It's been quite awhile since we've heard anything about the Silicon Knights and Epic Games lawsuit -- we last reported on it in January 2008 and were all prepared to make jokes about the lawsuit being on the cusp of vaporware like Duke Nukem Forever is and Too Human was. Thankfully, our curiosity has been rewarded; on the eve of the latter game's launch, Silicon Knights President Denis Dyack managed to put the legal proceedings back into the limelight.
In an interview with Develop, Dyack said that the trial is proceeding and that he was confident in his claims. "We're hopeful that justice will be done. We all feel really strongly that [Epic Games has] defrauded us, and a major portion of the industry," he said.
To recap: In late July 2007, Silicon Knights filed a lawsuit against Epic Games over what it felt was inadequate support for its Unreal Engine 3, thus harming development of Too Human. Epic responded and filed a countersuit. In November, Epic's motion for dismissal was denied. In January 2008, multiple subpoenas were issued to other UE3 licensees. As for Too Human's involvement, we'll be keeping a mental tally of how many reviews mention the lawsuit.
Reader Comments (79)
Posted: Aug 18th 2008 1:50PM juju187 said
who doesnt like a good cat fight...
Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:33PM F1 Basu Gasu Bakuhatsu said
At least let us keep our Kangaroo kick boxing!!
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Posted: Aug 18th 2008 1:55PM atrimus said
i always wondered why UE3 games NOT made by Epic look so much worse than UE3 games made by Epic. well, Mirror's Edge used the UE3 and it looks better than Epic games, but maybe that has something to do with the fact that it's funded by EA.
Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:17PM (Unverified) said
well i have, and it certainly wasnt anything compared to GoWs graphics
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Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:40PM xThePunisherx said
i didn't think the golf club moment was THAT amazing. The ending to Act 3 of MGS4 was the beszt cuscene ever made not IMHO, but in fact. It was too awesome for words.
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Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:44PM (Unverified) said
i agree anti crawl, Bioshock deserved none of the 10s and 9s and GotYs, it had a cool story (for awhile) and a unique atmosphere, but everything else was just same old same old, and not even in a good way.
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Posted: Aug 18th 2008 5:05PM (Unverified) said
Maybe Epic's games look better because they have the engine creators right down the hallway.
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Posted: Aug 18th 2008 6:43PM SheppyReturns said
I believe he's talking about being forced to watch Jenny die... SPOILER ALERT, damn.. too late.
Regardless, back to the point... Epic has Kevin Lanning heading up their character designs... just google some of his other stuff.
What you can do in UE3 is remarkable, what most licensers do is.. well, lazy. Take, as an example, Turok. Did anyone expect Turok to look good? Now, as to whether or not UE3 engines look good is up to the developer. Many have left default materials on most surfaces. Others have actually explored what the engine can do like Bioshock.. shit game or not, it was a looker.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unreal_Engine_games#Unreal_Engine_3
As for Silicon Knights, I do have to wonder. When, by their own admission, their internal engine has a large amount of UE3 source code on top of the fact that this is, in essence, a game that's been in development for over 10 years as opposed to the two for Gears and Gears 2... who's looking like an ass out of this? And the fact that SK not only wants a refund but money for time lost (Unreal Engine 3 is not 10 years old) AND the right to license out their own engine (why would they need to win a court case to do this?), speaks on SK's position on this matter.
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Regardless, back to the point... Epic has Kevin Lanning heading up their character designs... just google some of his other stuff.
What you can do in UE3 is remarkable, what most licensers do is.. well, lazy. Take, as an example, Turok. Did anyone expect Turok to look good? Now, as to whether or not UE3 engines look good is up to the developer. Many have left default materials on most surfaces. Others have actually explored what the engine can do like Bioshock.. shit game or not, it was a looker.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unreal_Engine_games#Unreal_Engine_3
As for Silicon Knights, I do have to wonder. When, by their own admission, their internal engine has a large amount of UE3 source code on top of the fact that this is, in essence, a game that's been in development for over 10 years as opposed to the two for Gears and Gears 2... who's looking like an ass out of this? And the fact that SK not only wants a refund but money for time lost (Unreal Engine 3 is not 10 years old) AND the right to license out their own engine (why would they need to win a court case to do this?), speaks on SK's position on this matter.
Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:01PM (Unverified) said
This game is going to fail and Dennis is an ass....
I Hate that he is hanging dirty laundry out...
This game is going to flop and he is going o blame someone else instead of himself.....
And his stunt at Neo gaf just proves he is an asshole
I Hate that he is hanging dirty laundry out...
This game is going to flop and he is going o blame someone else instead of himself.....
And his stunt at Neo gaf just proves he is an asshole
Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:10PM F1 Basu Gasu Bakuhatsu said
So is it the fact that Sony isn't getting this (yet) that got your panties in a bunch or was it that you realized that your wearing panties and decided to take it out on the first post on Joystiq?
Either way you should feel good about something: Your halfway to wearing a tinfoil hat!
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Either way you should feel good about something: Your halfway to wearing a tinfoil hat!
Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:23PM (Unverified) said
F1 I don't care for what game is on what system I judge a game just by that... the game...
As for Hardware... we need them to play the games... sad but true...
Besides Fable is going to kill this game as for an action RPG it will have to live in Fables Shadow...
So take you fanboy remarks and go find some teeny weeny that hates the 360....
Just because someone dislikes a game or has something negative to say does not make them a fanboy...
