Unreal II: The Awakening
World Press Preview Event: November 7, 2002
Chantilly, Virginia, USAPublic Q&A SessionAt this point we had a short initial Q&A session with the Legend team. Rather that transcribe everything that went down during that session to the letter, here's a summary:Q: How long did Unreal 2: The Awakening take to develop?
A: About three years, although the full team was not involved for that entire time.Q: Why did it take so long?
A: Basically, the game started with Unreal Tournament technology, and things needed to be switched over to the newer tech that had been developed during that time. This consumed a good part of that time period. There was a huge amount of refinement that went on, and a lot of content to create. If you have old screenshots from a couple of years ago, just put them away. The game has changed significantly since then.Q: Is the game complete, or if not, how far along is it?
A: The game is content complete, Legend is working on bug fixing (we saw/heard a few) and performance improvements.Q: When will the game be on store shelves?
A: January, perhaps late January, 2003. It should be noted that Legend does not set the release date; that's something Epic and Infogrames work out between them.Q: What kind of leeway did Epic give Legend from a creative standpoint?
A: Complete leeway. Other than some very general guidelines, it's basically 'here's the Unreal universe, go to town.' Epic does have approval authority over everything, but other than perhaps some screenshots that were nixed, from a content standpoint everything Legend has developed has passed that approval process. Epic has made suggestions for certain things in the game, and Legend has gone ahead and implemented some of them. CliffyB chimed in that 'by and large, these guys know what the hell their doing.'Q: What kind of opportunities for modding will there be with Unreal II?
A: The editor is going to be included (note, this editor is not 100% binary compatible with the UnrealEd from UT 2003), so you should be good to go out of the box as far as singleplayer content is concerned. Scott Dalton pointed out that, between the new Unreal-engine technology and the stuff Legend added (Golem skeletal system, particle system), the game offers a lot more to modders, and is very open.Q: Will coop mode be possible via a mod?
A: It could happen, it's hard to say.Q: Is it possible that there would be a multiplayer expansion pack at some point?
A: Anything's possible at this point. U2:TA is a singleplayer game, though.Q: What are the technical differences between the U2:TA editor and the UT 2003 editor?
A: Legend hasn't integrated everything from the UT 2003 codebase, but they have added some elements of their own. By and large, it's pretty much the same thing. However, as they're not totally binary compatible, you can't use the U2:TA editor to create UT 2003 levels, or the UT 2003 editor to make U2:TA missions.Q: What are some of the technical differences between UT 2003 and U2:TA?
A: In terms of graphics, the U2:TA polygon counts have a little higher ceiling. As this is a singleplayer game, it allows for the opportunity to do some things you might not be able to do in a multiplayer environment.Q: What would the recommended platform (not minimum) be to run U2:TA?
A: 1.2 ghz machine, GF3 video card, 256 or 384 mb RAM. More is better.Q: What marquis features does U2:TA bring to gaming?
A: There are several key new things. We are putting in XMP elements, which means you have the ability to modify your environment to defend against invading forces. You'll be ordering troops around. As far as graphics are concerned, you'll see the Golem animation system and the particle system. You'll see many amazing implementations of the particle system, in weapon effects... basically, all over the place. Really, it comes down to that this game has an incredible amount of variety. You're going to go to a number of different worlds, see completely different creatures, in incredible graphic vistas. And then, there's the story itself, which we hope is distinguishing feature. We have real characters with real character arcs. We hope that the player achieves some degree of sympathy and empathy for the characters in the game, which is something you haven't seen much in this genre. CliffyB added that he thinks what will really set the game apart is the top-notch writing and voice acting.Q: Were there any well-known actors involved with the game?
A: No, they were chosen for their talent, not for their name.Q: Any plans for a Linux or Mac release?
A: Don't believe so. Not at this time. We'll have to wait and see.Q: Is it the same universe as Unreal 1?
A: No, but there are various references in U2:TA that you'll pick up on.