Damn, I'm out of office for 3 days and miss all the action.
A number of major disapointments in the
Mike Verdu Q&A for me:
"2. Will it filter out alot of cheats that UT didnt?
We'll be relying on Epic for updated [anti-cheat] code - I'm sure they have learned a great deal from the experience with UT."
Errr? Anti-cheat is Epic's job? Is that part of the U engine? Anyway, I'm sure they'll do a great job, like they did for UT. (cough cough ... not)
"4. Will there be an ASMD shock rifle?
Nope. But there are 15 weapons total, including lots of new cool stuff."
No shock, that's indeed a shock. I don't care if they have tons of other nice weapons instead. The ASMD simply belongs to Unreal. You wanna make a game with no ASMD, no Flak, no Nalis, ...? Fine, do it, but don't call it Unreal if it has nothing to do with Unreal!
"7. What api is U2 going to have native or optimized support in? both Opengl and Direct3D?
Direct3D"
So it's confirmed that any other render system has been dumped.
"11. Will there be any multiplayer features designed with tournaments kept in mind?
Keep in mind that Unreal II has a heavy emphasis on single player game play. UT took the Unreal franchise to the next level in multiplayer game play, and we want to do the same for the single player."
Which is why I'll probably be playing PlanetSide instead of U2.
" Not to say that we won't have a kick-ass multiplayer game with some innovative new features - but we aren't building a competitor to Tribes2."
No, looking at the XMP description it sounds like you don't build a competitor, but a rip-off.
"14. Can players play co-op in Unreal2?
Co-op is currently not in the cards."
It has been rumored for long time due to some comments by the dev team, but I think this is the first official confirmation. All I can say is: This sux industrial size assage. You don't emphasize on multiplayer game modes, then at least give us decent co-op.
"16. Will there be multi-processor SMP support in U2?
This is a question for Epic."
How is that a question for Epic? Again, it's not the engine that has to be coded multithreaded, but the whole game.
"18. Any big improvements in the network code in terms of 50 plus players online ... ?
We won't be supporting 50 players on-line at the same time."
So, what is "expanded" about the expanded multiplayer mode? It seems like a T2 rip-off, except with less players.
"21. Will those kick ass Krall appear in Unreal2?
The Skaarj will make a return appearance from the first game, but the rest of our creatures, characters, and enemies are new."
IMO the Skaarj is new too. That ugly muscular U2 thing hardly looks like the original Skaarj. You only called it Skaarj to have at least one single little bit that is related to U1 somehow, to justify that you called the game an Unreal sequel.
"27. Will there be a demo-version?
This is up to Epic and Infogrames. I'm currently assuming that we're going to release a demo - but not until near the release of the whole game."
Hmmmm .... what is "near"? Two weeks or so? Epic released the UT demo long enough before the game to be able to make a few changes to the game based on the feedback they got from the demo. Legend would be wise to do the same.
Legend try hard not to give out any info about their game so-called "Unreal 2", but lately whenever they release a new bit of info it turns out to be a disapointment for me. They totally ignore what the oldschool Unrealers and the hardcore UT players have to say.
To put it short: I'm more and more pissed off. PlanetSide, here I come.
