By John Walker on August 8th, 2011 at 3:59 pm.
Quakecon has come and gone, gibs have been aged, the Great Lord Carmack hath spoken, and yet again nothing was mentioned about Doom 4. But what have appeared are Bethesday-based screenshots. There’s no point in reposting the Rage pics, as they’re all the same ones we had a week ago for our hands on, so you can see them there. But below there are the latest batch from Prey 2.
08/08/2011 at 16:00 kuran says:
Looks fantastic, hope it isn’t going to be too scripted.
08/08/2011 at 16:05 Alexander Norris says:
A thousand times this. It looks amazing and let’s hope the game is as good as the aesthetics.
08/08/2011 at 16:46 ColOfNature says:
Yup, it sure is Preytty.
Prey-tty? Pre… oh, never mind.
08/08/2011 at 23:19 Snack says:
I beg to differ. It would have looked “fantastic” if only the year was 2004-2005, but now?
http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/article/577/577592/doom-3-resurrection-of-evil-20050105111751998.jpg
Higher texture resolution and few extra scene lights shouldn’t fool anyone anymore. I feel like I’m time trap for 7 years now …I’m growing weary now.
Sorry for trolling.
09/08/2011 at 01:09 Gabe McGrath says:
@Snack
When people say “This looks fantastic”, it’s quite possible that their opinion is not based on counting how many pixels per dilithium crystal in each screenshot.
Some of us look at a screenshot and FEEL something. (It’s completely unrelated to the number of latest-engine tickboxes.) We may even struggle to explain WHY we feel something positive about these screenshots, but we do.
For me, yes these screenshots look fantastic. Your opinion may differ – I have no problem with that. Just wanted to point out…. our methods of appraisal may be quite different?
09/08/2011 at 01:54 Revolve says:
Indeed, while my first thought on looking at that top photo was “Ew, jagged edges”, it quickly morphed into; “holy hell who cares, you can feel the atmosphere from the screenshots! AWESOME!”
09/08/2011 at 03:40 Burning Man says:
Gabe has effectively summarized my reaction to every screenshot, ever.
08/08/2011 at 16:02 Carter says:
This is looking promising, I’m getting a Blade Runner, Mass Effect and Klingon honor guard (remember that?) vibe from the shots
08/08/2011 at 16:07 GeForceFX says:
mass effect + mirrors edge :D cant wait. looks really sick :3
08/08/2011 at 16:08 Ovno says:
Looking good, especially all the cowering animations…
Also
#4 RUN AWAY!!!!!
#11 Don’t tase me bro!!!
08/08/2011 at 16:09 Sky says:
Nice tentacular cleavage?
08/08/2011 at 16:10 diebroken says:
Looks great, but it needs more bipedal aliens…
08/08/2011 at 16:24 Nalano says:
Also: Space bars.
08/08/2011 at 20:19 Gonefornow says:
Also:Hats.
Seriously, none of those aliens have hats!
Is sporting a fancy hat prohibited in space or what?
08/08/2011 at 16:13 McDan says:
I am very much looking forward to this, hopefully they’ll be a lot of customisation available for your character, mhm good stuff.
08/08/2011 at 16:19 Nalano says:
My very first thought was “Hey, hot alien babe.”
Immediately followed with, “I’ve never grown up, have I?”
08/08/2011 at 16:20 Mr_Initials says:
I don’t believe any of us have.
08/08/2011 at 17:09 LionsPhil says:
I’m not sure men are capable of outgrowing “hey, hot alien babe”.
Kirk sure wasn’t.
08/08/2011 at 17:14 Raiyan 1.0 says:
lol boobs
(And tentacles…)
08/08/2011 at 17:37 Nalano says:
@ LionsPhil
Which is why he shall forever be better than Picard.
08/08/2011 at 17:57 LionsPhil says:
Oh no you didn’t.
Pistols at dawn, sir.
(Also, maybe the Internet has desensitized me to all weird things, or maybe these pictures are just too dark and murky, but I’m not actually seeing any tentacles. She looks more a Minbari with hair than Twi’lek. Suppose it may be a hair-and-tentacles middle ground.)
