The Darkness
polycounter lvl 17
Is it me, or is this game looking extra yum? After Butcher Bay (Riddick), I'm interested in anything those crazy swedes put out. (I particularly enjoyed their developer commentary.) Either way, Xboxyde just got a whole bunch of new screens, and it's looking quite nice. (The hair is really well done as well.)
New Screens of "The Darkness"
Anybody else here play Butcher Bay, like it? And has anybody actually read the comic this game is based off of... I haven't, looks interesting though.
New Screens of "The Darkness"
Anybody else here play Butcher Bay, like it? And has anybody actually read the comic this game is based off of... I haven't, looks interesting though.
Replies
I've been in love with that game ever since I heard about it.
Just looks so...
Wonderful.
Starbreeze is a great studio. Enclave, Riddick...two of my favorite xbox games.(second only to phantom dust) This looks like it could be my favorite 360 game possibly ( A position currently held by Lost Planet)
Can't wait!
-caseyjones
Is it using the same engine as Doom3? It has that plasticy look. Personally, I'm not that impressed with the graphics on those screens.
[/ QUOTE ]
Surprisingly no. Riddick was their own in house engine, and I'd imagine that this is an enhanced version.
I dont like the creature designs and the leather jacket cheese factor might be a bit too high for my tastes (still, this is based off of existing ip) , but its hard to fault the facial stuff, the sheer amount of work in these shots and the actual engine. For this kind of game its high quality.
'That plasticy look' is easy to fix by laying off the specular, but personally I find the Doom3 style impossibly hard pixellated shadows far more egrigous. I'm all for a unified lighting solution, but I long for soft edged stencil buffered shadows.
I also like their "Foolproof Equipment" boxes.
It's a pretty nice looking game, but last time I saw a vid of it in motion, it looked a bit slow and not fluid enough for my tastes... maybe they'll iron that out along the way though. Could be interesting.
I wonder why they release images like this though... the first person models just look hugely unfinished and/or rushed, not a very good presentation.
Is there something wrong with the Graffiti. It looks a bit cheese, no? I like the creepy pink critter, though. hehe.
Click For Graffiti Kitchen
The red glowy bits on the aliens are really neat, but in this shot: http://images.xboxyde.com/gallery/public/4964/788_0016.jpg the creature looks like a really bad halloween mask.
I think it overall looks pretty darn nice. I'll probably check it out.
It's a pretty nice looking game, but last time I saw a vid of it in motion, it looked a bit slow and not fluid enough for my tastes... maybe they'll iron that out along the way though. Could be interesting.
[/ QUOTE ]
That is one of the bigger faults I had with Butcher Bay, and with the demo vid for this game. For some reason with games like Butcher Bay, the Deus Ex games and System Shock 2 (and the Bioshock trailer looked a bit clunky too). The character you control feels clunky as hell, the movement is very robotic and you don't get that smooth sense like you do in regular shooters. Why is this? Are they too busy with the RPG elements that making the fps movement feel right takes a back seat? I understand that you can improve stats to move faster as you go along, but at the very least, the character you play (especially Riddick) should've been moving about without feeling like some stiff geezer right from the start...
System Shock 2 and Riddick however had a strong emphasis on immersion, simply dismissing it as clunky due to stronger view bob, and and the player not gliding through the environment like a cloud is exactly the direction FPSes should take. In Quake, or Unreal Tournament, you're essentially a floating gun, and that has its merits purely for twitch based gameplay.
I played Shock 2 last weekend, and the movement still seems leaps and bounds over anything I've played recently. You have excellent awareness of your collision within the environment, actions like peeking and crouching seem very fluid, and are presented through the camera in a very tolerable and understandable fashion.
Though Riddick isn't perfect, one complaint you have probably stems from the fact that Riddick's head can turn independently from his torso, and as such, has to straighten up if you want to move directly forward. You get used to it fast. Shock 2 on the other hand, is like saying Thief's controls were messy, and that game relied very heavily on spacial awareness. They're the exact same engine, with the exact same motion model, up to the mantling and everything.
I read somewhere (maybe that 'masters of doom' book?)that they when they settled on a 'fun' run speed it was close to 90 mph in doom..not sure about other fps's but I know that most of them sure as heck aren't going at the normal 'average human walking speed' of 3 mph.
but yeah, riddick WAS clunky, moreso that SS2 or DX, which were just slow... it didn't make it any less fun though..watching a movie about a guy who cannot possibly be stopped because he's "just too badass" isn't very enjoyable...but playing as that same badass..well...there's something really fun about that.
It's not to say that its motion model isn't better than Riddicks, which I agree with you, it is, but again, immersion comes at a cost to gameplay. I haven't played Riddick very recently, so I can only remenisc about how it controlled. (Basically, very similar to Thief Deadly Shadows.) Now, they could have done it Halo 2 style, which also lets you see your legs, (albeit, not your entire body) and let the legs turn with the head, which kinda looked goofy at times, but worked. This however, made the game also feel kind of floaty, but then again, immersion wasn't a primary goal for Halo. (As far as I know, anyways.) In Riddick, you're legs aligned with your direction of facing after movement, which created a few millisecond delay. Whether or not this annoys somebody is completely dependent on the player, it is however, much better than some titles that could truly define "clunky".
Where am I going with this? I don't know. Basically, what I'm trying to say that though it isn't perfect, it's far from "Clunky". Clunky is something like Project Eden, Ghost Recon 1, or Tomb Raider, and I still can't find any of the aforementioned flaws with System Shock 2. (I played it minutes ago, and it's pretty much standard FPS fare as far as movement goes, with the inclusion of peeking, momentum, and view bob. I took some vids as examples, I could upload them later as examples.)
It is, at the very least, getting better, even with games with multiple genres. The "sequel" to Far Cry, Crysis, bosts probably what I've seen as one of the most comfortable movement systems yet from the most recent video released. I particularly liked how you moved while prone. (Rooowr.)
Seems like the HUD models MoP was commenting on, whilst surely look rushed in a frozen frame.. Don't look too shabby in full motion, although still I can see how it could be a hinderance to a degree.
I can't wait.
oh, and...
I wonder why they release images like this though... the first person models just look hugely unfinished and/or rushed, not a very good presentation.
[/ QUOTE ]In my experience, online games magazines go out of their way to use the most unfinished/bugged looking artwork that they're given. The hands in that shot are clearly earlier versions than these ones http://images.xboxyde.com/gallery/public/4964/t_788_0002.jpg
which still look like they could use some work but are an improvement.
I dunno about this game. Some of the graphics look quite nice but the whole playing as some hentai tentacle demon thing seems a bit silly, particularly with those little demon heads popping into the side of the view.
http://artfiles.art.com/images/-/Darkness-Magnet-C11750586.jpeg
I wonder why they decided not to go with the design from the comic - it seems far better than what they've got here.
That's too awesome
Guy on the left must be an upper class russian tramp.
Never heard of the comic before, did a bit of reading up on it and it sounds interesting. That, and the video have got me looking forward to this one.