Didn't know you'd played it...  for all we know Rage sucks whatever.  What we do know is the design was changed to allow less loading/issues on 360 which is better for 360 but doesn't mean that the original design with more open areas wouldn't have provided better gameplay on PC or PS3.

He can't say 'we comprimised a bit due to space limitations' before the game release - why do you think he got back in touch so quickly in the first place?

But he clearly indicated that 'mostly due to 360' design changes were made to a final design built around DVDs and no HDD - so don't try and spin this as anything else please.

Ehm.. iD is saying that... they themself say that they now have more gameplay... but yeah why should we believe them.. :P

hell no!!

If I had 2-3 minute installs for every chapter played I'd just stick to PC gaming

As I pointed out - and you ignored - he can't say otherwise can he.  The context is open comments were made, then Id rushed back when they saw it implied negative view of game/design and issued standard damage control statements.  Again, the core design was admitedly changed due to a technical issue, if that results in gameplay its a happy coincidence but it wasn't planned that way.  He makes it clear that gameplay design elements were made with DVD / no HDD as the lowest platform and therefore we'll never know whether it would have been better otherwise but we do know that the 360 spec forced the lowest demoninator decision.

Nothing was cut as that would mean they finished game then had to change it - but the game was changed during design and only due to one platform with regard to this issue.  Although I seem to remember Id also stated 360 might have to have lower res textures to also help fit it onto no more than 2 DVDs.

All clear now?

@ the original post. Here we go with the political correctness again (spin), and I wouldn't doubt that lawyers were involved as well...

Dude.. he didn't even say that in the first place... 1up spinned his words.. This was his quote: "I wouldn't say the overall story was changed in any way in order to fit on the Xbox 360 version," Willits said, "but how the player experiences Rage's story has been altered." Nowhere was this in a postive of negative way.. 1up spinned it to look like it was negative by adding the line, which was not a quote: Unfortunately, that means the experience has been altered across all platforms..

1up spinned his words and he corrected it..

Why can't 1up have spinned his words? It's not like the guy from iD has nothing to gain anything from calling his game gimped on all platforms because of the 360 when it's not out yet...

You must be blind...

The complete text...

Willits' unedited response follows:

During my talk today I mentioned that we originally wanted to have around 5 or 6 smaller wasteland environments but later decided instead to have 2 larger wastelands. Mostly because we were going to be shipping on two DVDs for the 360 and felt that it would play better with one large wasteland on each disc so there would be no loading between wastelands. Not loading levels while you drive around is a much better decision regardless of platform.

There was NO CONTENT removed from RAGE because of the 360--NONE AT ALL. Moving from multiple wastelands into fewer but larger wastelands was a far better decision and is actually giving us more gameplay in the game.

We feel the 360 is a great platform and will provide a fantastic Rage experience

Notice this bit...

Mostly because we were going to be shipping on two DVDs for the 360 and felt that it would play better with one large wasteland on each disc so there would be no loading between wastelands.

Now, on PS3 there's one disk - you can have 2 or 4 or whatever its on one disk - you don't need to design your game to split across disks, same for PC.  So the 360 constrained the design.  Note that what he actually is making clear is 'NO CONTENT was removed'.  I'm not saying it was, I'm saying the design was constrained by 360 requirements and his workds make clear it was.

Really clear now?

Yes and it turned out for the better... Not loading levels while you drive around is a much better decision regardless of platform.

No one has denied this:

"id has previously stated that the Xbox 360 version of Rage will look worse than its PC and PS3 counterparts due to the limitations of the DVD medium. The studio had hoped to circumvent this by spreading the 360 release across three DVDs, though Microsoft's royalty rates apparently make anything beyond two discs financially impracticable."

So it would seems that if the 360 version were finalized on 3 DVD's, the 360 version would be on par with the PC and PS3 versions.  But because id had to go with 2 instead, the PC and PS3 versions had to be downgrade to accomodate equality with the 360 version.