The first thing that stands out in RAGE are the beautiful graphics in the post-apocalyptic backdrop of the game.  Id Tech 5 easily proves itself to be one of the most powerful game engines on the market.  RAGE has an incredible draw distance and as a result there is practically no fog when looking far, far away into the environment.  Dust blows by, water ripples, ambient lights flicker, and fires have the heat waves surrounding them.  Character designs are full of post-apocalyptic personality.  NPCs and enemies have varied and interesting designs about them.  But most noticeable are that no outside environments look the same, not even the rocks seem duplicated to create the seemingly vast desert in RAGE.  Animations are easily the best of any game on the market because they are so smooth and varied, plus everything runs at 60 frames per second.  Enemies will roll, flip, jump, crawl, and most importantly react to every shot that hits them.  Shoot an enemy in the leg and they will limp.  Shoot them in the arm and they will hold it in pain.  There’s even some cool death animations for the various weapons used in-game.  Some of the other reactionary animations are also great and have a lot of do with complimenting the game’s super cool A.I.  More of on that great A.I. later though.

RAGE’s storyline might be the weakest point of the whole game.  The story of RAGE opens to a post-nuclear future where a destructive asteroid is headed towards Earth.  The nameless player character is one of a selected few humans chosen to be placed in life-support in a subterranean pod called an Ark.  Apparently the Ark inhabitants have been given nanotech implants as well.  A disturbance causes the Ark to awaken the game’s main character to a world truly gone mad.  Upon existing the Ark, being attacked, and rescued by a local outpost leader the game introduces players into a serious of quests to familiarize one with the world.  As the player talks to NPCs, picks up fetch quests, and meets new personalities throughout the game the storyline opens up slowly at first and then later moves a lot faster.  A few too many locales are returned to a bit too often though and the narrative is lacking.

RAGE’s gameplay has what many single player FPS are missing today.  Superb A.I.!  From the very first enemy encounter to the last, RAGE’s A.I. will keep even the hardest of veteran FPS players on their toes.  Most enemies in RAGE are always moving which makes them very hard to hit.  Add to that enemies who dodge, duck, climb, and jump around the environment just to make sure the player dies a quick and painful death.  Some enemies will hide behind cover and take shots, but will alway reposition themselves once they’ve been shot or shoot at by the player.  It’s almost stand seeing the A.I. in a game pulling off S.W.A.T. turns to get better position on the player.  Even enemies who have been injured will limp, slide, or crawl away to cover while taking potshots at the player.  Some will even attempt to retreat and regroup once most of their comrades have been killed.  This is the way A.I. should be in most games!  Not the usual treatment of the enemies being more accurate and doing more damage just because the difficulty setting is higher.  Gamers deserve their single player games to be challenging outside of multiplayer.  Id Software has answered that call with RAGE.

RAGE’s A.I. is complimented by some truly great FPS and combat racing action.  Expecting less than a stellar FPS gameplay experience from an Id Software game is foolish.  RAGE continues Id’s tradition of bloody, violent FPS action with an arsenal of killing weapons.  Id created the concept of  ”gibs” in games afterall.  Shotguns will blow heads off, grenades turn enemies to tomato paste, wingsticks (a smartblade ripped straight from the 80′s film Krull) will decapitate any enemy in its path with a chance of returning to sender, and a number of other exotic death animations abound with other weapons.  Add to that the fact that weapons have up to four different ammo types with varying effects and there’s plenty of devilish fun to be had with the enemies.  While there are the expected shotguns, assault rifles, pistols, and other firearms, RAGE also sports a number of other death-dealing weapons and ammo types that can be found or crafted with schematics and items found in the environments.  One, in particular, creates a spider-like sentry drone with a mounted machine gun on its top that will hunt down nearby enemies.  There are many other ways to give the game’s enemies pure Hell though and trust that they will still not be easy to take on later in the game.

RAGE also has a built-in racing combat portion that is fairly seamless.  Driving outside of towns will frequently result in vehicle battles with bandits in the desert.  Vehicles are earned during races and can be upgraded with tires, weapons, nitro, suspension and other parts.  There’s also many race tracks and arenas to participate in.  The driving parts of RAGE bear a slight resemblance to Motorstorm at a glance.  This is simply no tacked on feature as the racing is just as fun as the rest of the game.  In fact, Id was so confident about their racing component that the games versus multiplayer mode is vehicular combat, NOT FPS player vs player.  To some that may be a sin coming from Id Software, but it really is fun and worth playing.  And there is a co-op online FPS mode that plays out like a horde gametype.  Maybe Id will consider a DLC for FPS deathmatch later on to meet fan demands.

