Mark Rein interview

[r1esG0]

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=146248?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-General-RSS


our beloved MR discuss about the cinematics, the tricks you can do with hoverboards, the unreal kismet that gives you the chance to make a mod of tetris, the ragdoll animation system... and more!









if an admin can edit the title and delete the "G" it would be thanked

[The5thviruz]

...the tricks you can do with hoverboards...



...the tricks you can do with hoverboards...



...the tricks you can do with hoverboards...



...the tricks you can do with hoverboards...

I can't wait to see these. :)

[Slaughter]

"Hey, we lost node 1!"
"Yeah, but you should have seen the flips that Johnny did!"

That'll be great for teamplay. NOT.

[MonsOlympus]

Well there is the daredevil stuff in 2k4 so this is probably just an extension on that. I wonder if that'll come back or if the hoverboard tricks will be the only ones we'll see. I doubt it'll affect gameplay that dramatically unless someone is sitting there doing nothing but tricks, I wont be picking them for my team :p

[Cleary]

"Hey, we lost node 1!"
"Yeah, but you should have seen the flips that Johnny did!"

That'll be great for teamplay. NOT.
LMAO!

I just know that will happen:p

[Xyx]

We have much more variety in some of the vehicle-based weapons, like what you saw in the way the Dark Walker works.Har, as in "we have orange and yellow layzurs now"? :confused:

[A_Spec]

One of the most exciting additions we've seen so far are the hover boards. How did you guys come up with those?



I wonder what they have been smoking...

[Cleary]

Lol, Because Seeing, giant spiders is an everyday thing.

[Keith_C]

I hope that hoverboard tricking can be turned off serverside...

[MonsOlympus]

Im guessing it took them 2 weeks to come up with the hoverboards :p

Sorry I couldnt resist ;)

[r1esG0]

yeah, lets delete the hoverboard triking, lets delete the taunts too, lets delete the feign death, lets delete everything because nobody likes what is not an new addition who only encourages the competitive side


complaining about what you havent try should be the next olimpic sport

[The5thviruz]

Im guessing it took them 2 weeks to come up with the hoverboards

More like 3 years...

BTW What was the longest "2 Weeks" ?

[MonsOlympus]

The 2 weeks between someone making a joke about it? :D

Ok I'll stop, this is a good thread. Dont want to get it closed now :p

[sure]

Maybe people should play with the hoverboards first before crying like a little baby.

Game isnt even out yet and they talking about bad teamplay and turning stuff off serverside.

Relax.

[MysTikal]

yeah, lets delete the hoverboard triking, lets delete the taunts too, lets delete the feign death, lets delete everything because nobody likes what is not an new addition who only encourages the competitive side


complaining about what you havent try should be the next olimpic sport
He wins the thread.

[Boksha]

Not much controversy, this time around. :(

[{SM}LeadSniper]

maybe tricks can be used give a quick boost of speed on successful completion. and id think tricks make it harder to hitscan because they add a whole degree of unpredictablity to the game, only time will tell lol.

[p2xelgen]

Maybe people should play with the hoverboards first before crying like a little baby.

Game isnt even out yet and they talking about bad teamplay and turning stuff off serverside.

Relax.
Ya I think HB going to be A1. There's always the odd one who has to moan about something, like the CTF V VCTF thread. So please that thread got Flak, it just got boring going full circle.

I for one cant wait…

[MonsOlympus]

Yeah this game is just classy from what Ive seen, the clips short to the point without letting out too many smaller details. I soo cant wait to play with the dev tools, thats if you cant drag me away from the game :D

[Cleary]

I've never known people to complain and panic so much over a GAME, that ISNT EVEN RELEASED YET. Geez, You could be sorting out a clan or something instead of moaning.

be constructive with your time.. not destructive.

[fuegerstef]

I've never known people to complain and panic so much over a GAME, that ISNT EVEN RELEASED YET. Geez, You could be sorting out a clan or something instead of moaning.

be constructive with your time.. not destructive.

THat'S because of history: UT -> UT2k3... ...from there there was panicking.

[Cleary]

Lol true, But still... Complaining about what if is a waste of time... If they get it wrong then they'll suffer... If they get it right then thumbs up.

Not much you can do... or is there?

