My thoughts on the studios you listed... just my opinion, it is late so I am sure I missed games...
* Bungie
- What have we seen pushing tech? The E3 2006 trailer looked near CGI (I would not believe it was realtime until someone saw it running in realtime) but nothing else from them has looked even close and nothing from the game showing anything worthwhile has been shown. Yawn.
* Epic Games
- UE3 is old now! Show us UE3.5 to get me excited! GOW looks great graphically, and the gameplay is fresh enough, but beyond those 2 (and sound) nothing else technically interesting to me personally. The gemini renderer is nice and provided some smooth framerates with great graphics. But as great as UE3 is, and not to bash it at all, after seeing stuff like Crysis it makes you yearn for what they have next.
* Id Software
- Wolfenstien (Raven) is more D3 work, so meh for now until I see otherwise. Quake Wars looks nice enough (Splash Damage). Their unamed IP could be great, and will look good for sure, but John has hinted it is not intended to be a typical ID game pushing graphics first. So it may have other interesting technology.
* Blizzard
- Some great MMO tech in WOW... until we see something else though they are stuck in the DX8 world!
* Microsoft Game Studios
- Shadowrun. Need more? So far FM2 has been handled very poorly. The leaked videos look good, but the actual screenshots are horrible with even WORSE angles. MS PR is horrible for this stuff. Turn10 did some great stuff with FM1 (AI, Online, Customizations, Damage) and I am sad to see them pushed on an 18 month dev cycle with every interesting feature getting "maybe in the next version". FM HD. Haven't seen anything frome Ensamble sans CGI.
* Nintendo
- Mario Galaxy looks interesting, and Retros MP3 looks to be the RIGHT way to use the Wiimote. Jury's out on these though.
* Ninja Theory
- Some nice looking stuff, but haven't seen anything playable outside a little arena. Lots of potential, but they are off actually making the game so jury is out. I will note that all objects, including dynamic ones, both casting and receiving dynamic shadows looks hot, and if they get 1000s of enemies on screen, they are WAY up on my list.
* Polyphony Digital
- Awesome cars--near photorealistic! Now lets see 20 or however many they bragged up
The world needs major work, as do features, AI, damage, online, etc. Did I metnion the cars are killer? Oh, and they need some gameplay angles that show off the hotness that is those cars.
* Team Ninja
- I am sure NG2 will look great. But haven't seen squat. I think DoA4 got unfairly criticized. The game looks great. The problem was more the art didn't show off the tech well and lack of self shadowing. Also DoA3 looked too good. Anyhow, they still are very talented.
* Square/Enix
- Lets see some more. e.g. Why not make an action oriented (Heavenly Sword style) RPG. Until then... Thanks, but no thanks. Ok seriously, lets see some real game footage that we know is game footage.
* SCEE London Studio
- F1 has a lot of potential (like the volumetric lighting) but outside of that nothing really pushing the edge. Looks good though.
* SCEA
- Warhawk looks lacking in many areas (some nice clouds and water though). Eye of Judgement (by them?) is looking like a killer concept. I am looking forward to God of War PS3. Ditto the SotC guys and SOCOM guys. Basically everyone is pretty much MIA.
* EA
- Big negatives on the Madden and Live franchises--stripping features for 2 years in a row? Totally technically inept... or totally bean counter driven. Either way TOTALLY lacking. Army of Two ha some potential, but not much more yet. The NFS and Burnout portware, yawn and possible news MoH is UE3 bound... yeah. They are pushing the DLC technology to the extre though.
* Insomniacs
- Some nice, solid technology in R:FoM, if not kind of bland art. Good launch title though. The R&C video looked like the hotness though. Keeping an eye on them.
* Sega
- Some promise with Sega Rally and what I have heard about it, but still MIA. Their main games of interest seem to be sponsored titles like The Club. Nothing internal has caught my eye yet. VF5 looks nice, but isn't pushing any edges. Same old game mechanics. Wake me when they use something like Endorphine for a fighting game
* Kojima studios
- See Bungie. The animations in game looks like placeholders, and ditto many of the graphics. Snake has some serious downgrades. The game will ultimately rock with a lot of new, great technology and gameplay elements. Just so far, ala Halo, we haven't seen anything worth being excited about. Outside killer movies.
My winners to keep my eyes on.
* Evolution Studios
+ Ok, I can knock them for not having real deformable terrain. Lack of general particles, shadowing issue, textures, and so forth. I have a long list. On the bright side they brought together a lot of gaming elements and technologies that just work and give a great experience. If they nail online and the gameplay balance/feel they have a must have winner. And the technology is there for GOOD reasons: to enhance gameplay and the experience.
* Bioware
+ UE3. Ok, so should look good, top 15% of games in 2007. But the big news is the voice interaction stuff and AI. I wish it were more action FPS, but that said the game itself looks to be another killer Bioware game with the addition of some great new dialogue technology. Likey!
* Capcom
+ Lost Planet's explosions. Nuff said. Best individual things I have seen this gen. The monsters also rock, and the cut scenes, in engine, look stellar. And this engine seems to be working for a number of games. It looks like Capcom has a really nice foundation to work from, and I am actually interested -- and shocked that I am -- at what they may do in 2008. I think every game should steal the LP explosions 8)
* Crytek
+ Crytek, graphically, is looking hot with Crysis, but as a PC game hard to compare. But the quality is unquestioned and it totally drool worthy. No FPS I have seen even comes close graphically. The fact they have some minor destruction to vegetation and buildings, an innovating approach to their gun, as well as a camo suit with speed running (basically defying all sorts of limitations in traditional FPS) and I think they are putting technology to good use. The concept of AI that reacts to blocked roads and etc is intersting too. They game could totally stink, but have enough interesting technology to keep an eye on.
* Ubisoft (I cannot believe you forgot them!)
+ Ubi's Assassin's Creed team seem to be doing some nice melee AI, crowd animation, and most importantly in fighting and moving animation. It looks great standing still, but when the player moves it looks even better. PoP on steroids. Ubi should also be commended for GRAW which, retrospectively, was a great effort. For a 3rd party Ubi has been doing some good stuff. RB6:V, GRAW, SP
A all were good efforts and with AC and SP5 I expect even more. Of course there will be rushware (GRAW1.5 errr 2) but that is to be expected.
My winner is Crytek. Sure, both consoles can do the stuff shown, but Crytek is showing this stuff in Crysis in 2006 and will ship in early 2007. The game itself is compelling to me (Sci Fi B movie for the win!) and all the gun variables just rock. All the technology that affects gameplay is neat and the eyecandy is drool worthy. They may totally fail to deliver--or may require G80 SLI--and it still is interesting to me. They are doing things I always wanted, like destructible foilage, as well as the little things--like brush that moves! The lighting and shadowing seem to rock and the world is huge.
And the biggest reason they win is there is a lot of footage and demos showing off their technology. I am sure others games have GREAT stuff under the hood, but Crytek has not been shy about bragging
Actually, quite a few have bragged and totally under delivered in alpha software demos. And the thing that has me most compelled is it isn't just 1 thing that is cutting edge. It is the package. It isn't car damage or killer car models, but the entire package screams "I am hot!" Probably what your CPU will be saying once you start running it.
Winner: Crytek!
With my pointless blabbering aside, I want to know what industry people think. You guys look at things differently (you may find online distribution, dev tools, etc more interesting). Both programmers, artists, CGI guys, people trying to crack into the industry, etc... I look forward to your comments
