Discussion about Infinity Ward's upcoming kill-brown-people simulator Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has been, well ... less than positive recently. Old World and PC gamers are feeling slighted by a series of price hikes—a £5 bump for British console gamers and an extra $10 for the PC version—and the recent news that Infinity Ward will be ditching dedicated servers in favor of peer-to-peer matchmaking has met with vocal resistance and a thriving online petition.

Yesterday, Infinity Ward's Creative Specialist and former community manager Robert "fourzerotwo" Bowling made it clear that the petition "will not be ignored." Today, he posted the first details on IWNET—the peer-to-peer matchmaking system that will replace dedicated servers—on his personal blog, calling Modern Warfare 2 "the biggest investment Infinity Ward has ever made into the PC version of our games" and "the most feature-rich PC version we’ve ever made."

Describing the matchmaking process, Bowling explains that IWNET will automatically find the server with the lowest ping that matches your gameplay specifications and connect you with other players with the same skill level as your own, putting "you in the game that will give you the smoothest gameplay possible without you having to manually find a server with the best ping." He promises that "it doesn’t mean you’ll just be thrown into a random game!"

For those of you who want to play with a clan, Bowling says that friendlists and private matches, coupled with the new Party system, will let you hang on to the community vibe provided by dedicated servers:

A Party allows you to move from game to game as a group. It’s great for clan matches, because you can party [up] with your clan and move from public game to public game together. Or if you’re doing a scrim, party up and invite the other clan (who is in a party) and they’ll all join at once. Set up a private match together and play. It makes setting up scrims or games with friends easier and hassle free.

Well, there you go. Bowling certainly seems to have addressed the most common complaints I've been seeing, but, judging by the f*ckstorm of comments on the post (2000 and counting), I'm sure not all of you are mollified. The only glaring omission I see is that a lack of custom maps will certainly be a kick in the junk for some of you.

So, finally, we have some solid details on IWNET and how it's going to work. If you're a PC gamer, are you ok with this, or are you still going to be boycotting what will surely be the most popular game of the year? Sound off in the comments.

[Via The Escapist]

When it was announced that Zenimax had bought id reactions were pretty positive... unless you were John Romero. It seems that the guys at id agree with the majority of us that being bought by Zenimax was a pretty good thing as it has given the company more money to develop with and more staff to do that developing. At QuakeCon id Software co-founder John Carmack spoke about it all.

“We have more resources to make steps that we wouldn’t make [if] left to our own,” he said during a panel at the event. “For people playing games, the [ZeniMax acquisition] is such a pure win. There’s no downside to this at all. We are still down here in Texas, they are leaving us alone, we are still building our products here.”

So it's still id and nothing is changing, but what is the legendary development company going to do with all these new resources? Why they're going to bring out three new AAA games, that's what. What these games will be is unclear, but evidently they aren't short of ideas as Carmack claims that id now has "the problem of having more good IPs" than it can develop.

“We are staffing up a third team internally. We will eventually be producing three AAA titles," he said, according to Develop. “The big question is what are those three IPs going to be? Is it going to be a Rage 2, a Wolfenstein title, a Quake title? We really don’t know yet."

I like the idea of more of those classic franchises, but I'm hoping to see a new IP out of the developer as well.

After seeing the latest trailer for Rage from QuakeCon, I feel as if the game is going in a completely different direction than what I had envisioned, sort of like what happen with Brutal Legend. That said, I was impressed by what was shown.

With Fallout 3 still fresh on our minds thanks its DLC, and Borderlands coming sooner than later, I was beginning to think there were too many post-apocalyptic stories being thrown our way, but then I remembered A) id Software is developing Rage B) we really haven't heard much about the game yet and C) Mad Max is f'ing rad.

For instance, how much of Rage will be dune buggy death racing and how much will be played from a first-person perspective? I couldn't tell you, and I'd be willing to bet id couldn't either. The worst part about being a gamer? Having to spend so much time waiting.

