jdodson: This is totally awesome. I read the PDF they released as part of it, 35 gigs of rad.

So tempted to get this and try my hand at building a crazy level. Hmmmm.

Adym: Sweet, I've never even played RAGE and I think it would be fun to play around with their tools

Gary_Butterfield: All I ever want for game mods is co op, online gameplay. Co op makes shooters great. Otherwise, I think they're mostly merely good.

jdodson: The co-op in Rage is really awesome. Play it often with my friends now. Legends of the Wasteland++. Got almost no attention but its pretty dope fly.

scrypt: I didn't even know Rage had co-op. I have it for Xbox, but barely put much time into it. I'd go back for co-op, though!

jdodson: Yep, split-screen co-op. You have to beat the first level to go on to the next and it has varying difficulty levels. Console and PC versions are good.

da_gaymer: Awesome indeed! Just finished a new playthrough on Ultra Nightmare for the challenge and, of course, the Scorchers missions.
Who didn't like Rage in the first place, will probably not change his mind because of this DLC, but I really, really recommend it to everyone who enjoyed the base game. Fights are intense on Ultra Nightmare, and the new levels come once again with a tight atmosphere. From the lovely welcome by Sarah at the beginning, over a second episode of Mutant Bash TV to the heart of the Scorchers' base where they hide their mysterious construction, this was just great.
Just a bid sad when it was already over, then. However, that doesn't the mean there's a lack of additional content. Also comes with the nailgun as a new weapon (everybody loves nailguns) and two more minigames (made a couple thousand dollars in 15 minutes by playing poker). And there's even a little surprise in Wellspring for you when you finish the last mission. A very good and fair priced piece of DLC.
Hopefully, this tool kit will bring us more like this. I wouldn't expect any more official DLCs, but maybe there are some diligent fans who deliver more action in the Wasteland. :P Might even give it a shot myself I can free up 35GB and find some time.

scrypt: Are you guys mostly playing it on PC then?

da_gaymer: Although Rage also works well on consoles, PC all the way. :P

jdodson: I pre-ordered Rage on the PS3 when I was still primarily playing games on that. Its a GREAT game but a few downsides to playing it on the PS3 saw me migrate to the PC version to beat it. First off saves. Loading and saving take way too long and the game doesn't autosave for you when you enter/exit a room all the time. It only auto-saves when you go to some plot area. No quick save option on console means too much waiting.

The game is a precision shooter to its really hard to be good on the console, or at least I couldn't snipe worth a damn. With a mouse I headshot all the time. Borderlands and Borderlands 2 were better on console in this respect, I imagine they do some automagic aim or something.

The game also looks WAY more pretty on the PC. Its one of the best looking games on a console, but you are missing out if you can't play it on the PC its absolutely beautiful.

In the end, its a great console port with a few flaws that had nothing to do with the overal game perse. It was just a better experience on the PC imo. That said, the console version DOES have legends of the wasteland split-screen which is fun as hell if you have friends over. So buying it on console wasn't a total wash and its not too expensive on the used shelf if you had friends over and wanted some shooter mayhem.

Gary_Butterfield: It's just couch co op or is it online as well? Split screen....

jdodson: Console version of Legends of the Wasteland is split-screen couch co-op. PC version is online or LAN.

jdodson: Actually the console version does support online Legends of the Wasteland too now that I think about it.

jdodson: I agree, I was hooked with the early videos too. The detail was beautiful and the run and gun looked totally epic. I pre-ordered this the second I could. I was only bummed because the US didn't get a collectors edition pre-order!

What system did you play Rage on? I started on PS3 and moved to PC, that was a good idea, its a better time.

da_gaymer: I'm a PC gamer, too. In this case, however, for some reason I also started on the console (Xbox 360), but later got a PC copy so I can have it on Steam and play again. Luckily, they still had some Anarchy Editions left, although I considered the Collector's Edition as well. Why didn't you have that in the US?

jdodson: I don't know, I just never saw where you could buy it. Something to do with different markets I guess? Maybe people in the UK buy the collectors edition more often? :D

I buy the collectors of games I love typically, like most Blizz games save WoW.

jdodson: Looking forward to to the entires on this one! I am bias of course, but it will still be awesome.

TonyJapMayo: How come I can join even though I dont have the base game? Is it including the base game?

jdodson: Hey Tony, it's just the expansion, you have to have the base game first!

TonyJapMayo: Ok, no prob.. Thanks =)

BR: Never played rage before. Those screenshots really do justice for it though. They look amazing

jdodson: Yeah, I was happy with how they turned out. Up close se of the textures are a bit fuzzy but overall look good.

BR: Honestly don't think my current computer could handle it. I'm saving up for a new one though and when I get it maybe I'll try this game out.

jdodson: That might not be a bad idea as during the last holiday Steam sale it was only $5.

BR: Wow that is really cheap. Guess I'll pick it up on the next sale

jdodson: Yeah its back at $20 now and the Scorchers DLC is $5. I recommend getting them both in one go if you can.

SignalWarden: Nice review! I haven't gotten around to playing this yet. I got it during the steam sale as well, and it's been on my todo list. Sounds awesome!

jdodson: It really is. Ill keep posting as I am playing. One of the things I wanted the site to do was be a place I could talk about my experience with a game piecemeal. :D

So I will do that. As I blast off mutant faces.

Gary_Butterfield: I'm waiting for it to be 5bux, I think. But Rage was a pleasant surprise.

jdodson: Your in luck Gary, it's $4.99!

Gary_Butterfield: Is it? For some reason I thought it was 10. I'll pick that up. I hope I kept my Rage save game... (fretful emoticon)

Travis: Wow, it's been so long since the initial release I'm surprised we're getting DLC this late. I'll definitely be checking this out.

