"One would figure that once you iron out the engine and it works well, you then improve the artwork, and after that, you should really improve gameplay and build on the replay value. Too many games these days could damn well be one game with different maps and skins."
The article is about the Engine... At epic, the teams workign on Unreal Engine 3 and Gears of War are seperate people. There are plenty of people working on improving the Engine, and plenty working ont he game, trying to "improve gameplay and build on the replay value". your picking on the wrong developer/game to be complainign about lack of innovation... Gears of War looks to be one of the most innovative FPS games in a long time, attempting to invent a new sub-genre, the "cover-shooter", putting an extremely strong focus on using your environment as cover while in firefights.
And sure, better gameplay is always better than higher quality graphics... but if you can have both, why not? Some people get along jsut fine playing text adventures... but the majority of gamers want progressively higher quality visuals in most of their games as time goes on. just because a game has the best graphics in the biz, doesnt mean it automaticaly lacks in other areas.
As for the Unreal Engine 4 development pssibly taking peole away from current projects... right now, and probably for some time in the future, the only person working on UE4 is Tim Sweeney... always looking way down the road, trying to stay on the top of the world... Epic is in the business of making money, afterall.
One thing that should help immensely witht the ammount of work that must be put into making worlds and characters look good in UE3 is the new "Visual Material Editor" that is part of the new Unreal Editor.
By visually connecting the color, alpha and coordinate outputs of textures and programmer-defined material components, artists can create materials ranging from simple layered blends to extremely complex materials and dynamically interacting with scene lights.
if you wanna know a bit mroe about Unreal Engine 3, check out UnrealTechnology.com
Actualy Arena.net's only game to date, Guild Wars, requires only taht you buy the initial game, then you can play it online forever, with no aditional costs. They continue to support the game with very frequent patches, and there has been a little bit of new content, i believe. They are going to be releasing numerous optional "mission packs", with massive ammounts of new content, to continue getting money from consumers.
As much as I love the GameCube controller, I have to agree that they completely screwed up with that button... Fortunately most games dont make you use it too often.
The single deciding factor in wether or not I will buy an Xbox 360 is the quality of Gears of War. Its the only game ive seen taht looks extremely interesting. If it turns out to be an amazing shooter, i might jut buy my own 360, and a few of the other decent looking games on it. If it turns out to be good/decent, but not amazing, ill probabyl just hope a friend buys it, and wait for the next big PC game and the Revolution.
While I agree with you on many points... Last time I installed Windows on my machine, it took all of about 15 minutes to download and install Apache. You must be pretty amazing if 15 minutes of your time is worth that much money. I envy you.
I will only spend so much money on my gaming habit. So the more games cost, the fewer games i will buy. if i currently buy a game every month or so, of they raise prices very much, i mgiht only buy a game every 1.5 or 2 months. if they lowered prices on games cnciderably, i might buy several each month, or even every week.
There's constantly new games i want coming out... but lately all i have been buying is Nintendo DS games, and conciderably more frequently than i usualy buy games... you know why? because they cost less, and tend to be very original/interesting/fun.
With rumors abound that Uwe Boll has been making terrible movies on purpose, in order to exploit a german tax loophole... now that that loophole has been closed, is it possible that uwe boll's future works will actually be half-assed decent? I think its pretty safe to say that Bloorayne and Dungeon Siege wont be too good... But perhaps there is hope yet for Far Cry, Hunter: The Reckoning, Postal (ok, maybe not postal), and Fear Effect.
This seems like the perfect time for developers to start using procedural textures/models. They could save enormously on space, and could even be a selling point for a game...
Oh yeah, 1600x1200 resolution on my PC doesn't compare to your HDTV...
One thing I find funny about xboxes view of "nex-gen" is that consoles are no longer less expensive alternatives to PC gaming... they are just becoming a more restricted version of PC gaming.
(BTW, not trying to start a PC vs console debate, just stating an observation... I happen to enjoy both)
Am i the only person in the world that loves that movie? It's one of my favorite sci-fi movies... though i guess it woudlnt realyl qualify as a great "space" movie, since the movie has very little to do with space...
I think there are plenty of people out there who are not gamers for reasons other than "they don't want to play games", and could very well be brought into gaming.
My dad, for example... I recall back when all me and my brother had was our Atari 2600, and later our NES... we would play all the time... and ocasionally when my dad had some time he would play with us. Now with the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube, the games and controls are too complicated for him, so he rarely tries playing games... but im sure he would like to sit down and play a game with me sometimes.
This is one of the reasons im looking forward to the Nintendo Revolution... the control sounds very intuitive, and im hoping they will have some simple, fun games, that dont take a lot of hard work to get good at, or advance in...
