GTA IV to use RAGE engine?

PS3 Rumour | The Renderware replacement?

If rumours are to be believed, the next Grand Theft Auto IV will use a brand new engine. Apparently the game will use the RAGE engine, which stands for Rockstar Advanced Game Engine. It's the same engine that is utilised in Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis, so it's clear the engine is quite capable.

The current GTA game engine uses Criterion's Renderware middleware technology. EA purchased Criterion a couple of years ago, so Rockstar has to pay royalties each time they use the middleware, so it would make sense for them to create their own middleware, presuming they utilise it across the company's many divisions.

There are always rumours circulating when it comes to Grand Theft Auto, so when we know what the situation is, we'll report back.

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23 Comments

Jim Dash

5 years ago

If this engine is better, which it would be, then who would have a problem with it?

The same engine used in table tennis, applied to a huge open-ended world..will be interesting, to say the least.

Cerebral

5 years ago

Interesting in the sense that the areas for Table Tennis are quite small, so it allows more polygons to be focused on the character models and such (hence why they look so good). When applied to a scale that is thousands of times larger than a Table Tennis match, at what expense will this come at?

Frozencry

5 years ago

^The engine used in table tennis is designed for small areas and such, but then again the engine can be modified without much of a problem to counter that issue. I mean look at the Quake 3 engine, Call of Duty, Allied Assault and quite a few other games used it, and they're all quite different.

NismoR34

5 years ago

Not to mention how much Renderware was modified for the various games it was used in.

~DESTROY~

5 years ago

Hurry Up:))

slapshakle

5 years ago

Didn't Renderware originaly come from Criterion (sp) ?

Jim Dash

5 years ago

What? Did you read the article? They're NOT using renderware for IV and have developed their own middleware, so as not to have to pay royalties to criterion.

Gtpod

5 years ago

If the playable area's not significantly bigger than San Andreas, I am gonna be very disappointed...

ugh the boot

5 years ago

^ are you kidding?! San Andreas was HUGE!!! I would prefer it to be of the same size of even smaller but have a lot more details (e.g able to go into all buildings and shops etc, more pedestrian/vehicle interaction such as grabbing onto the backs of cars when using bikes etc, or being able to use people as human shields).

The missions in GTA are starting to feel a little stale so they better focus on the gameplay and it's mechanics a bit more this time. I'm sick of driving half way across town, failing a mission and then reloading having to drive all the bloody way again (they better put a quick load option when you die cuz I hate losing all my weapons).

Gtpod

5 years ago

^ Annoyances like that are removed as a reward for side missions in SA; like dating one of the girls (maybe the one shooting at Ammunation) means you don't lose weapons when you're arrested and some other girl lets you keep all weapons when you die. I expect the same thing will be carried over to the next game.

The ability to go into every single building would shorten the playable area far, far too much. I've been playing SA for almost a year now and I've only recently found I don't ever have to look at the map anymore. It's taken probably a few months solid gameplay time to memorise the entire thing, which I like. Primarily, I just don't want to see an improvement of graphics at the cost of playable areas (by which I mean cities/small villages/etc., not huge barren wastelands, deserts and woodland that wasted so much space in SA).

wobbler

5 years ago

I just hope they can get the 'feel' of the controls the same using thier own game engine. It seems that quite a few people were anoyed by the large amounts of driving in SA as part of missions, and the fact that you would have to drive halfway across the state if a mission was failed. Perhaps Rockstar should think about impementing some sort of subsectioning of missions that are easily broken down into travel/action components, and allow an auto save function if a subsection is passed successfully.

I have always thought that rockstar could easily sell addon mission packs to extend the life thier GTA games much further. No extra areas would be needed, just a new story with another 100 or so missions to complete wouldn't be that hard to put together (well, from a technical point of view anyway). Maybe even throw in a few extra cars/weapons to keep the punters happy. But of course this would only work on a pc or console with hard drive.

Another thing I would like to see added to the series is some sort of platformer abitilies (ie jumping between different objects) which would need the character to have better acrobatics abilities(with a combination of different jumps). Then GTA games would cover almost all genres in one game.

ugh the boot

5 years ago

^ Yea I like those ideas. I was a little incorrect in saying I wanted to go inside 'all' buildings but I would still like a lot more of them open to exploration.

And I don't wanna gain the ability to not lose weapons 1/2 way thru the game after doing some tedious side missions....I want it from the start! What are they gonna do next restrict saving untill you complete all the vigilante missions?! It's a stupid annoyance and it needs to be removed from the game alltogether, I don't wanna unlock it like it's some special fetaure.

I mainly buy/play the game for the radio stations anyways....so all they need to do is keep making those awesome stations for me to pick it up.

Gtpod

5 years ago

^ Well they implemented the weapons loss for realism. Being arrested and not having a katana/sniper rifle/rocket launcher taken off you would be ridiculously unrealistic. It's not that annoying anyway, it's so easy to find other weapons (find some body armour and kill police for their handguns to name but one method), especially when you hit Las Venturas and make $100 million in a couple of hours.

