When I saw John Carmack show off Rage on the iPhone a few months back, I was rather excited. The promise of real console-like graphics were in our grasp. Then, the game finally came out and I was initially blown away, but then...

Rage HD on iPad is set in a post-apocalyptic future. Typical of these types of games where you play a contestant out to earn money by defeating mutants. The game is set in a first-person shooter (FPS) perspective, but it is on rails. This means the game "moves" for you and you are only allowed to maneuver the cursor on screen at any given time. This is okay, as the games visuals are amazing and this style of game worked really well for Doom Resurrection on iPhone.

The screen is comprised of only a few buttons. The left side is meant solely to move the cursor, target enemies, etc. The right side has the action button (to shoot and pick up items like health, ammo, etc), dodge button (the enemy throws bricks at you), reload weapon and select weapon. If the touch screen modality does not work for you, there is a tilt option as well as lefty mode and other configurable choices such as inverted axis and more.

As you start a level, you immediately notice there are several bulls-eyes scattered among the levels. By shooting them, you increase your score. As enemy mutants appear, you target and shoot them. You can often get a one-shot fill if you time your shots appropriately; you get a special reticule when you in the correct area to pull it off.

As you maneuver your cursor around the screen trying to take out bulls-eyes and mutants, you will notice you can also pick up money, health and ammo bonuses; your cursor turns into a green hand. The ammo comes in particularly handy as I found I ran out of ammo a little too fast. The good news is that you have a pistol with unlimited ammo, but takes forever to reload. However, I have played entire levels with just the pistol with no problem. The additional weapons that you can find ammo for are the shotgun and automatic weapon.

The games graphics are really, really good. I mean, really good. It is a testament to iOS's capabilities. No slowdown, plenty of particles flying at you and a ton of action. But this is where the problems begin for this game. It's gorgeous. But that is all it's got. You only have three levels of play, you fight the same enemies over and over. Rage HD is literally a $2.00 technology demo. It wouldn't be so bad (since the game is clearly score based) if you had Game Center support to see where you rank on the leaderboards and add some challenges with achievements. Alas, none of these options exist.

I am impressed with id's effort in this title to bring an amazing console experience to our beloved iOS devices. I am not impressed with the paltry three stages and lack of Game Center support. Should you get this game? It's hard to tell. It is only $2.00, and will hardly break the bank. You will enjoy it till you beat the three levels and you will be left with the insatiable need for more. I am happy to have played it, but after 30 minutes (that is how long it takes to beat all of the levels) you are left with a very, very, very empty feeling.

[$1.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Amazing graphics
• Fun to play
• Varying levels of difficulty
• Different versions of the game for newer/older hardware
• Universal app for iPhone/iPad

Cons

• Only three levels
• Only two types of enemies (really only one type if you want to get picky)
• You are playing for what amounts to a tech demo
• No Game Center support (missing leader boards, achievements, etc)

DOOOOOOOOOM! [$9.99 - iTunes link] That's right, the mother of all Martian first person shooters (FPS) is in the App Store now:

-Advanced graphics engine designed from the ground up to take full advantage of the power found in Apple’s mobile devices -Wield an arsenal of heavy-hitting weapons to defeat a variety of hideous monsters and bosses -Innovative controls for fast-paced and accessible first-person action -An all-new chapter of the DOOM saga that new players and long-time DOOM fans can enjoy

How does a golden oldie translate to the newest, greatest mobile platform? If you try it out, and live to tell the tale, let us know what you think!

