Gaming Tom Clancy's End War Interview

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2008/08/24/tom-clancy-s-end-war-interview/1

Whilst doing the rounds at i34, we had a chance to speak to Julian Gerighty, the Editorial Content Director of Ubisoft Shanghai, about his studio's upcoming console RTS, Tom Clancy's End War. On forbidden ground by bringing an RTS to the consoles, we find out more about this voice controlled strategy game.

 

Sound's all very nice but meh......again Xbox and Playstation see first loving when they are inferior platforms.

We need something to turn the tide and prevent the demise of pc gaming! Way too may titles taking aeon's to arrive on the PC, when they do it's all too often a bad port!

I understand all the marketing speak and how there is a wider customer base in the console market, and that piracy is big issue on PC's but come on. I say let's get everything on a Steam based system and let the good times roll.

Sunday morning rant over

 

The way i see this game is that they are trying to use the voice commands as a way to get round the limitations of the normal input methods of the consoles. With a PC could you be sorting something out with mouse and keyboard whilst doing something else with your voice i think probably not... turning the voice stuff into a gimmick

 

Yeah and this is Ubisoft so while Im hoping for a good PC game, Im still fearing a bad port.
And while Steam would be a great way to release this game we're still talking about Ubisoft that thinks Steam is only for people in North America...

This game would be awesome on PCs but thanks to the consoles Im having a hard time seeing it happen.

 

no PC release at the same time? Awfull, just Awfull

 

Argh.... Consolification.

It seems like it could be a good game overall with the voice commands, but i think that it should allow for new voice commands and the ability to link them to orders.

 

Pah. There are loads of good games coming out for the PC, amongst them exclusives like Diablo 3 and Starcraft II, hand-tailored for the only proper control interface. These guys will do a shoddy port at some point - I'll make sure to drop my money where I feel it's deserved.

 

Waiting for the review on this one...

I havent seen an RTS work on a console to date, despite what EA may claim about their C&C 360 franchise.

Ive set my expectations low though... so it will be a pleasant surprise should it turn out to be viable.
As for the PC version... I dont think we will miss it. We already have the best RTS games out there, and this doesnt look like a contender to be honest. It also sounds like they will 'zoom' you in to the action .. you know 3 inches above the ground like C&C... hmmmmm I really hope not. Have RTS games learned nothing from Supreme Commander at all ????

 

Kind of wierd how proud he is about the '95 to 97% recognition'. I've got a freeware program for the PC which is called 'Shoot!' (http://clans.gameclubcentral.com/shoot/) that recognizes custom commands quite well with no training required (although it is recommended to train the program, it uses the windows API). It uses voice activation for macro's basically. For instance when I say 'request to land' in flight simulator it simulates the appropriate keypresses. Works like a charm for more complex games like rainbow 6 and operation flashpoint too. You could probably intergrate it in an PC RTS by binding 'make group one' to [ctrl+1] and 'group one' to [1] etc.

 

the consoles can keep this one, doesnt interest me at all

more pc stuff tho please bit tech!

 

is it just me or does ubisoft really love the unreal engine (3). most of their major franchises use that engine.
on another note, i reckon this port is going to be rather ho-hum by pc standards. when you take away that voice recognition, i bet there isnt much depth to the combat at all (by pc standards, not console standards) but then again i could be wrong.