Doom 4 Delayed because of Rage

Although Rage offered dated - and arguably boring - gameplay it did offer stunning animation and visuals, serving better as a visual tech demo for id Software's latest and greatest game engine: id Tech 5. That same engine is being used by the ZeniMax Media-owned developer for their next major project in Doom 4.

According to the developer, the game will be different from its other shooters and more importantly, it will please fans of the franchise. We heard this last year from id Software’s design director Matt Hooper and at QuakeCon 2012 during the keynote, John Carmack provided another little Doom 4 update.

Carmack took to the stage yesterday as QuakeCon 2012 kicked off and while discussing why they closed up development on their mobile products - to focus on "grand slam" projects that they and Bethesda are all about - he explained that that talent they wanted to bring onto the "Doom 4 project."

"The Bethesda family really is about swinging for the fences. I hope that we do get back to mobile in various ways in the future, but the big, real aim is blockbuster triple-A titles, and for Id that means Doom 4. That means we get the whole company behind that after we get Doom 3, the BFG edition out the door. Then, essentially everybody will be focused on Doom 4 as a project."

When Doom 3 released, built on the id Tech 4 engine, it quickly became the most successful game for id Software. It helped that it was critically acclaimed but it did have a few issues in that it strayed quite a bit from the gameplay style of the original Doom games and focused more on horror elements. Remember the stupid flashlight system (and the awesome duct tape mod)?

With Doom 4 ideally learning from the few mistakes of Doom 3 and the many issues with Rage - which Carmack admitted to, especially for PC users - we have high expectations from id's (likely) next-gen shooter. Carmack says the game will be "done when it's done" which is the right approach to take, not building based on a released date and hopefully not coming out with a ton of bugs a la Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

If you're excited for Doom 4 check out the mysterious leaked concept art.

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Source: QuakeCon 2012