RAGE - Valve
In celebration of the mega gaming event QUAKECON, save big on different games from id Software and Bethesda each day, now through August 6th at 10am Pacific Time.

Today only, save 50% on Rage!

Or, pick up the massive QUAKECON Bundle, a collection of all released id and Bethesda titles for one low price!



DOOM 3 Resurrection of Evil
doom3


Remember Doom 3? Of course you do. Remember it fondly? Ah. For the side of the internet nodding instead of choking on bile, Bethesda is releasing the BFG Edition that remasters the experience (though on the face of it, primarily for console owners rather than upgrading the already superior PC version), gives your futuristic marine some armour-mounted lighting to bring him up to date with 19th century coal-miners and, most importantly, adds a brand new chapter called The Lost Mission.

Here's a brand new trailer from QuakeCon that shows off a few new corners of Hell, that new flashlight, chainsaws, plasma death, and the most indecisive jump scare of all time.



Along with the Lost Mission, the BFG Edition also comes with both original Doom games, the Doom 3 expansion Resurrection of Evil, and another chance to see Dr. Malcolm be promoted from humble Research Director of the world's darkest science facility to Head of Demons in the fires of Hell itself. Hmm. I wonder if that's where he told HR he saw himself in five years time...

The Doom 3 BFG Edition blasts onto shelves this October.
DOOM 3

We've got ourselves a new trailer for October's Doom 3: BFG Edition. This one highlights the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 game's new eight-level "Lost Mission."


But what about Doom 4? Id is still working on it—they even moved their mobile designers onto the project, begging off any more mobile gaming for the time being—but that's about all we know. Given that today is the kickoff for id's annual Quakecon event and that's all they're saying, that's pretty much all we're going to be told, officially, for quite some time.


DOOM 3 Resurrection of Evil
oculus


The Oculus Rift -- a virtual reality headset which began as a garage project by VR-enthusiast Palmer Luckey -- is one step closer to being in your home and on your head. Oculus created a $250,000 Kickstarter campaign to acquire capital for the production of developer kits, and it's already achieved a balance of $445,844 with 30 days to go. That's momentum.

It helps when you have Gabe Newell "strongly encouraging" everyone to support the project, John Carmack calling it "the best VR demo probably the world has ever seen," and Cliff Bleszinski proclaiming himself "a believer." The Rift's powerful and influential backers are forward-thinking people (Gabe Newell is an especially accomplished predictor), which is a hint that head-mounted displays are on for real this time -- the cyberspace dreaming of the '80s and '90s is going practical.



The Rift is lauded for its low-latency head tracking and face-consuming field of view, as well as its potential price. It's not as if good VR goggles are non-existent, they're just not something you impulse buy on Amazon, and what's available for consumers doesn't tick all of Oculus' gaming-centric boxes.

The $599.99 Wrap 1200VR is designed as a "virtual display," meaning that it projects "75-inch widescreen display, as seen from 10 feet." That's not what we're hearing about Oculus' headset, which is supposed immerse us in a world with a 110-degree diagonal FOV. The same goes for Sony's higher-resolution HMZ-T1 Wearable HDTV, which advertises a 45-degree FOV and doesn't feature head tracking. Even the $1799 Z800 3DVisor quits at 40-degrees diagonal FOV.



The Rift's consumer price hasn't been set yet, but while the Kickstarter campaign is running, you can secure an assembled developer kit for $300. That price doesn't predict the consumer price -- smaller and larger backers are subsidizing these kits -- but it's not a bad sign.

The Rift dev kits are estimated to be delivered this December, and include a copy of Doom 3: BFG Edition, the first Oculus-compatible game. John Carmack's involvement in the project led to a demonstration of Doom 3 with Oculus at E3 in June, and the responses I've seen have ranged from positive to "OMG." For more about the technology, have a look at our coverage of that demo, complete with lots of over-our-heads Carmack talk.
Men of War™ - Valve
The Steam Summer Sale continues today with huge savings throughout the store!

Today's Daily Deals Include:

Don't forget to check back for a new Community Choice vote every 8 hours and new Flash sales throughout the day! You can also grab the Steam mobile app to make sure you never miss any great deals while you're on the go!

Complete information on all the savings, Flash Sales, Community Choice Votes and more may be found on www.steampowered.com.

RAGE

Flipping tables. It's about as perfect a rage moment as you can get. And now, in WoW's upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion, you'll be able to do it in a video game.


While there's actually a Japanese arcade game centred around this very premise, it's a Japanese arcade game. This will be a little more accessible.


Mists of Pandaria: (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ [Massively]


DOOM 3

The remastered edition of Doom 3 announced a few weeks ago will hit PCs, PS3s and Xbox 360s this October. The BFG edition of the classic first-person-shooter will also include full versions of Doom 1 and Doom 2, along with seven new Doom 3 levels and the Resurrection of Evil add-on. The whole shebang will cost $29.99 for PCs and $39.99 for consoles.


