Unreal 2 Design & PR

And for comparison, on the Wheel of Time page, the picture of the woman in the black dress (I assume she's an Aes Sedai of the black ajah, or maybe one of the Chosen Ones Forsaken), shows some modelling flaws here too. She doesn't seem to have wrists, and she looks a little too curvaceous for realism. Also, the skin isn't very pretty. In fact, it makes the chest (or breasts, if you so prefer) look a little flat when obviously the artwork does not intend for that appearance.

Next, I examine the whitecloak (blonde soldier guy in silver armor and a white cape). This model is considerably better, and looks pretty human. The armor looks a little simplistic, though. The face could use more detail; it looks blurry. However, it's harder to make out some of the blockiness; it's there if you look, but it's not as obvious and striking as it is on the Doom Q3 model. The body is considerably better proportioned. All in all, this model looks as it should; I always imagined the whitecloaks to be made up of a bunch of blonde, hero-type self-righteous-looking bastards. Galad...*smack*. :)

Looking beside the whitecloak is, I think, the hunter type guy. He's supposed to be basically a version of Paidan Fain from the series, if I remember correctly. His pose in this picture is kind of awkward, but the skin on this model is better proportioned. Again, the face needs work. All in all though, he looks rather sinister, which is appropriate as that is the mood that this character is meant to convey. His body is also well-proportioned; it would seem that Legend likes their women unrealistic, but the men look pretty standard. :)

And finally, the trolloc, a fairly fearsome warrior of the Dark One. In the books, it comes in many shapes and sizes, as if Aginor was expirementing with combining different animals. (For those who haven't read the books, Aginor was the Forsaken who created the trolloc.) I'm rather disappointed in the trolloc model of the Wheel of Time; while it looks fairly mean, it also looks...well...it looks fat. As a matter of fact, I really don't like this model. It's a disappointment in my opinion. However, I see that there's another trolloc model that looks considerably more fearsome. It's nice to see that there's a variety of trollocs, which is how it should be to keep up with the book series. The trolloc in the picture with the whitecloak and the evil guy looks *dumb*, but then again, trollocs were pretty mindless. They basically just like to kill and have a hard time with specific orders unless being led by a myrrdral, which is almost guaranteed to be misspelled. I could dig out the Eye of the World, but it's not that important.

Anyway, just so you don't think Q3's models aren't the only ones I can bring myself to criticize...

Daggah sir, I suggest ou befriend the alcoholic beeragii, for it is of the land of freedom for your hole and you will love nothing is of the mattern for of the me or of the you. I hate your ass because you suck of teh land of dick but I can excuse that for the ladies beckon/ I must hump of the legs of women they ask of me. Shut your land of hole in the gro9und and you die and I laugh and sticl it in and pull it out repeatedly. HA AHAHAHAHAHA


HAHAHAHAH

G{drunk{r i dunno

i apologize for the stupids

Oh, and I guess I should post my $0.02 on the Unreal Tournament models, too.

It's very clear that the models were kept at a fairly low polygon count for speed; the characters are fairly blocky. However, the humans look a little more like humans due to the way the bodies are proportioned. Again, the skins aren't as good as Quake 3's, but they're good enough as far as I'm concerned. I don't like seeing them in one piece anyway. :)

I just had another Unreal nostalgia moment.

That first scripted encounter with the Skaarj, through a partially open door, and you're quivering back there saying "WTF is that thing?" just like you were there... as it tore some poor sucker to bits... and the horrible screaming of the victim.

And the outdoors... the big beautiful outdoors...

In Unreal, this pond... had plant life in it. Procedural texturing on the top made it look real. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it rippled as you went through it.

But inside were fish... swimming... realistically. And the little dragonflies flying around (*not* green and *not* requiring you to shoot them before they bite you heh) and a fish jumped out of the pond and nabbed one of them.

I was shocked.

Talk about atmosphere.

And yes, the coronas on the lights...

And the first time that I saw a mercenary with a shield belt on ("WTF is that! Ruuuuuun!").

The quality and variety of the music... and the fact that it changed and hyped up during action sequences... and the darkness, and the quiet that was invariably broken by something shocking soon after.

The first time surprising a skaarj from behind, watching it flex its claws (instead of being automatically able to see me, and come charging at me)... and if I didn't kill it by surprise, seeing it actually... dodge my shots instead of just sitting there and taking it like a fanboy game.

