Interview: Mark Rein

Seems like a nice fella. Reckon he's pretty spot on with the comments on PS3 games already looking good (graphically). I can remember being pretty disapointed by last e3's 360 output. If the visual quality of the ps3 games can increase as much as the 360's software did there could be some gret looking games for the ps3 launch.

Looks like the 360 is seriously gathering momentum.

If you rented a flat without oxygen, you would DIE.

There he goes again...

In next week's installment "How Intel are responsible for third world debt"

Gears of War really looks like 'killer app' right now

Wtf is he going on about? The pc is faaaaaaaaaaaaar from dead. All stores here have more space reserved for pc games than all handhelds and consoles together.

Wish they were a little less like ID. Big graphics updates with only the barest minimum of advancement in the actual gameplay design.

"He's wrong about Xbox Live being a closed system though, He can run his own servers: "

Yeah, but you're using MS's software, and you have to abide by certain protocols and requirements and restrictions which involves MS in your "relationship with the customer" as Rein puts it, and makes it a 3-way thing rather than a direct relationship between Epic and the consumer.

Sony will have some of these requirements too to integrate things a little better for the customer compared with PS2, but it seems like there will be more freedom for the publisher.

Of course, on the other hand X-box Live makes it easier for the lower tier publisher/developer to integrate multiplayer into their games. Much like the presence of 4 ports on the N64 ensured that most games had at the very least two, but most common 4 player modes, x-box live has made online capability for games much more attractive to the point of it being an expected requirement.

Wish they were a little less like ID. Big graphics updates with only the barest minimum of advancement in the actual gameplay design.

Everything I have seen of Gears Of War embodies this principle. Its sad that it sees so much hype.

Wish they were a little less like ID. Big graphics updates with only the barest minimum of advancement in the actual gameplay design.

Graphics are their primairy product. Like ID, they focus on making a great engine, demoing it by a game and then selling it to others. And every once in a while they make a great new franchise (and then fuck it up with the sequels).

Everything I have seen of Gears Of War embodies this principle. Its sad that it sees so much hype.

Ah yes, the fact that it radically alters the shooter gameplay is shite. The fact that everybody who has played this has nothing but praise is shite.

Gears of War doesn't play like shit, but to say that it radically alters shooter mechanics is a bit silly.
Having brown and grey rooms with a handful oif characters running around and shooting from cover's a gameplay mechanic that got set up way back in the day with Winback on the N64 (except then it was grey & blue). It's also a type of third person shooter that has survived for a while longer (can't recall the name, but there was one a year or two ago that was really all about finding the cover points and shooting from there, japanese game for the ps2, also saw a pc version) and has seen it's mechanics adapted to most 3rd person shooters in general (just look at from Russia with Love, if EA does it then it's a wel entrenched principle).

"Graphics are their primairy product. Like ID, they focus on making a great engine, demoing it by a game and then selling it to others."

Glad we agree

His Intel bashing seems a bit arrogant and childish to me. As if hardware manufacturers were in any way obliged to always put the latest tech into their laptops so that they can run all those shiny new games, instead of providing cost-efficient hardware for everyday purposes. Stop complaining, Rein, and start adapting your software so that it runs on slower hardware if the PC platform is so precious to you.

I remember UE2 ran fairly well on low end systems, i recall the minimum processor spec for UT2003 being 733mhz.

The oxygen comparison was, I don't know, just plain stupid? As for gears of war, I too don't really get the hype. The 3rd person view might change a few game elements but it will still be a shooter. Not that this is a bad thing but I really couldn't care less for FPS right now. There are just too many around.