Project Ego info from Edge Magazine.

I\'m shocked that no Xbox zealot has posted this yet.  It has some really bold statements in it.  So I guess I\'ll play devil\'s advocate this time around and post this pro-Xbox info.

Edge magazine has a four page article about "Big Blue Box" and their game, code named Project Ego.  Xboxgamers.com got a hold of these scans from one of their readers:

http://www.xboxgamers.com/newsimages/pe1.jpg
http://www.xboxgamers.com/newsimages/pe2.jpg
http://www.xboxgamers.com/newsimages/pe3.jpg
http://www.xboxgamers.com/newsimages/pe4.jpg

Here are some interesting excerpts:

Referring to Project Ego as an RPG immediately provokes assumptions that the Carter brothers are keen to distance themselves from.  "RPG videogames have never lived up to our expectations, " Simon explains.  "In pencil and paper \'D&D\' you really shape your character -- but somewhere along the line RPG games lost that aspect.  So we\'re abandoning the trappings of the RPG -- the elves, orcs, magic systems and inventories.  We want to get back to the basic principles of the role playing game.

It\'s about time someone attempted to do this.  It will be interesting to see what exactly "this" is.  Hopefully this will change RPGs forever -- because the old way is, well, old.

...if your character stands relatively elevated position he has a viewing distance of around eight kilometres.  And there are no 2D texturemaps providing background scenery -- if you see a hill in the distance you can walk to it.  Everything is real.

I sounds like they are trying to one-up Naughty Dog and J&D.  I\'m not too sure what to think of it though.  8 km?  I\'ll have to see it to believe it.

You can\'t store that information on an 8Mb memory card.  And just in terms of raw visuals, the brothers are keen to stress the benefits of Xbox over PS2.  The latter has no texture compression, while the former can compress up to four times, "and because you can stream stuff straight from the hard disk with pretty much no latency, you end up with 16-32 times as much room for graphics as PS2," finishes Simon.

That last sentence by Simon sounds an awful lot like Naughty Dog when they said that the PS2 has around 60 MB of texture memory (15mb above the real number).  They are both full of it and are just hyping up their preferred system by pulling random numbers out of their, er, money hats.


This game could be the game that changes my mind about the Xbox.  If it lives up to the hype Big Blue Box is hyping it up to be, then I can\'t wait to play it.

Great infomation!  This will change RPG gaming.  

[BizioEE]

This game could be the game that changes my mind about the Xbox. If it lives up to the hype Big Blue Box is hyping it up to be, then I can\'t wait to play it.

maybe you should be less demanding with the X-Box...we all PS2 fans waited months months and months before playing decent games...

This game has a chance to be one of the best but I think it is promising to much.  The hype may kill it.

This is one of my most wanted xbox games.  Btw, when is it out 2002 or 2003?

[BizioEE]

Originally posted by rastalant
This is one of my most wanted xbox games.  Btw, when is it out 2002 or 2003?

I think Q4 2002.

[Bobs_Hardware]

That last sentence by Simon sounds an awful lot like Naughty Dog when they said that the PS2 has around 60 MB of texture memory (15mb above the real number). They are both full of it and are just hyping up their preferred system by pulling random numbers out of their, er, money hats.

the guys from naughty dog only ever said the equivilent of MB the PS2 had using the proper streaming method, you know this Iron!  it seams to me that pro PS2 companies such as Naughty Dog (possibly PS2\'s biggest supporter) are very quick to point out that using this equivilancy they say it is just as good or better than XBox...but dont point out XBoxs advantages...while these guys are doing the opposite

...difference is, Jasin Rubin is the only FanBoy developer to actually deliver everything he said he would

thats why you gotta love people like Hideo Kojimi and the likes...no bull****, just make the games and make em better than anyone else.

I sounds like they are trying to one-up Naughty Dog and J&D. I\'m not too sure what to think of it though. 8 km? I\'ll have to see it to believe it

trying to one up naughty dog?  i dont know how many km\'s or miles you could see in J&D but they made it so the WHOLE WORLD was visible with a straight line of site....how can they possibly be trying to one up Naughty Dog??