QuakeCon is only a week away! Whose going? If you are don't you want to know what's going to be going down and when? id, the events organizer, has finally released the schedule for the annual event of all things having to do with shooting each other. So other than being able to get together with thousands of other gamers for free what is QuakeCon offering this year? How about the public's first look at both Rage and Brink.

Both games will be on hand with Rage being shown off on Saturday, Aug. 15, at 2:30 p.m. and Brink getting some time on Friday, Aug. 14, at 1 p.m. Neither will be hands-on for the public, but both will be showing off actual gameplay, which I can promise you looks awesome on both accounts. Outside of the two public reveals, the show will have contests lined up, movies, dodgeball, a keynote by John Carmack and a scattering of panels. Sounds like it should be a blast. If you're interest in going is suddenly piqued head towards the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas between the dates of Aug. 13 and 16 and you should be good to go.

Full schedule after the jump.

Not long ago, id Software’s John Carmack told Edge magazine that the PlayStation 3 version of RAGE was running at a cool 20-30 frames per second while the PC and Xbox 360 versions were hitting 50-60 FPS. Carmack said the PS3-centric issue had something to do with Rastafarians and not being able to “split things off.” The fact nugget caused a bit of brouhaha on the Internet, one in which id is rightfully attempting to stomp via the official RAGE Twitter account.

“The Edge Magazine article has caused quite a ruckus. We are committed to ensuring that gamers on all platforms have a great RAGE experience,” the studio said in a recent tweet.

RAGE, by the way, is an unfinished property by a studio known for its ability to create great videogame engines. RAGE currently has no release window which means id has all the time it needs to create the experience indicated by the tweet.

[via Shacknews]

Put your ear to the ground. Do you hear that? The rumbling off in the distance? It's the sound of anguished fanboys howling and stampeding.

Ok, I admit the title is an exaggeration, but judging from the fanboy storm brewing, you'd think that it was what was actually said. It's been revealed in the latest issue of Edge Magazine that the PS3 version of id's upcoming game Rage is currently only running at 20-30 frames per second. Not a huge deal, until you find out that the PC and 360 versions are already running at a smooth 60. RAGE!

Why is this? John Carmack blames it on the slower rasterizer of the PS3, saying that the PS3 lags behind the other versions in terms of getting performance out of the hardware. He mentions that a significant amount of time on the PS3 version has been spent delegating various 'jobs' on the PS3 hardware -- apparently the 360 rasterizer makes it easier to "split things off".

The funny part about this is that the game isn't even finished yet, and it's entirely possible that the versions will be identical by the time the game is released. That hasn't stopped people from flipping out though.

Guess what Fanboy Friday is going to be about tomorrow?

[Via CVG -- Thanks Tim!]

Speaking with MTV Multiplayer, id Software’s John Carmack revealed that every property the developer has ever worked on could potentially come to the iPhone.

When we say “every,” we mean it. It seems it’s just getting started with Doom Resurrection -- Carmack mentions RAGE, Wolfenstein RPG, and Doom 2 RPG as projects that are headed to Apple’s platform. On the subject of Quake, expect it and its sequel on the “conventional iPhone platform,” with Quake 3 “not a problem at all” for the recently introduced, and more powerful, 3GS.

Like we said -- everything. Ever. Saying that Carmack and the id Software team “like” the iPhone might be an understatement.

“I expect we’ll have an iPhone project every two to three months over the next year,” he says.

Not too long ago, id CEO Todd Hollenshead spoke with GameSpot about a slew of interesting topics, including the company's shift towards multiplatform development with Rage, why the Wii isn't worth investing copious amounts of time and money in, and what's going on with the next Doom. 

Although Doom 4 is still very early in development, Hollenshead dropped a few hints. "It's not a sequel to Doom 3, but it's not a reboot either. Doom 3 was sort of a reboot. It's a little bit different than those, and if I told you why, I would get my ass kicked when I got back," he says.

We're also told that there's been a "fundamental, sort of philosophical shift" inside of id from being a PC developer to a multiplatform developer. Hollenshead says that as an independent developer, you have to be on "all the relevant platforms" to be successful.

