chief tech officer at EA says games need more REALISM !!!

[MrD]

This whole situation is a laugh really, because surely they should be touting this Mod as how the players themselves want more reality out of the arcade **** that EA churned out in vBF2?

Video games need 'realism boost'
By Mark Ward
Technology correspondent, BBC News website, San Diego

Crysis



Games like Crysis are hoping to push the boundaries of realism

More than good looks are needed to make a great video game, according to Glenn Entis, chief technical officer at games giant Electronic Arts.

Mr Entis told the Siggraph conference that games makers had to use much more than graphics to make their creations believable, engaging and fun.

Game worlds must not just look lifelike, he said, they must also react in a realistic manner too.

Tools that let players create content were also becoming important, he said.

Siggraph, held in San Diego, is the world's leading computer graphics conference.

During his speech, Mr Entis warned against assuming that games which look lifelike automatically take on the characteristics of the real world.

He said this problem was most acute when creating believable human video game characters.

Exquisitely sensitive

Humans were so exquisitely sensitive to how other people move and behave, said Mr Entis, that the smallest differences undermine the almost perfect physical representations of people becoming possible on next-generation consoles such as the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.

"When a character's visual appearance creates the expectation of life and it falls short your brain is going to reject that," he said.

Improvements in graphics would not boost believability, he said. "Just adding polygons makes it worse."

He said that to add authenticity EA had made extensive use of motion capture to catalogue how stance, gait and the tiny movements of facial muscles combine when people display different emotions.


Every part of nature that can respond will respond
Glenn Entis, EA

Using this, he said, the game maker had created a movement system for characters that unites these gross and fine-grained changes.

"It gives us alertness and empathy that we have never really had in our games before," he said.

"Model and motion are what gives fidelity for non-interactive characters," said Mr Entis, "but it is responsiveness and intelligence that really brings them alive."

"Players have to relate to the characters they are holding in the palm of their hand," he said.

Movement matching

The emotion and movement matching system was going to get its first airing in the next release of EA's basketball game, NBA Live.

Similar demands held true for game worlds as well as the characters that inhabit them, said Mr Entis.

Game worlds must also react in a lifelike manner to whatever people do, he said. Often this can be done via good physics that dictates how scenery reacts when blown up or how liquids or gases move to produce an engaging, thrilling game.

"Every part of nature that can respond will respond," he said.

Mr Entis said the forthcoming Crysis title was a good example of a game in which the responsiveness of the world made it more fun to play.

"It's about worlds that look beautiful but behave beautifully as well," said Mr Entis.

Finally, he said, easy to use tools for players were growing in importance and in some cases had become as important as the gameplay itself.

EA research

For example, he said, EA research had revealed that more than half the people that played The Sims spent more than half the time they play it just making stuff - be it characters or game extras such as furniture.

"They love making the stuff so much that it becomes the game," he said.

EA was now working on a European Xbox 360 title called Virtual Me that gives players unprecedented control over the looks and wardrobe of the character they create. The game will be released alongside a TV programme put together by Big Brother creator Endemol.

The move by the games industry to give players more tools, such as the much-anticipated Spore game by Sim City creator Will Wright, was like the trend towards user-generated content seen on the web, said Mr Entis.

"It's an exploding area," he said.

Of course, I tried emailing BBC newsdesk with the URL of their story and a little explanation of this mod as reference to EA games and seeing what they think (although they are so busy with freaky people emailing them nowadays that whether they see it and react is another matter.

[mrmong]

they're talking about visual realism not gameplay.

[Long Bow]

they're talking about visual realism not gameplay.

Yeah all I got out of that is that when the guy across from you bunny hops into an insta=prone with the M4 for the headshot, you really see the 733t in his eyes.


I'm all for EA making games and the characters more believable but give the community more support. Allow mods to flourish and take the game in any direction the community wants within reason. That would be ground breaking.

[<TNT>GRENADIER]

Never happen. The FPS community is now populated with the worst sort of 10-20 year olds who cheat and do anything to get their points, ranks, and badges. Which is why mods will not be near as popular as they used to be a la BF1942-DC.

This mod is the best by far for team play and fun but it as well as most of teh others get no support because it cuts into their profit margin.

[MrD]

Tools that let players create content were also becoming important, he said.

Finally, he said, easy to use tools for players were growing in importance and in some cases had become as important as the gameplay itself.

Tools to create visual things is one thing, but surely asides from that, creating realistic gameplay is the idea! We can all do with less graphics if the gameplay is realistic, as playability factor is most important in games otherwise those of us old enough to have come up through the basic home computers wouldn't rave on about our favourite playable games for computers of the past such as the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and such like.

[Long Bow]

Tools to create visual things is one thing, but surely asides from that, creating realistic gameplay is the idea! We can all do with less graphics if the gameplay is realistic, as playability factor is most important in games otherwise those of us old enough to have come up through the basic home computers wouldn't rave on about our favourite playable games for computers of the past such as the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and such like.

Great! We can have custom sprays for BF3 or trick out our soldiers hair and peircings!

I think your right, their idea of custimization is skin deep. Graphics can lure you into a new game but if the features aren't there it won't hold you for long. Some mods for older games still have strong player bases not because they look great but the content is there.

[Outlawz7]

Yeah, its all about the looks, not the gameplay anymore...

[BeerHunter]

Think they're just trying to hype up Crysis as it's gonna take one hell of a lot o upgrading to run.

Afraid the market is still gonna go after the most lucrative sector..the FPS player who just wanna run n gun , blow things up and rack up points.

I don't see Crysis (or anything else with an EA label on it for that matter) in my future for many many years..if ever again.

