Carmack on Rage on Gamasutra is an interview with id Software technical director John Carmack, discussing technical details about
RAGE, id's upcoming first-person shooter. Topics include MegaTexture, framerates (and how discernable the differences are being 30, 60, and 120 FPS), engine licensing, developing for multiple platforms, integrated graphics (he says they "expect Rage to be able to run 30 frames per second on Sandy Bridge cards), and more.
Obsidian's Five Hard Lessons Of RPG Design on Gamasutra recaps points made on the topic of RPG design from a talk given by J.E. Sawyer of Obsidian Entertainment. He offers a detailed breakdown of the following five principles:
Mechanical chaos is frustrating, what you can perceive is the most important thing, strategic failures are the biggest disappointing failures for players, the idea of player vs. character is a false dichotomy, and good gameplay is better than whatever your ideas or whatever the player's expectations are.
Here's Valve's list of the ten bestselling titles on their
Steam service for the past week:
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
- From Dust
- Bastion
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
- SPAZ
- Prototype
- Portal 2
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- Dead Island
- Terraria
My mini-road trip has concluded, and I'm safely ensconced back in the BlueTower. Things went pretty smoothly every step of the way, and hopefully I didn't miss that much news that will require further catching up. Thanks for your indulgence!
Twitter 