Travis: And from what I can tell from the screenshots on the site, this looks way better than the vanilla game. They might be photoshots though.

Travis: I'm glad to see the loss of enthusiasm at Subway Town is a common thing. It looks like I put it down at the same time as you did. I think I'll pick that back up again soon and finish it off, since it doesn't seem like there's much left at that point.

jdodson: There are more than a few missions left to go. Unsure bow many hours 5 or so?

Travis: Whoa... really? This may be too little too late. Most people have abandoned this. I'll probably dust it off though, if one can dust off a digital game.

jdodson: The bits are so stale we need to warm them!

Travis: Do you have it for PC or PS3?

jdodson: Both.

Gary_Butterfield: I'd be up for some people doing cool shit with this. I'm a Rage apologist.

jdodson: I am too. On both counts. Did you play it on PC or console Gary?

Gary_Butterfield: PC. It came at the exact right time. I was in the mood for a semi intelligent shooter.

jdodson: That makes sense.

I am a iD fan, so I was extremely excited about Rage. I kind of had a roller coaster of experiences with it. My first experience was on PC and it was incredible. The first half of the game is really great. But I switched to PS3 when my copy arrive and had a bad go of it all as Rage was hard as hell with the controller(for me). Plus the load times and I died a lot made the game way less fun.

Went back to the PC version after WAY too much un comfort with the console version and had more fun. I came to the half way point and the story and pacing really changed I felt. It was less story driven and it started to lose me a bit.

That said, I still come back and co-op legends of the wasteland with my friends and will complete Rage single player at some point. The is also very pretty. Really pretty on PC.

Gary_Butterfield: The halfway point of Rage is about 80% through the game, unfortunately. I was seriously blindsided by the ending. That's my main complaint.

jdodson: I just beat Rage. Will write my full bit on it. Interesting ending.

jdodson: For me, you got it on the best platform, the PC. I pre-ordered this on the PS3 and was disappoint. The PS3 version does have spit-screen Legends of the Wasteland which is awesome to play with friends though. That said, the single player wasnt great as it took way too long to save and death was way too costly with so much save game load time. Since I suck at twitch shooter controls on controller, it was hard to kill guys and do well at the PS3 copy.

I played it on the PC and it was like a much better game for me. I could shoot people, quick save existed and loading didn't take forever. The graphics looked better and everything. I know they spent quite a long time on the PS3 copy and it reviewed well but in my experience it wasn't as good as the PC version.

That said, the game is fun but I think my expectations were too high for it to meet them all. Its a great game, no question, but my initial console experience and a few other niggly things left me liking it but not loving it.

Still haven't beat it yet, but its fun to play it off and on through time. Graphics look fantastic on the PC too.

jdodson: You beat Rage yet? I still have yet to do it as I am playing it a little bit at a time.

Travis: Haha, nope. Diablo 3 happened.

I was starting to get a little bored with it, though. I got to Subway Town and realized this was going to open up into an entirely new map that I had never seen yet, that I needed to race for a new car, etc etc... I feel like the game should be ramping up to a finish, but it's stepping backward to stuff I've already done in a different setting.

I guess it's just a pacing problem. After I have some time with Diablo 3 it will probably feel fresher.

jdodson: Yep. I'm in Subway town too and I have the same thoughts. Thing is I clocked 14 hours on my game to Subway town and it feels like it should be the end but it's not. Plus it's only been 14 hours and I've done everything I could.

Travis: Yeah, I felt the same way. Going back to Diablo 3, because I find it hard not to think about it lately, pacing is damned important. The pacing in Diablo 3 is so amazing. Rage making you kinda start over to a point is really, really not.

jdodson: I agree. Kind of want to say more about Rage, but I am not sure how to approach it. Its the game I want to love but have a hard time expressing it.

Tungsten: http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17f1hlyaxcpstjpg/original.jpg

jdodson: Nice.

Adym: It's surprising how much of a striking resemblance to your real-life car that is!

jdodson: True. I enjoy my commutes more now with the mounted machine guns :)

Travis: OK, that's hilarious. Maybe I need to give Rage a shot. I played the demo and it didn't really do much for me.

jdodson: Well. It has a slowish start and picks up. Good thing is you can get it fairly cheaply now.

Travis: I played the Rage demo and it kinda fell flat for me. I think I should probably try it again after I'm out of Elder Scrolls mode, though.

jdodson: Yeah, the single player isn't the greatest. It has some fun moments but I wasn't thrilled with it after paying the $60 pre-order. <3 iD a ton though. I LOVED Doom 3.

Travis: So did I, and people love to make fun of it for the flashlight (and really, yeah it kinda deserves that) but the game was a blast. I felt the same about Quake 4, which while they didn't develop it in-house, was very true to Quake.

jdodson: I loved Quake 4 too. I think often times in games people like to bandwagon around certain games as bad or whatever. Doom 3 scared the junk out of me because I played it with the lights off. Which, honestly is the right way to play that.

And the flashlight thing, its a game mechanic for the horror value. You can either shoot or see. Freaked me out more than once. I can see where people might find it annoying but I thought it was a cool mechanic id hadn't seen before.

Travis: Oh yeah, I agree with your point on the flashlight. It is terrifying, scared me on a few occasions. But it annoyed the crap out of me due to a few implementation issues. There were some "mazes" that required the flashlight, but the spread of the light wasn't enough to reasonably pull it off without aimless wandering until you saw something unfamiliar. I guess that was the point, but light from flashlights spreads way more IRL.

I guess that was the point though... it is way scarier but not as realistic.

jdodson: Right, I think so.