[Catzenjaeger]

nice interview :) thanx Computerandvideogames

[p2xelgen]

Epics model for designing levels this time around is spot on. Building a shell and playtest things like layout/weapons/power ups will insure that the game will be fully loaded with game play heaven. :D

[Folk]

Why do you think Gears of War has become the flagship game for Unreal Engine 3 over UT2007?


Notice that Mark doesn't deny this fact.

That's a shame. :(

I understand that Epic's got to go where the money is, but Epic got to where they are today on the backs of us folks who bought their PC based games. So now, instead of Epic = Unreal Tournament, it's Epic = Microsoft Xbox 360. Looks like PC games will now always take a back seat to console games.

Oh well... it was nice while it lasted.

[Omniety]

You know, if they get hoverboards I want rocket figure skates. Give figure skating that much needed twist of adrenaline pumping action!!!!

Triple salchow? Try Googleplex salchow!!!

[MonsOlympus]

Originally Posted by computerandvideogames.com
Why do you think Gears of War has become the flagship game for Unreal Engine 3 over UT2007?

Well Im sure after they see all the mods and players they get from 2k7 they might change there minds. Im sure he didnt deny it because its the next game to be released so not to take the attention of it onto 2k7.

Epic sticking with pc as a platform for 2k7 in itself says it all, they could have easily gone ps3 exclusive or even console exclusive with it but they havent. Gears on the other hand was probably designed and invisioned for console play thats why its a console exclusive. Theres probably alot of politics in it we arent privvy to, theres got to be other UE3 games coming out on 360 as well.

[Scylla]

yeah people shouldnt diss the hoverboard yet because they havent tried it it can pull of wicked sick moves!

[Cleary]

I recon it'll be one of my fav/most used form of transport... Everyone else always seems to get the good transport/weapons before me anyway.

[Sir Hollehund]

Ut 2k7 will get cinematics? Oh well... I guess I have a reason to live longer :D

[MonsOlympus]

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=119733

Found this one on the same site, its pretty old but theres alot of info on the original designs. It actually mentiones CTF containing vehicle maps lolz

Anyways check it out cause it might give you some questions, I definatly have a few now hehe, forgive the kinda offtopic :p

[blackout]

When somebody is on his hoverboard all the time you could just take an ASMD and bang, he flies all over the map. Splatt. I guess they would not like it that much.

[Xyx]

If you need a hoverboard, the map is TOO DAMN BIG!

[Jake-SF]

If you need a hoverboard, the map is TOO DAMN BIG!
Well, 99% of the people playing UT2004 seems to love big maps with constant vehicles combat, that means the map are going to be oversized... and this game is supposed to remove hitscan dominance, go figure :p But thats off topic..

[iLL]

Notice that Mark doesn't deny this fact.

That's a shame. :(

I understand that Epic's got to go where the money is, but Epic got to where they are today on the backs of us folks who bought their PC based games. So now, instead of Epic = Unreal Tournament, it's Epic = Microsoft Xbox 360. Looks like PC games will now always take a back seat to console games.

Oh well... it was nice while it lasted.

Could not agree more.:(

I'll move on to a different FPS before I play UT with my thumbs on and a 6 foot cord.The games great,but not good enough to pull pc gamers to consoles imho.

[Garcia y Vega]

Some one tell me what is so great about gow any ways? (besides being on unreal engine 3...)

[Wail of Suicide]

Well, 99% of the people playing UT2004 seems to love big maps with constant vehicles combat, that means the map are going to be oversized... and this game is supposed to remove hitscan dominance, go figure :p But thats off topic..

Not so sure about that. Dreamus, Dreamus 2, and *****slap are some of the most popular maps on the 32p ONS Spam Vikings server. All three of these maps are "extremely small" and easily traversible on foot. Though they have their own problems, in general I do prefer that type of fast-paced action-oriented gaming as opposed to Dria or DryIce and other huge maps.

[Xyx]

Dreamus2 is excellent proof that no ONS map needs to be big. And if it is, it should have extra nodes to fill the emptiness.

[r1esG0]

Could not agree more.:(

I'll move on to a different FPS before I play UT with my thumbs on a 6 foot cord.The games great,but not good enough to pull pc gamers to consoles imho.


i dont kwon if you remember when 2 or 3 years ago, the new unreal engine was first shown showcasing certain gothic cathedral, and some devilish mosters.

