Well glad that we finally got that movie up at last - and still no sign of baby #2 but I get the feeling it will be here soon. Just want to mention a few things: Control - CJS is more like the original GTA in terms of control and camera. We tried motion sensing for steering but it didn't work. There will be two touch controls - analogue and digital both using the virtual d-pad. Camera - the camera is fixed from above but does zoom. I'm sure you recall our decision process a couple of months back when we looked at a Payback style camera and 3D cars. Given our current battle with framerate I think we made the right choice. Don't get me wrong the iPhone is a capable device but it is still a mobile phone and doesn't have some of the 3D capability of even a DS. Reality is that you aren't going to get a 30fps 3d person GTA on this generation of iPhone...(unless Carmack proves me wrong!) I have severe doubts you'd get a Chinatown Wars style engine running at more than 10-12 fps on iPhone. Payback really struggled with framerate and it does affect game-play big time. Visuals - this is very subjective for sure and I hope that more people like the style we have gone for than don't! Expectations - We aren't calling this the best game in the world. We know that it has it failings and the teams only desire is that the game is judged on merit once players have spent some time with it... so much of the game opens up over a period of days so I hope players don't hate on it after playing for five minutes! Although we appreciate the hype we have seen a large number of iPhone games built up unrealistically and then fail to deliever. I dont think this is often the fault of the developer... remember people these are games that sell for around half the price of a Java or Brew mobile phone game and around the price of a pint of beer! We'll have another developer diary on our YouTube channel in a couple of days looking at the art style and development so you'll get to see alot more then... Cheers
I'll nab this and a pint of beer Thanks for the update and yes visuals are a very subjective thing but I like the style you went for here
From what I've seen I prefer the visual style to Payback, it's a personal taste issue really but the CJS look really do remind me of the GTA that got released on the GBA many years back which, although poor due to the systems limitations, was a valiant attempt.
An ARM 11 and PowerVR MBX-lite more limited than an ARM 9 and ARM 7 and a few graphic cores? I know now that bus width is an issue in iTouch/Phone...but, c'mon...I think you're downplaying what it can do here. And they're prepping Quake III Arena. I love Metroid Prime Hunters and Moon as much as the next guy...but those ain't Quake III. Just sayin'.... Listen...I know you don't want expectations to be too high. I understand that. But...c'mon...just c'mon.... Looking forward to the game regardless.
What I've seen on the gameplay video realy reminded me on GTA, which I loved to play... Looking forward to CJS! BTW: I love the visuals. I didn't like Payback. Only played the lite and am glad I didn't buy it.
That is complete bull. The iPhone can clearly handle a real 3D environment, as somebody said Quake 3 can already run fullspeed (I have it), there is Hero of Sparta, Ex Zeus, Cube, BIA to name a few. It's all about optimization techniques and porting, clearly games like Katamari was not optimized properly when it first came out because of the nature of direct ports. We already know games made from scratch with the iPhone in mind can have fast, detailed 3D graphics. The reason why Payback suffers from framerate problems is problems with direct porting from the GP2X engine, which used software rendering. Payback for the iPhone does not seem to take advantage of the openGL ES frameworks on the iPhone at all. We already know the iPhone has greater graphical capability than DS as well, so that statement is very misinformed. All that being said, I am looking forward to CJS, as the game's graphical style seems modern and fresh, sprites look clean and gameplay seems fast. Payback, while being a great technological achievement on the GBA and GP2X, seems dated now. I just wish the developer for CJS justifies the graphics based on style merits, rather than just blaming the lack of a full 3D GTA style game on the iPhone's capabilities. Not all users on TouchArcade are that shallow, we can appreciate a game's art-style if it is good, and CJS seems to have it.
I have played payback, and I really like it with the improved camera angle. To each his own. I am REALLY looking forward to CJS though. By the way, the iPod 2 Gen is more powerful than most people realize....when the next iPhone and iPod come out...they will have even a little more boost. However, games need to be built from the ground up to run well in a 3D environment. You can't just use a hacked together version from another platform and expect it to run the same. Think about it this way...many games that are made for the PC but are originally Playstation or X-Box games don't run well. Is it because my bleeding edge computer doesn't have the power???? No! It is because the programming is not optimized for a PC, so it has to work harder to get less impressive results than on the original platform. Just the facts.
Haha don't worry guys I'm just as excited as everyone, but let's give Paul some breathing space Hopefully only 6 more days to go! (US)
Not an exact date per se, but he mentioned that it was most likely going to be submitted this week or next
