Yuck?

Supposedly the engine can get thousands of on screen characters though?

Ravenprose said:

gamingeek said:

It reminds of Killer Instinct.

It reminds me of the N64 version of Eternal Darkness:

Actually, I think Eternal Darkness looks better!

 Harsh! It's 7 months in development. It has to look a lot better in motion. Its pretty fugly at the moment. It has a strange crappy, bulky western style to it. I dont know what they were going for. High Voltage seem to specialise in generic looking games. 

Skim through the interview about this gladiator game

Kerry J. Ganofsky: Gladiator A.D. is our next step in filling the holes in the Wii's library. Players choose a Gladiator, each with unique attacks, behaviors, moves, and weapons. They then battle through a series of competitions, some one-on-one and some much more complex.

IGN: The Conduit's Quantum3 engine pushes Wii tech. What about Gladiator? What's happening tech-wise with this project that you're proud of? 

Kerry: We are using the Quantum3 engine for Gladiator as well. Improvements are continually being made to the engine and we are taking full advantage of each update. Being an arena-style game, we are able to push the graphics up a few notches. Our characters, environments and animations are simply amazing. The AI system is adjustable and flexible which will allow our designers to make each enemy feel unique and challenging. 

Eric: Think of Gladiator A.D. as the distillation of everything that made Conduit what it was. With fewer characters in smaller environments we are able to get more detail. In addition, we are utilizing our imposter system to get the crowd reacting to the player's action. Watch them throw objects at the ill-favored gladiator, as well as stand and cheer with large hits, or boo and jeer when the player uses cheap tactics. 

David: Gladiator A.D. features the latest version of the Quantum technology. Graphically, we have incorporated several very cool visual effects into the game that are beyond even The Conduit. All of the updates are not simply graphical though, as seen in our Imposter / Instancing technology. This technology allows us to feature a large number of characters on screen with no discernible framerate hit. This means that we can have hundreds or even thousands of models in the scene.

IGN: Is Gladiator a straight-up 3D fighter? What are the gameplay mechanics? 

David: Gladiator A.D. is not a traditional 3D fighting game. It's more of a hybrid between 3D Fighting games like Bushido Blade and Boxing games like Fight Night. The action is intense, but the combat is strategic. You need to learn your opponent's weaknesses and think through your attack patterns to succeed. There is no button-mashing here. 

Kerry: Our goal is to make the controls intuitive while providing depth to the game mechanics. Customizable weapons, armor and moves give the player a lot of choices of the arsenal to bring into battle.

IGN: How far along is the game in development and when do you hope to release it for Wii? 

David: We are seven months into full production. We have nearly every environment complete and many of our fighters have been modeled, rigged, and animated. As to the specific release date, we are not announcing anything yet but we are very excited and eager to get the games into the hands of the gamers.

(They have Motionplus and are looking at online)

Ravenprose said:

High Voltage needs to stop showing off their games that are so early in development. Why would they want to show such fugly pics as these?

I think they're using the Sony and Capcom school of thought.  "Show off as much as you've got as soon as you got it regardless of it will measure up to the final quality".  Of course with those two companies they generally only show off established franchises and the stills, even rough look pretty good because their on HD hardware.   It certainly works well for them in building up hype, but for the Conduit and this. . . not sure it's a great idea.

Eurogamer Yakuza 3 review

For all the care, attention and money that has clearly gone into Yakuza 3's development, it remains anachronistically reluctant to adapt its gameplay to modern times and modern tastes. Some might find that endearing, but for most it will grate. The end result, though, is nonetheless slick and gorgeous, absorbingly detailed and full of life and personality. In terms of craftsmanship, dramatic impact and cinematic impressiveness, Yakuza 3 is far, far ahead of most other games in the world. It's hard to resent it too much for being backwards in other respects.

8/10

Iga_Bobovic said:

Can someone update the IGN 360, IGN PS3 and IGN PC news? Those pages won't load on my computer!

Yes, IGN's site really sucks.  I'd suggest turning off JavaScript for IGN unless you need it for something specific.  Just browsing and viewing articles it's unnecessary and their pages are crippled by it.  If you're using Firefox, you can selectively toggle JavaScript for sites with NoScript.  The VG Press requires JavaScript for most things, though.

In Opera, you can do the functional equivalent, though a little less seamlessly by setting site-specific settings under Tools->Advanced->Content, Manage Site Content where you can toggle things on a per site basis, including JavaScript.  Myself out of habit of using K-Meleon for several years have mapped toggling JavaScript to my F7 key.