Nobody knew for what game they were for, or if even those monster were made for a game. Everybody though that was a demo to showcase the engine, but now we know those monsters are fro gow.

I wont talk about that game, because i dont play in console games, but i figure that the thing was not like " hey, lets move to the console and pull back the pc players".

I think the thing was : " hey, we have launched, ut,ut2k3 and ut2k4, we want to do a diferent game in a new graphic engine, lets do gow"

Later when gow was being more and more finished, they began to make ut2k7, for that reason, MR doesnt have to deny anything.
Gow was planned to be released first and it will be released first.

I think that at first, Gow was coming to pc and console, but a decision of making it exclusive to 360 was made while the game was being made and thats all.
It doesnt mean epic has pushed back pc users, it was decided that that game only will come for console and it will be launched first because it was beggined first

Of course everything that i said is what i imagine, seeing what has happened trhoug the years. It just my speculation.

[iLL]

Well I just hope they continue to work equally hard for pc as console.The game started here and should stay here no matter whats going on with consoles.I do not blame them because theres money to made there.

I was already disappointed GOW was coming before PC UT7.Kind of a slap in the face there.

I wish they would do a PC GOW.I'd be allover it,but NEVER on a console for any game.

[»madMar†y»]

: Well one of the problems we found with UT2004 is if you died and accidentally spawned in a location where everybody had taken all the vehicles you ended up being stuck running as fast as you could on a fairly-long distance - you're out of the game for a long period of time and it's very hard to catch-up if somebody took-off in a vehicle, and we thought It'd be really nice if we could give people the ability to traverse areas of the map two-to-three times faster than they can now. It's not as fast as the Scorpion but it's a lot faster than running on foot.
On most ONS maps you spawn in the neighbourhood of a node, so they obviously have never heard of teleporting to the next node to see if there are vehicles.:)

[Slaughter]

True, but what if you have only one node built and all the vehicles are gone? Then you have to hoof it.

I have nothing against the idea of the hoverboard per se, as basic transportation. My hope is that the "tricks" are limited to something akin to quick taunts so people aren't wasting too much time. And this is from a pub point of view, as I am certainly not a "competetive" player and never will be.

[»madMar†y»]

Then you teleport yourself to the core and take a look whether there are vehicles and if all the vehicles are gone there too, you go back to that node again and than you can walk.:)

I'm also not against hoverboards and even think it's a nice idea, I only think that explanation of why the hoverboards are needed is not right, atleast not for Ons (maybe for VCTF) . I think the main good thing about hoverboards is that when you loose your vehicle you can always get relative fast to the next point.

[Xyx]

Or simply display your team's vehicles on the radar map.


I was already disappointed GOW was coming before PC UT7.Kind of a slap in the face there.
I'm glad they put Gears of War first. UT2007 will do nothing but benefit from that decision. The UE3 is in its infancy. Imperfections will be smoothed out during Gears of War development, and the way will be paved for UT2007.

[Slaughter]

Then you teleport yourself to the core and take a look whether there are vehicles and if all the vehicles are gone there too, you go back to that node again and than you can walk.:)

Certainly an option, but also depends on the map. On some (say, ugh, Torlan), by the time you teleport back to your core and either find no vehicles there or get one and start driving, you could have hoofed to the next node.

[MonsOlympus]

You could also consider that people may not want to use vehicles as such and prefer to be infantry. This gives them an oppertunity to do so and adds alittle spark by letting you grapple to vehicles. I wouldnt really count a hoverboard as a vehicle its more a mode of transport like a push bike, skates or the translocator. I cant really see anyone trying to be infantry in 2k4 by node teleporting to battles, the best way is to hitch a ride in a vehicle although vehicle drivers can be annoying and just leave you there. Im hoping with ut2k7 you will be able to grapple to a vehicle even if the driver doesnt want you to that way they cant hoon off, make alot of kills and win medals without alittle team work.

[MonsOlympus]

Umm sorry about the doubly, part 2 of the interview:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=146449

[Eveningfall]

I think the hoverboard will be useful in Onslaught and Warfare. I was playing 5-on-5 Onslaught last night and I had to run to the nodes about half of the time. Doing tricks with it will give you something to do between combat since you can't shoot while riding it.

I'm glad that Epic is designing games for consoles. It will lead to more revenue which will lead to more games. More games from Epic is always good.

