[Deepblue]

Um, there's a cloud of dust... If you look carefully, you can see it right above the "Xbox 360."

[aldo_14]

Another bog-standard Unreal3 engine shot, though.  Those things start to look really same-y after a while.  Technically it's nice, but artistically it gets dull.

[Fineus]

I'm glad aldo pointed that one out before I did. That monster is nothing new, it was previewed for the Unreal3 engine on the PC some time ago. Saying that Gears of War is XB360 exclusive is all good and well, but the engine was still originally developed with the PC in mind. All in all - it's no reason to get too excited right now. This is nothing strides ahead of what we've seen coming already.

Not that I'm trying to put a downer on the thing, but I'd rather one of these games followed through with gameplay and storyline now. What we've seen is a lot of what amounts to a tech demo - excellent lighting, shadows, models and textures - but nothing of any real substance just yet.

[Turnsky]

it looks pretty and all, but until i see it in actual motion with my own eyes, i'd be nonplussed..

and i agree with Kal, after playing pariah, i'd like some actual game with my eyecandy

[Taristin]

actually, they all seem too blatantly cg for my likeing. GoW, Halo2, all these games that try to simulate reality with over bump mapped models, all wind up looking like plastic toys.

[Fineus]

Oh... and that beast, I'm confused about it. You see the beast in that shot is apparently in GoW which is exclusive to the XB360, yes?

Well it's also the showpiece of the Unreal Engine 3 which isn't XB360 exclusive at all. Also, the preview of the engine - including that monster - was around long before the XB360 was even announced.

Voila: http://www.unrealtechnology.com/screens/p_beast.jpg

So what's the story behind that?

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Kalfireth
Oh... and that beast, I'm confused about it. You see the beast in that shot is apparently in GoW which is exclusive to the XB360, yes?

Well it's also the showpiece of the Unreal Engine 3 which isn't XB360 exclusive at all. Also, the preview of the engine - including that monster - was around long before the XB360 was even announced.

Voila: http://www.unrealtechnology.com/screens/p_beast.jpg

So what's the story behind that?

Pretty simple, really; they either were planning on making this for a long time and had assets in the works, or they used the models for the Unreal3 tech demo for this GOW thing.  IIRc there were rumours of some new unreal game for several years, perhaps this is it or an offshoot of it.

Either way, I'd scarcely be surprised that they'd reuse models for a technical demo, for an actual game; as well as saving time, it helps validate the value of the tech demo as an illustration of the game graphics.

Incidentally, the Unreal 3 engine should be easily surpassed by the consoles in due time; apparently (according to Epic) the PS3 devkits were able to render the engine in realtime using only 40-50%  of their potential 'power'.  Regardless of the exact details of relative performance between the PS3 and Xbox360 (which is a matter of debate), I'd take that to mean both are capable of far better.

[Deepblue]

Originally posted by Kalfireth
I'm glad aldo pointed that one out before I did. That monster is nothing new, it was previewed for the Unreal3 engine on the PC some time ago. Saying that Gears of War is XB360 exclusive is all good and well, but the engine was still originally developed with the PC in mind. All in all - it's no reason to get too excited right now. This is nothing strides ahead of what we've seen coming already.

Not that I'm trying to put a downer on the thing, but I'd rather one of these games followed through with gameplay and storyline now. What we've seen is a lot of what amounts to a tech demo - excellent lighting, shadows, models and textures - but nothing of any real substance just yet.

On gameplay stuff, the story was written out by Eric Nuyland,  the guy who did a absolutely fantastic job on the 1st and 3rd Halo books.

@Kal's second comment:
The Unreal 3 tech demo was the early stages of GoW, they just hadn't actually announced it yet. So, tech demo is based of GoW rather than GoW being based off of tech demo. Hope that clears up some confusion.