We even have a teaser trailer for the God of war Movie:
The question is can they avoid falling into the trap of doing what so many production teams have done and change the idea of the game so completely it doesn't work anymore? They've got the talent, and the history to back it up, so these films could be ones to watch out for. I know I will be, even if it's only for the possibility of breaking a cycle that seems to have been perpetuating since the Super Mario Brothers film, which was only good because it was so awful. You know the kind of film I mean.
No, these are not new street names for drugs. These are two innovations in Lucas art's latest attempt to milk the Starwars franchise for all it's worth. Sorry if I sound cynical, but I'd much rather see new ideas applied to new games instead of rehashes of the same old tried and tired formulas… Anyway, enough of my whining and lets get to business.
Anyone here remember Red Faction? Digital Molecular Matter (DMM) is basically the GeoMod technology that made that game so interested taken to the next step. In theory, as with Red Faction, environments in Star Wars: The force unleashed, will be fully interactive and behave as you would expect. Metal dents when you belt it, stone cracks and shatters when you blast it and the dead horse should twitch a little if you keep flogging it… I mean uh, served cables will fall realistically to the ground.
To be fair, the idea of a fully interactive environment has been around for some time (Hell, Red Faction was a 2001 release). But no one ever picked it up. The PhysEx engine by Ageia a few years back promised us a whole new dimension on physics in computer games, but for some reason never caught on. Personally I feel this was not due to technical limitations or expense, but simply the amount of extra work developers would have to put into their games to make use of the technology. Plus it changes how the games play in a big way. You can't just duck down behind the same rock every time you need to reload if the rock isn't going to be there after a few more minutes of laser fire. Plus, if someone's got a rocket launcher, the only real defense now is to run.
The other thing of course is Euphoria, a strange name considering what it does. Euphoria basically acts like a combined physics engine and A.I for your enemies. For example, most of the time if you shoot an enemy in game, the game processes it thus: Character Hit. Character dead. Activate Kill animation (X). Done. The X represents the various
ways the character dies depending on how and where he's been hit. You might get some rag doll physics thrown in too (and lets face it, they're not exactly realistic). Nowadays, the animations are quite realistic. But if you say, push the character of a cliff, then half the time they do nothing. Maybe a little scripted flailing.
Not so With Euphoria. If the character is shot, then they fall back exactly how they should. If they survive, the force of the impact may or may not knock them over or have other effects. If pushed off a cliff, the character will not just flail in a scripted manner, but try to grab a handhold and cling on for dear life. Plus as you are pushing them off, they will realistically interact with their environment, slipping feet and so forth.
Here's an example of these two new technologies in action:
I like these ideas it will make games a lot more interesting. I hope other developers also try to tag along with this technology as they would help make videogames so much more immersive.
Halo 1: A solid game, nothing great nothing wrong. A nice introduction to the future of the FPS.
Halo 2: Balls. I can't believe I paid £40 for what was basically an expansion pack.
Halo 3: This is more like it. Still not exactly the greatest game ever made, but solid.
Halo 4: Given halo 3's ending, they could do some VERY interesting stuff with this
Rumors abound on the internet about Halo 4. Will the covenant still be the main antagonists? Will it be a game of the Halo movie? Will it still be a 360 exclusive? Does it even exist at all?
Given how much money Bungie has made from the Halo franchise over the years I'd say it's a dead cert than they at least have plans to carry on the tradition.
What we do have coming up for certain is a new RTS title set just before the first Halo game. Halo wars, as it's being called promises to at least be very interesting. Developers claim to have done away with the usual side bar menu, and taken the emphases of resource management (though that apparently still plays a part) and placed the emphasis on combat. So, a little bit from dawn of war, and a little bit from ground control. In my opinion, it sounds like they're trying to plug it to fans of the FPS.
Here's a teaser trailer to give you something to think about:
I've never been a massive fan of the Halo games, but given how many Chinese whispers are bouncing around the internet concerning these developments at the moment; it seems a lot of other people are. Another interesting point is that at the moment it looks like halo wars won't be getting released on the PC, which is the premier platform for the RTS genre. Guess we'll just need to watch this space to find out.
