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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"
It's based on the ut2k3 engine? so will there be a linux port?
Having played the demo, I can say I really like the way it came together. I think it could be a lot better, but I really like the looks of it so far. It kind of took the comic book look and feel that I don't normally like, and made it work well in a video game setting...which is great in my opinion. I thought the comic book style story and "cutscene" aspect of Max Payne didn't work well, but otherwise it was good. XIII, though I'm not sure how it's pronounced properly (admittedly, sound card was busted on the machine I briefly played the demo on, so I don't know about an announcer booming "head shot" or "wicked sick," looks more story-based anyway), looks as if it'll be a real good one. It's certainly won it's fair share of awards, and my first impression was good. I may even be willing to shell out $50 for such a game. Doesn't suprise me though, last game I paid that much for was UT2k3 :). If it's cross platform, I will definitly give them my money, if it doesn't run on Linux...well, to hell with them.
This is the area where I feel cel shading is justified. Base your game on a comic or cartoon and the cel shading makes it much more likely that the graphics can represent the characters the same way they were represented in their original medium.
-PainKilleR-[CE]
Hooking up a game console to a cat works fairly well, it reduces the need for a sound system so it speeds up gameplay. But trying to interperet the yowls and screeches of the cat and build the visuals in your mind's eye -- now, THAT is challenging. I went through three cats and over four hundred alligator clips before I started making progress in Metal Gear: Solid.
And, then, there's the side bonus: when the PETA people come for you, the first person shooter action is so realistic! I used the "super shotgun" (10Ga double barrel, 000 Buck magnum rounds -- WOOT!) to great effect, but I hear you can use just about anything on most of them. Only the boss battle was tough. Three hundred and fifty pounds of non-bathing, non-shaving butch bull hippie is nothing to sniff at! She almost got me, but I distracted her with a veggie burger and escaped through my kitchen window...
Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
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.