Grasshopper goes Unreal for EA horror franchise

by Ross Miller { Oct 6th 2008 at 10:30PM }

It may seem like a stretch, but we're keeping a close eye on every scrap of information surrounding the collaboration with Goichi "Suda51" Suda and Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami (as well as Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Q Entertainment). Publisher Electronic Arts has announced (via press release) that Suda51's studio Grasshopper Manufacture has licensed Epic's Unreal Engine 3 for the multiplatform horror franchise. We're curious what the use of UE3 means for the Wii version of the game, given Epic's non-support of the console.

Unfortunately, what's lacking in the press release is any information about the game itself. Said Epic VP Jay Wilbur, "Grasshopper Manufacture is one of the most daring and innovative studios in the world, and we can't wait to see what they're able to do with Unreal Engine 3." Welcome to the club, buddy.

Tags: ea, electronic-arts, epic, epic-games, goichi-suda, grasshoper, shinji-mikami, suda51, unreal, unreal-engine-3, unrealengine3

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Einhanderkiller @ Oct 6th 2008 10:37PM

A lot of UE3 games are ugly.

GodGotMeGood @ Oct 6th 2008 10:44PM

Not really. Lost Odyssey looks great. BioShock looks great. Gears of War looks great. Gears of War 2 looks great. I can go on and on. I can understand if someone doesn't like the looks of some UE3 games, but they are FAR from "ugly".

Foetoid @ Oct 6th 2008 10:48PM

Good call GodGotMeGood. I just 3 minutes ago was playing UT3 on my PC in max details and it's gorgeous. It's not as advanced as the Crytek engine (See: Turok, they tried to make the game look like Crysis using the UE3...big mistack), but it's still an excellent scalable engine.

invaderalex @ Oct 7th 2008 12:04AM

I would say with my rig playing bioshock with medium to low setting, the game looks god awful, the graphics i think on UE3 do scale well.
That said the source engine is great for my rig.
Half life 2 looks better with the setting on low than bioshock.

Einhanderkiller @ Oct 7th 2008 12:04AM

Personally, I think Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 3 look pretty poor. Even on max details on my PC, UT3 looks like ass because of all the "extreme" contrast. Lost Odyssey, meh. BioShock looked good for its art style, not its technical graphics; technically, it was pretty poor with low-res textures and some cheap effects. There's just something about many UE3 games that make them look ugly... in my opinion.

That guy @ Oct 7th 2008 12:21AM

Mass effect. Sure it has texture loading problems on 360, but thats an awesome looking game.

mismajor99 @ Oct 7th 2008 1:48AM

UE3's appeal has definitely worn out. No doubt, I'll enjoy Gears 2, but after playing the CryEngine 2 with Crysis and Crysis Warhead and Crysis Wars, UE3 is clearly subpar in comparison. I would love to see more devs move to the Cryengine 2 tech, it's just flat out superior and Crytek has proved it works great on 360 and PS3, no excuses.

Xoviet chiK @ Oct 7th 2008 2:34AM

The general appeal of UE3 isn't that it can output insanely gorgeous visuals, it's the entire feature and toolset Epic provides and that they've worked with Microsoft and Sony to provide.

No doubt CryEngine 2 looks great, but like so many game engines offered as middleware, you are getting an engine built from the ground up to support one specific game. It was afterthought that DOOM 3, Source, CryEngine, and now Cry2 are offered up as middleware. And the support shows. Exactly why you haven't seen many games using the other engines and why so many developers have flocked to Unreal over the years.

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ Oct 7th 2008 9:15AM

I dunno about you, but my computer can handle the Unreal Engine 3 better than the CryEngine.

Anyways, I've always been more in favor of style than realism, hence why I'm looking forward to Mirror's Edge (Unreal Engine 3 also, GASP!).

I agree however that'd it'd be interesting to see what Grasshopper studios would have been able to do with CryEngine. But Unreal would do just fine: it's not about the tools, it's about the artists and programmers.

&rew @ Oct 6th 2008 11:28PM

If you castrate the Wii version, so help me god, I will momentarily reconsider buying this game.

Superstar90 @ Oct 7th 2008 8:44AM

Then you will remember it's a suda51 game and regret ever considering not buying it, and buy 2 copies out of guilt.

Rocketboy @ Oct 7th 2008 9:02AM

And of course, I will blame it fully on EA.... I couldn't see Grasshopper nerfing the Wii version by design.

CJLopez @ Oct 6th 2008 11:57PM

Actually, that they are using the Unreal engine hints that there is no Wii-version, unless they gimp it down to meet Wii Specs

But really, if they want to release a Wii version of that game, they should use High Voltage Engine instead, as the unreal one doesn't has Wii development support, while we already knows how the conduit is