And the girlfriend's available when San Fierro is, which is probably 1/5 of the way through. Also, tedious side mission it's not, all you've got to do is talk to her once.

I hope they can make the radio stations a decent length next time; I'm certain they're actually shorter in SA than in VC. And worse. I only ever listened to K-DST and VCPR, which I got bored of after a couple of hours gameplay, so now I just mute it and listen to real music on my iPod.

ugh the boot

5 years ago

^ If they wanted to implement realism they shouldnt've put the ability to jump out of a car when it's going top speed. Also you should die on motorcycle accidents when you're going too fast. And.....as if the police are gonna release you after a couple of hours after you've shot up a neighbourhood or murdered 100 people. Yea realism that's GTA for ya! And it is annoying cuz I like stocking up on weapons so picking up a couple of handguns just doesn't suffice.

EDIT: And what a stupid place to put such an unlockable. How about they make it a little more intuitive and make that sort of thing available after you do a couple cop missions/side missions or something. Seriously what does your g/f have to do with not having your weapons taken off you when you get busted?! I played thru the whole game (once) and tried to take in and do as much as possible and I didn't know about this g/f thing! Cuz when you get a g/f in Los Santos all you do is take her to some stupid bar/club/restaurant so I figured all girlfriends from there on were some sort of stupid novelty.

Infested Jibbs

5 years ago

My stupid hoe gf you meet in orange grove started a drive by on her first date with me when we were driving around and the cops promptly pulled her out of the car and beat the sh!t out of her.

Oh well, easy come easy go.

But the weapons thing hmmm, both you and pod have good points, it's more of an issue mid game when you have stocked up on some good weapons and plenty of ammo due to not dying on various missions and it is disheartening to see them all gone when you do die/get busted.Maybe they should take a leaf out of oblivions book and have all weapons confiscated, but put in some sort of 'evidence box', deep within the bowels of the police station/hospital where you have to either fight your way to get to them and out again or sneak your way in, using various stolen uniforms etc.

But basically you need someway of keeping your weapon stocks in check.In some missions where you cap about ten thousand baddies, all with mp5's which they drop, you can aquire so much ammo you could start operation desert storm yourself.It would start to unbalance the game as you do missions with extreme firepower that you prolly shouldn't have.Maybe to combat this they should also add a weight limit to what you can carry.Say only one rocket launcher at a time, etc etc.This could be upgraded throughout the game as you buy bigger backpacks/get stronger from pumping iron etc.

There are alot of things right with the game but there are alot of things wrong with it too.Personally i'd love to have vigilante fleshed out even more.

I LOVE being the cop and chasing down scum, and pretending i'm Sherrif John Burnell off that show cops, and spouting stupid one liners like he does, 'this crook forgot to count on one thing......his stupidity' and 'this criminal thought he was a cool customer...........but now he can chill out.......IN JAIL!

ugh the boot

5 years ago

Hey I love the GTA series so i'm in no way trying to bag it....i was just pointing out a couple of things (imo) that I would like to have changed/cleaned up that's all.

GTPod actually pointed out a couple of things that I was completely unaware of and since knowing these things I have a little bit more respect for the game/developers because the fact that they have put things in there of that nature do show they are trying very hard to improve all aspects of the game.

As you pointed out the game is absolutely huge so it will obviously take them a couple of tries to get certain things right.

I would completely agree with you about having too many weapons resulting in balancing issues but when the targeting system is 1/2 broken you need that advantage.

Since GTA II my mates and I like to do something we call 'The Stand'. We basically find an area of the map (once we've stocked up on weapons of choice)....and then we kill as much stuff as possible and get the wanted level all the way up. Once this is done the timer starts and you have to see how long you can survive with martial law.

And LOL

to Sheriff Burnell.

wobbler

5 years ago

ugh the boot wrote

I would completely agree with you about having too many weapons resulting in balancing issues but when the targeting system is 1/2 broken you need that advantage.

The targeting system is not broken if you play on a pc with a mouse, you just aim and shoot. I have always got the GTA games on pc and the kids use the ps2 (which I refuse to do missions for them if its on the ps2 because of the targeting system).

Gtpod

5 years ago

ugh the boot wrote

Seriously what does your g/f have to do with not having your weapons taken off you when you get busted?!

She works for the police.

Just like another girlfriend who lets you keep weapons after dying works for the hospitals, another owns her own paint 'n' spray and another gives you free weapons.

I totally agree with you on stocking up tons of weapons, I do it myself - now that I have $60 million in my back pocket. Missions in LS are so easy you don't need a large array of weapons, just some pistols you stole off gang members will do. From SF onwards, yeah, you might need a few more weapons to do some slightly harder missions, so that's why the girlfriend's there.

As for those other points of realism, they would be real annoyances that would anger far too many people. Coming off your bike and dying instantly would be too much... I only really ever use bikes and a reward for that is never really coming off it due to a combination of "Bike Skill" as set by the game and real skill in knowing how to use it. I'd agree that the police should maybe keep you in longer, but it would have to either be a few hours, or a full week, because a lot of people play the game using the time system (weekend-only races, that thing that Cesar phones you about [that I never did], import/export etc.]. I also agree that you should take some damage when jumping out of a car, but man am I glad that it was added to the game.

