Too Human's Absence From E3, Silicon Knights Suit

GameDaily points out something I didn't even notice: Too Human wasn't at E3 this year. Denis Dyack's histrionics in the year since the game's terrible E3 2006 showing may have had something to do with that. According to the site, Dyack said: "We made the decision not to show Too Human at the press conference some time ago. The reason for this decision was that we have another event planned in the future for Too Human that we thought would be more appropriate ... Not attending the show and setting appointments with the press was due to Silicon Knights being extremely busy finalizing the game and we simply could not spare the time." Of course, today's announcement of a pending lawsuit between Silicon Knights and Epic may have something to do with it as well. Too Human is using Epic's Unreal engine to get the job done ... perhaps they've run into a snag?

Welp.

[!ramirez]

This was one of the more unique games coming out for the 360. Guess I'll be waiting a while longer before getting one.

Re:

[KDR_11k]

Too Human is the console equivalent of Duke Nukem Forever, I recall people fawning over it in the early days of the Gamecube and at that point it was already in development for several years. It's constantly getting delayed, changing engines, etc. Apparently they're changing engines again now, they're going to write their own (says so in the lawsuit explaination part of TFA).

Re:Crappy Engine - Not Surprised

[RamblinLonghorn]

Yeah, that's the last thing the console market needs, another multi-platinum, critically acclaimed game. And don't forget to mention something about dedicated servers in your next post, you forgot this time.

Re:Crappy Engine - Not Surprised

[atomicstrawberry]

You mean 'just look at Gears of War' because that seems to be your entire basis for your argument.

To date, as far as I'm aware only three games have shipped using UE3:
- Gears of War
- Rainbow Six: Vegas
- Roboblitz (Xbox Live Arcade game)

Only one of these games features "inane looking bald space marines".

If we look at the near future there's a pile of UE3 games releasing, for example
- Stranglehold
- Bioshock
- Blacksite: Area 51
- Fury
- Huxley
- Lost Odyssey
- Mass Effect
- Medal of Honor: Airborne
- Undertow
- Unreal Tournament 3

Of those, only UT3, Huxley and maybe Mass Effect and Blacksite are likely to have "inane looking bald space marines". Now, you might have tried a better troll, maybe pointing out that UE3 seems to be mainly used for FPS, but I think the list above (which features two single-player RPGs, one MMORPG and two third-person action games) seems to run contrary to that.

And even if every UE3 game featured "inane looking bald space marines" that would hardly be a reflection on the engine. It wouldn't be Epic's fault if every developer using the engine was so lacking in creativity that they only made bald space marines. That would actually be a reflection of a much greater malaise in the industry in general. So it's just as well that your assertion is crap.

Re:

[im_thatoneguy]

Also Destroy All Humans is UE3 and it's a large sandbox game. You can add that to the list.

However, you can also look to the news and see that several games have been "indefinitely delayed" for the PS3 due to a lack of a functioning PS3 Engine.

Re:

[Psiven]

Also Monster Madness uses the UE3.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_Madness:_Batt le_for_Suburbia [wikipedia.org]

Weird

[Loadmaster]

There is a Too Human trailer on Xbox Live in the E3 2007 category. Still there as of right now if anyone is interested. Looks ok.

Swi

Second most delayed game ever?

[Cleon I]

Too Human... one of the few games that rivals Duke Nukem Forever for "most delayed game ever." It was originally announced in 1999 as a PSX game (that's the original Playstation, not PS2), but was delayed and moved to the Gamecube after Silicon Knights partnered with Nintendo. It was put on the back burner in favor of Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, and now it seems like they're actually going to try to get it out for the 360. That means that this game has been in development for three generations of consoles, on three different platforms made by three different companies.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Denis Dyack has stated that Too Human has actually been in development since before Blood Omen: Legacy of Kane. In fact, the Soul Reaver was originally a Too Human weapon that was moved over to Blood Omen early in its development. So that means Too Human has been in development since at LEAST 1996. 11 years, one year longer than DNF.

Re:

[mocheeze]

Actually Too Human wasn't in development for GameCube (aside from some alpha builds meant to test the hardware). It was in development for PSX until Nintendo contracted them as a 2nd party, then for Xbox 360 when SK split from Nintendo. And by being "made by different companies" I guess you're just looking for a stronger way of saying they went with a different publisher this time around (which would make sense, since MGM doesn't do publishing anymore for videogames).

Re:

[Cleon I]

Yeah, that's what I meant.

I remember it was one of the first games announced for the GC when the GC itself was unveiled, and they showed a short video clip that didn't reveal any gameplay. I don't know if that constitutes "development" but it was certainly announced as a Gamecube game.

Re:

[mocheeze]

It wasn't in development at all during the time they were with Nintendo, just the alpha stuff that they recycled into Eternal Darkness's engine. Development for Too Human didn't resume until after SK had lined up a publisher for it after they left Nintendo.

At this point, who cares?

[CBlend]

I remember being interested in this game years ago, but since it's been so long, and the plan is to (maybe) release it on a console that's breaking down so much that Microsoft had to spend a million to deal with replacements, I think I'll pass. *Returns to playing Wii*

Lawsuit

[im_thatoneguy]

Silicon Knight's primary accusations against Epic Games are:

- Late delivery of Engine code. (Breach of contract.)
- Withholding engine code under the guise of it being game specific (aka Gears of War source code).
- Deliberately withholding code in order to comparatively showcase in-house games.
- Lack of promised documentation and technical consultation.

Also it appears that Epic might be claiming Silicon Knight's new in house game engine as Unreal 3 code. Or at least Silicon Knights is taking preemptive action to ensure that doesn't happen.

What Silicon Knights wants out the lawsuit:

- To be released from their contract with Epic Games.
- For a full refund.
and recognition that their in house engine is the sole property of Silicon Knights and not Epic Games.

Source:
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?st ory=14759 [gamasutra.com]

Re:

[Panzergheist]

They want a bit more than that. They also want

- All profits from the sale of Gears of War
- Unlimited license to modify UE3 in any way they want.

We'll see how this turns out, but it's bad news no matter what happens.

Lawsuit...or is it..

[GweeDo]

Or is it that Denis Dydack had his balls handed to him last e3 with the horrible Too Human demo they showed off. Post e3 he want off one a crazy tangent saying he didn't want to ever show un-finished games to reviewers again, because they might be mean to him again.

If you heard his interview on one of the EGM podcasts (I think it was EGM atleast) he was acting like a 4 year old that was told his crayon drawing sucked.

They probably didn't want to have the press give people more reasons to not be interested

Re:

[rav64]

My thoughts exactly.

This just comes of as bad for the company, and him especially. I was somewhat interested in what they had going about a year ago.. then when he started bitching about how the demo hadn't been properly optimized or whatever I started loosing interest. This latest charade is just the nail in the coffin as far as I'm concerned, he just comes of as someone who is desperate to try and redeem something that hadn't been a big deal in the first place, had they just kept on working and then relea