Post Quakecon id Software News August 16, 2010

Well Quakecon is pretty much a wrap right now, but there’s still plenty of information coming out of it about id Software’s current projects.

Doom 4, the unfortunate no show of the event, is likely to get a cross platform release, for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3.  Now the last information I heard about Doom 4 indicated that it was going to use Tech 5, the same engine that powers Rage, but whereas Rage is going to be locked at 60FPS (across all platforms), because Doom 4 is going to tax Tech 5 even more than Rage will the game will be a 30FPS game.  Doom 4 still has no release date.

I also read some news about id’s mobile division.  Now I had previously reported that Rage will see an iPhone version, but it’s recently been added that Quake Live (the online browser version of Quake 3 Arena) is being ported to the iPhone as well.  Great news, Quake 3 Arena is a staple of multiplayer deathmatch.  No release dates on those games either, the iPhone is notorious for having a “one second it’s not there, the next it is” reputation.

Latest Alan Wake Musings August 16, 2010

There’s a really good post-release Alan Wake interview here.  Things seem to be going pretty good, but while it wasn’t a no-holds-barred conversation, they did let a lot of information spill out.

• The Second DLC, “The Signal” is coming in the Fall.
• A sequel is defiantly being considered.
• A PC version is not in the cards right now.
• “The Signal” may not be the last DLC, but it will conclude the story started with “The Writer”.

A lot of information to take in.  My conjecture is the team hasn’t yet decided if the continuation of the Alan Wake story will be in DLC or a full sequel yet, but it’s obvious they have plenty of ideas where the story is going to go.  Honestly I’d be happy with them stopping after “The Writer” and then just going into full Alan Wake 2 development.  I like DLC, but there gets to be a point where the amount gets to be overkill and your wallet slowly gets emptied until there’s nothing left.

The talk about PC development was interesting.  The possibility defiantly exists for a PC version of Alan Wake or if there was a sequel, there could very well be a PC version of that.  The thing is that Alan Wake is just so tightly designed for a console right now, developing for a PC version would take an amount of time they just can’t devote right now.  That tells me it’s because they’re busy doing “The Writer” and planning for what’s coming after that.