...by making the game fun.

[Bobs_Hardware]

clever Eric...clever, but thats not the context in which he said it...and you know it! (you idiot!)  

so...i want answers

WHAT DO WE WANT?

ANSWERS

WHEN DO WE WANT EM!?

NOW FATTY!

Originally posted by Bobs_Hardware
trying to one up naughty dog?  i dont know how many km\'s or miles you could see in J&D but they made it so the WHOLE WORLD was visible with a straight line of site....how can they possibly be trying to one up Naughty Dog??

This game obviously has a higher poly count than J&D did.  As well as more detail environments (from what I\'ve seen).  And add to that the much better texturing.  If they can see 8 km (about 5 miles) while keeping all that detail (but obviously getting less detailed in the backgrounds), then I will be very impressed.  They probably aren\'t trying to one-up Naughty Dog (they probably haven\'t even seen J&D yet because they are so busy), but by the sounds of it and the looks of it, their draw distance and overall graphics will out-do J&D\'s.  This game better live up to the hype.

maybe you should be less demanding with the X-Box...we all PS2 fans waited months months and months before playing decent games...

This is an entirely different situation.  Back then the newest console I owned was the PSX.  I skipped out on the N64 and Dreamcast.  So the PS2 was a godsend.  Now, I own a PS2 and love it to death.  If Microsoft wants to win me over, they are going to have to show me some very impressive stuff.

[Bobs_Hardware]

i wasnt talking about the rest of the graphics Fisty...i was referring soley to the draw distance...how can these guys one-up J&D\'s draw distance, when J&D has no draw distance

i am waiting to see if this game delivers on the promise to be the best RPG. i remember the claims of Black and White, and then to be upset at the fact half of the stuff promised (like the fully interactive eco systems) was removed

and for the game to be reduced to a macro manage sytem with a Very smart  Creature AI and a highly DUMMASS enemy AI

this game has to have the WORST ENEMY AI i have ever seen


ah well by the time i get my self a knock down price X box the game should be out in Europe to buy so i guess theres no great loss if it.

but  IronFist
 
 
 is right i am a very big Final Fantasy Fan and it will take a superb RPG for me to turn my head.

Well, I think you might be dissapointed there ooseven. Like they said above, Console & PC Rpgs have been focusing less and less on the core of RPG\'s (Character building/Personality building) and more into dynamic storylines with set characters, set inventories, and set events which lead to a set ending. You build the lvls of your characters.. but that\'s it.. you don\'t build the characters themselves.

The reason why RPG\'s have turned out this way is because for so long the technology to match (or at least accomodate) a players imaginiation has simply not been there. There was NO computer in the world that can match the imagination of an actual DM and players. (Well.. a GOOD DM and players anyhow :P ) Sadly to say, I highly doubt we\'ll see one this generation either.. and definately not as a consumer product. Xbox is good, but it has it\'s limits.. and that will in turn limit the game.

I think Project:Ego will be good.. but not for everybody, jus as Shenmue is. It will also not live up to the hype. It may come close.. but I think the designers bit off a bit more than they could chew. Maybe if they had an unlimited budget and no deadline... but they don\'t. This will turn out like most other "reveloutionary" games.. with the tenants for creating a pardigim shift in the industry.. but falling short due to massive amounts of content taken out in order to increase the chance that it will make a profit.

Originally posted by Bobs_Hardware
i wasnt talking about the rest of the graphics Fisty...i was referring soley to the draw distance...how can these guys one-up J&D\'s draw distance, when J&D has no draw distance

Obviously, if their world is bigger than J&D\'s, then they have the potential to have a greater draw distance that J&D.

8km draw distance? i Think its very possible. I mean look at Smugglers Run for ps2 that was a launch game and a first. Never did we really see so much realtime landscape in a game. You could climb atop a mountain and see miles and miles of digital hills. To me that game was pretty damn fun, but later got kinda reppetitive, (it was fun while it lasted). While there isnt as much detail as pe is promising it was still a huge step. It was a launch game and plus xbox is more powerful so with that said i can honestly tell you that its possible.