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doomedout

Unreal 2 thoughts

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Unreal 2 will release within a week and I am pretty excited. I have had the priviledge of playing three levels of unreal 2 and I was stunned. It plays much better than ut2003, although the engines are the same and since legend pride themselves over graphics as well, it is more stunning than ut2003. I was extremely disappointed with u2003, but this game I feel will compensate for it. The AI is simply outstanding!
Your thoughts?

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Looks awesome, haven't played it yet. IMO looks more visually "wow"ing than Doom 3. So sue me.

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ZarcyB said:

Looks awesome, haven't played it yet. IMO looks more visually "wow"ing than Doom 3. So sue me.

Heh, because of the focus on outdoor environments?

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I'll wait for the demo first, which might take a while to arrive. The screenshots look amazing, but I'm not that excited though. It will probably run like a slideshow on my computer.

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Scuba Steve said:

Dunno... It's not on Kazaa yet...


That hasn't stopped a certain #zdoom member from the UK from obtaining it O_O

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ZarcyB said:

Looks awesome, haven't played it yet. IMO looks more visually "wow"ing than Doom 3. So sue me.

I've seen some pictures from Unreal 2, and so far I think it looks cartoonish. Doom III looks way more mature to me.

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Regarding Unreal 2 vs Doom 3 graphics-wise, I think Kat put it best on IRC when she said that while Doom 3 is more visually impressive, Unreal 2 is more visually pleasing.

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Jonathan said:

Regarding Unreal 2 vs Doom 3 graphics-wise, I think Kat put it best on IRC when she said that while Doom 3 is more visually impressive, Unreal 2 is more visually pleasing.

???
I think it depends on who you are. Doom 3's graphics look very movie-like in a sort of extremely satisfying way in my eyes - Unreal 2's screenshots look like Quake 3 Arena (cartoonish in other words) with a much higher poly count.

But eyecandy is one thing, gameplay another - I'm waiting to hear reports regarding gameplay. I might check out the demo sometime (when it's out - dunno if it's out now), but if it's too much like Unreal 1 then I sure as Hell won't buy it (already, my expectations on it are quite negative because of the NPC buddy aspect - I don't want no friggin' AI-controlled buddies! I want to do the killing myself!)

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BBG said:

That hasn't stopped a certain #zdoom member from the UK from obtaining it O_O


*cough*. Hrm. Kazaa sucks. But, heh, I'm about half-way through it.
The game overall is very 'pretty' - lots of bright colours and animated bits - it looks really nice. It's an engine I'd like to see used again.
The gameplay is OK, although fighting the human enemies is kinda boring. The Hell (no, not Hell as in Doom type Hell - it's a moon) mission is completely awesome, even though there's pretty much only 3 types of enemy in the whole mission. Also, it's not all shoot-outs - there are a few Half-Life like puzzles in there, which I found really fun. The gampeplay is mixed quite well, and it's kept me on my toes so far. My only complaint on the gameplay is that some things seemed a bit TOO obvious. Certain bottlencks where they throw a load of enemies at you.
The weapons are a bit disappointing - they don't feel "chunky" enough, (I've been spoilt by the Doom3 Shotgun :P) but there's a couple of original ideas in there, and couple of really good expansions on old Unreal ideas (ie. the Rocket Lanucher).

Like I said, I'm only about half-way through, I think, so this is just based on what I've played. Overall though, I'm enjoying the game, and I'll almost definately play through it again when I finish, if just for that Hell mission.

...so there's my thoughts.

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AirRaid said:

The weapons are a bit disappointing - they don't feel "chunky" enough, (I've been spoilt by the Doom3 Shotgun :P) but there's a couple of original ideas in there, and couple of really good expansions on old Unreal ideas (ie. the Rocket Lanucher).

I'm not surprised anout that as Unreal 2 is a sequel to Unreal (where the weapons were generally far too weak imho) - but I hope the Unreal fans are pleased. Sounds nice that the weapons are original, but I kinda figured from what I had read of previews and interviews.

Are there any annoying "bot-like" enemies like the Skaarj that just bounce around like crazy without being slowed down by taking hits? If they got rid of that, then it's a major step forward imho :-)

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I also thought it looked better than Doom3, then again I would miss the bump mapping too much. In screenshots I'd say that probably U2 looks better, but in motion Doom3 should be better (bump mapping in work). Than again I haven't played U2 yet so I can't be sure of that. And also Doom3 should run a whole lot faster on my pc, I can't understand how U2 can slow down a 2.4ghz with a geforce 4.

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dsm said:

Are there any annoying "bot-like" enemies like the Skaarj that just bounce around like crazy without being slowed down by taking hits? If they got rid of that, then it's a major step forward imho :-)


Yep. The Skaarj are still present. The other alien races I've met kinda do that too. Although you can stop them in their tracks (without killing them) if you hit them hard enough - they flinch
They kinda did make advance with the human enemies though. You shoot em, they'll go down, then get back up and carry on shooting. It adds a fair bit of realism, and also gives you a second extra if you need to reload.

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I just completed the 'hell' mission. It looks truly awesome (especially the elevator).

Gameplay: It is OK. Nothing to write home about. The enemies are often annoying (skaarj), but some are nice (arac thingies). I don't like the weapons, they feel pretty worthless and 'light'.

Graphics: I'm really disappointed with the graphics. This game looks better on screenshots than ingame! The game looks like quake3 with a higher polycount. Not really a big step forward. It doesn't rival Doom3 in any way.

Level design: 50/50 so far. The first mission looked absolutely horrible, but the next (hell mission) was some of the best I've ever seen.

