I thought I should make this thread since I have more to talk about Rage and I don't want to derail any more conversations in the off topic thread. So anyway, this morning I got my preordered copy in the mail and spent the next few hours playing the game. My initial verdict - it's quite good!
The world is not open ended. You can't pick a random direction and walk in it forever like Oblivion or the upcoming Skyrim, and consequently, the game is more linear than I anticipated. But that hasn't seemed like such a bad thing so far - confining the player to some limited roads, towns, settlements, and hideouts seems to have allowed id to make each area much more distinct and memorable than any single area of Oblivion was. And at least at this point, there haven't been any moments where I was told "Ok, you've advanced this far in the game, so now you're on level 2 and you can't go back anymore." So essentially there's less exploring to do but the game looks and plays nicely all the way along.
Speaking of looks: the graphics are astounding, even on the Xbox. The game has maintained a constant 60 FPS everywhere I have gone, and while I have occasionally noticed a texture pop in every now and then, it seems to have been hidden very well so that textures in view are placed in high priority over textures out of sight. That said, it should be noted that if you have a keen eye and you spin in place you might notice some blurriness on a few of the textures, but they load in quickly after you've spotted them - at least if you're playing the game off of a hard drive. To those of you who play off the disc: don't expect such good performance. Texture pop ins will be much more noticeable.
The combat is much, much more rewarding than Doom3's was. For starters, the enemies are much more varied and each of them has a unique AI. All of the enemies react to outside forces in a realistic way; mutants scramble over terrain, climbing over obstacles and leaping over gaps, sliding around corners and even fumbling over each other. The bandits provide a different challenge altogether - while you shouldn't expect something along the lines of F.E.A.R., enemies are rather intelligent and you can expect to do plenty of sneaking and hiding if you want to defeat your opponents. All of the enemies react to your fire in a satisfying way as well - enemies stumble, twist, limp and even crawl in their unending effort to kill you - and occasionally their hard efforts reward them.
In regard to your personal arsenal, each weapon now serves a specific use; unless you play on the easiest difficulty mode, don't expect to be able to beat the game with nothing but the shotgun. Grenade physics, a widely acknowledge flaw in Doom 3, are vastly improved this time around. Grenades bounce realistically, handle well, and are quite potent. The pistol, previously a pea shooter, can be upgraded by adding sights and using different types of ammunition - and although I haven't gotten too far into the game, the pistol continues to serve me well.
Characters and side quests are a bit bland, but the diversity here makes up for it. Unlike oblivion, where everyone looked and sounded alike, only the most minor characters share assets with each other - and you don't even find these characters until you've clocked a few hours into the game. And while the side quests are somewhat uninspired, you can be sure that they contain enough action to tide you over to the next big moment.
All in all, there are only a few serious complaints I have about this game - on a 4:3 television set, the field of view is a bit low and it's hard to see enemies approaching from the side. The checkpoint system is also rather bad - early in the game I returned to town from a quest, got my first car, sold a bunch of equipment, bought a new weapon, and headed off on another quest. However, I died shortly after leaving town when my buggy was attacked by some bandits hiding on a wall, and I was promptly taken back to where I had been 20 minutes ago, at the end of my previous quest. That said, save often - RAGE won't do it for you.
The last complaint I have is the price - preordering the game cost me $59.99, and that didn't even get me the full game. If you want to access the sewers - which are Rage's equivalent to Oblivion's cave systems - you have to buy and download them as DLC. The double-barreled shotgun and spiked knuckles also aren't free, and must be downloaded before they can be used. Preordering the game gave me free access to both, but I still have to download the stuff before I can use it, and those who didn't preorder aren't as lucky as I was.
TL;DR: All in all, the game is good - and even if it isn't worth its initial price, if you have any doubt then just wait until it gets cheap and buy it then... and make sure you play it on a widescreen display.
