Rage HD ★★★★☆ How do they get all those mutants in there?

Rage HD is a new shooter from id Software, noteworthy because it’s fifty pounds of graphics in a ten pound bag. Both id and Epic are pushing the envelope as fast as they can. They know there’s megabucks of return on investment in optimizing graphics for this platform.

Graphically and technologically impressive, of course — that's kinda the whole point, and id knocks it out of the park. It's a bit eerie, graphics like that in such a thin package. And where's the heat? The iPad doesn't even warm up. Seriously, after my first ten minutes of play, it was still cold. How do they do that?

But is it fun? Playable? Yep, far more than most action games on the iPad: fast mayhem, but not too chaotic to enjoy, with just the right amount of challenge. Targeting is a bit janky now and then: shots missing when the crosshairs are right where you want 'em, especially for head shots. And I spent a bit too much time trying to target objects for pickup as I was being dragged onwards by the "rails." But the whole rails thing is handled better than I expected, and I don't really mind it.

Quibbles only. Basically a pretty amazing thing.