John Carmack has written an update on his Doom port for the iPhone, and he's continuing the same candor he began with his Wolfenstein 3D post. What are we getting? A classic in almost every sense of the word:

Before I actually started coding on the project, I had visions of adding a lot of modern tuned effects to the core gameplay experience. It would certainly stay a sprite-and-sector based game, but there are many things that would be done differently with the benefit of a GPU and the wisdom of hindsight. Once I began actually working on it, it started to look like a bad idea for a number of reasons. I am trying to not be very disruptive in the main codebase, because I want it to stay a part of prBoom instead of being another codebase fork. While I can certainly add a bunch of new features fairly quickly, iterating through a lot of user testing and checking for problems across the >100 commercial Doom levels would take a lot longer. There really is value in " classic" in this case, and there would be some degree of negative backlash to almost any "improvements" I made. There will still be a couple tiny tweaks, but nothing radical is changing in the basic play. It would be fun to take a small team, permanently fork it, and make a "Doom++" just for the iPhone, but that wouldn't be the best first move. Maybe later.

Check out the full post for more on his experiences with iPhone game development.

[Thanks to Icebike for the tip!]

Waaaaaay back in the early days of the iPhone, word spread that legendary creator of 3D first person shooters like Wolfenstein and Doom, John Carmack was eager to develop games for the iPhone. Well, hopefully good things come to those who wait, because Carmack has just posted news that Wolfenstein is on its way, and there's more to come.

In a monstrous blog post, Carmack explains what took so long, the pros (graphics more capable than Nintendo DS) and cons (driver overhead is far, far worse), design notes, and programming.

Must read for anyone interested in iPhone development and id games. For those who just want to play, Wolfenstein is coming, Doom is coming, and undisclosed but hopefully uber-cool new id-goodness is coming.

So, who's loading their chain guns?

You know, you know: the iPhone ranks up there with the PSP for sheer gaming power, heck John Carmack has said it could even be in the same category as the PS2 or the Xbox. Carmack speaks out on the iPhone often enough that TiPb seems to have a full-on crush on the guy. One tidbit that we missed during his last talk comes to us via Apple Insider and it puts our pie-in-the-sky gaming hopes in the proper context:

The verdict is also out on whether Apple has a concrete grasp of gaming, the id co-founder said. The company's reception to criticism has also been counterintuitive, which has led to its relationship with id being something akin to a roller-coaster ride.
Apple essentially kisses his ass when they need him to show up for one of Steve Jobs' keynotes, but then throws him the cold shoulder the second he passes judgement, Carmack said.

Ouch. Here's one way to get Apple to sit up and take notice, Carmack: deliver that 'graphical tour-de-force' for the iPhone you've been chatting up post haste. It's a lot easier to get a company to kiss your ass when they can wipe it with $100 bills you've helped them earn. Just saying.

Meanwhile, the gaming potential of the iPhone is hitting the mainstream media, as Time Magazine profiles the various happenings on the gaming front. Coming soon: a genuine multiplayer-over-WiFi game (Asphalt 4) and, Spore Origins (SQUEEE!), featuring "18 levels of game play and an 'Arena' mode for competing with others around the globe." We've all been waiting for Spore for so long now that we're pretty sure that when it's finally playable on the iPhone, we'll be so enmeshed in the game for so long that actual evolution will likely occur on a massive scale without us noticing it.

First up, legendary id Software founder and Doom and Quake mastermind John Carmack spoke to Forbes about iPhone gaming:

"We wanted to do something for the iPhone, but we just didn't have the scheduling or the resources available. I really regret not having something at launch. We have a title we want to develop exclusively for iPhone. I'm not announcing anything specifically, but it would be a graphical tour de force."

id clarifies it will be an existing property, and Carmack goes on to say the iPhone is Xbox or PS2 class when it comes to power, a little lighter on the graphics, but a lot heavier on the RAM, and when (and if) the business model makes sense, he could easily see spending $10M on developing an iPhone game.

Next up, TUAW covers the Torque Game Engine and its recent release for the iPhone. Torque would sit on top of the OpenGL ES system and help developers create better graphical experiences faster via their Game Builder software.

Lastly, Gizmodo shows some video of the updated NES emulator (for jailbroken iPhone's and iPod Touch) which adds accelerometer support for increased gaming goodness.

Me thinks iPhone gamers are going to see an amazing second wave of software in the coming months.