Too Human tossing Unreal Engine 3?

Source: The Xbox 360 section of the Advanced Media Network.

The official story: See below.

What we heard: In May 2005, Microsoft confirmed that a shooter once destined for the GameCube, Perfect Dark Zero, was coming to the Xbox 360. Several months later, it was revealed that another title once bound for Nintendo's console, Too Human, was also coming to Microsoft's next-generation platform.

At the X05 event in Amsterdam last October, developer Silicon Knights unveiled a short Too Human trailer. This past May, a longer trailer of the Norse-mythology-meets-sci-fi-themed actioner was released on Xbox Live Marketplace. Meanwhile, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, Denis Dyack, president of Too Human developer Silicon Knights, demonstrated the game to the press.

The increasing visibility of Too Human gave many hope that, after nearly a decade in development, it might be edging toward completion. However, over the weekend, reports began to bubble up that the title had hit another roadblock. "Sources tell AMN Xbox 360 that Silicon Knights...is ditching the Unreal Engine 3 for its upcoming Xbox 360-exclusive title, Too Human, in favor of coding its own engine, on account that the Unreal Engine does not work well with the Xbox 360 hardware," said Advancedmn.

Given how good the Unreal Engine-based games Mass Effect and Gears of War look on the 360, Advancedmn's report raised more than a small amount of skepticism. However, if true, the move could mean serious delays for Too Human, since starting over (again) with an all-new engine would entail a massive amount of programming work.

To clear up the confusion, GameSpot sent an e-mail to Dyack's personal account. Within minutes, the phone rang. On the other end was a rep for Microsoft Game Studios, Too Human's publisher, with a familiar response. "That is speculation, and you know Microsoft does not comment on rumors or speculation," he said.

[UPDATE] Tuesday morning, Denis Dyack contacted GameSpot via a Microsoft rep to flatly deny this rumor.

Bogus or not bogus?: Bogus.

115 Comments

  • sailingmanuel

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 9:39 pm PT

    Looks like trouble...

  • Agent4054

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 8:14 pm PT

    Hey guess what, guys? This rumor has been de-bunked by Microsoft. We can all go on with our happy, UE3 filled lives

    I was about to link the article from Next-Gen, but linking to NG twice in one day on GameSpot feels like infidellity. I'm sure you'll see GameSpot with the news soon, if they haven't already.

  • ElementalFire

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 12:01 pm PT

    You're kidding, right? Tell me you're kidding. Does this mean GoW is going to suck?

  • xbox_gamer1

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 11:27 am PT

    NOOOOOOOO THAT CRAP BETTER BE BOGUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • AnubanUT2

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 10:19 am PT

    Just to add ... I know the Unreal Engines pretty good ... saw the first public demo of UE3 at 2005 GDC ... and really as GREAT AS IT IS it simply can't do everything well. And I know I have ever seen anything close to the way a combat system works in most 3rd person Action titles ... let alone the ones that really shine (like God of War, Prince of Persia, NG, DMC III, Path of Neo, etc.) ... so again I say this may be a very true story given the nature of the gameplay ... and yes I saw Elveon and though it looks good (you can still tell visually that it is using the UE3 engine) the combat system still looks stiff and less than what I would expect in an action game. But of course that is just imo.

  • AnubanUT2

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 10:12 am PT

    First Frame City Killer ... now this ... who's next I wonder ... I am looking forward to an actual fully fledged UE3 game being released ... someday (and it appears that now Gears will be the first one ... which is fitting actually).

    Good luck on this title ... they may be trying to hard to find the perfect combat engine with crisp fluid motion ... something similiar to say GOD OF WAR (or even NG, PoP). And that is going to be hard to do with the UE3 so perhaps this is true. Either way it's best they do a great job so they get some critical acclaim like God of War ... I hope it works out ... it's not to often you see an interesting take on Norse Mythology ... especially in vid games. Speaking of which does anyone know if there is a "Thor" character in the game ... if so that would be so damn cool.

  • Crystalmethod

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 10:01 am PT

    Do you remember a game called Frame City Killer that got cancelled? That also used the Unreal 3 engine and looked fantastic all the way through development and in the end Namco cancelled it because they were running into lots of problems using the engine etc etc and didn't want to waste customer's money. I wouldn't be too surprised if this wasn't bogus...

  • the_chaos_gamer

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 9:52 am PT

    the unreal engine will probably never be taken down by any other engine, its just so damn powerful

  • Sydwynder

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 9:39 am PT

    Hope it doesn't get delayed, I was looking forward to this one.

