Carman Dix, Art director of Too Human:
Underneath, Denis is still that boy that genuinely loves video games with a passion.

Henry Sterchi, Director of design of Too Human:
Denis is sincerely passionate about the quality of everything Silicon Knights does, and with that passion comes some of his outspokenness and desire to interact with the community.

Steve Henifin, Audio director of Too Human:
One of the things I like about Denis is that he is a tenacious person and he takes risks. I respect him for that, because I’m the same way.

That's nice and all... What do you really think?

‘Too Human’ Developers Share Impressions Of Denis Dyack [Multiplayer] [Pic]

Too Human set out to be epic and it delivered on at least one level: Denis Dyack's painfully personal reaction to the previews and reviews made for a soap opera drama of epic proportions on gaming forums and websites international. But what about the game, did it deliver on the same epic level as Dyack's wounded ego?

Loved:
May I Have This Fray?: Too Human is a button masher free of button mashing. That's one of the things the action title does so well. Initially, playing with very few button pushes is strange, even unnerving. But as you master the art of double thumbstick combat, the rolling dungeon brawls become more about spacing, tactics, timing, then they do about tapping A over and over again. Combat becomes almost terpsichorean as you slip from attacker to attacker, unloading powerful blows that some times launch them through the air.
Bountiful Armor and Weapons : Too Human is packed to the gills with different weapons and armor, hundreds of thousands of them. While the Too Human naming convention can result in some pretty goofy titles, the sheer volume is a role-playing gamers fantasy. Throw into the mix that each looks quite unique, that you can collect sets, and the fact that you can augment almost everything with Runes and you turn equipping almost into a mini-game.
Unique World: Silicon Knights' blending of Norse mythology with cyberspace initially comes off as a bit hackneyed (especially when you're introduced to a seemingly random taste of Beowulf), but it grows on you. The concepts are all solid, and some are even sublime, like the body snatching Valkyries and robot goblins, trolls and dark elves. It's a peculiar take on a familiar world that doesn't try to take center stage to the game but still manages to slightly bewilder you in its delivery.
Diverse Skills and Alignment Trees:Running there right along side that mammoth, almost never-ending selection of weapons, armor and runes, are the ever branching skill and alignment trees. Each of the five classes in the game have more than a dozen skills to choose from and build up, running along different paths. Players are also asked to choose an alignment a bit into the game, giving them another nine skills to work on. It's all lends itself to a high level of customization in the way you want to play the game and plenty of tweaking, almost reminiscent of a pen and paper RPG.

Hated:
I'm a God Not A...:Mountain climber, or hiker, or guy who likes to walk anywhere that isn't strictly defined in the game. Come on! Baldur is a God, why can't he walk the less traveled path? It's down right annoying that I can't make my way though a collection of shrubs in the middle of a map, but that each of this god's mighty leaps results in the sound of rolling thunder.
Graphic Glitches: When I played through the preview of Too Human I was struck by how beautiful the game can look at times, but I was more struck by how many graphic glitches and annoying little visual and audio bugs there were in the game. Then when I received the review code I saw much of the same issues, so I waited for the retail code. Guess what? Still there.
CyberWTF: I get what Silicon Knights is going for and in many ways I like it. The modernization of an ancient mythology is very tantalizing and gives gamers a lot of meat to chew on. But the element of cyberspace, however good it might look on paper, feels like a time-fluffing waste. Instead of opening a door I have to go to a well, walk twenty steps, push a button, walk back, leave the well and open a door. I'm sure the developers will better explore this concept in future games, but that's no reason to punish gamers now.
Epic Confusion: Too Human sets itself out to be an epic tale, one so vast it needs to be told in three games. I buy that and actually can't wait to dive into the second game. But the first felt like a plunge into the middle of a story that I wasn't even sure I wanted to care about yet. This sort of starting in the middle approach might work for some, but Silicon Knights just doesn't have the chops to pull it off. The result is a storyline so convoluted that a gamer's initial pass is likely to leave them more confused than caring.
Character Development: If you want to sell a game with its story you have to make characters people care about. In Too Human the main characters are so flat, so underdeveloped that it's hard to feel anything when they start dropping like flies. The same can be said for game lead Baldur, who with a complex back story and conflicting motives should be someone you easily empathize with. But that connection never seems to happen.
Multiplayer: When is multiplayer co-op not multiplayer co-op? When it's delivered in bite-sized chunks that strip out the cut-scenes and plot. Multiplayer gaming is supposed to be about the act of mutual discovery, experiencing something together. But the fact that characters of any level, no matter how disparate, can make their way through the game in any order they want turns the experience into more of a treasure hunt than voyage.

