RAGE - This will Piss People off!

Who would have thought that Bethesda & id Software's new game "RAGE" would actually enrage customers like it actually did since it unlocked tonight via Steam?

Not only did Bethesda show its true colors in the court case against Mojang, but also the most recent game seems to be a magnificent dickmove against customers playing on PCs.

While even the developers themselves admitted it was a huge mistake to start developing for both Consoles and PCs at the same time 6 years ago, they didn't come to realize their mistake early enough, it seems.
Six years ago, both X360 and PS3 were still young, and easily up to par with most PC configurations of the target audience, if not more advanced.
The rise of PCs against the static hardware of consoles was clearly visible to all, yet id didn't rethink their strategies.

Now the damage is done. RAGE has been released in the US and it screams
"I COULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH MORE IF IT WASN'T FOR MY CONSOLE STEPBROTHERS!" into the World Wide Web.




Already players all around the world have noticed the horrifying lack of Video Settings, customization of the game mechanics, gruesome Texture Pop-ins paired with minimalistic texture caches and framerate-caps found in this long-praised "Best of E3 2010"-title.
I don't think RAGE can live up to the expectations gaming magazine authors had over one and a half years ago, when they threw around these titles like dollar bills in a strip club.

Graphics that have to be seen to be believed - Powered by id's cutting-edge new id Tech 5 engine, new Megatexture technology brings the vast wasteland to life in never-before- possible detail with action running at an astounding 60 frames per second.

60 Frames per Second alright, but never more, since it's capped at that. I wouldn't have believed how bad the "Megatexture technology" actually is if I hadn't seen it for myself.
Go ahead, open your eyes - don't shy away!

The heaviest blow has hit AMD/ATI setups. While the ATI guys have quickly put up a "RAGE Performance Driver"-fix out of the usual update loop, it doesn't help much to reduce the issues with RAGE.

I tried the game myself. My PC is far above the Minimum and Recommended Hardware, so there shouldn't be much issues, right? WRONG.
After booting up RAGE for the first time, I noticed the horrible screen tearing and texture issues. Moving the camera even a bit seems too much for the game - textures have to be loaded at all times, and dare not to do a full turn! The game doesn't cache the textures already loaded for long. Shaking your head will make you dizzy like that.
After applying the ATI fix, the pop-ins got a bit better, it seems like the game stored more textures than before, and the loading was a bit faster, but the issue is still obvious.

Wall textures missing, decoration not being shown at all for seconds, scenery popping in as you move... that's not what they advertised, no?

Showing some character models...

The scenery is dull, the same atmosphere everywhere from what I've seen. Enemies survive multiple headshots even on Normal difficulty, despite not even wearing real clothes. It's usually easier to kill them manually (read: with your fists) than shooting them. The knockout-revival-mechanic is nice, but that's about it.
Furniture etc are not destructible (they won't even show texture scratches), and I seriously ask myself why they've put antique porcelain vases into the game if you cannot destroy them when filled with RAGE in front of your screen.

The only thing looking good up to this point were some of the NPCs, while your player character looks like a total faggot (no offense).
But what's wrong with the constant showing of the NPCs name when you face one? Is that some special Bethesda-thing that people need their names printed onto their foreheads so you won't forget while playing their games?

And what's that? Why do girls in post-apocalyptic settings feel the need to show so much skin and dress up like they're doing cosplay on comiket, just without colors?
The absence of colors rather than brown or brown/greyish shades sure feels like a Bethesda game, though. More of the same, methinks.

Lastly, when I wanted to enter a building/"dungeon", the game crashed, and that's that for my part.

Honestly, if I had paid $60/50€ for that game, I'd be more than just enRAGEd!

The only way I'd consider RAGE fun: