UT 2007 screenshots

[RancidLunchmeat]

http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/unrealtournament2007/screenshots.html

All these games suck.

They really look like garbage. Ok, I'm amazed at the 'quality' of the representations... Except, after seeing GoW, I'm not.

What is wrong with all these people? Is there a single art director for every single game? Every single designer/coordinator has the same exact vision of the future?

All the character models look the same, human/cyborgs or humans with weird body armor so they look like half robots even if they aren't.

Mostly destroyed cities with some crazy mixture of occasional neon signs right around the corner from gothic-style churchs.

What?

How about an improved (graphically) environment like the ones in Shogo: Mobile Armor? Or how about Deus Ex? They seemed to be able to portray futuristic environments with visions that at least seemed 'alive'.

I'd go so far as to say you'd have to be a slightly twisted individual to look at games like GoW or UT2007 and call them 'beautiful'. No, they're horrible. They're effective in their representation of horribleness, but that's different.

Unreal? The original? That game was beautiful.

More of that. Less of this.

 

[Bobbler]

The Unreal Tournament games have always more or less been like that. Big armor marines and aliens in a futuristic setting.

GoW and UT2k7 are both by Epic, so I'm not sure why you'd expect much difference in terms of art -- they are both big soldier marine guys in a futuristic setting. Epic's art style has never really been that fantastic (although Unreal 1 was pretty refreshing for the time) -- their art is good (they have good artist and such, they just need to go for a different vision/style for a change), it's just the style that's often the same old super marine in the future stuff that gets old.

I'm pretty excited for UT2k7 though... all the UT games have been pretty fun for multiplayer.

 

[NBK-Steve]

http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/unrealtournament2007/screenshots.html

All these games suck.

They really look like garbage. Ok, I'm amazed at the 'quality' of the representations... Except, after seeing GoW, I'm not.

What is wrong with all these people? Is there a single art director for every single game? Every single designer/coordinator has the same exact vision of the future?

All the character models look the same, human/cyborgs or humans with weird body armor so they look like half robots even if they aren't.

Mostly destroyed cities with some crazy mixture of occasional neon signs right around the corner from gothic-style churchs.

What?

How about an improved (graphically) environment like the ones in Shogo: Mobile Armor? Or how about Deus Ex? They seemed to be able to portray futuristic environments with visions that at least seemed 'alive'.

I'd go so far as to say you'd have to be a slightly twisted individual to look at games like GoW or UT2007 and call them 'beautiful'. No, they're horrible. They're effective in their representation of horribleness, but that's different.

Unreal? The original? That game was beautiful.

More of that. Less of this.

Agreed, the original Unreal was a great game and I haven't liked the others that came after nearly as much.

 

[Nesh]

This looks like its set in the same world as GoW with the absence of monsters

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

This looks like its set in the same world as GoW with the absence of monsters

It sure does. But is it supposed to? Is it actually an inter-woven story?

I doubt it.

And it's not just Epic games that all look the same, or even all the games using the UE3. Its pretty much every single futuristic shooter.

Lost Planet looks different, but that's pretty much almost it's entire attraction. "Hey! We look different, we're in the snow!"

Not that there's anything wrong with that. But it blows my mind that in order to get a game to look remotely unique, you have to put it on an Ice Planet somewhere.

I know I'm exaggerating, but this 'big space marine in a futuristic setting where the world sucks" is just way over done.

Why can't the environment be one of prosperity and happiness and then a horrible event begins to happen and threaten that prosperity so you've gotta grab a plasma rifle to do battle before your world turns into the bleak images that are displayed in all the other games?

This theme is just irritating. "Everything man touches is bad" The only environments that can actually be attractive are jungles that haven't (yet) been destroyed on remote planets like Unreal or Serious Sam or something.

Arrgh.

 

[Rolf N]

Some of those shots look like the CG in Master of Orion II ...
You got to be a little forgiving with UT games though. Those are competitive online multiplayer games, which means that identification can take precedence over beauty. Player models tend to be colorful and environments tend to be bland(ish) just so you can quickly spot enemies. It's deliberate.

 

[Nesh]

It sure does. But is it supposed to? Is it actually an inter-woven story?

I doubt it.

And it's not just Epic games that all look the same, or even all the games using the UE3. Its pretty much every single futuristic shooter.

Lost Planet looks different, but that's pretty much almost it's entire attraction. "Hey! We look different, we're in the snow!"

Not that there's anything wrong with that. But it blows my mind that in order to get a game to look remotely unique, you have to put it on an Ice Planet somewhere.

I know I'm exaggerating, but this 'big space marine in a futuristic setting where the world sucks" is just way over done.

Why can't the environment be one of prosperity and happiness and then a horrible event begins to happen and threaten that prosperity so you've gotta grab a plasma rifle to do battle before your world turns into the bleak images that are displayed in all the other games?

This theme is just irritating. "Everything man touches is bad" The only environments that can actually be attractive are jungles that haven't (yet) been destroyed on remote planets like Unreal or Serious Sam or something.

Arrgh.

I know it is not supposed to, but it looks way too similar. If someone put these images under GoW I might have been fooled really that they were indeed GoW's. I wouldnt have spot the difference.

Mass Effect, War Devil, Too human and the likes are also futuristic. Some things may look similarly common in all of them, but you can clearly make distinctions in the art direction. But I agree that they all take the same formula and used it all over again

 

[swaaye]

Hopefully it's better than GoW.

I bet they shared art assets between games. With the cost of development going up exponentially, it's no surprise.

 

[Sankari]

Hopefully it's better than GoW.

I bet they shared art assets between games. With the cost of development going up exponentially, it's no surprise.

They are in different genre IMO. I think UT2007 looks better than GoeW however, but it could be just my opinion. My opinion is based on just the screenshots / media I have seen from each game so I'd need to play GeoW and UT2007 to make final impressions.

 

[Naboomagnoli]

I've always hated how Sci-Fi games are all about big old armour and bigger guns as well.
Armour makes sense to an extent - it's a development on bulletproof vests and helmets etc. Does it have to be so big though? Would the military R&D of the future not consider massive suits of armour to be a bit too restrictive? Same goes for guns - why are they all fridge-sized? Wouldn't it be better to have a handgun that is extremely powerful and accurate over long ranges or fires small rockets that cause a large explosion, rather than going with the cliched laser rifles with big curvy shiny bits..

I don't mind it all in moderation, but it amazes me that we have been gifted films like Bladerunner and yet, with the exception of the population and general environment of Half Life 2, nobody has really bothered to make a sci-fi game that isn't a wild and sometimes alienating departure from modern times.

 

[SugarCoat]

its the exact same engine being developed by the exact same company as GoW. You were expecting some huge visual difference why?

By the way UT2k7 is quite problably not going to look as good as Unreal 3 demos or GoW (but very comparable) due to the fact that its mainly an online game catering to 32 or more players at once. They dont want to bring everyones computer/console system to its knees.

 

[AlNom]

Why is the text on the shock rifle backwards

I wonder what sort of computer specs they are targetting for the mainstream user and just how the graphics scale. They could probably save a ton of performance from disabling shadows.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Halo3 will look different. Killzone too, whatever it ends up to be. And MGS4 as well. And even Bioshock, though it's almost as colorful as UT2K7.

 

[swaaye]

The big armor thing started with UT2003. Original UT had normal-sized people. I agree that the big armor thing is kinda ridiculous. Not sure why they think that it's appealing. Maybe an anime-ish thing?

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

The big armour thing in UT is just the default race. There are a lot of other races that are much more streamlined, lighter armour, or even punks it tophats. And that's before you get to see all the player made models.

 

[Corwin_B]

I've always hated how Sci-Fi games are all about big old armour and bigger guns as well.
Armour makes sense to an extent - it's a development on bulletproof vests and helmets etc. Does it have to be so big though? Would the military R&D of the future not consider massive suits of armour to be a bit too restrictive?

Well, large armors make sense if they include some sort of exoskeleton that amplifies the capacities of the bearer. Read Starship Trooper for example (the power armors are not in the movie, for budget reasons). Hyperion (by Dan Simmons) has some incredible armors that are quite lightweight, IIRC, and feature a wide range of enhancements, captors, and defenses. The stuff in Warhammer 40 000 and its various derivatives is another example.

Same goes for guns - why are they all fridge-sized? Wouldn't it be better to have a handgun that is extremely powerful and accurate over long ranges or fires small rockets that cause a large explosion, rather than going with the cliched laser rifles with big curvy shiny bits..

I blame the Big F*cking Gun syndrome, personally, which started with Doom 1. All those games use the same cliches because 1) it's a proven design with a certain target demographic 2) I suspect many game designers find those cliches "cool" and are stuck in a certain mindset. Which is a shame, really. Also, I suspect those cliches (big armors, big guns) are extremely good ways to hide technical limitations (if an armor looks polygonal, that can be by design and not because of limited polygon budget).

But the overuse of cliches in videogame design is, sadly, not limited to Sci-Fi "bald Space Marines" games. RPGs (both western and japanese) also suffer from a large number of cliches. And other genres are not immune either : look at the horrible artistic direction Prince of Persia went between Sands of Time and Warrior Within, with the "dark", "mature" Prince. Blech.

 

[Bobbler]

its the exact same engine being developed by the exact same company as GoW. You were expecting some huge visual difference why?

By the way UT2k7 is quite problably not going to look as good as Unreal 3 demos or GoW (but very comparable) due to the fact that its mainly an online game catering to 32 or more players at once. They dont want to bring everyones computer/console system to its knees.

GoW and UT2k7 have different framerate goals as well -- UT2k7 is a bit faster paced and requires 60fps instead of GoW which worked fine at 30.

I'd be surprised if UT2k7 looked as good as GoW from a pure graphical aspect (it may be just as impressive, maybe even more, if you consider framerate and amount of people on screen at once though -- depending on how it turns out).

 

[rounin]

Resistance turned out different even though its sci-fi

I also thought of another reason for the big guns that involved allowing the audience to compensate for something...

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Resistance turned out different even though its sci-fi

I also thought of another reason for the big guns that involved allowing the audience to compensate for something...

Guns are often oversized in multiplayer games because it enables you to see what your competitors are armed with. You might not want to run up to someone toting a missile launcher. Or a battlefield nuke.

 

[hey69]

those pics are very old i believe. i swear i saw them in 2005 already