Quote:Pre-E3 2005: Xbox 360 Gears of War
The visuals in this Xbox 360 title are unreal.
by David Clayman

May 12, 2005 - As far back as June of 2004 we had slight glimpses of Unreal Engine 3. The demo included some foreboding architecture, a scary amount of detail, and a few shots of one ugly creature. Until now we simply referred to this artwork as a technical demo or an unannounced title using the new engine. But after visiting Microsoft to get a preview of their 360 lineup, we can safely say that these assets are from a new game from Epic called Gears of War.


This version of the Unreal Engine includes a 64 bit color pipeline, dynamic shadowing and a huge amount of texture effects. Because Epic licenses their engines out to numerous developers, this is a glimpse into the future of what many next-gen games will look like.

The trailer that we saw focused on a set of large marines dressed in futuristic armor. The team entered a large courtyard where the main character motioned for his squad to hold their position as he surveyed the area. The surrounding buildings were constructed of the same stone and metal gilding that was displayed in the UnrealEngine3 demos. The most striking aspect of the imagery was attention paid to smaller objects. Bits of ivy covered the walls and each piece of metal had its own reflective gleam.

Just as quiet settled over the marines, gun fire erupted from the abandoned building ahead of them. The camera then swooped in over the shoulder of the main character, known as Marcus Phoenix, and an aiming reticule appeared on the screen. What looked like a pre-rendered cinema was actually in-engine. Phoenix began blasting away at his unidentified targets causing structural damage to everything in his line of sight. One enemy appeared on the second floor of a building behind some boarded up windows. When fired on, the wood was ripped from the side of the structure and crashed to the ground.

It was difficult to tell what exactly was attacking the soldiers until the side of the building was torn apart in an explosion of rubble. A creature about two stories tall with a multitude of sharp teeth towered over the good guys and let out a roar as the scene faded to black. We were given another look at this monster in a slow-motion depiction of it continuing to smash through a stone building.

This third-person shooter will be available on the Xbox 360 and the PC. We were told by Peter Moore that Gears of War is currently running at 80% of the visual bar that Epic believes it can achieve on 360. It will also include online play, and should be available after the holiday season. Stick with IGN for more information on this game next week at E3.

Quote:More Gears of War Info Revealed
Epic developer lets the cat out of the bag.
by David Clayman

May 13, 2005 - In a recent interview posted on the official Xbox site Epic developer Cliff "CliffyB" Bleszinski gave away a bit more information on Gears of War. The first section of the interview is spent touting the power of the Unreal Engine 3. Bleszinski doesn't only talk about the graphical prowess of the engine, but states that it allows the team to change things like camera movement, A.I., and weapon damage models in a number of hours.

The main character of Gears of War is a former prisoner named Marcus Fenix. On the planet Sera the human forces call themselves "The Coalition of Ordered Governments" and are locked in a struggle with an enemy known as The Locusts. The enemy forces are made up of foot soldiers, the giant ogre-like creatures shown in the Unreal Engine demos, and flying menaces known as Kryll bats.

Bleszinski revealed that the game would include co-op and multiplayer modes. Players can take on the enemy from a single front or split up to approach a problem from separate paths. The single-player experience joins gamers with team members equipped with highly advanced A.I. A versus mode is expected to be in the game, but Bleszinski stated that they are not yet ready to discuss this aspect of the game.

The third person perspective comes into play during battle as players will spend a lot of time taking cover by diving out of harm's way. Seeing a character moving through the heat of battle also increases the cinematic experience that Epic is gong for with this game. Players will have to "kick over tables, knock over pillars, and blow apart foes' safety spots" to vanquish The Locusts. We already know that Gears of War features beautiful environments and it sounds as though they will also be highly destructible. As for transportation, there will also be an assortment of Coalition robots and vehicles, while The Locusts rely on beasts and organic weapons.

Since the unveiling on MTV, Epic has presented the most visually impressive next-gen game by far. We'll have more information on this game as we head into E3 next week.

In this thread I bring to the debate table this question. Are we jaded to the point where enhanced graphical power just doesn't impress us any more?

