Too Human on track, keeping Unreal Engine

Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack denies that his studio's sci-fi action game is having problems.

Over the weekend, rumors spread that Too Human had hit a major development snag. Word was the makers of the Norse-mythology-inspired sci-fi Xbox 360 game were discontinuing use of the Unreal Engine 3 in favor of an all-new proprietary engine. The alleged reason for Too Human losing Unreal Engine was that it was not running well on the 360, even though it is the basis for Gears of War and Mass Effect, two of the most visually complex games in development for the platform.

Too Human

How's Silicon Knights Unreal-based game look? See for yourself.

Given the amount of programming work inherent in a game-engine switch, the aforementioned move would have all but assured a delay for the release of Too Human, which is currently slated to ship next spring. The game has been in development for nearly a decade, having first been announced for the original PlayStation and then the GameCube before its current--and drastically different--360 incarnation.

Yesterday, GameSpot attempted to contact Denis Dyack, president of Too Human developer Silicon Knights, for a status update on Too Human. In response, a Microsoft Games Studios rep declined to comment on the matter, given its speculative nature.

However, today, Microsoft reps sent GameSpot a statement from Dyack strongly denying that Too Human was ditching the Unreal Engine or that it was in development limbo.

"Although we do not usually comment on speculation, rumors of Silicon Knights completely scrapping the Unreal Engine 3 on Too Human and massive delays for the Too Human product release are false," said Dyack. "Too Human is progressing very well and we expect that gamers will be extremely excited with Too Human when we next show it."

93 Comments

  • boffo21

    Posted Jun 6, 2007 11:21 am PT

    looks like a good old dungeon hacker to me. i loved those games and technology has moved on so much that these games are not at the pinnacle anymore, shame, cus they still are so much fun to play. Cant wait too hear more about this game

  • Pedro7_2000

    Posted Apr 17, 2007 9:35 am PT

    This game looks sweet. Hope we get some more news sometime soon.

  • foxy42

    Posted Jan 23, 2007 8:19 am PT

    Too frickin cool more like.

    @lord-azrael, Unreal is a graphics Engine, Havoc is a physics engine. And the Xbox360 is 'programmed' with neither. Which engines develpers choose to use for their games is up to them, but obviously, some engines do some things better than others...Crytek's cry engine from far cry, Valve's Source engine from Half life too, and similarly, the Unreal engine. They all can be made to play on the xbox. There's nothing 'official' about any engines relating to any hardware, but it makes sense for developers to license the best engine they can for their games, yet it is still arguable that UE is the best...until the next 'big thing'.

  • mohammed888

    Posted Nov 28, 2006 12:52 am PT

    I am really hyped for this game but from the gamplay scenes the framerate seems too shaky so I hope it can be fixed before the original game is lanched and if this game really hits the juicebox for the xbox 360 why only keep it limited to only three parts

  • lord-azrael

    Posted Aug 25, 2006 6:21 am PT

    to davahsa,i thought the 360 was programmed using Havok 3 and not Unreal.either way this game looks funky

  • jakeboudville

    Posted Aug 22, 2006 12:30 am PT

    cool

  • peeweeshift

    Posted Aug 19, 2006 8:34 am PT

    lol this is first m$ reply i have seen that didn't say that "we don't comment on speculation" thing

  • 2TrickedOut

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 11:40 pm PT

    davahsa- Dead rising is not a 8. Dead Rising is an awesome game Its an 8.3 at lowest,but I think its a 9 or better. The amount of detail in the mall is crazy. anyone that gave it low rating is because they can't handle how hard it is. How do we know there won't be a patch added to fix minor things later on as well. I have seen games given higher ratings then Dead rising and have more problems.
    Gears of war will be an amazing game as well as too human they will get them right they have been working on them a while.

  • davahsa

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 5:43 pm PT

    If Gears of War run's smoothly then those fine people at Silicon Knights will have a nice product on their hands...if not...360 is screwed! I highly doubt the 360 is screwed. I just wished the Japaneese would get on the ball allready and flesh out there 360 products.... Dead Rising is an 8 that could easily be a 9....... D'oah! Anyhoo....the UE is the official engine of both the 360 and the PS3 so if gears of war runs at 30+fps than that analyst predicting the PS3 to win is waaaaaaay off. Who's gonna spend 700 clams for MGS4.... and FF? Do a lot of people actually FF in the US and if they do are they over 15? Wow I think I have read enough news for the day... all these articals are starting to run together in my head!