Even with a few minor setbacks in its formula RAGE still reeks of a high quality game.  Sporting a beautifully powerful new game engine, some of the best FPS A.I. seen in years, a fun combat racing portion, a plethora of mini-games, and a long list of quests to complete, RAGE is something truly special for FPS lovers.  Id Software seated this game deeply in traditional old school FPS style fun and added just enough modern features, gameplay diversions and customization to make it flesh out into a great experience all-around.  An incredibly polished game that runs smooth at all times (provided the HDD install was done) with barely even a glitch or bug to be seen.  With all of the other highly anticipated games releasing this Fall, RAGE may fly directly under the radar of most gamers, but without a doubt it’s a game well worth adding to the must-buy list.

Christopher Plummer, a two-time Emmy Award winner, two-time Tony Award winner and Academy Award nominee, takes on the role of Arngeir, a powerful Greybeard elder. An order of philosopher monks who are masters of the Way of the Voice, the Greybeards live in silent isolation atop Skyrim’s largest mountain.

· Diane Louise Salinger (“Carnivale”), Renee Victor (“Weeds”), and Saturday Night Live-alum George Coe (“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”) round out the star-studded cast of more than 70 different voice actors delivering over 60,000 lines of dialogue.

While all four companies have assured the public that credit card and payment information was not compromised, the possibility that customer names, addresses, telephone numbers, encrypted passwords and order histories may have been compromised. The crew here at Pop Culture Shock wants to advise — as a safety measure — if you’re registered with any of the above sites or services, get logged in, change your password and investigate your accounts (particularly bank accounts) for suspicious behavior.

In Hunted, Lawless voices the character of Seraphine, an adventurer-turned-temptress. Under the influence of the Demon Forge’s ancient and powerful evil, she appears as a spirit guide that lures Caddoc and E’lara, the game’s protagonists, into a dark and twisted adventure with promises of great wealth and power.

“Hunted is an incredibly dark, intense game and I’m delighted to have the opportunity to work on such a thrilling project,” said Lucy Lawless. “After playing the heroine for so long it’s refreshing to portray such a villainous, seductive temptress!”

Lawless, who rose to fame through her groundbreaking performance as “Xena: Warrior Princess”, currently stars in the television series, “Spartacus: Gods of the Arena” and recurs on the ABC series “No Ordinary Family”. In addition to these two high-profile roles, she also starred as D’Anna/Number Three in the critically-acclaimed Syfy Channel series “Battlestar Galactica.”

Developed by Bethesda Game Studios® under the direction of Todd Howard, Skyrim will be released on Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, and Games for Windows worldwide on November 11, 2011.

“It’s exciting finally to announce the game,” said Todd Howard, Game Director on Skyrim. “We’ve been working for many years on Skyrim and the technology behind it. A new Elder Scrolls game has been a long time coming, and we can’t wait to show it off.”

We’ll have more details on Skyrim as they break

“We’re excited to continue the partnership between Bethesda and Microsoft, and build on the success of the game add-ons released for Fallout 3 on Xbox LIVE,” said Pete Hines, VP of Marketing and PR of Bethesda Softworks. “Fans will once again be able to continue their experience in the Fallout universe with the add-on packs planned for after the launch of the game.”

The Premium Subscription, which can be purchased for $1.99 per month, billed annually, includes:

· Access to 20 QUAKE LIVE Premium only maps at launch with more to come. Premium maps are a combination of brand new maps and frequently requested community favorites from previous QUAKE games such as Aerowalk, Theater of Pain, Japanese Castles, and Realm of Steel Rats;
· An all new ‘Freeze Tag’ game mode;
· Exclusive premium level awards;
· Create your own clan and join up to five separate clans;
· Custom QUAKE LIVE profile wallpaper; and
· Match statistics stored for six months.

The Pro Subscription, which can be purchased for $3.99 per month, billed annually, includes all of the premium subscription features as well as:

· The ability to start your own game server, specify a server location, determine the game mode and invite who you want to join you;
· With the Pro Subscription, you can invite three friends with Standard level memberships to play with you in any Premium level map;
· Exclusive pro awards;
· Create your own clan and join up to ten separate clans; and
· Match statistics stored for 12 months.

The QUAKE LIVE ‘Standard’ version is still free to play and includes friend lists, access to one clan, matchmaking, and stats tracking delivered through a web browser with more than 40 arenas and five game modes.

To create a QUAKE LIVE account and for more information please visit: http://www.quakelive.com.

Fallout 3 will release on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on October 28th. Stay tuned.