But yeah, as was said, it's gonna be pretty hard to get the game 100% realistic, and for so many reasons it just can't be. I'm happy with it as it is though.

Also, on the targeting thing, I had to buy SA for Xbox 'cause my PC can barely run F.E.A.R.; I own both VC and GTA3 on PC and the targeting is so much better on the latter two. Though, I've never had problems targeting on SA, so what exactly is meant by it not being as good? Is it just the fact that it's not completely free? I find the two trigger aim-and-shoot system to work fine against multiple enemies if I've got twin sawn-offs or an AK, 'cause it doesn't matter where it hits them; for fewer enemies, the fine-tune aming with an analogue stick is fast enough to aim for each person's head as well.

Man, all this GTA talk has made me want to play VC...

ugh the boot

5 years ago

Vice City (imo) is the best.

I also only use bikes in San Andreas aswell cuz once you've got your bike skill up it's exhilarating zooming around without stacking.

The aiming system is broken in the sense that it doesn't put preference over threats, enemies etc when targeting. When you're getting gunned down by 3 FBI agents you want your targeting reticule to choose one of these 3 agents when pressed but the game can (and will) sometimes target pedestrians etc... so that's how it's broken. I can imagine it being a lot more solid in the PC version because of the mouse.

That's great that these girls let you keep your weapons etc...but that still doesn't change the fact that i'd like to have a quickload option...which is all I really want. After what you've told me about the g/f's i'm still not gonna go and unlock this as dating those girls is so tedious. Put in a quick load....problem solved for fanatics and casual gamers.

I always buy the game at launch so i've only ever owned the ps2 versions.

Gtpod

5 years ago

ugh the boot wrote

The aiming system is broken in the sense that it doesn't put preference over threats, enemies etc when targeting. When you're getting gunned down by 3 FBI agents you want your targeting reticule to choose one of these 3 agents when pressed but the game can (and will) sometimes target pedestrians etc... so that's how it's broken. I can imagine it being a lot more solid in the PC version because of the mouse.

Ahh, I see. I experienced that earlier today, actually; that exact situation you described (but with ~12 agents

ugh the boot wrote

After what you've told me about the g/f's i'm still not gonna go and unlock this as dating those girls is so tedious. Put in a quick load....problem solved for fanatics and casual gamers.

Well... I can understand not doing it during the story of the game, 'cause it does take time to take them out, but once you've pretty much done everything (I'm on about 94.55% complete and don't really want/need to do any more) and are just playing to doss around, I'd advise doing it; primarily because at that point, a) you don't need to save, 'cause the only difference you'll be making to your save is slight loss/gain of money or minor changes to stats and b) I don't think it's possible to pass enough time in the game with an entire day's playing to have a girlfriend dump you. You seriously just need to talk to them once, not go out on a date or anything, and you'll get the benefits I mentioned earlier.

EDIT: Oh yeah, quick load; surely you mean quick save? Loading can be done anywhere at any time and (on the Xbox at least) it's not exactly slow. Also, soon as you hit LV and have hundreds of millions in your back pocket (chalk another up for "realism", that's a big pocket) you only need to travel a couple of blocks in any area to find somewhere you can save. I know it's inconvenient travelling around to save every second in case you die, but again, that's what the girlfriends are there for really.

ugh the boot

5 years ago

I just hate getting busted/wasted and then waiting for it load up from the hospital or the police station and then loading your save file. There should be an option to quick load your last game as soon as you die/get busted. This option should take much less time than loading a normal saved game. I guess you would need a quick save option aswell then.

Once I finish the story on the GTA games I rarely keep playing them (although I do try and do as much as possible on that 1 play through) so I guess those options not to lose weapons and stuff would be for more casual players. Quite honestly if I had known it would've been so easy in the story game I would've done right away.

DancesInUnderwear

5 years ago

ugh the boot wrote

Quite honestly if I had known it would've been so easy in the story game I would've done right away.

I don't have nay of the GTAs, and about the only time I do play consists of me putting on the weapons cheat and running around shooting the crap out of stuff, but based on what you said there, maybe they just need to have some not-so-subtle hints about that instead of just replacing it entirely.

Tristan

5 years ago

ugh the boot wrote

The missions in GTA are starting to feel a little stale so they better focus on the gameplay and it's mechanics a bit more this time.

I couldn't agree with you more. GTA has kind of gone the way that Tony Hawk went a while ago. Better graphics and more realistic physics do not always make a better game.

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Grand Theft Auto IV

Pre-order or buy:
PALGN recommends: www.Play-Asia.com

Australian Release Date:
  29/04/2008 (Confirmed)
Standard Retail Price:
  $119.95 AU
Publisher:
  Rockstar Games
Genre:
  Action
Year Made:
  2007

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