PS3 Gaming news

id is known as the master of the frag and king of the deathmatch (even now we still fire up Quake III: Arena for an occasional lunchtime session here in the CVG office).

So when we caught up with id's creative director Tim Willits at QuakeCon 2011 last week, we asked him why Rage wouldn't include the classic deathmatch experience and why id has instead chosen to focus on a vehicular racing-based shoot 'em-up?

"Yes, Rage has a unique multiplayer experience that is not your standard on-foot deathmatch, which is something that we invented," said Willits.

"We wanted Rage to stand apart, stand by itself. We didn't want to follow the same cookie cutter formula that everybody else is doing. Instead we wanted to use our imagination and break away from that mode.

"We feel the vehicle aspect of it is a lot of fun to drive, to shoot guys, to fight so we wanted to let people do that with their friends," he added.

So it looks like we're going to have to wait until Doom 4 before we see the return of the classic id deathmatch experience. But all is not lost on the multiplayer score for Rage fans, as a co-op mode known as Legends of the Wasteland will feature bonus missions you'll discover while playing through the single-player game.

Willits said: "You know, everyone likes to shoot things with their friends so we have the co-op element in Rage as well. We feel that it [Rage] has a very strong offering and that it's ok to do something different, since we actually invented it [deathmatch]."

If you still haven't seen id Tech 5, John Carmack's brand new game engine in action, then you should check out the recent QuakeCon 2011 trailer to see what it's capable of.

We also spent some recent hands-on time with the first few hours of Rage, which you can read about in this extended preview. Also keep an eye out for the full interview with Willits, which will be appearing on CVG tomorrow.