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As for Hardware... we need them to play the games... sad but true...
Besides Fable is going to kill this game as for an action RPG it will have to live in Fables Shadow...
So take you fanboy remarks and go find some teeny weeny that hates the 360....
Just because someone dislikes a game or has something negative to say does not make them a fanboy...
Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:32PM F1 Basu Gasu Bakuhatsu said
@Killian 2nd post.
Your right I apologize...
Apparently you already have a tinfoil hat.
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Your right I apologize...
Apparently you already have a tinfoil hat.
Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:07PM Cyro 117 said
Does anyone know of any sites that have put up their reviews ? The only one I know of is 1up. I am really interested in knowing.
Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:16PM (Unverified) said
i dont know any sites, but the new game informer, the one with Batman arkham asylum, gave it a 6.75, and a 7 in the second opinion
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Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:18PM baby sea tuna said
I think joystiq's comment system deserves a 6.5. I had to refresh 5 times just to get more than 6 of the "14" comments to show up.
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Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:26PM FernandoRocker said
I second that baby sea tuna.
And I know Joystiq does read these comments complaining about the crappy comment system, but they just ignore us.
And this "dissapearing comments" problem has been around for several months now. But even after that, the comment system has always been bad: double posts, incomplete comments, etc. And I'm talking that this problems have been around since years ago.
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And I know Joystiq does read these comments complaining about the crappy comment system, but they just ignore us.
And this "dissapearing comments" problem has been around for several months now. But even after that, the comment system has always been bad: double posts, incomplete comments, etc. And I'm talking that this problems have been around since years ago.
Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:27PM Dirty said
I never listen to movie critics, and I rarely listen to game critics. Except for Ninja Bread Man..... my fiancee wanted it, and then I showed her the review.
Game critics have some crazy bias going on, too many fanboys (IGN Cassamasina, Dunham who called resistance a "killer app") and they take too much money in from the same companies that they are reviewing.
Im sure IGN's xbox team is just as biased, I just cant see it because Im a bit of 360 fanboy. At least I know what I am.
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Game critics have some crazy bias going on, too many fanboys (IGN Cassamasina, Dunham who called resistance a "killer app") and they take too much money in from the same companies that they are reviewing.
Im sure IGN's xbox team is just as biased, I just cant see it because Im a bit of 360 fanboy. At least I know what I am.
Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:36PM (Unverified) said
Well the Demo wasn't exactly brilliant so I heard (I was downloading BC:R) and the reviews aren't very promosing.
I don't know why but I just want too human to be good but after 10 years in the making it seems they didn't deliver.We all knew it won't live up to it's hype but damn.
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I don't know why but I just want too human to be good but after 10 years in the making it seems they didn't deliver.We all knew it won't live up to it's hype but damn.
Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:37PM Top Cat said
i think the current state of the comment system encourages us to constantly refresh the page, thereby making Joystiq seem more popular and their advertisers happier.
With that (and the not too distant past) in mind, giving the system a rating of 6.5 is a potentially volatile thing to do!
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With that (and the not too distant past) in mind, giving the system a rating of 6.5 is a potentially volatile thing to do!
Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:41PM FernandoRocker said
Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:56PM D3m0sthenes said
Haha Fernando, I wasn't sure what I was scared of more, the hummingbird or Vista ;P
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Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:13PM xThePunisherx said
I'm still waiting for reviews (1up was basically a review of the demo, pathetic), but i already know it's just average. Blaming UE3 is just stupid, the fact is that the game sucks. Even with a good UE3, they still couldn't make a good came ebcuase all of their concepts SUCK. The story sucks, the camera sucks, the action.....SUCKS! Everything from the alughable plot to the simple right analog stick control is to blame, not the engine it was built on.
Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:20PM (Unverified) said
You critise 1up for reviewing the demo, which we know they didn't.
Yet you start to critise the game itself. Don't tell me you gathered all that negativity from the demo? Seems like you have just done the exact thing you accused 1up of doing!
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Yet you start to critise the game itself. Don't tell me you gathered all that negativity from the demo? Seems like you have just done the exact thing you accused 1up of doing!
Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:32PM (Unverified) said
To be honest 1up review is so short I thought they were reviewing the Demo since they never talk about the story, characters or level design. So far they complain about the inventory system and the limited classes.
Then again this is 1up and even if this is a full review I wouldn’t consider them trustworthy (4 to UG&G and 5 no NWN2 1up go to hell)
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Then again this is 1up and even if this is a full review I wouldn’t consider them trustworthy (4 to UG&G and 5 no NWN2 1up go to hell)
Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:53PM xThePunisherx said
Do i look like a professional reviewer?
I gathered that not just from the demo, but from all the rpeviews and videos they've shown. It just looks like one big mess. I still might buy it since TRU has it for $50, has a 20% off coupon (making it $40), and a B1G1 1/2 off, so i could get Too Human and Lost Odyssey for $70.
:)
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I gathered that not just from the demo, but from all the rpeviews and videos they've shown. It just looks like one big mess. I still might buy it since TRU has it for $50, has a 20% off coupon (making it $40), and a B1G1 1/2 off, so i could get Too Human and Lost Odyssey for $70.
:)
Posted: Aug 18th 2008 2:20PM Thief said
I have a Dennis Dyack Translater, here goes...
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! MY GAME SUCKS AND I WANT TO BLAME EPIC!"
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! MY GAME SUCKS AND I WANT TO BLAME EPIC!"
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