The most exciting part of Too Human is its ending. That's not meant to be a back-handed compliment. I'm not saying I relished not playing the game anymore. I'm talking about that final cut scene, one that delivers more hope, more possibility than almost all of Too Human managed to muster in its relatively short play through. The fact that it excited me, though, also means that over the course of the game I guess I grew to like Too Human and become a bit fond of its idiosyncrasies. I'd hate to suggest a game based on what it's sequel might deliver, but that's what I'm doing.

The absurdly diverse reaction Too Human is more a product of expectation than any major flaw in game design. Sure it could have used some more polish and this first game in a trilogy, perhaps, should have kicked off at a more interesting point in the overarching story, but it wasn't a bad game.

Too Human, developed by Silicon Knights, published by Micrsoft Game Studio and released Aug. 19 for the Xbox 360. Retails for $59.99. Played through single-player campaign using review code once and final, boxed retail code once. Played through more than two chapters in multplayer matches.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

Microsoft Game Studios and Silicon Knights are committed to finishing the first instalment, but Too Human is an overarching epic with a rich and vast game universe that cannot be told in one instalment.

This game will begin the saga of the god Baldur in the narrative tradition of classic trilogies, such as Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings. We will talk about the full trilogy and we are very excited about its potential.

Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Too Human? All in the same Microsoft breath.

Too Human trilogy ‘very exciting’, says Microsoft [MCVUK]

Too Human isn't just a science fiction reinterpretation of Norse mythology, nor is it just a philosophical look at humanity's growing reliance on technology, nor is it just a cautionary tale about the nature of war, nor is it just an action game. Definitely don't judge it as just an action game. No, Too Human is, among all of these other things, a chance at salvation for an entire city in Ontario, Canada. Or thus spake Dyack in a recent interview with his home town paper.

"If Too Human does what we expect it will (in the marketplace), then it can change the world for St. Catharines and Niagara," Dyack said Friday from his office at One St. Paul Street.

...

There is a great deal riding on the success of Too Human for Silicon Knights, which employs 160 people. If the game is a hit, it will not only allow the company to grow, but will fuel Dyack's larger agenda for the city and region.

"I've said this before. I want to see a campus here in Niagara dedicated to interactive information technology," he said.

Dyack sees Niagara as suffering from a kind of inferiority complex that keeps it from reaching its full potential. The problem is compounded by the steady decline of the manufacturing sector. Video-game development and its associated industries might help build a new knowledge-based economy for the region, Dyack said.

So not only will you make Dyack cry if you don't buy Too Human, you'll kill a town. See if you can sleep with yourself then!

Long-awaited offering by Silicon Knights may represent the future of city's economy [The Standard]

Well the trial is proceeding, we feel really good about our claims, and we’re hopeful that justice will be done. We all feel really strongly that they have defrauded us, and a major portion of the industry.

The Unreal Engine is still the industry's most popular third party engine.

