So, after watching all the gameplay videos, I can't really tell if it's set in stone how long the bodies take to disappear. In the video devoted to 'The Shrouded', the bodies appear to stay for a much longer time than The Well and Dead City videos. I don't know about you guys, but disappearing bodies are a real turn off to the immersion level of any game, in my opinion. After a firefight, I like to look at the battlefield I'm leaving behind, observe the gore and bits of bone all over the place, shoot the bodies some more, etc. Who doesn't like that? I know it takes more out of the console to keep the bodies there, but from what I've seen so far, there aren't a lot of NPCs on the screen at once anyway. Even if there are, can't a 360 handle it? They don't have to stay indefinitely, assuming you can explore areas more than once, but at least long enough that I forget they're supposed to be there in the first place...

So, what do you guys think? Would disappearing bodies ruin some of the immersion for you? Do you think the finished version of the game will keep the bodies? Any general thoughts on the topic...

I'm in total agreement with you Caleb!! I also like to view the aftermath of the battle zone. I also like to look through the pockets of enemies I've dispatched so I may pillage any goodies they may have. I can't believe id software thought that disappearing bodies was a good idea, I think they've dropped the ball on this one. I've been looking forward to Rage since I first heard about it in 2007, but the closer I get the more I'm under the impression that they've ignored some important basic elements to open world game play. Not being able to level your character up was also I major blow to me. I feel id software has tunnel vision when it comes to good ideas for their games. They seem to think we're happy as long as we're firing a gun at something. In essence the disappearing dead is going to be really annoying & remove the player from any realism the game has to offer. id software gave us the first person shooter, but what have they learned in the last 20 years??

In Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas bodies stay for days...I really hate when bodies disappear, it makes everything feel so flimsy.

halo did it quite well

doesnt bother me

Yea I can't wait until video games are more realistic. Trees will rot and fall over, bodies will be eaten by wild animals and bones will be covered with dust.

Most importantly where are our ragedolls? Why can we blow limbs off like in soldiers of fortune ><

I thought we get to loot the bodies, so they better stay awhile!!!!

I think that bodies must not disappear, with the essence of the original Doom and Quake, the video I do not see any time they disappeared, but hopefully when you exit the game does not disappear like Quake 4 bodies

Thanks for the feedback you guys. Yeah, I love Fallout, but if the bodies disappeared after, say, looting everything in them, it would take a lot out of the game for me. I hope you can loot the bodies in Rage (I feel like you must be able to, but I haven't seen it yet), because that would make the bodies stay around longer...Hah, it seems like such a minor detail, but it really is important! I made this thread in hopes that the devs would read it, so do devs typically read through forums? As you can see I'm a new member, I've never really done this kind of thing before for any game.

Sadly, that is not possible. With these new generation games taking large amounts of HDD and RAM to even play, having bodies take longer to disappear will just hurt the gameplay in itself. You will experience less framerates, crashed due to overloading the memory, and a large amount of slow processing speed.

If the game were to catalogue each and every body that you killed and looted, it would need to store a bucket load of data on the RAM, which is where it stores for quick access. This is actually entirely impossible, due to so much data being stored would actually cause the computer to overload, and shutdown. Each body has to be assigned a spot in the RAM, and in that spot it would have to have every minute detail about where the body is, what is has on it etc.

Also, it is entirely impossible for you to quit the game and have the computer remember exactly where every dead body is. It would amount to massive save files, and very large load times.

Complete and utter nonsense!
Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Crysis, Titan Quest, Halo: Combat Evolved, http://quake4.filefront.com/file/Self_Shadow_and_Corps_Stay;49194x(with few lines of changed code/console), etc.etc.