[Expendable Grunt]

Yeah, its all about the looks, not the gameplay anymore...

Quoted for Sadness and truth

[{GD}Ghost]

My son is 12 years old and very much into games (mostly on PS3 and XboX). He's always ranting and raving about "graphics this and graphics that" and I keep reminding him that you can have a game with the most realistic graphics in the world, but if the gameplay sucks, the entire game is a waste of time and money. I've even heard him complain about games he's played that have good graphics but, as he puts it, the game is dumb.

Gamers need to stop being so shallow in their assements of games. If a large part of the gaming world demanded good game play, then the industry would have to follow or the gaming industry would wither....along with their dollars. The part of that that is probably nearly impossible is getting people out of "eye candy" mode. In that respect, we humans are not all that different from animals in that if it something looks pretty, we're gonna jump on it regardless of quality.

Will this ever change?

(...and what the hell is with the logging users out of these forums every 10 seconds?)

[Waaah_Wah]

A FPS has to be pretty to look at. I guess that i dont wanna play ArmA coz of those ugly graphics. And i believe this is the same for many ppl, but my opinion is that graphics are very important for FPS's. The same cant be said for strategy games, sure its awesome with a good looking RTS, but if the gameplay/AI is crappy then its no fun. Hearts of Iron 2 is a great RTS game with really crappy graphics but the game is one of the best if not the best RTS's i have ever played.

[Spearhead]

EA just started to understand that static visual realism is not everything ... they need dynamic visual realism...


As for games today all being about looks: Well if it's all about looks someone needs to explain to me why Nintendo is selling millions of Wii consoles and why the PS3 is failing to meet sales expectations.

I think there are still people out there that like good gameplay more than getting bleeding-edge optics. Not saying Nintendo is the only answer out there... looking at some of the poor titles on the Wii (Mostly thinking about UBI titles here) I rather notice that they tend to become more watered down quality-wise.

Optics are nice but optics are the thing that becomes old the quickest. With everyone racing for the best visual presentation some games manage to take advantage by rather focusing on the gameplay. There are not too many games that succeed this way since often they are overlooked but if enough people notice them they can become huge and long-lasting successes.

[{GD}Ghost]

A FPS has to be pretty to look at. I guess that i dont wanna play ArmA coz of those ugly graphics. And i believe this is the same for many ppl, but my opinion is that graphics are very important for FPS's. The same cant be said for strategy games, sure its awesome with a good looking RTS, but if the gameplay/AI is crappy then its no fun. Hearts of Iron 2 is a great RTS game with really crappy graphics but the game is one of the best if not the best RTS's i have ever played.

That is the difference (and partially the problem especially for FPS). People are willing to sacrifice beauty for gameplay in an FPS game and thus end up with **** like vBF2 or other games that look good but lack good/or realistic gameplay.

It is very true that it may be more visually tolerable to play an RTS with sub-par graphics than a FPS with sub-par graphics, but it all goes back to whether gameplay or graphics is priority for you. For me, its gameplay.

When people begin demanding good game-play over games that are no more than glorified graphic demonstrations, the industry is going to continue to spew out **** games with pretty graphics. It is possible to deliver both, but why spend the time, resources and effort when people are willing to shell out loads of cash for "OOOOooooo pretty graphics".

I am under no illusions that this situation will ever change, for the most part. I am simply pointing out part of the problem. Now when I meet a developer that is truely dedicated to superior gameplay as well as superior graphics, they will have all of my respect and business.

[youm0nt]

Heh, about a month or two ago, one of the EA executives said some games are starting to get hard to learn. He then says that's why BF2 is simple to learn and easy to get used to

[Wolfe]

EA only has to ask one question:

Why is the Wii beating the **** out of the "ultra real graphics" ps3, xbox, etc?
.
.
.
.
.
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If they haven't figured that out by now, it will be more of the same from EA. ho hum.

[Outlawz7]

Heh, about a month or two ago, one of the EA executives said some games are starting to get hard to learn. He then says that's why BF2 is simple to learn and easy to get used to

Hey, twats have the ability to get dumb(er)
I mean, how long do you need to learn how to instaprone, when everyone is doing it around every second...

Forgot to say: the EA executive is prolly the same ****** as those instaproning stat padders

[TF6049]

My son is 12 years old and very much into games (mostly on PS3 and XboX). He's always ranting and raving about "graphics this and graphics that" and I keep reminding him that you can have a game with the most realistic graphics in the world, but if the gameplay sucks, the entire game is a waste of time and money. I've even heard him complain about games he's played that have good graphics but, as he puts it, the game is dumb.

Gamers need to stop being so shallow in their assements of games. If a large part of the gaming world demanded good game play, then the industry would have to follow or the gaming industry would wither....along with their dollars. The part of that that is probably nearly impossible is getting people out of "eye candy" mode. In that respect, we humans are not all that different from animals in that if it something looks pretty, we're gonna jump on it regardless of quality.

Exactly. If it's a substandard game, DO NOT BUY IT!!!

[unrealalex]

We should form some kind of gaming coalition against the profit hungry executives that push release of **** games <_< Battlefield 2142 is such **** in my opinion, and yet so many people seem to like it. Maybe it's just us who want better gameplay.

[willgar]

I bet you that the next BattleField game will be in a persistant universe - bit like a MMORPG. Why sell a box game for £35 once - when you can make them pay £10 a month for two years

Considering the success of WOW and EA's purchase of Mythic for Warhammer - i think its a pretty good bet!

[Lampshade111]

Well unrealalex Battlefield: 2142 does have better gameplay than standard Battlefield 2. Just the fact that the prone spamming is gone makes it worth it to me.