How exactly should the next Unreal look like.

[Hideinlight]

To me, this picture explains the unreal series the most.

There's three things that made the the first unreal awsome. The Sky, the atmosphere and the SkaarJ.

Stuff UT3 just didn't have, there was no moving living sky. We had Torlan with a white overbloomed sky where you could see nothing.

 

[Bi()ha2arD]

I don't see a picture...

Also, you can't really compare UT3 to Unreal. One is a singleplayer game and one is a multiplayer arena shooter.

 

[UBerserker]

Your picture doesn't load.

No idea. Maybe like the better UT3 custom maps that do not make heavy use of bloom. Nothing comes in my mind anyway except that I'd rather not see any new Unreal titles.

 

[NeoNite]

It's one of shane caudle's UT art pieces. The guy (suited up like brock, long waving brown hair) with a red flag in his right hand, and enforcer in the left. I can't remember the exact name.

 

[Raynor.Z]

 

[xMurphyx]

Apart from the armor this doesn't scream "UT" at me, to be honest.

 

[MrMaddog]

That is my favorite of the Shane Caudle UT pics, mainly b/c I love CTF (and Fortress mods).

 

[LordFarqWad]

I dunno but hopefully they will use the full power of the editor tools and give us some of the the classic CTF maps. I mean the Coret that came with game sucked. I was disappointed that Niven and Eternal Cave were not there ( to name a few). I do like they allowed for people to do the campaign multi player

The crappiest thing is that GOW actually looked better to me then this and Gears used an older engine!

 

[ambershee]

Apart from the armor this doesn't scream "UT" at me, to be honest.

It's one of the single most iconic pieces of 'Unreal' artwork?

 

[xMurphyx]

Maybe. Still doesn't seem to capture what UT is about for me, personally. In my opinion, if you replaced the guy's armor with a knight's armor and the gun with a sword you'd have a Warcraft art piece.
So what exactly is it about this painting that defines UT besides what the character on it is wearing (armor, gun and the logo on the flag)?
If he wouldn't wear it he wouldn't even be recognizable as a UT character! What's with the long wavy hair and what's with the dramatic pose?
That leaves the background, but what about it is so UT-like? Doesn't seem like a particular place from UT and it doesn't seem like a culmination of styles of different places in UT either.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's a bad painting! It's far better than I could do it, that's for sure, and maybe it's enough that it's obviously dedicated to UT.

It just doesn't define UT for me personally. That's all.

 

[d3tox]

See this thread for art direction: http://forums.beyondunreal.com/showthread.php?t=188262

 

[HedgeMaster]

I still claim that Ut2004 looks much better than UT3 - these vivid colours and balanced geometry are much better than wicked, dirty details taken from Geiger's art.

The image above matches rather fantasty RPG than sci-fi shooter.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

I still claim that Ut2004 looks much better than UT3 - these vivid colours and balanced geometry are much better than wicked, dirty details taken from Geiger's art.

The image above matches rather fantasty RPG than sci-fi shooter.

That image was a huge marketing piece for UT before it came out. A lot of UT fans hated the cartoony look of UT2003/4. Indeed, cartoony isn't what UT ever was.

 

[Benfica]

A lot of UT fans hated the cartoony look of UT2003/4.

You are paying more attention to the ones that spoken against it, than the vast majority that didn't really care and didn't state an opinion.

Indeed, cartoony isn't what UT ever was.

What has tradition to do with his personal preference?

 

[UBerserker]

I disliked the UT2k3/4 art. Seriously, what's up with many of their characters, like the cheesy Hellions, Juggernauts, scary creatures and generic Genmokai? New environments barely left an impression to me too.

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

*puke* at anyone saying next Unreal should look like ut2004.

It should go back to the real art style, the one that original game was based on.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

You are paying more attention to the ones that spoken against it, than the vast majority that didn't really care and didn't state an opinion.

What has tradition to do with his personal preference?

Pfft. You could make this same horrible counter argument about UT3. "Stop paying attention to the people whining about it, what about the people who didn't care?" Well, it doesn't change the facts.

 

[Benfica]

Pfft. You could make this same horrible counter argument about UT3. "Stop paying attention to the people whining about it, what about the people who didn't care?"

Do you know why I made that argument? When you say "A lot of UT fans hated the cartoony look of UT2003/4", that seems to imply that their personal preference is more valuable than someone else's. I rather have something that works, and while OTT, UT2004 did work.

Oh, and why do you keep bashing UT2004 at every opportunity? Why do you need to attack UT2004 to defend UT3? Do you complain that TF2 is cartoony, or about the L4D characters?

 

[Grobut]

It should go back to the real art style, the one that original game was based on.

If by "origional" you mean Unreal, not UT, then hell yes! Unreal had the best visual style of them all.

UT on the other hand tended to look more industrial and bland, there where noteworthy exceptions (that i think people tend to remember), but far too much generic concrete and metal going on in most of the maps (that i think people tend to forget, rose tintet glasses and all).
UT had some awesome maps, but also far too many that just wheren't interesting to look at, and i'm a little sad it didn't try to branch out some more into the Unreal world, some more Nali and Skaarj stuff would have been great, and it could have tried to introduce us to the Krall and Mercenari worlds aswell, a missed oppertunity i feel.

UT2k3/4 added back some more variety, and some more excotic alien stuff, which was good, there wasen't as much bland indus over it, but something about the colours just wasen't quite right, leaving the game with an oddly cartoonish look, a good effort but flawed exicution.
Personally i could look past the cartoony and enjoy it for what it was, but i can certainly also understand why others felt it detracted a lot from the game.
There was also too much disparity in the themes, i applaud giving players something to choose from, it keeps things interesting, and in a game like this Dev's have an excellent chance to do just that, but you can also take it too far, like adding space egyptians, now that's just silly.. and some of thease themes, like the Genmokai stuff, just wasen't propperly realized, it needed a little something more to really bring it to life, it lacks that X-factor that made us interested in the Nali and Skaarj worlds.

UT3 is.. well its GoW meets WRF meets HR-Geiger, as seen through a used coffee filter by someone who's eyes cannot adjust to light.
People who like that exact combination of mismatched things is a pretty narrow demographic to aim at i'd say, and you have to wonder if "dark and ominous 24/7" really is the best theme for a fast paced arena shooter, and especially one like UT that has never before tried to take itself too seriously.
As you may have guessed, i don't really care for this theme, and unfortunately, UT3 only has that one look, even the Asian theme, which is the only one that stands out a bit, still conveys the same atmosphere, so it's 100% hit or miss if you like it or not.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

I don't know that I'd agree that that is what the style was. I think the main problem is just that there was no "skinny" characters in UT3, but to be fair, the skinny characters in 2kX where the one people whined about most (smaller hitboxes blah blah blah).

I still think the majority of problem people had with UT3 ended up having little to do with the visual style or the gameplay and more to do with everything else that was utterly wrong. And all the things that are STILL utterly wrong. Changing the visual style and gameplay wouldn't have made me care about playing it any more than I currently do, and I know plenty of people that would agree with that.