  • comthitnuong

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 9:26 am PT

    that would suck if they started over after 10 years

  • Hellisunreal

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 9:23 am PT

    lol

  • acummuta

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 9:20 am PT

    A game at E3 with framerate issues? Shocker! How many perfect games have you played at E3? They're all games that are in midstream of being done. All the hoorah about how horrible a game is when it's not even done is why they're taking a new direction for E3 anyways. It really is unfair to the games themselves as the main idea is to get the public an idea of what it will be like, not to treat it as a finished product.

  • thekey

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 9:17 am PT

    I don't beleive it. Ureal engine is suffencent.

  • milsvaard

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 8:52 am PT

    I dont believe that the unreal engine 3 doesnt work great on the xbox360, if that was the case, many developers that are using this engine would be adopting the same course of action. The fact that we havent seen Gears of War or other games with that engine released yet, makes me not pass judgement on the engine, even Cliffy B, having recently played the build of Gears of War he displayed on E3, was dissapointed with the lack of polish and optimisation it had. As someone said before it must have something to do with the license fees, im sure that using the unreal engine 3 must be a heavy finantial burden on any company.

  • ChoadS

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 8:46 am PT

    Looks bogus to me.

  • Agent4054

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 8:00 am PT

    Ok, some of you guys need to do some more research before you post things like "Too Human is a different type of gameplay than Gears of War UT2007, etc. Unreal Engine isn't made for anything else". That is a very bogus statement. I can't even believe you said that. Refer to: Next-Gen article.

    Take the game Monster Madness, Elveon, Roboblitz, etc. The engine looks great for each of them. UE3 was built on the basis that it could be used for anything. Ever seen the mods for UT2004? Some of them are so far from an FPS its crazy. Drawn Alive is one of the most recent examples of that. You cannot say that the latest Unreal Engine isnt optimized for other gametypes. That just is not true.

  • paramite12

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 7:49 am PT

    Don't forget how good Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway looks and runs! It is unreal engine 3.

  • Fatality4u

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 7:48 am PT

    If this is true I will be greatly dissapointed, as this game looked awesome and I wanted it out as soon as possible.

  • jaredgood1

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 7:34 am PT

    Just a question for the Xbox owners / fans: are you dissapointed with the progress of Rare and Silicon Knights?

    Just curious, as they both are spectacular developers, but do have a tendancy to be slow.

  • mark_unix

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 7:22 am PT

    if you look at Mass Effect shadows and textures they all look rather compressed, they don't look perfect.
    i hope for bioware that they fix the shadows because right now they aren't smooth but jagged.

  • hemakm3

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 7:18 am PT

    Hope this game will come out someday.

  • Paul_TheGreat

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 7:18 am PT

    The game sucked anyways.

  • firefruze

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 7:02 am PT

    I love that Gamespot even bothers to call Microsoft on rumors, its going to be always the same answer " Microsoft does not comment on rumours or speculation", but then again I do know that this is due course in creating this type of article...... I just find it humourous.

  • Kiaininja

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 6:46 am PT

    It's probrably just that it's cheaper to make their own engine than to license Unreal 3's engine. Trying to keep up with the next generation gfx quality just costs more now.

  • watchcity

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 6:44 am PT

    It's funny how after E3, all the 360 fanboys were saying how Too Human was such a great game and another incredible exclusive for 360, but now that there is bad news about it, and possibly terrible news for Gears of War (your so called saviour), you say that it was the worst game at E3. That's hilarious. Too bad the 360 can't hack such a great engine. I hope PS3's cell processor won't have a problem with it on Unreal Tournament 2007, but I'm sure it won't (since it's more powerful than the 360). I'll be playing DS, Wii, and PS3 while you guys will be trying to play a choppy "AAA" title named Gears of War.

  • goat2001

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 6:41 am PT

    I hope this isn't true. I've been awaiting its release for a while now on the 360.

  • rootATdarkstar

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 6:05 am PT

    Obviously having no experience coding an Xbox 360 game, I can't really comment too heavily. But I can note that if indeed they are switching game engines, that means bad things for the Unreal engine. This doesn't neccessarily mean that the engine doesn't work, just that it's not doing what Silicon Knights wants it to do. Which is a pretty huge deal, since the option to write their engine (being both expensive and VERY time consuming at this point) is the direction they're moving in now. Weird.

  • dbeddow

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 5:49 am PT

    I say let them try. Maybe they will nail the xbox360 development better than anyone else has. I was looking forward to this game, but if they can make the game better (without taking years) then it would benefit all of us if they come up with an engine that is perfect for the 360. Maybe it will take advantage of the triple core...

  • Flamingpostman

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 5:19 am PT

    wow this is old news. get up to date gamespot, its like week old news

  • deepskye

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 4:42 am PT

    too human is a series??? enlighten me, wat too human games have been released?

  • wenbin09

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 3:20 am PT

    no denial.. maybe something's not right...