I really like the cinematics in Unreal Championship 2. They helped to make since of why you are playing though the single player ladder. Having you oppenents in your face talking trash before the match makes you want to kill them more.

[UnrealGrrl]

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=146248?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-General-RSS


the tricks you can do with hoverboards


cant wait to not play any games with hoverboards so i dont have to see these :eek:

anywho...

theres also a good interview with Mark in the latest Computer Gaming World where he talks about most of the above and about a somewhat expanded Single Player portion of the game... now thats good news!


"And I can tell you right now, we're going to do a better job with the single-player. If it kills me, I will keep pushing for a real traditional story-based single player component to UT2007."


"...we have the tools now in UE3 to make both a single and multiplayer game."
"...we can provide alot more depth to the single-player than previous UT games, but we're not looking to make something as deep and intense as Gears."
"There's still a long way to go...onlyy time will tell if we can pull this off."


One quote which i'm guessing to be misquoted or something though says: "With the upgraded Onslaught game, which we're calling "Warfare", we're definitely giving people a deeper experience, with some cool objectives, more teamplay and smarter bots."

All in all not alot of UT info we didn't already have in the interview and no new pics but a good article, discusses episodic content (again) graphics requirements for games in general and of course Gears. Thanks Mark

[UnrealGrrl]

and i dont know if we've seen this image yet which was in Computer Gaming World...

http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/682/ut2007bikesqv7.jpg

[iLL]

and i dont know if we've seen this image yet which was in Computer Gaming World...

http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/682/ut2007bikesqv7.jpg

(not posssible to post images in this forum?)

Yeah we have seen that one.
Not posting pics sux.I wonder why that is?What harm could we possibly do?:confused:

[»madMar†y»]

Use tags: [shot]http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/682/ut2007bikesqv7.jpg

[Doc Shock]

Really nice find, the interview isn't just PR, it's quite informative as well. Take this part for example:

You talked a bit about physics there - obviously '2003 was one of the first games to incorporate rag doll physics, how are physics affecting gameplay in 2007?

Mark Rein: Nicely, nicely. We've started to use physics for a lot more of the effects than we have in the past, like if you noticed in Onslaught the power core has pieces falling off it. It just makes in more immersive and more believable that these pieces are flying properly and colliding with each other, things like that. We have some physics-based particle effects, the Dark Walker uses physics to navigate, the vehicles now have lots of articulations and suspension. The characters if you look really carefully - we don't just do rag doll anymore, we actually mix; we blend animation, rag doll and physics together to produce some really, really cool animation effects.
I remember that we had a rather long discussion here how ragdolls should be like and now it is confirmed that it will be like what most people whished for: A blending between animation and physics. Great!

[Silvester[AUT]]

I will chase those Hoverboardes with my Scorpion. I hope it is faster.

[iLL]

Really nice find, the interview isn't just PR, it's quite informative as well. Take this part for example:

I remember that we had a rather long discussion here how ragdolls should be like and now it is confirmed that it will be like what most people whished for: A blending between animation and physics. Great!

Thanks for highlighting this.I am glad to hear it.More variety of death is always welcome.

The Darkwalker still walks funny though.

[fuegerstef]

']I will chase those Hoverboardes with my Scorpion. I hope it is faster.

It is confirmed that the Scorp is still faster than the HB.

[Silvester[AUT]]

For me it is an honour you answered one of my posts.

I may be a little bit drunk and enthusiastic atm, but vctf promisses to be great. wide opend area cause you have to chase after the foe, killing all of tem 3 before returning the Flag. Rambo fest!!!

[Emmet Otter]

I think Rein is also missing the point that computer hardware designed to run the latest games are just too damn expensive and dont last very long cause game develpoers are always pushing the limits with their games graffix wise and not letting the consumer enjoy his/her newly bought 3 month old hardware!!! IMo, thats the major problem with PCs today and why people migrate over to console.

Game designers are pushing the graffix boundries too much which alot of people ARE complaining and less on gameplay. They want to win the audience with the "WOW, look at those graffix"!

Hardware makers are always overpricing their sh*t! And even with the latest hardware you cant seem to play certain games at full effects with decent resolution!

