vehicle.
• There are no large cutscenes in the game, as id feels it should come from within the game itself via the action, locations, scenery, and dialogue.
  
• You can electrocute enemies; a water level was shown where this combat took place.
• The game has three tactical options: you can use turrets, RC bomb cars, or go in like Rambo by peppering bullets everywhere if you prefer. Screens will turn red when you are wounded.
• An area with a dam was shown, where you need to go get vehicle parts and your first buggy. It is inhabited by the Wasted Clan who are not too friendly, apparently, as one fella is in a vehicle firing a machine gun at you.
• You can also fight in melee style – fist-a-cuffs if you will.
• Creative director Tim Willits showed his favorite area, the Dead City, which is a modern day ruined metropolis. In it, enemies have rocket launchers and some are as big in size as anything Team Ico could dream up.
• Some loading issues were noted on the consoles, and the Xbox 360 version even crashed – but all those issues will be fixed before release.