You have to look at Nintendo's overall strategy here... One of their big goals with the revolution is to attract new gamers... people who havent been abel tto get interested in video games because, possibly because the controls are too complicated. Now do you think they are going to get these people by telling them "oh, and the resolution is higher than the otehr consoles you never played before", or by saying "look, its really inexpensive, too! what are you waiting for?"... im guessing that adding HD support to the Rev would make it cost a bit more.
I dont have an HD TV yet, and i proabbyl wont have one for some time... so i have absolutely no interest in getting one in the near future. And afaik, the majority of americans do not have an HD TV yet. And if i were to buy an Xbox 360 for its HD support, and buy a new HD TV to get the better resolution... i would much rather spend the money upgrading my computer and get 1600x1200 resolution.
meh... a lot of good the Geneva Conventions do... according to them you cant shoot a 50 cal. weapon at a human target... but equipment is fine, so go ahead and shoot at their weapon, ammo, belt, shirt, etc... if the person also happens to get hit, oh well.
Well, not too long ago, me and my family were cleanign out our little office room, and found a massive stack of fairly old video games that none of us play anymore. We were going to throw them ina box in the attic, but a friend mentioned he was donating lots of his random stuff to an organization that was taking it to new orleans survivors... so we gave him all of our old games to add to his loot. Im not sure how many of the survivors had/have access to computers, but that seems like a much more interesting "Gaming in New Orleans" story to me... hopefully someone down there was able to get away from the chaos fora few minutes, and enjoy a game of WarCraft 2.
I think this girl needs to spend her time convincing her female friends that video games are a fun and aceptable form of entertainment. There really are nto very many girls "on the internet"... and its not because they are inherently bad at video games, or because boys dont believe they exist. The only girl i know, that play video games is my step sister, and thats likely just because she grew up with me and my brother. Of all the other girls i know (yes, i know more than a few) i cant think of anyone that plays videogames, atleast mroe than once or twice a month for a few minutes. The problem here isnt with the boys, as i see it...
Also, MapleStory has a halloween quest going, where you kill zombies and ghosts to get candies, which you give to an NPC for a little pumpkin basket, which you can hold like a shield.
Slashdot Mirror
"One would figure that once you iron out the engine and it works well, you then improve the artwork, and after that, you should really improve gameplay and build on the replay value. Too many games these days could damn well be one game with different maps and skins."
The article is about the Engine... At epic, the teams workign on Unreal Engine 3 and Gears of War are seperate people. There are plenty of people working on improving the Engine, and plenty working ont he game, trying to "improve gameplay and build on the replay value". your picking on the wrong developer/game to be complainign about lack of innovation... Gears of War looks to be one of the most innovative FPS games in a long time, attempting to invent a new sub-genre, the "cover-shooter", putting an extremely strong focus on using your environment as cover while in firefights.
And sure, better gameplay is always better than higher quality graphics... but if you can have both, why not? Some people get along jsut fine playing text adventures... but the majority of gamers want progressively higher quality visuals in most of their games as time goes on. just because a game has the best graphics in the biz, doesnt mean it automaticaly lacks in other areas.
As for the Unreal Engine 4 development pssibly taking peole away from current projects... right now, and probably for some time in the future, the only person working on UE4 is Tim Sweeney... always looking way down the road, trying to stay on the top of the world... Epic is in the business of making money, afterall.
One thing that should help immensely witht the ammount of work that must be put into making worlds and characters look good in UE3 is the new "Visual Material Editor" that is part of the new Unreal Editor.
By visually connecting the color, alpha and coordinate outputs of textures and programmer-defined material components, artists can create materials ranging from simple layered blends to extremely complex materials and dynamically interacting with scene lights.
if you wanna know a bit mroe about Unreal Engine 3, check out UnrealTechnology.com
Ooh... Ooh.. Ooh la laa...
I give you a previous slashdot article about meteos, easily the greatest puzzle game ive ever played. Not the longest development time, apparently.
Actualy Arena.net's only game to date, Guild Wars, requires only taht you buy the initial game, then you can play it online forever, with no aditional costs. They continue to support the game with very frequent patches, and there has been a little bit of new content, i believe. They are going to be releasing numerous optional "mission packs", with massive ammounts of new content, to continue getting money from consumers.
As much as I love the GameCube controller, I have to agree that they completely screwed up with that button... Fortunately most games dont make you use it too often.
The single deciding factor in wether or not I will buy an Xbox 360 is the quality of Gears of War. Its the only game ive seen taht looks extremely interesting. If it turns out to be an amazing shooter, i might jut buy my own 360, and a few of the other decent looking games on it. If it turns out to be good/decent, but not amazing, ill probabyl just hope a friend buys it, and wait for the next big PC game and the Revolution.
While I agree with you on many points... Last time I installed Windows on my machine, it took all of about 15 minutes to download and install Apache. You must be pretty amazing if 15 minutes of your time is worth that much money. I envy you.