  • jdbthexboxgamr

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 2:08 pm PT

    Great news!,I am glad to hear that Too Human is on track and will be retaining UE3!..............

  • FallenOneX

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 12:20 pm PT

    This rumor didn't have anything to do people trying to steal MS's thunder. Just accept the fact that this game has been in development for 3 videogame generations. THREE. That means that companies have devloped entire new systems in the time it's taken them to almost finish a game. I just want to know how much money has been sunk into this game. I feel sorry for SK, because there's no way TH will live up to that kind of development time hype. Great game? probably. But don't plan on seeing people burning their PS3's in the street.

  • Sydwynder

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 11:11 am PT

    Hopefully this game comes out and sells like hotcakes because it plays like gangbusters in a game world as cool as snowcones.........

  • moocow21

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 11:08 am PT

    Nice of them to come out and squash the rumors.

  • magatsu17

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 9:16 am PT

    First Too Human was supposed to be a Playstation game, then a N64 game, then a Gamecube Game, now it's supposed to be a 360 game?? I'll believe it's going to come out when i see it in the stoors

  • SavoyPrime

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 7:40 am PT

    Too Human has been hit with a lot of flack since E3. I hope Silicon Knights can get the game on track.

  • XAF1

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 5:51 am PT

    Well guys, the closer it gets to PS3 and Wii release time the more we're going to hear rumors trying to kill the 360's thunder just wade through the crap and you will eventually hear the truth. If they didn't anounce anything in a Blog or public I wouldn't worry about it. Just enjoy the new stuff coming out until the game surfaces. I know I will .

  • nev70

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 3:50 am PT

    WHO HAS SEEN GEARS OR WAR RUNNING ON A 360 (EVEN A HD VID) NOW TELL ME IT LOOKS S*** WTF ARE YOU ON ABOUT?

  • chikahiro94

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 3:21 am PT

    "frankly im tired of the unreal platform. i rather have it on a fps paltform form someone else. "

    If you played a game without being told the engine or knowing what the engine was, how would you tell the difference between something based off of Doom, Lithtech, Jupiter Extended, Unreal, Source, Renderware, Serious Engine, etc? Those engines/middlewares provide the graphics engine, not the art direction (which really determines what a game looks like) or the gameplay. Is there technical annoyance you've got with the Unreal engines? Care to be specific? Can you debate the pro's and con's of each engine, or licensing an engine versus creating one?

    Go for it - explain. Please.

  • Andron666

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 12:33 am PT

    Who cares. It will probably never come out, or get released horribly dated.

  • the_real_VIP

    Posted Aug 16, 2006 12:29 am PT

    Whoever started the rumour can say goodbye to his integrity. Nobody will believe him/her/it for future news.

  • Pacemen2

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 11:23 pm PT

    WAIT!

    You're telling me . . . that instead of scrapping the project and starting over costing millions, they're just going to go ahead and use the most advanced engine on the market? Someone at SK messed up . . .

  • ghost89x

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 9:58 pm PT

    this game is going to be great, don't forget, oblivion had the same type of problems, but look at it now. Too Human will not dissapoint

  • AnubanUT2

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 8:12 pm PT

    Ouch! Is that really the case though?

  • Night_Frost

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 7:47 pm PT

    Never believed a word the rumor said, can't wait to see the final product, everything about this game sounds awesome

  • Valen_Ca

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 6:46 pm PT

    I can't wait for this trilogy to be over and done with, that way SK can get working on another ED game.

  • SOLIDUS_SNAKE

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 6:18 pm PT

    not suprised

  • DesRed

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 6:16 pm PT

    Not surprised. As what everyone have mentioned, its too far into the development cycle to ditch the Unreal Engine 3 and considering that its release date is next spring, it would be ridiculous to do so. Just hope that when they release the game, it will be worth the effort.

  • surferboy2177

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 5:57 pm PT

    This wasn't too big of a surprise. They wouldn't ditch the engine this late in the development cycle.

  • evanparker2134

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 5:49 pm PT

    Word. I doubt an Xbox 360 game would ever look as bad as the original Unreal for PC.

