Former 'Black' Designer Leading Team for New Codemasters Shooter

February 16, 2010 3:40 PM

In a press release promoting the expansion of its Guildford studio, Codemasters revealed that the team there is working on a new original shooter. The project is led by creative director Stuart Black who was designer and co-creator of Black when he worked at the also Guildford-based Criterion Games. After Black released in 2006, rumors of a sequel never came to fruition. Though no specifics of what happened to that team were ever given, the 2007 establishment of Codemaster's Guildford studio came at a potentially opportune time.

At the very least it presented an attractive enough opportunity for EA Criterion development director Adrian Bolton who moved over to manage the new Codemasters studio at its founding. Joining the Criterion vets on this new project are executive producer Tom Gillo, previously of Sony Computer Entertainment's London Studio, and senior producer Andrew Wilson who was in the same role on Split/Second at Blackrock.

The already 80-person team has been in full production on the new game for 12 months after selecting it from a number of prototypes. They are building on Codemasters' multi-platform EGO engine which powered DiRT, GRID, and most recently Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. No other information about the new game was given but it seems likely we can expect a debut at E3 this summer if not before.

Garnett Lee

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Lukker-

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February 16, 2010 4:02 PM

Black was a pretty good game, but I think the EGO engine lacks fluidity when you used in FPS's, it just doesn't feel fit for purpose and is overly chunky.
- Mr Milquetoast
  
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  February 16, 2010 4:12 PM
  
  I also enjoyed Black and had been hoping for a sequel. I personally never had any complaints about the engine and thought it worked rather well. The cut scenes, however, were rather naff.
- 1Mystic-G
  
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  February 16, 2010 6:45 PM
  
  FPSs? OFPDR was their first and currently only FPS for it... they had to do a lot to the engine to make it work for it in the first place. From what I've been told (CM Staff) they got the engine to be smoother for future FPS titles. Not to mention OFPDR was really stretching the limits of what it could do. If they did a close quarter shooter like Black (or any other FPS these days) then I'm sure that it would run not only smooth but look just as good as DiRT 2 since there isn't a ton to render at any given time.
- Schuultz
  
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  February 16, 2010 7:52 PM
  
  Hm. I don't think the Problem with OFPDR was with the engine. To me, it seemed like rather clunky game design, that's it.
  
  Let's hope that they can make it, because especially the light and dust effects look stunning in EGO - and that was the original Black's strongest point, too...
- Scrubasteve
  
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  February 19, 2010 10:12 AM
  
  Black was decent but pretty flawed. It fell prey to just about every cliche' issue that plagued early FPS shooters. Clown car spawns and BS animations that wouldn't allow your shots to land were among the most annoying. And that last level! What a joke played through the whole thing and died at the end. What a pain in the ass. Anyways... If they fix all that they may have a great game.