08/08/2011 at 18:02 Nalano says:
You don’t see that tentacle draping over her chest?
08/08/2011 at 18:11 LionsPhil says:
Not without squinting and turning my head sideways. Looked like clothing or equipment, especially given the weird harness/baldric in the second image.
08/08/2011 at 18:48 Raiyan 1.0 says:
You guys don’t squint and try to make out every detail whenever a hot alien chick’s picture surfaces on the interwebs?
Weirdos.
09/08/2011 at 06:15 Whitechip says:
You make me laugh.
08/08/2011 at 16:19 mihor_fego says:
I might be forgetting something, but is there any sort of connection to the first Prey? Cause it seems not and if this is as good as it looks, they’re missing a chance for a fresh start of a new IP.
08/08/2011 at 16:21 Nalano says:
Same universe; tangential plot.
08/08/2011 at 17:04 skyturnedred says:
I understood the main character from the first one has some sort of cameo in this one.
08/08/2011 at 18:58 LionsPhil says:
I’m not sure Prey was good or popular enough to rock any boats if this one varies from it (c.f. Fallout or X-Com), so I guess it’s a bit of free familiar brand power at a very low Angry Internet Men cost if they then want to change everything.
08/08/2011 at 19:03 Nalano says:
I kinda now wanna play a game where you’re the marketing department of a games company and you have to find ways to stave off attacks from Angry Internet Men every time a creative designer gets an original thought.
08/08/2011 at 19:12 Xercies says:
I think common Gaming industry wisdom tells you its better to do something different with an existing IP then create a new one because you won’t get as much money from a new untested IP.
08/08/2011 at 16:20 neolith says:
As much as I like the design of the characters and their surroundings – why the heck do they cast black shadows and have white speculars instead of colored ones? That artificial plastic look already looked stupid in Doom3, it looked stupid in Prey and it does look stupid again in Prey2.
Apart from that I hope the gameplay is as good as Prey’s. I quite enjoyed it.
08/08/2011 at 19:29 Derpentine says:
White speculars are not the issue, the issues are over-bright speculars. Coloring the spec changes a lot more than you think, white is generally used as it will react to most situations correctly (i.e it will be noticeable in dim lighting, as well as bright lighting even if the diffuse is a different color). If you take a look at the doom3 assets, you will see that they are mostly white, but they’re also insanely bright, this then linked with the interaction leads to ‘plastic zombies’. In the case of these images, most of the specular is actually coming from the shading it seems. In any case I’m not sure what you mean with ‘black shadows’, the normalmaps will be dark when not lit, and depending on the ambient lighting setup and normal strength that might look black, however its not some kind of ‘make it black’ magic.
08/08/2011 at 16:21 Gnoupi says:
Looks great, with a lot of atmosphere effects.
Stylish, but makes me of course think “why do these people not like useful lighting?”.
It’s pretty, in red tones, blue tones, green tones… And you never see an actual bright light. I understand for a pub or a danceclub, or even outside by night. But what about the rest? Do these people only like dark athmospheres? It’s supposed to be a living city, I expect to see useful lights.
Though I guess it would be less stylish.
08/08/2011 at 18:39 DK says:
“These people” are aliens, and probably see in different spectra. Human player character should be glad he gets to see any of the lights being used at all with his human eyes.
08/08/2011 at 16:27 povu says:
Mirror’s Edge + STALKER in spaaaaaace!
08/08/2011 at 16:52 Phinor says:
Six years ago we got screenshots at glorious 1920×1200 or even 2560×1600 resolution. These days, (THANKS TO CONSOLES), we get slightly smaller screenshots. A lot smaller. Someone might call these screenshots thumbnails and the thumbnails thumbnails of thumbnails. That’s a weird word, too.
Also nice game. Can’t wait to play it.
08/08/2011 at 16:55 Felixader says:
Lot’s of human female asses on aliens.
While this has it’s point of visual beauty it’s also a bit dissapointing.
08/08/2011 at 17:02 Nalano says:
True: We need Fornax-level xenophilia.
08/08/2011 at 17:12 LionsPhil says:
Welcome to soft sci-fi.
