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All The Rage
Rage were one of the few publisher/developers to appear at the show again this year. Sadly they were only showing two PC games, one of which was very, very early code. Incoming Forces is of course the sequel to the multi-million selling Incoming. While it sold well it was criticised by the press and many gamers for gameplay that was just a bit too simplistic. Rage have taken a step or two to alleviate this problem in the sequel, the most notable addition being that you can command your wingmen during battle with just two key presses. Needless to say it looks very nice; this is Rage we're talking about after all. Their trademark explosions are now even more impressive and over the top, and they're making good use of the GeForce 3 too while making sure it can scale back to a TNT 2. Rather than just making things look shiny and bump mapping them like most developers, Rage have instead used the GeForce 3 to create very convincing rippling water and moving clouds that cast soft shadows over all of the terrain. It also looked like the battle worn tanks were ever so slightly shiny rather than looking like they were plated with highly polished chrome as in some games. I didn't get to play Incoming Forces and I doubt a quick go would have been long enough to judge it by anyway, but I should be getting hold of the OEM demo copy which is due very soon and I'll knock up a full preview based on that. The full game is due early next year.
The other title Rage are developing for the PC, Mobile Forces, uses the Unreal engine, or rather a mix of the Unreal Tournament and Unreal Warfare engine. Currently it's so early that the models are still the Unreal Tournament ones and I only got to see part of a small level, but it's basically going to be another realistic combat game with terrain, vehicles and objectives like bomb defusal as well as the more traditional capture the flag and deathmatch mode. It'll also have vehicles with realistic physics, and you'll even be able to blow out vehicle tyres and, if you're a crack shot, send the thing up in flames with one shot at the petrol cap to ignite the petrol tank. Rage have also recruited a few of the well known mappers from the Unreal development community which is always a great thing to see. Both single player and multiplayer play will be available and it should be released around Q2 2002.
As a quick side note, I also got to have a quick go of the Destruction Derby-like game called Crash for the Xbox at the Rage stand. While the game itself was fun (how can smashing up other cars NOT be) what really impressed me was the Xbox controller - it's simply be the best I've ever used, period. It's kind of like the Dreamcast one, which was my previous favourite, but with larger, more rounded "wings" underneath that make it more comfortable to grip. The two analogue triggers are slightly harder to press for greater prevision and the six face buttons are well placed (the top two black and white ones aren't immediately reachable though so I suspect developers will reserve them for infrequently used actions). The in-built vibration feature is strong and more distinct that the wobbly shaking of most previous controllers' vibration units, and the two analogue sticks again gave just the right amount of resistance for precise control, and even using two of them at once, which I though might feel really awkward, in fact wasn't at all. With Dead or Alive 3, Jet Set Radio Future and Project Gotham (amongst others) coming out for Microsoft's green and black box I might just have to break my life long habit of only buying Sega consoles and grab an Xbox, especially as Sega are out of the hardware biz.
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