http://kotaku.com/5851953/doom-4-indefinitely-postponed-following-rages-disappointing-launch

Doom 4 pretty much cancelled.

"Zenimax and Bethesda made the decision based on the "the issues and reviews" surrounding RAGE's launch, which in their eyes has demonstrated "a serious lack of confidence in the project management at id".

"company wide meeting held in Dallas, Bethesda and parent company Zenimax made the decision to "indefinitely postpone" development of Doom 4"

This is what happens when you sell your soul to the casual console market and backstab your entire fanbase.

"Remember that, before you get too invested in this, at the moment the news is entirely unconfirmed."

Let's wait and see.
But since Doom 3 was nothing (NOTHING at all) similar to the Good Old Dooms (GODs), I don't feel so bad about this "news".

Zenimax are still not what you would call a AAA Publisher and I believe they had invested a lot of money in Rage so none of this comes as a surprise. The warning signs around id were there for all to see with staff gradually leaving and only Carmack remaining and we all know Carmack only cares about the engine, not the game design. The worst thing is id Tech 5 doesn't even deliver on it's promises, it's left trailing behind Cryengine 3 and Frostbyte 2.

Edit: George Broussard had this to say on twitter: "@georgeb3dr: If true, I blame the pub weasels at Z for lack of faith."

Yes that's THE George Broussard who spent the last decade wasting publisher money on Duke Nukem Forever.

Well at least they're saying its a lack of confidence in the people at iD rather than because the PC is 'so last week', '105% pirated', 'teh ghey' or something equally farcical

Isn't that just a rumour? Anyway I hope id gets as far away from beth as possible. Nothing good can come of working "under" that awful company.

That's sort of my thought. I liked the graphics of Doom 3, but it was a real challenge getting the room dark enough during the day to be able to make out what was going on in the game due to excessive darkness.

The original game was a lot better in that respect as you didn't have large dark areas that weren't punctuated by flickering lights.

The cancellation of Doom 4 doesn't have to be bad news at all.

Consider it, neither the story nor the setting made the game so great. It was the gameplay and the "feel of the game". Things like that aren't bound to a licence. I rather have a great original shooter, than another medicore sequel.

Think about Bioshock. Nobody knows if it could have been a great System Shock 3, but at least in terms of setting and feel it was unique.

I would rather see a franchise pass away in dignity than going the way of "Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (the PS shooter)" or "Larry, Magna Cum Laude".

If a story is told, let it be. I do not want Torment 2: Planescapes at War.

I still find amazing how the original and sequel still gives me more chills than Doom 3.

Not only that. Cutscenes (doom is a man's game! NO cutscenes! Now where's my meat??) , PDA Messages and the lack of hordes of monsters - i don't remember fighting more than 3 monsters at a time.

Doom 3 is not exactly the best example of this picture, but it was a start.

http://s-ak.buzzfed.com/static/imagebuzz/terminal01/2010/11/8/14/fps-map-design-then-and-now-10705-1289245688-26.jpg

hee hee, that pic always gives me giggles.

Actually this just appears to be nothing more than Kotaku reporting crap in order to get page views.

Indeed. Complete denial by Bethesda in blunt words.

Nothing to see here.

Ok, I really don't understand this at all. As far as I've heard, the only thing that made Rage a "casual console" game was its pop in and lack of graphics options. Unfortunate, of course, but hardly a "selling of the soul." And heck, they released a patch almost instantly that solved a lot of the problems.

It also has regenerating health, the "open" world is very very small, the enemies are never challenging (not even on the hardest difficulty).

There is basically nothing challenging about the whole game, just follow the silly storyline without meeting any memorable characters for 8-10 hours and reach the unsatisfying ending.

oh.

Ok, well that's sounding more and more like a console game.

Guess Croteam is our only hope, now that People Can Fly is being corrupted by Epic and Id Software is taking orders from Bethesda.

In id's defence I must admit the actual gunplay felt satisfying at times. The engine itself is technically impressive but looks awful for the end user because it shipped with low-res textures to keep the dl size somewhat manageable.