To this I can only say something of myself. Personally, all these screens of these new games on new hardware? Well, I'm just not impressed. It's pretty much what I expected, and in many cases less. The jump to characters looking round and having mouths that can move was the big one :D, now it's just... well eye candy that just doesn't "do it" for me. I'm having a hard time getting excited about all this. And actually, this goes to the new video cards on PC as well. Yeah, it's nice looking... but... um... I guess what I'm saying is don't impress me much any more.

Quote:In an interview with the Dallas Morning News (registration required, sorry), Anna Dolecki, Nintendo's Director of Public Relations, said that, "Showing Revolution this year will be very important to us in terms of making sure that our audience knows that Revolution is real."

She goes on to reiterate the other information that we've known, using three DVD cases again as the point of reference, as well as the ability for Revolution to be housed either horizontally or vertically.

This is the first word from anyone inside Nintendo that Revolution will be shown this year, but there is a small possibility that the quote was taken out of context, and that while Nintendo will show Revolution this year, it won't be at E3, but at another event. However, The Dallas Morning News did state in its story that "Nintendo won't reveal details of the Revolution's technical innards until E3", the first glimpse of hope that we'll not only see Nintendo's new "sleek" console, but we'll find out what's powering the machine as well.

3 Days Left ...

http://media.xboxyde.com/gallery/public/...1_0001.jpg
http://media.xboxyde.com/gallery/public/...1_0002.jpg
http://media.xboxyde.com/gallery/public/...1_0003.jpg
http://media.xboxyde.com/gallery/public/...1_0004.jpg

Link

Finally some damage control. Those aren't even high-res, AND it's not running on final hardware.

:D

Cool, no?

http://llamasoft.co.uk/neon.php

Jeff Minter's next project is a lightsynth, built into the X-Box 360 hardware... he did similar programs for the Jaguar CD and Nuon, I believe.

It probably is better on a console that can actually play CDs... (as compared to the GC game he was making, which had a lightsynth element)

Other stuff about it.

http://www.yakyak.org/viewtopic.php?t=36596
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox360/musicp...usicplayer

I can't even merge threads anymore. I have no admin or even mod powers. What's the deal?

Could be fake, so don't get your hopes up:




The name is alright, I think. And it makes sense, since the princess looks to have a larger role this time around, and the whole twilight thing might mean that she turns into a werewolf at night... or something.

But the most exciting part? 2D Metroid!!

I hope this is real.


P.S. Battalion Wars is the new name for Advance Wars GC.

I watched some more. And yes the same night that I said I would, but then you (GR) didn't bother to follow-up on that...

Nintendo is actually hyping up their new machine a few days before E3, on their own website. Unbelievable. Has Nintendo finally grown some balls and is willing to fight aggresively this time? It's starting to look like it...


http://www.nintendo.com/newsarticle?arti...&page=home

Quote: Big things to come in small package


Nintendo, the world leader in video game innovation, stated loud and clear that they are not to be overlooked in the next generation home console race with the revelation of several unique features of the company's next console system, code name Revolution, to key media outlets. According to the early information, Revolution will combine powerful technology and gaming-focused features in Nintendo's smallest home game console yet.



In its final form, Revolution will be about the thickness of three standard DVD cases and only slightly longer. The versatile Revolution will play either horizontally or vertically, allowing the user total flexibility in setting up a gaming session wherever they have a television.



Thanks to Nintendo's hardware development partners IBM and ATI, the small system will be packed with power that will enable it to wow players with its graphics. Nintendo's legions of loyal fans will be happy to learn that Revolution will be backward compatible, playing both Nintendo GameCube 3-inch disks along with its own standard, double-layered DVD disks in the same self-loading media drive.



In the next generation, the addition of the Internet will be important to all consoles and particularly important to Nintendo. Revolution will be wireless Internet ready out of the box.



There's much more to Revolution that will be revealed over the coming months, but the combination of its compact size, wireless Internet, backward compatibility, quick start-up time and quiet, low-power operation add up to the start of a great game system. Get ready for the Nintendo Revolution in 2006!