Introduction, 20 years of id Software, Skyrim, Prey 2

id celebrates 20 years of gaming, first public demo of Skyrim

To commemorate 20 years in the gaming industry, several senior members of id Software came together for a “20 Years of id Software” panel to relive some of the history and mystery surrounding the company. John Carmack, Todd Hollenshead, Kevin Cloud and Tim Willits gave Quakecon gamers a fresh and candid look at id Software’s humble beginnings and an in-depth view of their philsophies on PC, console, and mobile gaming.

 

During the question and answer session, the panel was asked about their advice and opinions on becoming an artist and programmer and their vision of the future of PC and console gaming. At the end of the panel discussion, the id Software team thanked the Quake community for their continued support as well as the Quakecon volunteers for their commitment to making the annual event a success every year. 

 

One pleasant surprise was having G4TV’s Morgan Webb as the panel moderator for the event. Webb was her usual smart and sassy self and helped make the event fun and lively for everyone. Overall, the event was very engaging and we got to see the id Software team in a different light that most gamers don’t get to see from today’s game developers. 

Continue reading our second day coverage from Quakecon!!

Today’s events also included a couple Rage Quick Drive drawings where gamers got to play a couple deathmatches of Rage for two tickets for 2011 Molten Orange Ford F-150 Raptor SVT contest. We also judged the annual case mod contest and took a look around the BYOC for a few more sweet case mods that we can share with our readers. We wrapped up the day by visiting a couple more vendors from InWin, Plantronics, Steelseries, and Gunnar in the exhibition hall.

 

The rest of the day featured the first ever demonstration of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (which we weren’t allowed to photograph or video) and game director Todd Howard confirmed the availability of a limited collector’s edition Skyrim for tbe Xbox 360, PS3, and Games for Windows and can be pre-ordered now for $149.99 in the U.S. when the game is released on Nov. 11 of this year.

 

During the public demo of Skyrim, which was done on an XBox 360 and angered the PC gamers in the crowd, Howard showcased the game’s redesigned UI and also discussed the new characters, creatures, environments, and weaponry of Skyrim. "We wanted to make the virtual fantasy world come to life on the screen," said Howard. "Make you feel like it was the first time you have played one of these games." According to Howard, Bethesda spent alot of time completely redesign the game’s graphics engine and adding new graphics and gameplay not seen in previous Elder Scrolls titles. Howard also took some time giving the audience an overview of all the micro and macro details in Skyrim, which includes countless levels of details to create an immersive and rich environment. "Our view on rendering is we are going to draw all of it," said Howard. Overall, Howard did an excellent job of showcasing the games new features and Skyrim was well received by PC and console gamers alike.

 

We weren’t able to attend the public demo of Prey 2, but Bethesda added some new screenshots of the game on their blog. Human Head’s co-founder Chris Reinhart gave the demo and Prey 2 starts inside the plane where U.S. marshall Killian Samuels somehow survived the crash. The story jumps ahead several years as Samuels wakes up on the planet of Exodus. He has no memory of what happened in between the plane crash and now but apparently he’s been spending time on the planet as a bounty hunter. Prey 2 will focus on Samuels’s adventures in Exodus as he learns what exactly happened to him in those missing years. Fans of the original game will be happy to know that the lead character from Prey, Domasi "Tommy" Tawodi, shows up on Exodus as well and also apparently knows Samuels. Prey 2 is scheduled to be released sometime in 2012.

  

 

Bethesda’s Quakecon 2011 screenshots on Flickr

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