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."

Comments

Yet another....

[AtariAmarok]

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...

PC Gamer

[th1ckasabr1ck]

There is a ten page (or so) interview/first look at Quake 4 in the November PC Gamer. In it they state (amongst other things):

• With Doom 3 it was horror, with Quake 4 it's going to be war. Doom 3 was slow-paced, tense gameplay. Quake 4 is going to be over the top, all-out action.
• Vehicles! They show a really cool outdoor shot of a bunch of Strogg (I think) fighter jets blasting everything.
• Squad-based gameplay. A lot of the time you will be fighting as part of a squad.
• Their multiplayer goal is to re-create the Quake III experience in the Doom3 engine, which sounds so amazingly sweet to me.
• The storyline picks up where Quake 2 left off.
• Quake 4 will smash the perception that the Doom 3 engine is only good at indoor environments. There are many huge, open, outdoor levels.

Re:PC Gamer

[vjmurphy]

"Quake 4 will smash the perception that the Doom 3 engine is only good at indoor environments. There are many huge, open, outdoor levels."

On the downside, all the outdoor levels take place in complete darkness, and you'll need to push around a spotlight to actually see anything.

Remember when..?

[dasunt]

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!*

look as good as the "Final Fantasy" movie

[dpilot]

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.

Plastic wrap

[supabeast!]

One thing that really bugged me about Doom III was that everything appears to be wrapped in plastic. Be it metal, skin, paper or stone, everything was shiny. When I look at the Quake IV shots I see the same thing. I don't see this in games like Farcry, Painkiller, or UT 2004 (Or the next-gen UT engine demos) so I'm assuming that it's just got something to do with Doom III's lighting engine.

Does this bug anyone else.

Re:Plastic wrap

[Have Blue]

I personally chalk this up to the sudden appearance of detailed shaders. 3D games have had a certain "look" for years- a look that is missing a lot of aspects of real scenes. A lot of stylistic tricks were created to get around these limitations and improve appearances, and this is what we became used to as "looking good" or "realistic graphics". Suddenly, it becomes possible to put a lot more detail into things, the bar is raised, and the tricks can be replaced with more realistic alternatives- but this breaks the expectations we've developed.

The real world really does have a lot of shiny things in it- walk around your room/office and see how many things have faint or blurry reflections in them, and how many have specular highlights (that change location depending on your view angle).