  • caesarbites

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 5:24 pm PT

    Lexlas, this is Unreal Engine THREE, so it isn't old at all...

  • LexLas

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 5:16 pm PT

    The Unreal engine has been around for a long, long time. It's funny they have not come out with something better ?? Somethings are better left untouched, I guess ?
    Thanks for the info Caesarbites appreciate it.

  • Superdude687

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 4:52 pm PT

    This game & the 2 sequels will own

  • MetroidBounty

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 4:22 pm PT

    Yeah! Safe

  • DrCLos

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 4:19 pm PT

    Great news! Hopefully the game is coming along well for the intended release date.
    Though I don't mind waiting a bit longer if it turns out to be another Eternal Darkness. Too Human definitely has a lot to live up to.

  • Digital-Devil

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 4:05 pm PT

    F1sTDaCuffS
    It's simple
    Unreal is one, if not the best engine out there, why use another one if you can use it, and it is so well done?

  • theRunninGamer

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 3:41 pm PT

    That was the quickest turnaround on a rumor I've ever seen.

  • blackIceJoe

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 3:39 pm PT

    Wow was to come out on the first PlayStation so I think it should be good seeing as how long this game had been worked on. Plus It would have been nice to see a new Engine like Offset or some other kind but it would mean more delays so I can see that it will be Unreal. Unreal is a nice Engine it just would have been nice to see a new one used.

  • spydrman5472

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 3:22 pm PT

    Considering how Too Human has been showed numerous times at recent events it's overtly harsh to compare it to Duke Nukem Forever and say it's a phantom title. If you wanna talk recent and more substantiated instances of phantom titles how about Killzone 2 and Devil May Cry 4, huh? Even though I doubt either of them won't make it to sotre shelves it's hard to say a game like Too Human is a "phantom" when there are clearly better examples in recent times.

    As long as it doesn't get delayed too much longer it doesn't matter to me. I heard the controls aren't all that great so if they need more time to polish everything, whether it be graphics or controls, to make this a triple A title then so be it. No rush here, folks. Just make an outstanding game.

  • IrishMonkey

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 3:20 pm PT

    as long as the camera angle is fixed from what it was at e3 i'll be looking foward to this trilogy!

  • manueldude44

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 3:19 pm PT

    lets hope everything really is ok

  • gamer_10001

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 3:14 pm PT

    Good no delays. Well, no delays yet.

  • _LEGIONS_

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 2:31 pm PT

    I guess it was the trolls who invented the lame rumor

  • poliveto

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 2:27 pm PT

    LMAO love how Microsoft pushes Silicon Knights to debunk the UE3 rumor!

    "Microsoft reps sent GameSpot a statement from Dyack..."

  • F1sTDaCuffS

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 2:25 pm PT

    frankly im tired of the unreal platform. i rather have it on a fps paltform form someone else.

    unreal is overused, holla! xna was right, wheres the new blood?

  • frankeyser

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 2:23 pm PT

    they are both phantom release titles
    Rothgarr
    What will be released first -- Too Human or Duke Nukem Forever?

  • milsvaard

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 2:23 pm PT

    That's more like it, you really cant believe that the unreal engine 3 runs badly on the xbox360, there are 5 games that i know of currently in development for the xbox360 that use this tecnology.

  • Charlie2688

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 2:20 pm PT

    decebal you mean Gears of War?

  • decebal

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 2:15 pm PT

    This game will turn out so much better than that Epic one... I forgot the name... The one everybody keeps blabing about, with lots of blood, 3d person shooter... Man... it compleatly slips my mind, and I don't feel like checking the name out. But anyways... the one that's more like a technical demo than a game... targeted to the bloodthirsty NA, who play games based on their looks.

  • demollyon

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 2:14 pm PT

    3) Since Gears of War, Bioshock and Mass Effect work Great on 360, the rumour was out just to harm 360.

    Here, that is the truth! You can thank me later!

  • Charlie2688

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 2:11 pm PT

    This is one of two
    1. its true, they were never abandoning the engine
    2. M$ entered a panic state cuz saying that the Unreal engine didnt worked well will bring OBVIOUS bad publicity to the 360, so they applied some "pressure"

    the first, the second...both?

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