Kingdom Under Fire II

Gestalt

I don't think there's a thread on it here, and I don't see much about it, but this is one of the more visually inspiring games I've seen lately.

(worth watching at a higher resolution)
Character customization:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq-lbCJ400M"]Video Gameplay Kingdom Under Fire II Character Creation Footage 1ST Close Beta by LEMYA & Playinter - YouTube[/ame]

Trailer:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEbzHtWoAPw"]Kingdom Under Fire 2 Trailer Online - YouTube[/ame]

Does anyone have any idea on what they're doing technically?

MrOneTwo

looks awesome. The customization is hilarious though. Each level of womans cloths just tries to show some more boobies without showing nipples... That looks really bad. At "level 5" of clothes it looks plain stupid. I really don't want to start debate "better armor = less clothes on woman" but here its just so plain obvious and stupid ;p. Game itself looks really interesting.

Bibendum

I played the first KoF xbox games and unfortunately the production quality of the visuals was really the only high point, judging by the gameplay in this it doesn't seem much different. Here's hoping I'm wrong though...

rolfness

looks pretty ok like the scale..

the breasts are funny.

Goeddy

sometimes i wonder if there are any women working in asian gamedevelopement...

Dan!

character models and armors look badass. That last dude wit the demon skin armor or whatever look sick.... gameplay- not my cup o tea, looks like "how many five year olds can you take in a fight-

and holy moly the boobs look like they had their own animator.

Gestalt

There's something, I'm not sure what, about the exposure or radiosity that feels really nice here. The models are ultra detailed, crisp, and clean, which is amazing given the number of things on screen and how the game has MMO elements. I don't know many games with this degree of craftsmanship, regardless of some of the female customization options.

Goeddy

now they only need to fill the game with 20 different characters... just look at the clone-armies.
also i´d like to mention games like FF13 and Rage, there are a lot of games at this level. Most are simply not that succesfulll cause people buy games to have fun with them, not to look at beatiful things.

Gestalt

Goeddy wrote: »

now they only need to fill the game with 20 different characters... just look at the clone-armies.
also i´d like to mention games like FF13 and Rage, there are a lot of games at this level. Most are simply not that succesfulll cause people buy games to have fun with them, not to look at beatiful things.

Part of the reason it's impressive is because there are so many unique assets at once (the city with many unique characters for example), and because there is a massive multiplayer element. As far as comparisons I'd say the detail here is better realized and cleaner than in FF13 and much cleaner than in Rage; in my opinion the lighting/shaders are realized at a higher level than in both games. I don't have technical details for what they are doing which is why I'm limiting the comparison to how well things are realized, the craftsmanship.

As for the hundreds of cloned enemies, I wouldn't say that they are a knock to the things the game is doing outside of the battlefield, especially given that fighting masses of cloned enemies seems to be the chosen 'genre' (not personally my thing but it is sort of a genre).

Andreas

tits just don't work like that.

Justin Meisse

I don't see them doing anything technically ground breaking being done there. The female armor made me laugh.

Bibendum

They save so many resources by not clothing the women that they can spend it on more unique sets of gear.

Not but really I agree it doesn't seem to be pushing the bar technically to me, especially when compared with other upcoming MMOs like Terra Online that seem to have an even larger variety. I think perhaps people have just shaped their expectations around games like WoW & Lookalikes that are designed to run on hardware that is half a decade old.

Ace-Angel

You know, for all the flack I get for calling out the Asian market and their portrayal of women clothing in games, I will say this: "I called it!"

Noodle!

Ace-Angel wrote: »

You know, for all the flack I get for calling out the Asian market and their portrayal of women clothing in games, I will say this: "I called it!"

Not only the Asian market man. It's the single most annoying thing in gaming overall today. It makes me sigh daily.

Alberto Rdrgz

In game design the biggest shame, is that the industry is somehow too afraid to break away from cliches. women in bikini armor being one of them, i mean for god's sake, we don't have to always see side boobs and ass cheeks. ugh// that's just me.

Goeddy

well its not all bad here, take the witcher 2 for example.
women are clothed properly and you can have sex with them, but they are not reduced to just that; they play a part in the story like every other character does.
wish this would be more appriciated,
instead i read on some feminist blog about how awesome spacemarine is, cause the only women in the game acts exactly like all the other dudes. only exception is she has a female model and voice.

ScudzAlmighty

I don't understand how the demon dude can move his head/shoulders past the level 2 armor.

AtomicClucker

the demon's probably got a stash of lubricant somewhere

personally, don't like the female armor 'cause it lacks umph and looks pretty boring.

haikai

Goeddy wrote: »

sometimes i wonder if there are any women working in asian gamedevelopement...

You would be surprised. It's almost a 50/50 ratio between male and female artists in some Asian countries. Which is a HELL of a lot better than in the US.

b1ll

yeh, you would be suprise.My wife worked on the xbox version before she escaped the Game industry.

30% is woman in the game industry in korea. And very cheap salary.

Btw She modeled the Girl with the big breast.

Ged

b1ll wrote: »

yeh, you would be suprise.My wife worked on the xbox version before she escaped the Game industry.

30% is woman in the game industry in korea. And very cheap salary.

Btw She modeled the Girl with the big breast.

really? wow that is surprising and sad that people with such amazing specialist skill would be considered cheap, are there so many talented people over there that they can afford to pay people badly?

aivanov

Ged wrote: »

really? wow that is surprising and sad that people with such amazing specialist skill would be considered cheap, are there so many talented people over there that they can afford to pay people badly?

Plenty of talent combined with lax Asian labour laws seems to be the key. "Badly" is very subjective in that some would view Western salaries and all their benefits as entitled and excessive - it all boils down to cost of living and the local government.

fearian

Justin_Meisse wrote: »

I don't see them doing anything technically ground breaking being done there. The female armor made me laugh.

really? I did. At the end it showed 100's+ strong armies and siege weapons interacting with a large boss encounter. I think it's pretty impressive to have that many enemies on screen at once interacting with each other in an MMO, but I also think its pretty unbelievable. I can't imagine gameplay being that epic in the final product. Unless maybe its heavily instanced, like Guild Wars was...

b1ll

aivanov You have no idea what you are talking about, its a very different world in korea, The game industry here is nothing like Western industry, Especialy regarding the pay, the hours, the way they think..etc.. Anyway..


For thoses interested My wife Folio when she was in the industry
http://clueme.egloos.com/