I never could afford the highest end cpu and graffix card which is why im left scrambling trying to find .ini tweaks, modified drivers of some sort or OC'n my system to til it frys out. You dont know how many hours i've spent trying to find that perfect tweak to enjoy my game. So im never fully enjoying the games to their fullest extent.

So its a combination of all these that makes it hard for pc gamers to continue playing on this platform. I sometimes wonder why I even bother :rolleyes:

Could you imagine what this does to the average computer consumer!?!?

[MonsOlympus]

Well said, I agree with you on most of your points there. I find its not only that they are pushing graphics but the fact that there are no rebates between hardware manufacturers on pc's like there are with consoles. Nivida say might go we'll give you this many chips for this cheap price right but then a more powerful chip on a pc costs twice if not three times more. I kinda get the feeling like we arnt getting a choice and being railroaded into that direction.

I remember back in the day I had a nes and a pc even though the pc was only slightly better in some respects, mainly because it was pretty much side scrollers then. It didnt stop people from owning both back then even if they couldnt afford it you'd rarely find someone with a console who didnt own a pc as well. I think the same follows through today with new pc's and consoles with people buying consoles purly because they get exclusive titles as they did back in the day same with pc's.

The thing thats different now is consoles get a dramatic amount more of exclusives compared to pc's and with the arcade drying up slowly alot of those developers moved to consoles instead of pc's which is where they should have gone. I say that because arcade no matter how you look at it was driving the industry in terms of new control devices, sound and graphics for a long time. Now pc's get the graphics and sound but we are left with not many companys willing to do controllers because of all the patent/copyright issues brought about by consoles.

The pc fought off alot of consoles in its time, the amiga, commodores, macintosh's and even stood tall above nes, snes and sega alternitives. Why do people think all of a sudden pc's are dying? well it aint because pc's arnt up to the task, intergrated graphics could probably take on the wii and ds combined.

A company like epic is at the forefront of graphics thats why its only the best of graphics hardware is relevant to them. Just like quake and the voodoo or doom and a decent amount of ram, same with the original commanche. There will always be minimum requirements for graphics as well as other areas so why's this such a big deal when compared to intergrated audio these days?

My main problem is with the gpu manufacturers as they could easily cut prices to be more competative like intel and amd are in the cpu industry. Intel have never been known for bleeding edge graphics and I doubt there down with the whole unified shader thingo's my advice to them would be to get outta the kitchen because its obvious they cant stand the heat. To the gpu manufacturers kick it in the arse guys I mean you make the gpu's for the damn consoles as well dontcha? soo umm do you guys get a bigger kickback from companies on consoles or pc's?

It comes down to the developers in the end in my eyes, more pc games = more pc and graphics sales = less cost. More consoles games = more console sales = marketing. If more developers would start using pc's as a gaming platform then people would be snapping them up just as they do with the consoles, its all down to numbers. Please guys realise its not just the consumers in this industry its developers as well.

[iLL]

The only way any of these companies will hear us is if we hit em where it hurts-their wallets.Money is the only language they know.

They will continue to slowly and sneakily push prices up and give out less on everything(games,hardware,software,etc) until the consumer STOPS buying.(bleeding everyone of us like a turnip) Only then will they change something.

Something bad or dramatic always has to happen for any change to come.Its sad really,but thats how corporate and governments are.

Theres endless examples of this everywhere.The quickest thing I can thing of off the top of my head would be a curved cliffside road not having a guardrail until 20 people drive off of it.Only then would a rail be installed.

Not the best example,but accurate nonetheless.

The games are getting hungrier and the hardware is not coming down in price fast enough to make it all acccessible for most.Less people playing equals less sales,but they are used to last years profits and want more so the cost must go up.

So its getting tough and eventually people will look for the closest and most cost effective way to simulate what they get from pc gaming.

If they would keep the games and the hardware it takes to feed them in sync with each other more people could and would play and it would even out the small hit they had to take in order to get people to buy.

Eventually for many,it will get to the point where people will have to wait for hardware prices to drop just to play last years games.

Its not that bad yet,but its coming.

I agreed with u guys on graphics cards.They are getting out of control.Hell you finally lay down 5 bills for a nice card and they introduce SLI.You get a great CPU,now we have dual core.Then quad core.Where does it end?Well when we cannot afford it anymore and stop buying as I said above.