I'm suing Slashdot for wasting wast quantities of my time for the past year.
I'm suing you for making me spend several seconds of my day trying to figure out what a "wast" is.
I will only spend so much money on my gaming habit. So the more games cost, the fewer games i will buy. if i currently buy a game every month or so, of they raise prices very much, i mgiht only buy a game every 1.5 or 2 months. if they lowered prices on games cnciderably, i might buy several each month, or even every week.
There's constantly new games i want coming out... but lately all i have been buying is Nintendo DS games, and conciderably more frequently than i usualy buy games... you know why? because they cost less, and tend to be very original/interesting/fun.
Take a hint, guys!
With rumors abound that Uwe Boll has been making terrible movies on purpose, in order to exploit a german tax loophole... now that that loophole has been closed, is it possible that uwe boll's future works will actually be half-assed decent? I think its pretty safe to say that Bloorayne and Dungeon Siege wont be too good... But perhaps there is hope yet for Far Cry, Hunter: The Reckoning, Postal (ok, maybe not postal), and Fear Effect.
We can hope.
This seems like the perfect time for developers to start using procedural textures/models. They could save enormously on space, and could even be a selling point for a game...
"But on a good TV, nothing compares."
Oh yeah, 1600x1200 resolution on my PC doesn't compare to your HDTV...
One thing I find funny about xboxes view of "nex-gen" is that consoles are no longer less expensive alternatives to PC gaming... they are just becoming a more restricted version of PC gaming.
(BTW, not trying to start a PC vs console debate, just stating an observation... I happen to enjoy both)
my code is 116023-598008 ill add everyone else who has replied here.
Am i the only person in the world that loves that movie? It's one of my favorite sci-fi movies... though i guess it woudlnt realyl qualify as a great "space" movie, since the movie has very little to do with space...
19" = Nineteen inches
19' = Nineteen feet
...You've been mocked.
I think there are plenty of people out there who are not gamers for reasons other than "they don't want to play games", and could very well be brought into gaming.
My dad, for example... I recall back when all me and my brother had was our Atari 2600, and later our NES... we would play all the time... and ocasionally when my dad had some time he would play with us. Now with the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube, the games and controls are too complicated for him, so he rarely tries playing games... but im sure he would like to sit down and play a game with me sometimes.
This is one of the reasons im looking forward to the Nintendo Revolution... the control sounds very intuitive, and im hoping they will have some simple, fun games, that dont take a lot of hard work to get good at, or advance in...
You have to look at Nintendo's overall strategy here... One of their big goals with the revolution is to attract new gamers... people who havent been abel tto get interested in video games because, possibly because the controls are too complicated. Now do you think they are going to get these people by telling them "oh, and the resolution is higher than the otehr consoles you never played before", or by saying "look, its really inexpensive, too! what are you waiting for?"... im guessing that adding HD support to the Rev would make it cost a bit more. I dont have an HD TV yet, and i proabbyl wont have one for some time... so i have absolutely no interest in getting one in the near future. And afaik, the majority of americans do not have an HD TV yet. And if i were to buy an Xbox 360 for its HD support, and buy a new HD TV to get the better resolution... i would much rather spend the money upgrading my computer and get 1600x1200 resolution.
Everything Electronic Arts Does Is More Harm Than Good.
meh... a lot of good the Geneva Conventions do... according to them you cant shoot a 50 cal. weapon at a human target... but equipment is fine, so go ahead and shoot at their weapon, ammo, belt, shirt, etc... if the person also happens to get hit, oh well.
Well, not too long ago, me and my family were cleanign out our little office room, and found a massive stack of fairly old video games that none of us play anymore. We were going to throw them ina box in the attic, but a friend mentioned he was donating lots of his random stuff to an organization that was taking it to new orleans survivors... so we gave him all of our old games to add to his loot. Im not sure how many of the survivors had/have access to computers, but that seems like a much more interesting "Gaming in New Orleans" story to me... hopefully someone down there was able to get away from the chaos fora few minutes, and enjoy a game of WarCraft 2.
Isn't the music in EA games usually just random popular songs? Aren't those already on itunes?
I think this girl needs to spend her time convincing her female friends that video games are a fun and aceptable form of entertainment. There really are nto very many girls "on the internet"... and its not because they are inherently bad at video games, or because boys dont believe they exist. The only girl i know, that play video games is my step sister, and thats likely just because she grew up with me and my brother. Of all the other girls i know (yes, i know more than a few) i cant think of anyone that plays videogames, atleast mroe than once or twice a month for a few minutes. The problem here isnt with the boys, as i see it...
I think a better question is: Who will be the second to steal it? o_O
Also, MapleStory has a halloween quest going, where you kill zombies and ghosts to get candies, which you give to an NPC for a little pumpkin basket, which you can hold like a shield.