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First Pictures of Quake IV
Snaller writes "Yahoos GameDomain are looking ahead to 2005, and have the first pictures of Quake IV. For all those who have missed the Stroggs since Quake 2 - fear not, they are baaack! Quake IV will be made by Raven software using the Doom 3 engine."
On the down side, it looks like yet another game where all the colors are too dark (murky greys, greens, and browns). Must every game look like it takes place inside the "Nostromo" from "Alien" (1)? The same old same old. On the plus side, the refinement makes it look as good as the "Final Fantasy" movie. If that is considered to be a plus...
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
As much as I like id software, remember when the occasional new game was different and unique, instead of the same old game with graphics updates?
I know there are new games out there that are different, but they never seem to reach our side of the pond.
I want more than FPS 17: This Sequal Requires DirectX 12. I want more than MMORPG: The Quest To Pay Us Money. And I want more than Super Mario Branded Piss Poor Game Remake and Zelda: We Are Whoring This Franchise Out For the Money.
Processing power has increased to insane levels, the gaming industry has more money than Hollywood, and yet we get the same bland crap?
*Waves cane!*
What is so different about Unreal? You run around and you blast people. Not THAT much has changed since the original Doom, all FPSs are still the same basic game.
UT has added new weapons, new game modes, and has a large variety of maps available right out of the box.
Quake is still just about who finds the rocket launcher/rail gun first, and small, crowded arenas. They haven't changed weapons, the single-player mode is still "Hey, I can be like Doom, too!" and the multiplayer has been done better by dozens of games, now. It was being done better even when Quake 3 was new.
"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson
Other than Quake, which completely blew everyone away by going from 2 dimensions to 3, Every game they have produced has been "more of the same" with only graphics, monster, and gun updates. Wolfenstein -> Doom had the difference of what... larger rooms and diagonal walls? Doom II was also just more of the same. Quake - Quake3 were only marginal improvemens also. Doom 3 IMHO was a huge step forward, but again not revolutionary, though I certainly would not call it bland crap- I have found most of their games to be exceptionally good.
This is what id does. They make FPS games. Asking them to do something completely different is like asking Britney Spears to start making hardcore rock music.
Game genres are similar to music in that certain styles go in and out of favor. A few, like RPG's and FPS's are always around. Others like puzzle/adventure games go in and out of style like disco/dance music does every few years. The main difference between the two is that regardless of how fun a certain genre is (aka side scroller) if it is deemed outdated it gets buried and is never really seen again.
Remember when the graphics mantra was, "Toy Story in realtime on a graphics card?" Did anyone notice when we passed that landmark? I won't even get into the, "There's more to games than graphics quality and speed," since others are covering that area so well.
Years back, I read an article about what happens as you model people better. Once you get to the threshold of recognition, simulated people become "cute." For the most part, improve the simulation, and they get cuter. Then as you get more realistic, you reach a threshold, and they're no longer cute, they're *wrong*, and repulsive. According to the article, the brain has a line between "art" and "real" and as long as you're on the art side you're OK. But once you cross to the real side, you'd better *be* real, or else.
This gap between art and reality forms a chasm that may have to be crossed in the laboratory, because in-chasm games may not be marketable. (Hey, how about a "zombie" single-player FPS game? Zombies are *supposed* to look "wrong", and you can't see yourself in first-person.) Plus, why bother? I predict a resurgence in classic animation in a few years, once the novelty of today's 3D wears off and as we approach the chasm.
One of my pet fantasies as graphics get more realistic is to get into young kids' games. You know, things like "tag", "hide and seek" - the things I really did. Disgusting idea really, worse than battery-powered kid's vehicles. Even worse, I'll bet such a game would sell. I think I'd cry all the way to the bank. I'm happy I don't have time to even try such a thing.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
So far Quake 4 sounds more like Doom the game than Doom the movie does.
Have they gone mad? How can I possibly bring myself to shell out for a new Quake title that Carmack himself didn't lovingly craft with his own hand and sick, twisted brain?
Heresy, I say!
Not THAT much has changed since the original Doom, all FPSs are still the same basic game.
While it is true that MOST FPSs are exactly the same, there are a few that bend the genre. Take Rainbow Six, for example. Try strafing through the levels with a shotgun, and see what happens. Or Thief: The Dark Project. Excellent game, and it seriously broke the mold. Of course now you have all the Thief sequels, and Rainbow Six spinoffs like Ghost recon, and Splinter Cell...