[MonsOlympus]

Well said iLL ;)

Thats one of the main reasons why I dont buy consoles anymore, I usually just play friends and familys machines. So Im not totally against consoles as such, I just feed my money into my pc as it gives me alot more return for my money than a console ever could.

It seems like some console makers and developers are looking to the furture where we get consoles and pc's into the same system so it would be possible to play online against either depending on which one you own. This said the point I made about nes' and other consoles stands true but with consoles now coming with the ability to get online they are taking more market away from pc's in one aspect.

The one thing I do like about epic is that even though they are pushing the limits of graphics they are one of the only companies that fully utilize the full potential of dx. Perhaps its clever timing, well kinda with hl2 dx9 support coming a pretty short time after 2k4. With the next game though they will be fully utilizing dx9 to its fullest potential compared to the first lot of dx9 games which did push the bar when compared to dx8.1 but not 9. Also alot of these games had fall back options to either 8.1 or even 7 :S

There are companies looking at dx10 atm but you must realise even though they look good the gamplay and graphics arnt on par like what iLL said. Personally I think the first gen dx9 games, kinda generalising here mainly fps', could have done alot more in the gameplay department. Now we get the same version of dx but much more variety in gameplay from UE3 games. This shows it is indeed versitle enough that graphics dont always have to take the lead.

The thing with epic is I would never expect them to take a back seat to graphics over gameplay considering they are a middleware developer also, its a similar situation to id software or valve. So they have to aim forwards with the technology constantly which is how it should go but when you get down to the actual game developer they should definatly be weighing it up. I just see them getting annoyed because the technology thats developed is far ahead of the industry in terms of price and sales, consoles cant even keep up with this they sell older looking games on the consoles that are being phased out all the time.

This is where backwards compatability comes into play with pc's really leading the pack. Ofcoarse there are consoles like the playstation series which do a great job of this with the games you bought for previous versions being playable and yes even played still. The second hand console market is pretty well ugly, I had to overspend alot on a regular xbox just because of the way its structured. I didnt really have a choice because I needed one to play uc2 for developing the mod, the game was much much cheaper ($15au brand new) and wasnt nearly as old as the console was.

Ive still got the old consoles that Ive bought over the years but I dont usually play them as much nowdays. If I want to play one of the nes games I own I just boot up an emulator, same with dos games. If the industry wanted to they could easily give pc users everything consoles users get with pure emulation alone, for multiplatform engines they got a big bonus over other engines that cant do this. I guess Im hoping for the day when a game will be released on all availiable platforms with the ability to play online together :)

[iLL]

I guess Im hoping for the day when a game will be released on all availiable platforms with the ability to play online together :)

Yes this would be great in many aspects.
Just to name a few.

More people to play.
Cheaper hardware and games.
Less developement time.
Less upgrading.

I am sure there would be some cons,but they would be nowhere near the benefits of such a game or machine.

I do believe Epic wants to make something fun,accomplish a goal,and not disrespect the players who have helped them along the way.IF they can is a different story.Thats a tall order.

If they do,they will receive their praise,respect,and money which would be well deserved and earned if they hit the mark.

BTW I have nothing against consoles.If I could plug a mouse and keyboard into it I'd prolly play it.:p

[r1esG0]

i think its not problem of game makers,
they always want their games to loof the best, so they explore the last techcnology

but if the game is well done, it will be able to be played on lots of systems tweaking the graphics,

the problem is with the card vendor,

what was the first graphic card that cost 600 bucks?
all this problem began the day that anybody bought it,

the vendors understood that that was an affordable price, and more grapichs cards released with this price came later.

it should be needed any kind of action, like making a pact of non buying this cards,
so the prices could go down,
it sounds like a phantasy, but is real: for example in japan, ppl did not buyed xbox on a pointed day (the launch day i think) to show their dissapointment with microsoft, and lots of profits were lost

i dont know if this kind of action could be done by us, pc users

[nighty]

Hoverboards are 1337. Just watch some old episodes of Thundercats. Wilykit and Wilykat should sue.

http://www.cheezey.org/thundercats/inquirer/hands1.jpg

[Gregori]

i think its not problem of game makers,
they always want their games to loof the best, so they explore the last techcnology

but if the game is well done, it will be able to be played on lots of systems tweaking the graphics,

the problem is with the card vendor,

what was the first graphic card that cost 600 bucks?
all this problem began the day that anybody bought it,

the vendors understood that that was an affordable price, and more grapichs cards released with this price came later.