  • jakman2004

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 3:06 am PT

    no1 would change engines after a decade of design. they just wouldn't, not that i care for this game

  • Dante200X

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 2:53 am PT

    Hmmm.......rather than add some point that says the UR3 engine works fine on the 360......I just want to know where these developers (and their publishers) are getting all this money. I mean, WTF? They've been working on this for over a decade and from what this article says it seems like it'll be another 2 years or so before they are done. Who is making these stupid decisions to keep these guys funded? Even if they were developing.....halo 3 it wouldn't be acceptable to throw this much time and money into it.

  • imprezawrx500

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 2:52 am PT

    Unreal engine not work well does that mean m$'s choice to use the ibm cpu was a mistake lacking its out of order code that pc engines love. They should have stayed with intel.

  • Dr_Corndog

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 2:41 am PT

    "Microsoft's obstinancy". I like how they put that.

  • CaptainDingo

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 2:30 am PT

    Is Unreal Engine 3 really so bad for the Xbox 360 that they'd go out of their way to create an entire engine from scratch?

    Something's very fishy with this. Unreal Engine 3 doesn't even have games out that run on it yet and we've already got a console developer whining about it. We're talking a seriously advanced engine, here. And while the X360 simply doesn't compare to a solid PC, I don't see where the incompatibilities with the Unreal Engine 3 come in.

  • Digital-Devil

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 2:08 am PT

    Eternal Darkness should come to next gen...

  • Cartman86

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 2:07 am PT

    I don't know about you guys but from what i've seen Gears of War and Mass Effect do not seem to run well. The action scenes (I've played Gears) have some obvious performance issues (that probably won't ruin too much of the games especially in Mass Effects case). So the fact that Too Human a heavily action based game (more so than Gears) isn't running the way they want (look at the E3 build for proof) isn't that far fetched.

  • SaitouZero

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 2:02 am PT

    I wish Silicon Knights had stuck with Nintendo, Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes were awesome.

  • Digital-Devil

    Posted Aug 15, 2006 1:10 am PT

    That would be a VERY bad idea

  • blackleech

    Posted Aug 14, 2006 11:54 pm PT

    I guess they're tossing it for good... for whatever reason of their own.

  • geebus

    Posted Aug 14, 2006 11:52 pm PT

    From what I saw at E3... I hope this is NOT BOGUS and they RECODE IT COMPLETELY! I'm not saying Unreal Engine 3 is bad or anything.. but it really did not work for this game. Trust me.. this is great news for this title in the long run... however long this might be....

  • Optimusv2

    Posted Aug 14, 2006 11:39 pm PT

    The issue is NOT a performance issue its the engine they feel isn't suited to make the game as amazing as they want it to be. What you guys want just amazing graphics and good framerate? This game has to be much more than that.

    dragun Gears of War wont perform so badly on release I'm sure.

  • dn3datomiced

    Posted Aug 14, 2006 11:37 pm PT

    I suspect it's bogus. There are 2 other games running like a dream on that engine already.

  • NinjaFoot

    Posted Aug 14, 2006 11:10 pm PT

    dragunov, I saw no pathetic frame rate when Cliffy B played it at E3, and all I have read are good things about it across the board. Nice try at flaming though.

  • NinjaFoot

    Posted Aug 14, 2006 11:08 pm PT

    I have read some accounts of Too Human at E3 that were less than glowing. Maybe it has to do with the game needing to be better, and using an engine change would be a good excuse.

  • azizrulez

    Posted Aug 14, 2006 11:05 pm PT

    i think anyone who ditches unreal 3 engine is totally wacko

  • dragunov0908

    Posted Aug 14, 2006 11:00 pm PT

    Look at that pathetic frame rate of "Gears of war" on the X360 and you'll understand

  • Optimusv2

    Posted Aug 14, 2006 10:58 pm PT

    I'm glad this happened as others have said. Games like too human, devil may cry, ninja gaiden I don't imagine would do too well on the unreal 3 engine.

    Sure its okay for Mass Effect, bia3, gears of war, rainbows six vegas and other shooters, but Too Human is very different from those games and we all know the type of games the Unreal 3 Engine is geared towards even though it may be possible to make adjustments Too Human will ultimately being a far better game on its own engine. I figure if it wasn't true SK would've flat out denied it by now, but since they haven't I'm pretty sure there is a lot of truth to this rumor.

    I'm dying to see what the game looks like on the new engine.

  • the_real_VIP

    Posted Aug 14, 2006 10:47 pm PT

    Re Intrakitt: and again, another guy who thinks like a real kiddo. Because M4 has money, they would go "know what?, let's toss it and spend more on making a new one"? Anyone in finance would tell your a total moron.

    Back on the subject. Everyone says that Mass Effect and Gears of War look good; it depends on how long they were working on these games to have it look THAT good since this rumour state Silicon Knights having trouble with the engine.

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