QuakeCon happenings ...

Wow, things are flying fast and exciting at QuakeCon, id Software's love-fest for all things id.

First, they've finally announced their new game, Rage, which will be a first-person shooter adventure thing. id's CEO Todd Hollenshead summed up the game:

"It's more than just a first-person shooter, we will show vehicles and racetracks, driving and racing elements," he said. "It is an action-oriented game but with a lot of adventure elements. It will be story driven, but you can also choose your own route to go through things."

Perhaps even more exciting, the game will built on the new id Tech 5 engine, which makes the promise to "allow a developer to create games for the Mac, the PC, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 simultaneously by using identical media for all four platforms". If the promise holds out, this is huge.

Why? Because you don't need separate development teams for each port, and you effectively quadruple your target platforms and quarter your resources (that is, mathematically; after living through a lifetime of "write once, debug everywhere" Java realities, I'll wait until the end of the year when they start licensing to other folks).

Also announced was a free web-based version of Quake 3 multiplayer, dubbed Quake Zero. Free, and supported via in-game ads.

And the fragfest classic Quake Arena will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade.

On the partnership front, id and Valve Software have signed an agreement to make most of the id library distributable on the Steam distribution service. The full list is available on Kotaku.com.

As far as the Hollywood connection, Hollenshead said id Software did license film rights for Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and Roger Avary (Silent Hill, Beowulf) will be writing and directing the movie. Not badmouthing the Doom movie, Hollenshead did say they wanted to "learn to do things better". (Good thing they didn't ask John Carmack his thoughts.)

Allegedly, "B.J. Blazkowicz" will remain the name of the lead character in the film. Hope they call him whatever "B" is short for, or "Beej", or something.

Check out Kotaku.com's posts tagged "QUAKECON07" to see more QuakeCon news.