Mike Capps Admits That Epic Has Been Neglecting Unreal

[N1ghtmare]

It would have, if we ever had any canon information on it. Also, Unreal II is definitely not 'post-Apocalyptic'. NEG, corporations, TCA are all well there.

I was not claiming it was post apocalyptic, I was just engulfing all the different Sci-fi genres together, because in pretty much every single one of them they mention 'the war'.

Unreal 2 might have been somewhat mediocre, "not good enough" for original Unreal probably, but it was not bad. It was good looking (I mean the variety of landscape and level design, like the original game), and the story itself is not bad, I'd even say that ending was redeeming. It's a nice expansion of Unreal setting too.

Unreal 2 in fact brought characters and a more detailed story in Unreal, though it was probably a half-assed job. Taking in account all Unreal 2 mistakes could produce a very good game.

The only things Unreal 2 had to do with Unreal 1/UT were: Liandri, The dispersion Pistol, and the Skaarj. Remove those three, and it is not related to Unreal. The only thing that was really taken from Unreal 2 into other UT games were the fire modes of the magnum (see UT3 enforcer) and the Izanagi corporation (see UT3)

The story itself was pretty bad. Artifacts? Really? Pfft.

Hell all they had to do was name the Magnum 'Enforcer' and paint the shotgun yellow and call it 'Flak Cannon', and call the Izarians 'Krall'. It would have been 50% more Unreal.

The only thing I really enjoyed was the first level (it actually kept the slight horror-element classic of Unreal) and how the Skaarj deflect bullets with their blades.

 

[Alhanalem]

"Small companies" don't have offices around the world.

 

[UBerserker]

Ye Unreal 2 added a lot of good Alien races. Izarians were definitely better than those Krall, err I mean, losers. Plus yeah Artifacts, another old concept removed from Unreal 1. Nothing wrong about it.

 

[toniglandyl]

Unreal 3 ?
I'm all for it if they throw away all their "experience" gained post-2005.
no shades of gray
no chest-high walls
etc...

do a frickin PC ONLY GAME with linux and mac support ! you'll sell millions ! We're still waiting for a renouveau of FPS which actually uses the full potential of PCs, and I'm not talking graphics-wise.

go back to your roots, do some brainstorming about what did unreal good/bad, what was most criticised in bulletstorm, and go on ! You can't imagine how many people WANT to have their faith back in you, so please, amaze us, blow us out of our minds with some solid, good stuff !

 

[Godfrey.Payans]

UT4 for my money. UT3 plus fix the multiplayer, make the thing a better user experience for managing mods, maps, characters, and so on, and get some new ideas about movement and weapons.

I reckon any story-like game will just be another Gears or BS style thing, just trying the Unreal brand at the same console market.

 

[moonflyer]

I think it's time to make another Unreal, not UT.
They can start it now and make the prototype in UE3, meanwhile Tim gets UE4 done and when in two or three years the game is finished. It can be shipped along with UE4 and be available for the next-gen PC,XBOX, and PS.
My ideas on the next Unreal:
- Go back to the root, especially the whole atmosphere and style
- Definitely need MP, bring us creative fun modes and top class maps
- Forget UT, give us a whole new set of weapons and items or whatever brand new with Unreal Style

I hope HL3 will be announced soon, so by the time U3 gets released, HL3 will be out there together. Both titles are my all-time favorites.

 

[shoptroll]

TBH I reaaaaallly want them to work on UT3. I don't care if it's been totally discarded at epic HQ, they have a statue of Malcolm and he isn't in the game. They got the formula right for this one but they screwed everything else up, so finish and fix the damn game ffs.

I think it would be nice for them to do this but there's probably no money in it. To some degree I think this is what they were planning to do with Black Edition but that failed to rejuvenate sales.

 

[ambershee]

At least UT3 was profitable, in comparison to Bulletstorm. In any case, Unreal 3 could easily have a multiplayer component that could be likened to the multiplayer aspect of 'Unreal Tournament 4'.

 

[elmuerte]

I hope HL3 will be announced soon, so by the time U3 gets released, HL3 will be out there together. Both titles are my all-time favorites.

