Cheats-Area.com

   While Blizzard fans were getting their fair share of StarCraft II and World of Warcraft second-expansion news at BlizzCon in California, another major gaming event was taking place over in Dallas, for fans of id Software. This year, the by-now-famous QuakeCon brought a series of major announcements, from the new game based on the id Tech 5 engine first shown at Apple WDC in June (story), to other new projects, as well as older ones brought back as digital re-releases via Steam, or as Xbox Live Arcade adaptations, or as future movies. But... one at a time.

   Continuing their tradition of one-word titles, the new game based on id Tech 5 will be called Rage. Initially, the Apple WDC footage seemed to come from a post-apocalyptic racing game, however the new trailer shown at QuakeCon also included a bit of first-person shooting, and John Carmack assured his fans that this new game would not lack the kind of "run-and-gun" gameplay for which the legendary studio is known. So, it seems that Rage will be some sort of post-apocalyptic Grand Theft Auto in first-person, and we can expect it to be released on PC and next generation consoles.

   As part of CEO Todd Hollenshead's presentation, he announced the second movie project based on an id Software franchise, namely Return to Castle Wolfenstein. This will be written and directed by Roger Avary (Pulp Fiction, The Rules of Attraction, Beowulf), and produced by Samuel Hadida (Silent Hill, Resident Evil).

   Hollenshead was also the one to announce the immediate release of most of id Software's previous games through Steam: from Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D, to Hexen, Heretic, Doom II, Doom 3 and all the old Quakes prior to Quake 4, plus all kinds of extra packages. The full list of games can be found on the Steam website, and there's also a kick-ass "id Super Pack", with 22 titles for a total price of just $69.95 (considering that, taken separately, these games would ad up to over $200).

   Next up, Quake Zero was announced as a version of Quake Arena that will be playable straight from a web browser, completely free, albeit full of ads. Speaking of Quake Arena, another version was confirmed for Xbox Live Arcade (in development at Pi Studios) and, during Carmack's keynote, the guy also referred to a "Quake Arena like" game, for the... Nintendo DS! (his new obsession)

   Ugh, what more... ah, yes, the release date for Enemy Territory: Quake Wars! In Europe, the PC version should come out on September 28, and in North America on October 2. Later on, this will be followed by the Xbox 360 version (in the works at Nerve Software), and the PlayStation 3 version (ported by Activision Foster City). And the end of this year should bring Orcs & Elves for the Nintendo DS, as well as the Orcs & Elves II sequel for mobile phones. Phew, now that's a QuakeCon!

UPDATE: id Software actually screwed up a bit with releasing their old DOS games via Steam, because they stole included the DOSBox emulator without notifying its authors, and without including a copy of the GPL license under which DOSBox is distributed - thus violating the license (not to mention making some undeserved money from other people's work). But even more interesting is that they modified the dosbox.exe executable and linked it to the Steam login system, which, according to the same GPL license, means that Steam should also fall under GPL. And the problems don't end here, but they continue with a degraded performance of the emulator, and the lack of Setup programs for games like Doom, which can't be played in multiplayer otherwise. And Doom without multiplayer is, more or less, a piece of crap. Bravo, id!