I think the most hilarious is mister folded-arms bouncer up there with a funny skin tone and a crab for a head. It’s giving me Space Precinct flashbacks.
…although I don’t think they could afford to do digitigrade legs in that series.
08/08/2011 at 17:41 Nalano says:
Hey, it has its own trope.
Not that it’s entirely a bad thing. Spending the entire game trying to make heads or tails of the very nature of the totally alien would kind of work against the whole “space noir” angle.
08/08/2011 at 18:07 DiamondDog says:
I’d put a comparison to Space Precinct in the plus column!
You could argue that a group of humanoid species would all want to congregate because their anatomy would create shared interests such as a nice suit or, you know, sitting on a stool in a murky bar. Any alien that would require extra tailoring would just feel out of place. This reasoning is entirely watertight.
08/08/2011 at 18:12 Nalano says:
C-Sec Officer: “Now take a deep breath–”
Volus Merchant: “You’re *huff* mocking *huff* me!”
08/08/2011 at 18:13 Ultra Superior says:
According to science (and common sense), if there are any aliens with civilization in our sense of word, they’d look very much like humans. So the assy female is much harder sci-fi than mr. crab.
09/08/2011 at 02:50 MajorManiac says:
@ Ultra Superior:
I don’t like to contradict other peoples comments…. but no, just no.
08/08/2011 at 17:08 ZIGS says:
I want footage dammit!
08/08/2011 at 17:10 obvioustroll says:
So admiral ackbar is working for the umbrella corporation now?
What, you don’t see it?
08/08/2011 at 18:04 elvis says:
Yup, first thing I saw #9.
08/08/2011 at 17:15 Wolfox says:
That first screenshot – I could swear she’s a Twi’lek.
08/08/2011 at 17:46 Nalano says:
Twi’leks, Asari, Draenei, that opera singer in The Fifth Element…
You’d think we humans have a tentacle fetish or something.
09/08/2011 at 02:40 Inverness says:
There is only one word that needs to be said:
Japan
08/08/2011 at 17:19 Nim says:
Star Wars Noir!
08/08/2011 at 17:38 innociv says:
Oh god.
The alien wimmins.
08/08/2011 at 17:46 Ultra Superior says:
Too much of blocky gears of wars cover to my liking… Nice aliens and great setting.
08/08/2011 at 19:20 Derpentine says:
Besides for the umm, aliens; This looks a lot closer to how I’d imagined DX3 would look, shame they went with ‘lets abuse gold bloom’.
08/08/2011 at 21:50 Ultra Superior says:
Shame on you.
DX3 is excellent and the art direction is stellar.
(not to mention far from abusing gold bloom)
08/08/2011 at 19:53 Davie says:
Looking shiny. Love those aliens, although the bizarre heads on the very humanoid bodies is a bit jarring. Oh, and as for number 7: DEAR GOD, A KROGAN WITH A FLAMETHROWER
08/08/2011 at 20:24 Eukatheude says:
So, where are the vagina doors?
08/08/2011 at 22:54 LionsPhil says:
They left a bad taste in the mouth.
08/08/2011 at 20:27 fenriz says:
looks awesome… until i find out there’s nothing to do beside shooting aliens because videogames assume they’re of an inferior race/species, genetically malevolent.
08/08/2011 at 23:07 Navagon says:
That burnt out plane is the only thing I’m seeing in those screens which could be seen as a nod towards the original. But don’t get me wrong, I very much like what I’m seeing here.
08/08/2011 at 23:24 Wubbles says:
Anthropomorphic aliens are becoming increasingly ridiculous to me.
09/08/2011 at 02:53 Basilicus says:
So many bipedal humanoids. That’s all well and good, but give me some Huts, some John Carpenter’s The Things, some Elcor, some Aliens, some Daleks, some Broodmaster. Give me weird manta rays and oozy oozingtons and aliens that locomote by rolling or tumbling.
All that said, it looks like great fun, but the point still holds!
09/08/2011 at 03:13 Muzman says:
Looks great but the neon constrastyness just looks exhausting. I thought the same in the trailer.
It really seems like a game well worth squinting through, but man I hope they change it up from time to time.