and werewolf and zombies OH MY!
some snippets. READ FOR YOURSELF, IT'S A REALLY HYPING READ.
and now screens:
Eric: Hector, Doc, AJ, and Miko all have different backgrounds that provide them with special skill sets. Hector is a bounty hunter who has tracked targets on both sides of the border. Doc wants to figure out what makes the monsters tick. AJ is an urban explorer who had a very bad experience and is looking for revenge. Miko is an assassin looking for a new challenge. They all bring something special to the table in terms of gameplay.
IGN: We can tell in screenshots that you're pushing a lot of on-screen characters. Tell us about this advancement to the Quantum 3 engine. How many characters can you push at once?
Eric: Right now we're pushing many highly detailed characters at once; better looking than almost anything else you'll see on the Wii right now.
Kerry: We call the technology our Imposter and Instancing system. We are able to take a single enemy and replicate him over and over again. Along with the replication, we can also scale, color, and otherwise modify each instance. This allows us to get an unprecedented number of unique enemies on screen at once at a fraction of the cost to do it otherwise. During our in-house testing, we have been able to see up-to 65 enemies on screen at once. These were initial tests [Smiles]
Matt: Quantum 3 has once again been upgraded to pull off some majorly cool visual effects. It seems like we should be able to pull off even more on-screen enemies at some point. We never put a limit on our creativity. If it seems like it's worthwhile to have a cool feature in our games, we always find a way to make it work in the engine. It's pretty incredible to see so many monsters rushing after you in The Grinder. Each one is moving independently and doing its own thing. But all of them are trying to kill you.
IGN: Does the framerate take a major hit?
Matt: No, not really. We're right up around the framerate that we are currently at with The Conduit. I expect that it's even going to improve at some point, now that we've learned new ways to optimize our visuals.
Eric: The key is to let the gameplay determine how many characters you want and then start looking for tricks that will let you have the gameplay, the visuals, and the performance that you're looking for. Luckily we've discovered some very methods that allow us to have lots of characters on screen without sacrificing quality.
Kerry: If there is one thing that I can say about HVS it is that we are never satisfied and we will continue to push the hardware to get every last frame that we can.
Eric: At E3 you'll see dual-wield .45s, an SMG, a pump-action 12-gauge and an AK-47. We've added a new bullet penetration feature that allows us to punch through multiple enemies at once. For the full game we're developing some exciting new weapons that are much more imaginative. We get to imagine what people would want to take with them into a monster hunting situation and then build those weapons!
Kerry: We have a huge variety of weapons in the game. Some typical human weapons like an AK-47 and a combat shotgun, but we also have many non-traditional weapons. We were inspired by movies like From Dusk Till Dawn and John Carpenter's Vampires.
Eric: MotionPlus support and swords certainly seem appropriate for an assassin.
Matt: So far the co-op mode has been working out great, with zero lag while displaying tons of enemies on the screen at once. We've wanted this feature in our games for a long time and we're really proud to be bringing this feature to The Grinder. Oh and there's also split screen coop mode currently running in the demo, which is also pretty awesome for those who may not have access to play together using a Wi-Fi connection.
Eric: We think Left 4 Dead set the standard for this type of game and we fully intend to support four players.
IGN: When are you hoping to release the game?
Eric: The goal is holiday 2010 and our projects tend to ship on time more often than not!
some snippets. READ FOR YOURSELF, IT'S A REALLY HYPING READ.
and now screens: