We were just sitting here quietly looking forward to the release of the game, and then this happened. Good? Bad? Ugly? We're not sure.
We’ll be honest with you: the word ‘novelisation’ tends to scare us. In fact, just the sound of it spoken in our direction tends to bring with it an involuntary shudder. It’s a reflex that only lasts a second, though, and we’re generally open-minded enough to then hear the speaker out.
Plus, as bad as some of them can be, we confess to having a number of them on our shelves at home.
Which brings us to RAGE, id Software’s upcoming and hotly-anticipated shooter. And also now a novel, to be written by Matt Costello and hitting shelves on August 30 this year.
Now, here’s the thing. Costello seems to be an actual real person, which is more than can be said for some of the folks that write these things. He’s also written a whole stack of novels already, mostly in the horror and sci-fi genre, and even been nominated for a couple of awards.
Just as importantly, though, he’s worked on the scripts for a whole bunch of games, including Doom 3, Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, and Just Cause. And as we speak he’s actually working on RAGE, so he knows the story and the characters and the feel of the world inside out. In short: unless you’re going to get Neil Gaiman, Costello seems, at least on paper, like a decent choice.
We’re quietly optimistic, and will probably check out the novel in August along with all the other RAGE fanboys.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012