Don't you mean HL2 episode 3?

 

[213]

Unreal 3 ?
I'm all for it if they throw away all their "experience" gained post-2005.
no shades of gray
no chest-high walls
etc...

do a frickin PC ONLY GAME with linux and mac support ! you'll sell millions ! We're still waiting for a renouveau of FPS which actually uses the full potential of PCs, and I'm not talking graphics-wise.

go back to your roots, do some brainstorming about what did unreal good/bad, what was most criticized in bulletstorm, and go on ! You can't imagine how many people WANT to have their faith back in you, so please, amaze us, blow us out of our minds with some solid, good stuff !

That sounds like a lot of work though.

I'd wager, if I were a betting man, that they'll just copy/pasta another GoW sequel and call it a payday.

 

[Teridax]

I'd wager, if I were a betting man, that they'll just copy/pasta another GoW sequel and call it a payday.

This is exactly why I don't want to see an Unreal 3.

 

[UBerserker]

I'm still in the idea of making a clone of the first game, adding new ideas and cut concepts from the early versions of U1 like Epic is blatantly (and cool-y) doing with Bulletstorm and GOW3.
Problem is that doing a game with 30 or more high-quality maps with modern tech takes shittons of time... so yeah. Less to almost-zero chances to go wrong with a UT3.5 title instead.

 

[shoptroll]

At least UT3 was profitable, in comparison to Bulletstorm. In any case, Unreal 3 could easily have a multiplayer component that could be likened to the multiplayer aspect of 'Unreal Tournament 4'.

That's true too. Unreal already had most of the ground-work done for UT in the original release. UT was originally an add-on which improved the bots and added new game modes before the switched it to a full product. No reason they couldn't do the same again.

 

[Shambler[sixpack]]

Epic need to kill the Unreal franchise, and start another as a successor, albeit with similar gameplay; Unreal's collective storyline is all over the place, so trying to continue it will just lead to a fairly shallow story.

Lose the steroid-induced inflatable-muscle action-hero characters/image, and have more believable/relatable characters (like in any of Valve's games), and soften the game with some well placed/subtle humour;
again, like any of Valve's games but hire/contract someone for the writing, e.g. professional comedian or something, like Valve.

Could also do with hiring someone for the general storyline of the game as well, and write up a story good enough that it could possibly be a novel in its own right, with plenty of opportunity for expansion, not just a thin action movie type story; make the story as big a part of the game as everything else.
Avoid all possible hollywood/action-movie stereotypes/cliches in every aspect of the game, except for the gratuitous blow-shit-up gameplay aspect.

Basically, just copy/study Valve they always go an extra mile or two adding depth/polish to their games (in story/characters/humour/etc.), which is what makes their games stand out far above the rest;
that stuff can be just as important as (and is complementary to) gameplay, as it makes a game much more fun/enjoyable.


Also, if doing a MP-only game, start small (maybe even the same with a SP game). No point spending big bucks on a blockbuster title that might fail; take a look at Team Fortress 2, that had a fairly modest start, but it was made really well, and a massive amount of content has been (and still is being) added over time.

Foster a good mod community (which Valve could have done better imo, it's a relatively closed engine), and you have a very good chance of developing a healthy self-sustaining mod/game community, like past UT games.

Don't abandon this community after a number of years though (again, like past UT games ; Valve still occasionally puts out updates/bugfixes for CounterStrike, and (more prominently) Team Fortress 2, and this fosters a lot of loyalty to a dev.
Plus it retains a good base of money-making potential too (for keeping the accountants happy), so long as that is executed tactfully (TF2 is a good example of successes and failures there); not to mention promoting talent for the engine.

 

[AWW SNACK]

Remember that RTNP and Unreal 2 were made by Legend Entertainment and had limited, if any involvment from Epic Games.

I doubt any game they make now would have much resemblance to the first game. Their games nowadays are "realistic" with monochrome color schemes and stories that are about some war.

Don't forget some the best parts of RTNP were actually recycled Epic levels that they scrapped while developing Unreal 1.

 

[UBerserker]

Also the monochrome schemes seem long dropped since Bulletstorm.