"So we don't really view ourselves as PC first," he adds. "I think I would say that John says that probably the primary development platform for Rage is actually the 360."

Something to think about on this glorious April day, I'd say. Make sure you glance over the full interview, as it's lengthy and full of some pretty good tidbits.

[Via Eurogamer]

There's still all of this silly talk about shooting games and how they make gamers aggressive and violent. I don't see it. In fact, shooters make me sad because I'm so bad at them. Now driving games? Those make me crazy.

I call it the "Karate Kid" effect, named after the kids that go around kicking and chopping things after watching the movie. I'm like that with racing games in my car. Speeding, cornering, trying to beat my time, and powersliding for points -- I can't help it. Sega Rally would almost drive me to hit the dirt in my car.

A new study shows that I'm not completely crazy. Researchers at Huddersfield University in the UK will present findings this week that show that driving games provoke a higher aggressive response than violent games do. Their study used some unnamed FPS, a table tennis game, and Project Gotham Racing compare. Turns out that PGR caused the greatest change in heart rate and brain activity. And believe it or not, the shooter caused the least.

So, even table tennis brought about a higher aggressive response than shooters? Damn, I gotta get that game.

[Via GamePolitics]

What is Rage, exactly? "It's not MotorStorm, it's not Fallout either," says id CEO Todd Hollenshead during an episode of GameTrailers TV. It's hinted that the game isn't open-world per se, but the environments aka "wastelands" are vast in comparison to Doom 3, and the "traditional id style FPS action" is present through combat-focused "instances."

I can't speak for the rest of you, but that quick-and-dirty description has got me fairly excited. Unfortunately, Rage won't be released this year, so now I've been forced into the fetal position while weeping heavily.

Apparently, it will be out on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and Mac "when it's fun and when it's done" (re: most likely before 2011), which is at least a little comforting.

[Via Shacknews]

Although we heard a little about id’s other new first-person shooter, Rage, at EA’s E3 press conference, I didn’t really know what to think about it. Heck, even with this brand new footage from QuakeCon I’m still not exactly sure how the game is going to end up.

Rage looks to be set in a desolate wasteland populated by ugly sewer dwellers, dune buggy drivers, and Irish race promoters. Some of the dune buggies even have big guns on them, which could certainly make for promising races.

A word of warning to those that might be looking to pick this up on the Xbox 360, though: John Carmack has stated that due to the size limitations of dual-layered DVDs, the 360 version of Rage will look worse than on the PC or PS3 due to the compression needed to fit it on two disks. id could have added a third disk to keep the visual quality up, but the royalty fees Microsoft charages to do so would have apparently been too high.

Friday is going to be a good day for those of you who have been patiently waiting for Gran Turismo TV to finally make its way onto the PS3. If all goes as planned, you'll be greeted with what Sony terms a "significant update" when you fire up Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.

In layman's terms, it will amount to an in-game automotive media channel that hopes to showcase an attractive offering of both free and pay-per-view programming, like Top Gear and Best Motoring. Personally, I'd settle for a complimentary subscription to MotorWeek and that highly anticipated damage modeling update they teased us with in the past, but I guess that this is still great news -- considering that we are getting updates on Prologue to begin with.

So in other words, if automotive TV on the PS3 is your thing, get ready to crack open that special bottle of champagne you've secretly had stashed away for this special day. Or, do you plan on saving that celebration for the game's full- featured release?

[Via PlayStation blog]

Admidst a flurry of announcements at today's QuakeCon, id software revealed their brand-new IP, Rage. Apparently the game is set to be a departure of sorts from their previous work, in that driving features heavily, and blowing stuff up is almost a secondary objective. With the lack of cybernetic, psuedo-religious ultra-violence, will Rage still captivate as DOOM and QUAKE have in the past? Whatever the end result, the tech -- id's brand-new id Tech 5 Engine -- behind this thing looks sexier than Jesus sodomizing a Large Hadron Collider.