Sound: The sounds are OK I guess. Most of the voiceacting is horrible though. Most of the main characters sound exactly the same in every situation. The hero (you) sounds like he's sitting comfortably in a chair even when battling several enemies. He's never tense, scared or anything and that is really poor. There is some good voiceacting though, but not much.

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I just don't give a crap about new games anymore. I think I'm through with my gaming.

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For me, Unreal 2 would likely be just another game that's (yawn, let's all say it again) visually impressive, but mentally boring and gameplayably aggravating.

Just another unoriginal game rehash with a predictible graphics upgrade.

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Shaviro said:

Graphics: I'm really disappointed with the graphics. This game looks better on screenshots than ingame! The game looks like quake3 with a higher polycount. Not really a big step forward. It doesn't rival Doom3 in any way.


Lets watch the Doom3 engine even try to make outdoor areas as cool as Unreal2. I think an engine should be flexible, designing it for 'all-indoors' is a pretty dumb move if you ask me. That's why Doom3 will never match the orginals as far as design choices and variation of scenery. All indoors = all boring as fuck.

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Use3D said:

Lets watch the Doom3 engine even try to make outdoor areas as cool as Unreal2. I think an engine should be flexible, designing it for 'all-indoors' is a pretty dumb move if you ask me. That's why Doom3 will never match the orginals as far as design choices and variation of scenery. All indoors = all boring as fuck.


*Takes Use3D's crack pipe away* The doom 3 engine could easily do outdoor levels. All that would be neeeded is someone to do a series of outdoor textures for it. There isn't a big focus on outdoor areas though because your on mars, a place that going outside is impossible without a space suit. So logically they don't have many outdoor areas. Maybe in Quake 4 they will have more focus on outdoor areas.

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Gimme my pipe back you! I still think fighting monters in a broom closet is gonna get old after about 10 minutes, I don't care how many swinging lights are around.

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Use3D said:

Gimme my pipe back you! I still think fighting monters in a broom closet is gonna get old after about 10 minutes, I don't care how many swinging lights are around.

Fucking outdoor levels get boring in a matter of seconds!
If anything in an fps is boring, it's outdoor fighting - gimme a creepy set of hallways where you never know where the enemy is coming from and I'll be happy.

Yep. The Skaarj are still present. The other alien races I've met kinda do that too. Although you can stop them in their tracks (without killing them) if you hit them hard enough - they flinch

Argh! Lame! My motivation to get hold of the demo (when it's out) just dropped a few notches.

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They're not doing a demo dsm.

As for the game itself, being a hardcore Unreal junkie, I have every intention of buying that sucker.

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Disorder said:

I've seen some pictures from Unreal 2, and so far I think it looks cartoonish. Doom III looks way more mature to me.


Some of the concept art for the unreal series is fairly cartoonish (realistic cartoon). The pic that i once saw of the skaarj looked like something from the incredible hulk (could be the same artist but i'm not debating something like that at the moment).

I will say that unreal 2 looks quite impressive. Since my birthday is about a month away it's worth considering getting. I might have to complete unreal 1 though (properly and not skipping to the queen level) though after your first encounter with the stone titan i don't think there's much else to understand about the story.

What really confuses me is how they left out the skaarj in UT2003. Maybe they become extinct in unreal 2.

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I have a question about Doom 3...

Why does the light swing indefinitely? Shouldn't gravity weigh down the swinging motion and gradually move it toward a standstill? Or are the lights designed to do that?

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I'm disappointed. The original game gave me the feeling of being alone on an alien planet, trying to find a way to get away. The Nali, the Skaarj, the dead crew members' logs, they all contributed to this feeling. The levels were huge for its time and extremely impressive in design. All that's gone. You return to your ship after each mission, rearm, listen to the briefing and land, knowing that you will get back and do it again. It's a different feeling and I cannot say I like it.

The game's soundtrack sucks, especially compared to that of Unreal. I find myself thinking of the "flyby" tune of the original game even nowadays, but I cannot remember anything of this one's just 24 hours after completing it.

Perhaps giving the character a voice, name, personal details and not just letting him be "you", like Doom or Quake does, prevents me from get immmersed in the game world, though it gives an opportunity for a couple of good jokes.

There's very little combat with the Skaarj in this game and fighting all kinds of human warriors is unlike Unreal, again. You mostly fight people on human planets, there's just not much "unreal" about it. One thing I liked were the missions with a timelimit and defensive scenario. You get deployable turrets, field generators, and some marines to order around, with the task of defending the site until something happens.

You can easily find out what the game looks like in action if you get the UT2003 demo. There isn't much difference. The outdoor maps might be relatively big (I wasn't too impressed by their size), but the engine doesn't seem to be able to handle anything that takes more than 10 minutes to walk through. The game can be completed in six or so hours, I would say.

I'm not even going to compare U2's graphics to Unreal's, knowing that I would be biased because of nostalgia. All I'm saying is that I'm nowhere near that impressed this time.

The design of one of the missions near the end of the game (the alien... planet or whatever it is supposed to be) is the worst. I just cannot understand how the testers let such an underdetailed, repetitive map get into the final game.

Too long a post already. All in all, it's not THAT bad of a game. There are a couple of maps that let you get into its mood, but there's no way I would pay $50 for the retail version. Around $30 or so is the right price... perhaps a good modding community can save the game. I expected much more from U2 and I don't think my expectations were unreasonable.

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Tired of all these games following the same "Return to base, receive your briefing" pattern. Just so unbearably unoriginal. Sick of the repetitive war games.

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