What was the name of that doom wad which had levels by quake mappers? Biff, Lun... some others 

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=13723 

 

That leaked Doom 4 stuff: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?cloebtyeq4u34ud (the 4 music tracks from earlier)
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?wjsy8ixf6lvwm2b (176 images)

Does not look like classic Doom at all but another game with NPCs and all that crap. RemakeDoom? 

Man, I love id but I think they're done. They stopped evolving around Quake2 and it's just getting dismal now. I hope that's not Doom4. I hope. 

To be clear, programming and tech wise they are still on top of their game. Carmack is the man.

Design wise, they're a burned out husk. 

I'd rather Doom 4: Hell on Earth (as the leak suggests) than another space dungeon. 

A destroyed, demon-invaded Earth seems better than a dreary space base, but what I really want is a vast, otherworldly gothic hellscape. If Doom 4 doesn't spend a significant amount of time in "proper" hell, I will be annoyed. And I hope the new vision of Hell is better than that silly mess of randomly stacked bricks we got in Doom 3. 

@Willem, if ID are a burnt out husk for design, who nowadays is evolving?

This question is also for everyone, who are the design masters? Which companies are doing new stuff with FPS design that is evolving? Who are creating 'must-play' FPS games? 

every existing car, every existing track, lets play online
icq/qip 259689233 

if ID are a burnt out husk for design, who nowadays is evolving?

Well, in the world of shooters, Valve tends to innovate in some significant way with each new game of theirs (not counting sequels). That's about it, off the top of my head.

That's not to say other companies aren't also making awesome shooters, but I've never played one outside of a valve game that's made me say "wow, that's an important step for the genre!" 

I did not mean this question as a flame war/troll thing, it was a genuine question to everyone. I have seen two people in the last couple of weeks refer to ID as 'lost' on design, but they did not say why?

I think the hardest part of any shooter nowadays is pacing, trying to vary what people do and how they interact with the story and environment. I do agree that Valve are amazing for this reason. I think it is because they want to tell a story with their game, it is not about the tech. 

I did not mean this question as a flame war/troll thing

That's cool, I know you didn't - I was just implying that my reply might have been a bit trolly, with my seeming disregard for anything non-valve.

Tbh, I think publishers carry a lot of the blame because CoD is so irritatingly successful that "make it like CoD" seems to be something of a mantra amongst the suits, stifling a lot of potential innovation in a straitjacket of boring Coddiness. 

I should probably play Rage at some point - though judging by Willem's comment, I assume it's pretty underwhelming? 

It's weird. The shooting sections are, naturally, awesome. The bits in between are a little lacking. The vehicular combat is good. The game just lacks loads of RPG stuff. The LD is visually amazing, and the gameplay is tight. But it doesn't give you the 'OMG THIS IS COOL' effect, only the visuals.

Definitely worth playing though.

As for id's design going downhill, well I disagree. I mean trying to think of the last years best games:

Skyrim
BFBC2 and BF3

Both titles don't really bring anything new either. 

The Authority.
The Resistance.
The Wasteland.

I rest my case in the chest cavity of this burnt out husk. 

BFBC2 and BF3

http://i.imgur.com/yeWyy.gif 

Well, if you were in a post apocalyptic wasteland, would you call the authority ... The Conglomeration of Despair, or something? Short and to the point, makes sense, from the point of view of the people who inhabit the wasteland. Not that I'm defending id's 'creativity' or lack thereof, but something should be said for 'consistency' in the Rage universe. 

Gnorffliam
Pr�delburg
The Katapootakut
Il Indriamentolente

Kinn: Rage is worth playing for the looks alone. Gameplay is modern FPS style as is the level design. Story is neglible, characters bland (awesome models though). 

games are still too young, and growth from tech is still insanely fast.

if ever the point is reached where there are no more meaningful improvements in graphics, than maybe the industry can finally settle down and get back to making games.
the graphical quality of AAA titles needs to be attainable at low cost in order for gameplay quality to go up. right now, it just costs too much to make a AAA game such that no one (beyond the designers i guess) is willing to make anything interesting. it's the same kind of thing with why we keep getting film reboots-- the investor dudes would rather put their money on a film when they can see how the original did than on some completely unknown quantity.
ie: "Make it like CoD". 

What's the gameplay like? To be honest, the evil faction in a game could be called "Alan Titchmarsh's Band of Merry Haberdashers" and I wouldn't give two hoots if the game was otherwise good. 

The main problem I had with Rage was that the environments were so static, there is essentially zero interaction with the environment barring the odd door or two.

While the visuals are seriously impressive, the interaction is seriously antiquated, Half-Life 2 laughs and takes a sly piss on Rage in this regard, and it hurts the game imo.

As a straight up shooter, Rage is great! Controls are slick and responsive and the combat is meaty and satisfying. The engineering stuff was a nice quirk and for the most part is very useful.

If I carry on with the half-life 2 comparison, the Authority is basicly the Combine but less cool and nefarious. The lack of engaging story also hurts here also, I just wanted to fight more dudes and when a cutscene or driving section happened I just wanted it to end :) 

U played them? MP that is. Fucking fun games. 

has some really nice shooter elements in super static environments, with fun weapons and ammo types that actually are fun to fiddle with, generally.

Racing is meh - super easy, except for the derby type shit, which is sort of a pain/randomish it seemed to me.

Story is as blah as explained above. Not that it matters.

carrying the HL2 comparison further, Authority HQ is like the end of HL2 but even more of a letdown.

Definitely worth it, but I'd have preferred an undiluted, concise, derivative shooter - something it could have been.
have to agree now that I think of it with Daz - the HL2 driving is so much better and immersive despite being much older tech etc.

Another thing that got my goat was how often you'd warp from place to place. the sense of continuity - of sheer unmediated embodiment - which HL2 achieves is not present here. along with the not fully formed, fractured story and not fully formed, fractured gameplay modes this not fully formed, fractured sense of embodying a character lets the game down.


play this instead
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?id=16551