it should be needed any kind of action, like making a pact of non buying this cards,
so the prices could go down,
it sounds like a phantasy, but is real: for example in japan, ppl did not buyed xbox on a pointed day (the launch day i think) to show their dissapointment with microsoft, and lots of profits were lost

i dont know if this kind of action could be done by us, pc users

Theres a practical monopoly on the both CPU's and GPU's. ATI and Nvidia run the entire graphics racket, Intel and AMD run the CPU one. Both those markets need more competition in them to bring prices down, because those four companies aren't going to do it!

[Folk]

I think Rein is also missing the point that computer hardware designed to run the latest games are just too damn expensive and dont last very long cause game develpoers are always pushing the limits with their games graffix wise and not letting the consumer enjoy his/her newly bought 3 month old hardware!!! IMo, thats the major problem with PCs today and why people migrate over to console.

And I noticed in the article that once again Mark tries to blame Intel and integrated graphics for the death of PC gaming. He makes it sound like shoving just any discrete graphics card in a laptop or PC will magically make it able to run video games. This is hilarious on several levels, not the least of which is the fact that, up until now (the jury is still out on Unreal Engine 3) Epic's games have always been CPU bound. To date, all of the Unreal games... including UT2004, are by-and-large CPU bound. If you have a fast enough processor, most discrete graphics cards of the last four generations of chips from either ATI or Nvidia will run UT20004 just fine.

But yeah Emmet, your point is well taken. When UT99 came out, only the very best PC's on the planet would give you really good framerates with the visuals maxed out. It took about a year for the hardware to catch up. Same was true when UT2003 was introduced. I'm not surprised though... since Epic was using UT to pimp their game engine, the game had to have all the latest visual bells and whistles, and so it was more or less destined to run slow. I expect no less of UT2007.

Given that, exactly what should Intel do to "save" PC gaming? Beef up their integrated graphics?? LOL!!! If the highest end system on the planet at introduction struggles with producing the kind of framerates we consider smooth, how the hell is any integrated graphics solution going to help?

[Concept]

I've never known people to complain and panic so much over a GAME, that ISNT EVEN RELEASED YET. Geez, You could be sorting out a clan or something instead of moaning.

be constructive with your time.. not destructive.

Suggestions = hopefully a better game. Creating clan = possible the game is littered with problems and no one plays, constructive with our time?

Anyway - Epic will keep feeding bits of info which to casual gamers will find interesting etc, for obvious reasons. But i think many here would also like a bit more detail - not spoil-the-fun details but stuff like: How will the hitboxes be done during the tricks (will the head hit box be miles away from the head)? Will points/awards be given on stats screens (increasing the chances of people not bothering with nodes)? Is it possible to turn off (either the tricks or the board completely - some maps may not suit it)?

As for the hardware race, PCs push the hardware to grow and then consoles reap the awards 5-10 years later, if consoles take over wont it stop the growth and then come to consoles people will get fed up as many of them has been fed with "this consoles has better graphics so its worth playing" and stop playing? So we end up with a dead PC community and stale consoles? - who knows i guess :p

As for GoW i dunno how much of a hand microsoft had in it being developed first, but it makes sense. Epic can show there engine off to console developers who may get the editor etc etc. Besides i dont see GoW working so will on a PC.

[MonsOlympus]

I say that because arcade no matter how you look at it was driving the industry in terms of new control devices, sound and graphics for a long time. Now pc's get the graphics and sound but we are left with not many companys willing to do controllers because of all the patent/copyright issues brought about by consoles.

Yeah this is why I said this, its not that easy to find a decent gamepad for pc's these days in the shops let alone joysticks and steering wheels. Ofcoarse there are still some good ones the consoles came in with all this patent/copyright thingos and killed the progress that was being made in these areas. Then you get things like the wii controller or the ps3 one, I mean usb duh wheres the pc ones already? Oh thats right no drivers lmao

Its by pure choice on the part of the makers, the consoles are popular, it has nothing to do with how much they sell. If consumers had a choice then perhaps pc's would be doing better. I just find people making excuses to make things more and more closed in and disposable, I guess its the nature of the world we live in. I mean damn petrols still pretty popular hey lmao