RAGE - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Jim Rossignol)

While we’re talking Id, there’s something else that came out of E3 that you might find interesting. Bethesda frontman Pete Hines told Eurogamer that despite the lukewarm reception for Rage, they have big plans for it: “We’re looking at doing some things with Rage. But obviously the first thing out of anybody’s lips now when we talk about id is not, hey, what else is up with Rage? They’re asking the question they’ve been asking for five years, six years, seven years, which is, where’s Doom 4? What about Doom 4? As far as where we are with Rage, the future for that is still TBD.”

Which is interesting, because whatever the do with Doom, I felt like Rage was a move in the right direction, but didn’t quite go all out on any of the things that it was hinting at. The half-formed racing, half-formed exploration, half-formed crafting, all pointed to a deeper game which, if they concentrate on just one of those elements next time, might yet yield something beyond the usual adventure with shotguns. Id are also working on another shooter, which has yet to be revealed.

DOOM 3 Resurrection of Evil
Carmack Goggles
John Carmack has been building a virtual reality headset in his spare time. He's showing it to people behind closed doors at this year's E3, tucked away inside the Bethesda booth, and described it as "probably the best VR demo the world has ever seen." Our video hero, David Boddington, was the 30th person in the world to use it.

Check below for a 20 minute video with Carmack on virtual reality, why he decided to tackle headsets, the latency of the human mind, and the first footage of one his handmade prototypes.

Carmack's such an intelligent guy that a single question sends him off on a four-minute-long monologue with a dozen long words I don't understand. To help make it easier, we've split the 20 minute video in to three chunks, with some impressions at the end of what it's like to use.

Part one shows the first glimpse of the duct-tape-and-belt prototype, covers the latency of the human brain, and how making "an 8 year old PC game is still demanding on consoles". Also big words about screens I don't understand?



Part two is the most impenetrably techy, as he explains the exact challenges of building a VR headset, but Carmack occasionally surfaces from the jargon to say something incredibly concise and exciting. Like when he explains that this is the best VR demo that the world has ever seen, but that "maybe hidden in some NASA lab there's something cooler than this, but I haven't seen it."


 
The third part is where Carmack gets down to showing us the device itself, while Games Radar's Hollander Cooper quizzes him on the realities of bringing something like this to market. Key quote? "This is literally held together with duct tape, but the guts of this is going to be made available as a kit for around $500."

At that price, I'd buy one.


 
Carmack talked a bit more in this last part on the reasons why the project excites him. "For a certain part of the hacker/maker crowd, this is going to be awesomely cool to work with, because there is honest to god cutting edge research to be done on the ergonomics, the focusing adjustment, software integration with other titles. These are things that people can do in their workshop that can make a difference in the next twelve months and yes, somebody big is going to turn this in to a real product in the coming years."

Our video wizard David Boddington used it to play Doom 3: BFG Edition and loved it. "The level of immersion was unlike any other gaming experience I've ever had, and that bodes well for the future if Carmack or someone else can take the tech to the next level."

It's worth noting that the prototype Carmack is demoing wasn't made by him, but by another Texan builder of VR headsets. It's using the same tech and principles as Carmack's own version, which was unfortunately unable to make the trip to E3.

The goggle screens completely cover your vision, meaning the only thing you can see are scary corridors and flying heads. Character movement works more traditionally however, with players using a controller to walk around and shoot, while the goggles function as a head-tracker. If it ever comes to market as a consumer product, or even if the maker kits are reasonably accessible, it sounds like the perfect thing for hardcore ArmA players or flight sim enthusiasts.

There's one final thing that's interesting about this. Carmack has been good friends with Michael Abrash since the pair were programmers together on Quake 1. What did Michael Abrash recently say he was working on at Valve? Wearable computing.

Would you wear virtual reality goggles in front of your PC? Do you think John Carmack can make VR finally good?
DOOM 3

Doom 3's Graphically Enhanced Monsters Are Pretty Damn UglyHere's your first look at some of the hideous monsters in the upcoming Doom 3 BFG Edition, a rerelease of Id's first-person shooter that will be out this fall for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.


Sadly, no head-mounted displays or armor-mounted flashlights here. Just ugly monsters. Ugly, ugly monsters.


Doom 3's Graphically Enhanced Monsters Are Pretty Damn Ugly Doom 3's Graphically Enhanced Monsters Are Pretty Damn Ugly Doom 3's Graphically Enhanced Monsters Are Pretty Damn Ugly Doom 3's Graphically Enhanced Monsters Are Pretty Damn Ugly Doom 3's Graphically Enhanced Monsters Are Pretty Damn Ugly


...