I just talked to a KUF 2 developer during the "Game with Developers" event Blueside is holding for KUF: CoD. And I learned many interesting things about it. I will post as much info as I can remember. Nothing that he told me is under NDA and he was specific when mentioning what sort of questions he could answer, which ones he would have to remain quiet about, or didn't have an idea.
1) The screenshots released are not concepts, they were rendered in realtime with their current engine (CoD engine?). Actually he said that even though the character designs may not gain detail, the environments they used were just placeholders and will increase in complexity, the game will definitely look better.
2) The game is currently targeted for "consoles" and PC, however, even though platform choice is not the developers decision he said that they have a strong relationship with Microsoft (this is their fifth title) and their fanbase is with the Xbox, so dropping the 360 would be crazy, however, the PS3 version is still uncertain given the fact it is not that popular in Korea and the team has no experience with that platform.
3) The framerate issues that are noticeable on KUF: CoD are being adressed, they are polishing the engine. Again another clear indicator the game will make it to the 360. He kind of snubbed the graphics of CoD to remark how much better KUF 2 will look.
4) He said that they feel N3 was not their style since it was developed by another company, yet it is still associated with their name. KUF 2 will remain true to their RTS style so fans shouldn't worry.
5) The game (at least in this early concept) will be a huge battle map with players residing in small sections of it. When the players travel they will also find other players and will choice whether to battle for terrain control or cooperate. The areas are obviously separated in sections but the map is still connected in realtime, giving the world the sense of a RTS MMO (The genre they are trying to create). He mentioned something about connecting to a server, so maybe the areas are no instantiated and are permanent like true MMO's.
6) He doesn't know yet if KUF 2 will follow the CoD storyline because they have yet not decided whether to turn CoD into another franchise by itself with an alternate storyline. For the moment it seems like the games will be heavenly connected, but they may rework certain plot details. Also, KUF 2 (right now) focuses in the conflict between Reigner and Kendal (this is hinted at the end of Reigner's story).
7) The development team is saddened by the fact Reigner doesn't roll semi-nude anymore. Now his skin is fused with his armor.
8) Forgot to add this, crossplatform gameplay is planned (I dunno if this was in the original announcement).
So, all in all, they have a game that is made mainly for PC and 360 so far, with little experience and reason to make it for PS3, and a publisher that would grab it would not wait years to port it to PS3 i guess as well, when they will have a ready game on PC and 360
Last but not least, MS will probably choose to publish it, the way it loks, would be a hugly strong excluisve in 2009, doubt they would pass, they even published COD
Tks
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