Or when you blew one of those lizard guys in half, and the thing kept crawling after you with no legs, just like a horror flick (instead of just gibbing). Or the fact that your default pistol got upgrades getting more powerful... and these upgrades often depended on your ability to intercede on behalf of the slave race.

Or those reflection effects... the polished reflective surfaces in the castle. Or the software rendering being so good that a friend of mine thought his voodoo1 was active and it wasn't.

Or sneaking up and seeing the Skaarj operating that computer, and the overhead holograms with their transparency.

And the color, of course. Beautiful use of color. The world was suddenly lit and colored like reality, instead of dull brown and green.

Unreal was really groundbreaking, and again, the engine stands with what's going on today very well. It was ahead of its time, and definitely a remarkable first effort. Considering that it took Carmack and company iterations through the Doom engine, Q1 engine, Q2 engine, then finally to Q3 engine to equal or do than Epic's first effort points out how remarkably they pulled it off.

I just wanted to add some positivity about what they've done, to get away from stuff like "they need to push more triangles."

Jeez, I hope they don't spend a whole lot of time trying to push 20% more triangles, and instead work on immersing me even more into the world like they did with Unreal. I'm sure they're innovating and going to surprise the hell out of us with a few things.

I think Unreal 2 is gonna be cool, Legend has a lot of good level designers and as long as the weapons are better than the original, things should be A-OK.

anyone remember the time in unreal 1 when you meet the first skaarj(sp?), the lights go out, and the techo music plays. Scared the hell out of me and my friend, kinda like doom 2....too bad that that was the highlight of the single player aspect of the game

alcueso
the corona lighting effects of that game blew his mind when he first saw them

Jezzz... I am really sorry but I feel that Epic is copying AGAIN ID

Anyhow I dislike unreal1 so why should I bother with Unreal2? I will be waiting for review not even preview.

On the other hand, I heard that these is a game called "Deux EX" or something like that, that is pretty cool but use the old engine of UT. If you have choice between this one and SOF, which one will you pick?

It is ok 50, 52. I am already not that bright anyhow. But thanks for reminding me Daggah.

No, Johnny Rotten, gameplay should be priority #1.

You do remember that these are GAMES that we play, right? Not tech demos? Well I guess it's not your fault, what, being brought up on id games and all.

Forget Unreal. Been there, bored with that. Blade, Enclave, and Serious Sam!

Things needed to make unreal2 a hit:

1) A new fucking rendering engine. The lighting and texturing are fine/excellent, but the triangle throughput is absolutely and utterly atrocious. That should priority #1.

2) Lots of scripted, cinematic sequences. The first 3 or 4 levels were fucking brilliant.... glimpses of the shadowy skaarj in the air ducts, hearing the skaarj tear up your shipmates behind the closed door and then seeing him run off... exiting the ship for the first time and seeing the sky, cliffs and waterfall... the first encounter with the brutes... and, of course, the first actual encounter with a skaarj (one of the best fps sequences EVER). But after that Epic just... stopped and unreal got real dull real quick. If Legend can maintain that kind of content throughtout the game they'll have a winner.

If Unreal 2 is anything like Legend's Wheel of Time then I don't think it's going to worth getting. They'll have to come up with something new. Also the Unreal engine's lack of polygons is starting to make it look more and more dated...

I think CliffyB is one of the executive producers for this game so it should be interesting to see if he has any influence on the final product.

I know they've been working on it for a while now... I wonder when they plan on finishing it.

so now Unreal is gonna be a single player game like doom3? Good work Epic.

Man! I'm so excited!! One of my friends is going to work on Unreal 2 with Legend so I'll know everything about it while you poor souls will be kept in tha dark *sniff*


- Uncle Tera Loves You

man, im as excited about Unreal 2 as i am about this Alice in Wonderland game....*cough* gay *cough*

Single player wise I thought the first few level of unreal were very nice. After that I didn't like it and the mp was screwed. I haven't played it since it was first released so all the patches might have helped the mp aspect of it. It's too bad they didn't continue what they did in the first few levels though.

Owned in counter-strike.

Nice job, Pup.

See, sTeve waits till I'm around to update. Oh well, if the icon for unreal 2 says U2, I'll think that's cool and be happy with it.

BetaPest: Don't worry, i'm crashing out for at least 16 hours.

Probably Not First Post!

After the first Unreal sucked ass, i cant say i'm looking forward to this one much. I'm sure I'll be surprised though, since its a different team this time around.