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XIII Shows Off Cel-Shading FPS Skills
Thanks to GameSpy for posting a developer diary for XIII, the multi-platform, cel-shaded FPS from UbiSoft that's now due to ship on the 9th October. The executive producer on this Unreal-engine title talks about some of the stylistic innovations, such as "pop-up windows to show major actions or headshots", and "onomatopoeias... to help [the player] like a form of sixth sense", Batman TV show-style. GameSpot also has some recent, guarded impressions of the title, which is "based on an immensely popular [French] graphic novel series", and features an intriguing soundtrack from San Francisco turntablists Future Primitive Sound.
Which plot came first, XIII or Bourne Identity? I've got my guess.
Played the demo.. while the comic book feel was nice cell shaded for this game (imo)it could be done alot better.
if they want it to be like a comic have the characters look like comic book characters.
for example take a look at the Dragonball Z budokai game for the PS2 cellshaded but it looks like the anime.
Or if you are into Naruto the japanese releases on Gamecube and the upcoming PS2 release of the Naruto fighting games.. Cell shaded but they look like the manga/anime.
Other than that the game play is pretty decent.
"I am a kernel in the linux army"
Lets try that again..
n forma tion/games/ps2/index.php
u dokai_gc_actio n/
While the comic book feel was nice, the cell shading for the characters was not impressive and (imo) could be done alot better.
also links to the Naruto and Dragonball games
Naruto PS2
http://www.narutofan.com/index.phtml?jutsu=i
Dragonball
http://www.us.atari.com/games/dbz_b
"I am a kernel in the linux army"
You're right, links don't have spaces in them. But what you posted wasn't a link. Links can be clicked on. If you want a link, use the 'a' tag.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Now that you mention it, you forgot to capitalize the first letter of your first fragmentary sentence. Your attitude could use some work as well.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Yes. Naming your game after the comic it's based on is really dumb.
Attitude is fine but it may have came across as snide... but it was more of a joke considering how much else I screwed up on the orginal post.
Anyways back to the topic.
"I am a kernel in the linux army"
I thought the cel shading was very well done, almost eirely so. It has more original design elements to it than 90% of shooters in the last 5 years. Quite looking forward to it.
will it mesh together well when its time to play the game? The announcer in both Unreal Tournaments annoyed the hell out of me when he kept boomed "HEAD SHOT!" out of my speakers. I turned off the feature as a result.
It's based on the ut2k3 engine? so will there be a linux port?
From the EULA:
..."
"It is not permitted:
- To make copies of XIII,
- To operate XIII commercially,
- To use it contrary to morality or the laws in force,
What on earth does that mean? Is UbiSoft going to attempt to describe all of the "moral" rules we're supposed to abide by? Wacky.
Ok, that is enough games will cell shading in them. I hate it when a technology becomes the "in" thing and people put it in just because it's cool".
Pocket PC Games
And they should really quit with that whole "first person" genre. I'm getting totally sick of this whole "realistic 3D" schtick too-- the only thing more worn out than that is the *completely* overused "2D" fad. And sound. Man, everybody and their stupid brother has sound in a game these days. What happened to originality?
What's up with all the games where you have to shoot things? Seems like nearly every game is doing that just because it's cool. And all these damn RPGs, where you just wander around levelling up your characters? I see more of those than I see zits in a junior high school after pizza lunch day. Seems like every puzzle game made these days involves dropping and rotating oddly shaped and colored pieces into a well.
All these stupid game consoles hook up to "TVs" too. WTF is that about? Just because TVs are cool and popular-- why can't we have a game console that hooks up to a bagel? Or your cat?
Shit, man-- there are plenty of games. Just buy the ones you like and ignore the rest.
Through the first two paragraphs I'm thinking -1 flaimbait. Then I get to
hooks up to a bagel? Or your cat?
And I'm thinking +1 funny. I'm not willing to risk the Disagree metamoderate so I'll let someone else make the call. Just out of curiosity, were you being sarcastic/jerk or sarcastic/funny?
There are so many good games coming up for the game cube. I don't know where I should put my dollars for the upcoming games. I played this one game at best buy the other day. I think it was called Viewtiful Joe or something like that. It was a little odd, but pretty fun.
But, back to the Cel-shaded FPS, it looks really interesting and at least worth a rental. Once again, the gamecube version does not have online capablility, but that shouldnt surprise anyone, either. But, I definetaly think it's worth a rental.
What, me Tweet?
Sarcastic funny jerk. Of course, there's no way to not be a jerk when replying sarcastically to somebody else's flamebait. The intent was funny, with a small, humorous lesson in "this is a very small trend."
I got a kick out of his link to turn-based war games, too, but didn't bother to point it out the first time. Let's compare the total number of turn-based war games to the total number of cel-shaded games and see which is a more prevalent trend, eh?
And in the meantime, I will return to trying to figure out where the Y, Pr, and Pb outputs from my gamecube plug into this awesome new sundried-tomato home theatre bagel I bought. I really don't want to have to buy any more jumper cables-- the quality ones are just too pricey-- but I'm just plain sick of playing games on the same old TV device that all the "cool" people think I should use.
Oh how embarrassing. Instead of slamming the game developers I should be slamming the comic book writers for the shitty title, my bad.
I thought that the visuals were done rather well, however, and the unusually placed swing music gave the action a campy, retro feel. Contrary to others, I don't feel cel shading is an overused trick. It's all in how you apply it. Capcom's Auto Modellista put a cel shading spin on a racing game to visually pleasing results (like something out of the anime Initial D, I suppose). We haven't seen a full-blown FPS title using the trick though and I think XIII does it rather well, despite my having nothing to compare it to.
Comix Zone by sega used the batman style "onomatopoeias..." all over the place.
next
on a tangent: if you're into jurassic 5 or mix master mike you should pick up the 'live @ the future primitive' session #1 before it goes out of print. lucious.
also: LFPSS 2 w/ z-trip and radar is pretty damn fine, as well.
Keep your packets off my GNU/Girlfriend!
My first impressions of this game were wonderful. It's nice to see something different, such as a fully cell-shaded FPS, and many of the features described were wonderful. The user interface also looked different than usual, in a good sort of way, so I downloaded the demo to give it a try. (as a word of advice, download it here: http://downloads.ign.com/objects/572/572733d.html FilePlanet is the devil, and the IGN downloads are pretty fast, and no lines when I downloaded.)
I can't say that my first impressions were very far off. The graphics were very interesting to play with, a pleasant change of pace, actually, and very nice to your eyes. The controls are a little confusing at first, but that was easily overcome within the first few minutes of the game.
The plotline was... vaguely fuzzy, but considering it's only a demo, that's expected. However, the plot didn't seem all that stupid or anything, from what was shown, so no real complaints there. However, I feel the greatest strengths and weaknesses in this game actually lie in the fighting.
One of my first impressions when playing was that there is quite a selection of weapons. Even from the beginning. Quite interesting ones, too... you start the second level with an M-16 sort of gun and a crossbow with a scope. Pretty nice, if you ask me. However, I was finding it hard to move and evade fast enough, and I often found myself at low health, and died rather early in the second level.
This game kind of has that N64 Goldeneye feel to it, in terms of the level designs, except it's harder. The enemies seem to be roughly as tough as you, if not tougher, taking quite a bit of damage before actually dying.
But hey, if you're up for a challenge, check out this game. It's pretty nice.
Whats so bad about XIII (pronounced "thirteen").