Monday, August 06, 2007, 02:00 pm

Gaming news: EA ready to roll with C&C 3, id previews "Rage"

By Prince McLean

Two game developers that recently recommitted to Apple's Mac platform have begun to offer more details on some of their first Mac-bound titles, with EA promising to "revolutionize" Command and Conquer 3 this week and id Software hosting a preview of "Rage."

EA's Command and Conquer 3

It's unclear whether the timing has anything to do with Apple's Mac-focused media event scheduled for the same day, but Electronic Arts is encouraging fans of Command and Conquer to check back at the game's official website on Tuesday for new details.

"Command & Conquer 3 will be revolutionized right here on August 7th, be sure to check back!," the company wrote in a web posting.

Speaking at Apple's annual developers conference in June, EA co-founder and COO Bing Gordon told a gathering of several thousand Apple developers that his firm is recommitted to bringing its portfolio of hit games to the Mac OS X operating system.

In addition to "Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars," other Mac titles slated to ship this summer include the wizarding adventure "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," racing sensation "Need for Speed Carbon," and military action thriller "Battlefield 2142."

Later this year, EA also plans to release "Madden NFL 08" and "Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 08" for the Mac in sync with their worldwide launches.

id's Rage

Meanwhile, id Software's John Carmack on Friday unveiled his company's upcoming title, dubbed "Rage," as part of his annual QuakeCon keynote. The game draws upon id's Tech 5 technology, which was also first previewed during Apple's developers conference in June.

"We're obviously moving a little out of the id standard direction for titles here," Carmack told GameSpy. "Gameplay wise, it is going to be about 50 percent run-and-gun, as people would sort of expect from us, but we've also got a significant amount of driving action in there. There's also the adventure component to this, where you build up your car and add things to it, so it's a very different type of game."


Carmack on iPhone

During QuakeCon, Carmack also called upon Apple to open its iPhone platform to third-party developers. According to Gamasutra, he described an argument he recently had with Apple chief executive Steve Jobs about the matter.

Jobs reportedly told Carmack the iPhone's closed environment was necessary to maintain the "security" for the platform. Carmack, however, told those in attendance at the gaming conference that "he didn't believe Jobs."