Wolf, Doom, Quake and now Rage . If ever you could pinpoint a company's ethos with its game titles, surely you can with id. They want to rock you, scare you, throw you around and pull you into the worlds they craft. And it's no accident that id's previous series have become genre-defining experiences – these are tightly constructed works of programming and design; a marriage of cinematic direction techniques and the tightest possible gameplay.

If that sounds like a lot of hyperbole, just remind yourself of how you felt the first time you saw Doom or Quake – or even the teaser video for Rage. Understand, after walking out of a 45-minute behind-closed-doors session with Rage recently, we understood how id continues to forge ahead in a genre that always seems to teeter on the edge of banality: by looking backwards.

Buzzwords for Fun and Profit

Welcome+to+id's+wasteland+-+no+day/night+cycles+-+just+complete+creative+control+of+how+you+experience+its+next+shooter.

id's Design Ethic

By+utilizing+Megatexture+technology+and+controlling+HDR+lighting,+tonality+and+depth-of-field,+id+hopes+each+player+'feels'+what+was+intended+by+the+design+team.

In an industry that loves its buzzwords, id are just as prone to their headline-grabbing ability. Id Tech 5 , as its' known (a follow-on from id Tech 4, used on Doom 3), is about as close to hands-off content creation as the developer comes these days. John Carmack, Rage's Technical Director, is spearheading an internal movement towards improving the way in which engines handle textures – reducing the need for repeating textures, which in turn gives birth to environments that look stunningly realistic – without the need to significantly boost polygon rendering techniques.The results speak for themselves – but the implications for game design are far more interesting and subtle. Speaking with Tim Willits , Creative Director on Rage, he describes id Tech 5 as fundamental to their design process these days. "The cornerstone of id Tech 5 is megatexture technology; it allows us to make the entire world unique and different. The days of 'space station followed by space station followed by space station' are a thing of the past."The most direct impact is that id Tech 5 takes the pressure off of artists and environmental artists who, these days, seem to be running on a treadmill of ever-increasing geometric complexity as the defining visual trait. Texture effects and clever use of shading and lighting can take the emphasis off complex geometry, which in turn helps designers craft less processor-intensive environments.It might seem obvious in some ways, but the best way to ensure a cohesive and persistent design ethic in a game is to not take short-cuts; specifically, seeking to hand-animate over simulate or hand-populate a landscape over organically generating trees and rocks. And yet, a growing number of developers out there are opting to save time and man-power by relegating some of what used to be essential design work to middleware tools that generate a landscape based on logic and equations."Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein – they're all very id," reflects Willits. "We knew we had to do something different – so why not do something very different?"What id is doing with Rage is returning to the traditional method of creating a game world; intricately crafting every part of the open-world game environment – from the angle of elevation on a rocky cliff-face to the stitch-work steel and iron of Crazy Joe's Shack.If Rage bears more than a passing resemblance to two other games – Fallout 3 and Borderlands – it may come as a surprise to you that all three titles were started at about the same time, according to Gearbox President, Randy Pitchford. "It's really interesting, right – Bethesda, id, Gearbox – all touching this kind of look and feel, and we have this very distinct look and feel to it. And we didn't copy each other – we all started these projects at about the same time."