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I love John Carmack. I love John Carmack a great deal. A bona fide technical genius, he's like the modern-day equivalent of crackpot medieval alchemist, always pottering around in his lab and occasionally surfacing to nonchelantly unleash another reality-bending innovation on the unsuspecting world. If he wanted to, he could get Crysis 2 running on a household blender at 120 frames per second, and he wouldn't even act like it was a big deal.

As we reported last night, his latest proclamation of 'Screw you, I am the mighty Carmack' came yesterday at his opening Quakecon keynote. Having teased a little 'neat and unannounced' surprise earlier in the week, he revealed that unassuming little item to be Rage, id's insanely beautiful upcoming shooter, running at a creosote-smooth 60 frames per second on the iPhone. And while a tad cut down from its PC and console brothers, it's a spectacular sight to behold. And we now have video of the presentation. Click on and feast your eyes.

Above: Haircuts and graphics

Rage is id Software's first original FPS since Quake’s 1996 release, and the company wants to make sure you know it’s a pretty big deal. The game's first behind-the-scenes promo video, “Legacy of id,” spares no hagiographical detail in establishing Carmack and company’s rightful place in gaming history. However, any excesses of ego on id's part are tempered by a generous complement of historical material, including a wealth of photos from the embarrassing days of young superstar programmers with lustrous manes and coke-bottle frames. Also, there's lots of Rage footage, which is cool...

RAGE is id Software's upcoming first-person shooter. Of course, you can get that from the id Software logo and copious shooting presented from a first-person perspective in the first of these new trailers. But the publishing involvement of Bethesda can't help bringing that company's RPG lineage to mind. Maybe that's why the video, a seven-minute slice of gameplay footage, employs a time-honored trope from many an old-time JRPG: talk to people in town, then jump down the well and get rid of the monsters poisoning our water! Of course, being a gritty post-apocalyptic shooter, for “monsters” read less “cutesy sentient jellies” and more “foul-mouthed brigands.”...

Tim Willits, Creative Director at id Software, recently told journalists he believes the company has chosen “the very best genre” to work within by specializing in FPS titles. In this final dev diary for Rage, id's upcoming post-apocalyptic FPS, Willits joins the rest of id's creative heads in explaining some of the ways in which they've been able to bring artistry to the genre...

Continuing id's series of behind-the-scenes videos for its upcoming return to FPS form, Rage, here's a trailer entitled “The Enemies.” You're a smart cookie, so you'll have probably ascertained the clip's general thrust. A selection of id's top bods explain why some enemies should be fast, while others should have big guns -  and how the enemies you face should get tougher as you go along. Together with some intriguing new gameplay footage, you’ll also find more details on the level of detail that's gone into Rage’s animations - here's the clip...

Stop us if you've heard this one before: an apocalyptic event forces humanity to seek refuge underground. You emerge from your vault-like shelter some time later only to discover what's left of the ravaged Earth has been be claimed by competing clans of bandits, raiders, thieves and mutants. Oh, and you're special – as in “key to humanity's survival” special. Still not ringing a bell? We bet you a few bottle caps you'll find the story behind id Software's upcoming Rage somewhat familiar after watching this latest developers' diary (and a few more caps that you'll be too intrigued to care)...