 

[Northrawn]

Epic need to kill the Unreal franchise, and start another as a successor, albeit with similar gameplay; Unreal's collective storyline is all over the place, so trying to continue it will just lead to a fairly shallow story.

Lose the steroid-induced inflatable-muscle action-hero characters/image, and have more believable/relatable characters (like in any of Valve's games), and soften the game with some well placed/subtle humour;
again, like any of Valve's games but hire/contract someone for the writing, e.g. professional comedian or something, like Valve.

Could also do with hiring someone for the general storyline of the game as well, and write up a story good enough that it could possibly be a novel in its own right, with plenty of opportunity for expansion, not just a thin action movie type story; make the story as big a part of the game as everything else.
Avoid all possible hollywood/action-movie stereotypes/cliches in every aspect of the game, except for the gratuitous blow-shit-up gameplay aspect.

Basically, just copy/study Valve they always go an extra mile or two adding depth/polish to their games (in story/characters/humour/etc.), which is what makes their games stand out far above the rest;
that stuff can be just as important as (and is complementary to) gameplay, as it makes a game much more fun/enjoyable.


Also, if doing a MP-only game, start small (maybe even the same with a SP game). No point spending big bucks on a blockbuster title that might fail; take a look at Team Fortress 2, that had a fairly modest start, but it was made really well, and a massive amount of content has been (and still is being) added over time.

Foster a good mod community (which Valve could have done better imo, it's a relatively closed engine), and you have a very good chance of developing a healthy self-sustaining mod/game community, like past UT games.

Don't abandon this community after a number of years though (again, like past UT games ; Valve still occasionally puts out updates/bugfixes for CounterStrike, and (more prominently) Team Fortress 2, and this fosters a lot of loyalty to a dev.
Plus it retains a good base of money-making potential too (for keeping the accountants happy), so long as that is executed tactfully (TF2 is a good example of successes and failures there); not to mention promoting talent for the engine.

This.

 

[moonflyer]

Don't you mean HL2 episode 3?

Nope. I mean HL3. I don't think we will see another episode for HL2.

 

[moonflyer]

Epic need to kill the Unreal franchise, and start another as a successor, albeit with similar gameplay; Unreal's collective storyline is all over the place, so trying to continue it will just lead to a fairly shallow story.

Lose the steroid-induced inflatable-muscle action-hero characters/image, and have more believable/relatable characters (like in any of Valve's games), and soften the game with some well placed/subtle humour;
again, like any of Valve's games but hire/contract someone for the writing, e.g. professional comedian or something, like Valve.

Could also do with hiring someone for the general storyline of the game as well, and write up a story good enough that it could possibly be a novel in its own right, with plenty of opportunity for expansion, not just a thin action movie type story; make the story as big a part of the game as everything else.
Avoid all possible hollywood/action-movie stereotypes/cliches in every aspect of the game, except for the gratuitous blow-shit-up gameplay aspect.

Basically, just copy/study Valve they always go an extra mile or two adding depth/polish to their games (in story/characters/humour/etc.), which is what makes their games stand out far above the rest;
that stuff can be just as important as (and is complementary to) gameplay, as it makes a game much more fun/enjoyable.


Also, if doing a MP-only game, start small (maybe even the same with a SP game). No point spending big bucks on a blockbuster title that might fail; take a look at Team Fortress 2, that had a fairly modest start, but it was made really well, and a massive amount of content has been (and still is being) added over time.

Foster a good mod community (which Valve could have done better imo, it's a relatively closed engine), and you have a very good chance of developing a healthy self-sustaining mod/game community, like past UT games.

Don't abandon this community after a number of years though (again, like past UT games ; Valve still occasionally puts out updates/bugfixes for CounterStrike, and (more prominently) Team Fortress 2, and this fosters a lot of loyalty to a dev.
Plus it retains a good base of money-making potential too (for keeping the accountants happy), so long as that is executed tactfully (TF2 is a good example of successes and failures there); not to mention promoting talent for the engine.

TF2 is a good example but can't be easily copied. Valve has their Steam platform to update TF2 smoothly and frequently. I doubt Epic can do that amount of updates, and their business model is to make cross-platform games and engines.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

They could use Steam