Doom and Rage (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) developer id Software has joined Bethesda Softworks under the wings of new parent company ZeniMax. A press release announcing the acquisition of the former by the latter has just been released.

We know that some of you got pretty excited when we mentioned that Doom 4 was announced back in May. That said, id's Todd Hollenshead and John Carmack recently revealed some new information on Doom 4. It's not a lot of info, but we like what they're saying, at the very least. More after the jump!

At id Software's QuakeCon, John Carmack stole the show with a rather perplexing announcement: the iconic programmer predicted that the Xbox 360 version of their upcoming shooter Rage will look worse than the PC, PlayStation 3 and Mac versions. Find out why in the full article up next.

If you're familiar with videogame piracy, then you'd know about the harmful effects it can do to the industry, and in this update we hear about NVIDIA game boss Roy Taylor speaking about how it's unfair that piracy is still rampant, even though he believes we're at a point where it shouldn't even exist. All his opinions and statements about this matter after the jump, so read on and find out just what this means to you.

Whether it's Turkey Day or Christmas, we feel the need to thank the greatest figures in video game history for their contributions that made gaming as fun as it is today. For decades, we've seen creative minds emerge and bring forward games that amaze the world, but they don't get much recognition. But now, we have enough time to list down some of the greatest geniuses behind phenomenal landmarks like Mario, Wolfenstein 3D, and even The Sims.

 You can't talk about PC gaming without giving a nod in John Carmack's direction, the man behind the legendary FPS games Doom and Quake. In a recent interview about the newly launched id Mobile, he mentions the current state of PC gaming and the enormous role Blizzard's World of Warcraft plays on the gaming platform.

Read more about what John Carmack had to say after the jump!

id Software bigwig John Carmack recently posted a message on the Splashdot forums reaffirming that his company's published games can run on Linux given the right amount of effort from the programming community.

"There is certainly no plans for a commercially supported linux version of Rage, but there will very likely be a linux executable made available," writes Carmack. "It isn't running at the moment, but we have had it compiled in the past."

Carmack stresses that "it really only takes one interested programmer to make it happen" as he explained that running on additional platforms usually provides some code quality advantages.

The id boss further elaborates that the PC version is still OpenGL, but it is possible that could change before release. "The actual API code is not very large, and the vertex / fragment code can be easily translated between cg/hlsl/glsl as necessary," he reveals.

"I am going to at least consider OpenGL 3.0 as a target, if Nvidia, ATI, and Intel all have decent support. there really won't be any performance difference between GL 2.0 / GL 3.0 / D3D, so the api decision will be based on secondary factors, of which inertia is one," concludes Carmack.

A lot of heat is on id Software's latest title after the revelation at QuakeCon 2007, and we know what eye-candy lovers and high-end machines are on about. We're not sure how much of a racer-FPS mix Rage will be, but the engine behind it is 100% beef. We can't help but be amazed as John Carmack gave everyone a skinny on what Tech 5 has to offer.

It's almost undeniable that Rage looks insane, and we can give Tech 5 credit for that. In this video, Carmack demonstrates the engine's rendering capabilities. What we get is an environment made up of 80GB worth of uncompressed textures. Through some smart coding and Carmack's genius, the game should fit a single Blu-ray or 2 DVDs.

Developing for multiple platforms always posed technical challenges, but id may have found the groundbreaking solution. As shown in the videos, Rage is running on PC, PS3, Xbox 360, and Mac. According to Carmack, the Tech 5 engine takes away most problems multi-platform games encounter during development.

There are more reasons why Tech 5 may give Unreal Engine 3 a run for the money, so here's Carmack presenting id's new baby.

Part 2 after the jump!

Imagine Unreal Tournament populated with single or multi-manned vehicles, each contraption upgradeable with spoils of battle earned with every battle, race, or both. Twisted Metal meets Unreal Tournament 3? Perhaps. But reports coming in from the on-going QuakeCon 2007 were sure that id Software's John Carmack identified the game as Rage - a new (possibly multi-platform) game demonstrating id's new Tech 5 engine.

 

Now details are currently very scarce, as the presentation by Carmack was all about Tech 5, but a visual demonstration pitting what appeared to be similar to Unreal Tournament 2004's Scorpion assault buggy against other similar multi-manned vehicles played into many a speculative imagination - including the fact that it (just might) be available to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gamers, aside from Mac and PC gamers worldwide.

More information seems to be on the way as the prominent PC LAN fest continues toward August 5 - the anticipation culminating somewhere in-between when Carmack finally renders his keynote. But all that has been preempted with a short description regarding the "content" demonstrated with Tech 5. Rage was painted as a half running and shooting, half driving and destruction racing game, every aspect apparently focused on arcade action, team-play, and closed-track racing circuits.

According to IGN, the visuals were notably impressive. The demonstration touted the engine's graphical capabilities together with completely diverse detail emphasized, as the looped video coursed through the game's racing arena. More on this as the news whacks us back to Timbuktu. Keep your eyes glued to this space, folks!

John Carmack, id Software co-founder and technical director, was unveiled as a surprise guest during Apple CEO Steve Jobs' keynote at this year's Worldwide Developers' Conference. While that may not be big news in and of itself to most readers, what Carmack brought to the keynote is.

   

According to Engadget, Carmack gave audiences at WWDC07 a first look at Tech 5, id Software's new game engine. Details about the engine are still scarce, but Carmack did give audiences a peek at some of the features that come packed with Tech 5.

What we've got here is the entire world with unique textures, 20GB of textures covering this track. They can go in and look at the world and, say, change the color of the mountaintop, or carve their name into the rock. They can change as much as they want on surfaces with no impact on the game.

More details about Tech 5 are expected to surface come E3. Carmack also noted that the engine was being geared towards the Mac, PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 gaming platforms. Yes, the Mac. Carmack also revealed that another announcement involving the Mac would be made at E3.