Welcome To The End

[Mang Nux]

It's going to be all about open world now. PC's finally have the power to support the massive worlds we've always wanted. Look at what they're doing with Star Citizen or Elder Scrolls Online. For shooters that means sandbox games like DayZ, or MMO's like Planetside.

Unfortunately the old arena shooters don't work well with the open world concepts. But we can still have arcade shooters. Planetside is basically XMP as an MMO. I'm ok with this. Frankly, I don't see how you ever top what UT and Quake did. If they ever made new ones I would rather it just be HD remakes.

What about Cliff Bleszinski's concept of "SciFi-rim"?

My initial reaction was one of utter revulsion (I don't even dislike The Elder Scrolls as a concept, it's just the way Bethesda makes them turn out in practice, and... Gamebryo ). However, I got over this knee-jerk reaction as soon as I started seriously considering the idea. An open world Unreal.

Part of what made Unreal so incredibly awe inspiring was how it broke out of the whole corridor shooter mould. It had plenty of corridors and tighter indoor environments, but these were alternated with wide-open outdoor settings, the scale of which totally blew my mind. I don't see why you couldn't pull off an open world Unreal with while still maintaining that 'Unreal feel'.

A vast open world Na Pali, dotted with Nali temples, alien facilities and the decaying hulks of spaceships that have succumbed to the planet's tarydium-charged magnetism. I even had a dream on seeing a burning cruiser plummeting from that unmistakable Unreal night sky and disappearing over the horizon, waiting for me to seek out and explore it's wreckage - that's one way they could withhold some areas and story elements until later in the game*.

The more I think about it, the more sense it makes. Skyrim's success shows that single player games can still be successful and extremely profitable. Imagine an open world game like Skyrim, but:

- With Unreal's world
- With Unreal's atmosphere
- With Unreal's scale (Skyrim might be mountainous and open world, but it has a 'cosy' feel to it a lot of the time in terms of the buildings etc.)
- Unreal's pace (no faffing around with sprint keys, just the Unreal gallop 24/7)
- Unreal's loneliness (no followers, no friendly town around every corner, maybe a Nali outpost or two)
- Unreal's interiors (a quality-over-quantity, tailored approach to wreckages/structures, as opposed to Bethesda's almost copy-and-paste undergrounds which feel like the same old prefab rooms/corridors shuffled around for each cave etc.
- Unreal's story fleshed out. No spoon feeding, player actively seeks out storylines from logs etc. (this might be a serious issue for the 2014 gamer, but again, Skyrim was popular with it's books and all. I'm sure the Nalis and dead crewmen have a lot to tell)
- Built on a high quality, next gen engine that's actually finished and capable of really doing 'open world' justice.
- No level ups or any of that bollocks

There are plenty of potential problems of course. An open Unreal consisting of a bunch of thankless fetch quests would not do. What do you guys think?

 

[SkaarjMaster]

Sounds great! That would be a game I would install for sure.

 

[Hellkeeper]

At this point, I'm not sure I even want another Unreal game. They would probably screw up. A part of me wants to think I'll be able to look back on the glorious days of Unreal without having to say "and now it sucks".

Unless they get it all right of course, in which case, I'd be very enthusiastic (and a bit stunned to be honest).

 

[Arnox]

Well, now that Epic's FINALLY released UE4, I think it's now safe to say:

Welcome to The New Beginning.

Perhaps we should now make a new sub-forum for UE4.

 

[DarkED]

Well, now that Epic's FINALLY released UE4, I think it's now safe to say:

Welcome to The New Beginning.

Nope. When they sold GoW to Microsoft, Epic pretty much said that aside from UE4 and Fortnite, they have nothing in the pipeline. We still don't even know when Fortnite will see the light of day, or if it ever will.

As for Epic itself, the only game they have announced is "Fortnite," and little information has been revealed about that title since it was first shown to the world two years ago. In a statement, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said, "Epic remains totally dedicated to supporting Xbox One and is licensing the Unreal Engine 4 technology to Microsoft in support of their future projects."

 

[Arnox]

Nope. When they sold GoW to Microsoft, Epic pretty much said that aside from UE4 and Fortnite, they have nothing in the pipeline. We still don't even know when Fortnite will see the light of day, or if it ever will.

I didn't say Epic's now going full steam ahead. I just said that we now finally have something new to focus on, Unreal wise.

What it sounds like is that they're out of moneyz and they're going to use UE4 subs to generate some cash flow.

 

[Mang Nux]

At this point, I'm not sure I even want another Unreal game. They would probably screw up.

I think you're probably right. I finally got around to playing the Gears of Wars and wished I hadn't. I'm wondering where did all the inspiration go? I think they must have shed most of the talent that made the first Unreal games great. I thought of Shane Caudle as an example and looked him up, expecting him to have left EPIC, but it seems like he's still there. What happened?! just think of the skill he put into Vandora Temple.

Maybe a completely different studio has a better chance of making a proper Unreal than EPIC does? Unlikely, I guess.

 

[Al]

No new UT or Unreal for you.

 

[igNiTion]

No new UT or Unreal for you.

He says they are not currently developing a UT game, but then goes on to say he has nostalgia for it. I read that as they just have no ideas yet for how they could top what they've already done.

Unreal Tournament 2004 is one of my favorite games of all time. What really drew me to it (and kept me coming back) was the volume of custom maps that blew the ones that shipped with the game out of the water. There was always another map to discover, another map to play - they were free, no paying for new maps or map packs, hell it was before that was even a thing. On top of that there were the MSE contests and the ultimate community map packs, great mods, and a solid community. That diversity in the maps and quick (offline and online) gameplay was what drew me to it, and the community kept me coming back. I'll never forget the feeling, I don't think I've been as excited about any game since.

I think there is hope for the franchise. I haven't even been on these forums in a while and there are still all the same names I remember from years back. Something must be special about it.