So, having fun with my new computer, and loving iD, I figured I'd buy Rage, after all, it's been out a while, it's probably been fixed, right? I just installed it, and I'm crashing about halfway through the Bethesda screen. I've updated the drivers to the ones recommended, but nothing. I'm running Windows 7, Intel i5-2430M 2.4GHz, and an AMD Radeon HD 6650M. Any idea how I can fix this?

Have you tried removing the video folder from the 'Base' directory, under your game's install path? That has apparently worked for some people.

Back it up first, of course - or just move it to a temp directory.

Other than that, if you've patched the game and installed the latest drivers, I'm not sure what else to suggest.

Yeah, I did that. It crashed when I started it up.

Did you install it in the Programs folder? Try installing outside that (c:\Rage\ for example) and that may fix it. Win 7 has issues with games running in that folder sometimes.

No, I've been installing all my games into c:/games.

Weird...did you run it as an Admin?

Just tried. It crashed at the same place.

It's a pain in the ass but did you try uninstalling and reinstalling just in case some file is corrupt and causing it to hang?

You might also try turning off your Antivirus depending on what it is. I've heard reports of Avast causing stuff to crash. I guess it tries to run some stuff in some sandbox mode it has which causes problems. I just use Microsoft Security Essentials and that never seems to conflict with anything but it seems like some of the other brands do sometimes.
I just had another thought. Is your video driver set to all defaults? That might be worth a shot too if it isn't.
One more thing, maybe check here:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=955
and read the issues sticky post, etc. to see if you can find any more helpful info.

I set the sandbox to ignore Rage.exe, nothing. How do I check the video driver? I don't think I've messed around with it. Also, I've been checking that thread, but I haven't seen anything there beside dead links to things that might help. c:/games/steam

If you aren't sure how to check the video driver I doubt you've ever gone and changed anything. Both Nvidia and AMD/Radeon cards have control panel applets, usually the run in the Windows taskbar off to the right side and allow you to change various visual quality settings, etc. It probably isn't that since you probably haven't touched it.

I am very suspicious of Avast though. Is there a way to just turn Avast off completely just to try a test run and see if the game starts without Avast running? That would be a good test to either rule it out or discover it is the problem.

Also, the previous suggestion to verify cache in steam and defragment too is a very, very good idea. That's simple enough to do and I'd recommend trying it first since it is.

In case you are not familiar with how to do this:

In your Steam library, right click on the game's name in the list. From the menu that appears, choose Properties which is the bottom menu choice. A dialog box will appear with tabs along the top. Chose the one labeled: Local Files. You will see four choices then. Click on "Verify Integrity of Game Cache" first and let that do its thing. After that choose Defragment Cache Files.

This may be all you need to do with a little luck. But if not, try disabling Avast completely and testing if the game still crashes.

I did this, and it got further than it did before (to the iD video) before it crashed. I just verified the cache again, and it said there was one it was going to reaquire, but I'm not certain it has. Avast has played very, very well with everything I've done so far.

Edit: I'm not 100% certain it is fetching the data.

Okay, well that's a good sign hopefully. Try running the Cache thingy repeatedly until it is not telling you it needs to acquire anything anymore. Then run the defrag and try it. The defrag can really make a difference. I have seen games crash because of fragmentation firsthand before.

If none of that works, I know you don't want to think it can possibly be Avast but I do think you should still rule it out. Antivirus programs are infamous for causing issues with games and installers historically, not just Avast, a lot of them. If it still does it with Avast turned off, well then you know it really isn't Avast but you should find out for sure if the other stuff doesn't do the trick.

Welp, after verifying the cache an insane amount (it never stopped saying that it needed to download the files), I tried turning off Avast. It crashed halfway through the Bethesda logo again. Argh, you'd think they'd have stamped out all the bugs this far on. iD, why would you do this to me?

Sigh, I should have bough Human Revolution. Or Dead Island. Or spent more and bought Fallout: New Vegas UE.

it's not ID that did this too you, QA is routinely handled by the publisher since most developers don't have the resources to do it in house (bug finding / play testing "QA" that is) especially if they are an internal development studio for a big publisher.

Blame bethshitia, ID is normally OCD about putting out bullet proof code but the only program "BS" cares about functioning is the banking software that cashes your check.

p.s. welcome to the joy of dealing with steam, it fucking up the download on my games and corrupting files is one of the main reason I've sworn off it.

did you buy the digital download or in a box? if you got it from a box there is supposed to be a way to mine the games files off the disk (even with the disk in the drive you gotta jump through hoops or Steam will download the game anyway). if you got it digital I suggest that you download a torrent of the game and install off that, just use the same dir as the steam download, and have Steam do it's file check off of that to get patches and what not.