Live from QuakeCon, a Rage Playthrough Liveblog

Hello, eerbody! I’m in Dallas, Texas, at QuakeCon, about to have my first play time with id Software’s new marquee title, Rage. I hope to write up impressions later, but I thought you might enjoy seeing my notes live as I play.

I’ll be updating every five minutes or so.

12:33 The music in the intro for Rage (which is blessedly short), is quite inspiring. Doesn’t feel like typical id stuff at all.

12:34 And theresssss the first desiccated corpse. Welcome back, id!

12:38 Holy smokes. I just walked out of a chamber to look into what appears to be a big quarry. It is gorgeous. Sort of strange, though: When you flick the mouse around really quickly, you can see the textures load back in. (I’m on what I can only presume is a pretty powerful gaming PC.)

12:40 SCARY THINGS. Also, OMG it’s Walter Sobchak! He’s gonna drive me in his buggy. I hope he brought the ringer. He sounds more gruff than usual.

12:42 These bandits don’t like my suit. I’m a fashion failure. 🙁 Walter’s taking me back to his place.

The buildings in Rage look pretty typical post-apoc wasteland, sheet metal sort of stuff. But damn if the terrain isn’t gorgeous. I love all the fractured rock formations.

12:44 Oh, hello little adorable ATV! I cannot wait to ride you in the desert.

Man, this texture load stuff is kind of annoying. Maybe I’ll get used to it.

Walter is asking me to go back and kill some bad bandits. Having just played some Skyrim, I’m amused by how you can just call any human being in a world a “bandit” and players will kill them guilt-free.

12:47 Whoa. Riding the ATV made me a little motion sick. It’s a little, uh, grabby? No judgement yet—and I’d rather it be finicky now and be able to more precisely drive it later.

12:48 I just found what looks like a bandit dune buggy, but the game won’t let me drive it yet. Damn, though, this game is pretty—especially the vistas.

Also, just a personal aside: I need to build a metal scarecrow with a bull skull for a head. It’s a surprisingly nice look.

12:51 Okay, I’m supposed to infiltrate this bandit lair and kill them all with just a pistol. Considering I’ve spent more time typing than playing so far, I’m ready for some blood.

12:53 I just looted a body. It’s a whole new id world. Also, I stole some paint to huff.

Oh! I’m in an old hotel. How cool. “The Rutherford”. Why there’s a hanging tram system in the lobby for mutants to ride I don’t know, but I guess it was a fancy hotel. The hotel here is basically a giant greenhouse in the middle of Texas, so who am I to judge?

Whoa! Ballons in the sky. And earlier I saw hover-bot-things? There is pretty much everything in this world short of dragons. All games are becoming one setting.

12:55 Holy crap. The enemy animation in this is top notch. Okay, going silent for a second to actually play some.

1:07 Something about Rage—the voice acting, the animation, the camera work—reminds me a lot of Arkham Asylum. (That’s a good thing.)

Ooh, one of the bad mutant types took a shot at me while he was scooting, wounded, across the ground. So rad!

1:12 Carmack’s in the press room and just said “The sign of a B-title is when the gun looks bad.”

Speaking of guns, I’m out of ammo. But I have dollars! It’s nice when a game just uses “dollars” instead of “apoc-o-bucks” or whatever.

1;17 Oh dear. That grenade made a lot of blood.

1:18 Hey guys, what did you do today? I quelled a bandit threat and then rode a zip line!

1:25 a Cute girl in a midriff top just taught me how to use a “wingstick”. It was pretty easy.

The character design in Rage is really cute. It’s jussst on the edge of cartoony, but very cohesive overall.

1:31 This game is very colorful. I like it. It’s so un-id!

Oh, hey, Grandma Robot Arm! What a cool character.

1:34 I definitely just cut off that guy’s head. It’s a little frustrating to not be able to loot weapons, though. They’re going to be handed out bit by bit, typical id fashion, I suspect.

This might be the first post-apoc game I can remember that has a realistically modeled bathroom

Okay, guys! I only have a little time left with Rage, so I’m going to sign off and actually dig into it!