SK v Epic: 'Justice will be done' says Dyack [Develop]

Hit the jump for the full press release with pre-order info:

Now is the Time to Become a god Amongst Men; Xbox 360 Exclusive Too Human has Gone Gold

Xbox LIVE Marketplace demo downloads surpass 900,000

Microsoft Game Studios and Silicon Knights announced today that the blockbuster action RPG “Too Human” has gone gold and will be shipping to retailers throughout North America on August 19. In anticipation of the title’s release, gamers can jump into the first level of “Too Human” with a demo now available on Xbox LIVE. The Too Human demo has already been downloaded more than any other action demo on Xbox LIVE Marketplace in its first week of availability and has been one of the top played titles on Xbox LIVE overall. In addition, gamers that pre-order will get access to five exclusive armor sets, one for each class in the game.

A modern take on classical Norse mythology, the Xbox 360 exclusive “Too Human” chronicles the epic story of cybernetic god, Baldur, and his quest to save humanity at the potential price of sacrificing his own humanity. By combining elements of both action and RPG genres – along with the ability to fully customize Baldur’s weaponry, armor, and combat techniques – Too Human creates a truly unique gameplay experience. Players can also invite a friend to join the explosive combat via advanced, online two-player co-op gameplay on Xbox LIVE *.

“Too Human” will have an estimated retail price of $59.99 and is rated “T” for Teen. For more information, visit www.xbox.com/toohuman.

*Online co-op play requires Xbox LIVE Gold Membership.

Too Human Gold [Gamerscore Blog]

You're not still reading, obviously, but keep an eye peeled for our similar line of interviews coming soon. They'll feature myself and Mike Fahey in Craftmatic adjustable beds interviewing industry luminaries in our PJs. As soon as someone agrees, we'll start filming. Any day now...

Denis Dyack Explains Too Human To Our Penthouse Pets, Part 1 [Das Gamer]

Dyack recognizes this dichotomy, and says that cut scenes in themselves are not a problem, but rather his fellow designers have implemented them poorly:

Over the last five to ten years, so many games have been released where cut scenes are absolutely meaningless. They don’t contribute to the content and don’t contribute to the characters. They’re almost like some kind of reward for completing the level, and that makes absolutely no sense.

As game designers we have to go beyond that. Cut scenes have to contribute to the game. That’s a really good rule for people to follow. And it shows you that the classics, well, we still have a lot to learn from the classics.

So what will he do about cut scenes in his Too Human?

Too Human will have cut scenes, but I think that we've managed to blur the line between what people would consider a cut scene and what people consider in-game. See, part of the reason we as designers want to use cut scenes is because it allows us to be cinematographers, and that's fine. But in-game, Too Human will use a dynamic, intelligent camera system that presents the in-game in a more cinematic light, at the same time being conducive to good gameplay.

Seems to me that's the logical goal, given both the advantages and disadvantages of cut scenes. And I'd guess that most of the games we've got these days that use cut scenes badly were actually an attempt to do them well. Easy to say, hard to do?

Denis Dyack Writes for Edge [Edge Online]

The demo was unveiled on Xbox Live last week — were you too caught up in E3 craziness, or did you catch it? We had a lengthy discussion on it here at Kotaku last week, in case you missed it. What do you think, Europe? Looking forward?

And on the off chance you have no idea what we're even talking about, Microsoft has helpfully offered full details in the announcement after the jump.

The Epic World of Too Human is Available Across Europe this August, exclusively on Xbox 360

Microsoft today announced the European release date of “Too Human”, the epic third person action game from renowned Canadian developer Silicon Knights. Exclusive to Xbox 360™,“Too Human” will be available across Europe from 29th August 2008.

In this modern take on classical Norse mythology, players are thrust into the midst of an apocalyptic battle that threatens the very existence of mankind. Playing as the divine cybernetic son of Odin, Baldur, you are one of the Aesir, humanity’s protectors charged with defending mankind from the onslaught of ancient machine armies.

As“Too Human” chronicles this epic story, the game breaks the genre barrier by combining elements of both the action and RPG genres. Players are treated to a non-stop barrage of action, powered by the seamless integration of melee and firearms combat, with the deep role-playing game elements fuelled by breathtaking visuals. Battles unfold on awesome scale as players engage with vast numbers of enemies, and gamers can also take this to the next level playing cooperatively on Xbox LIVE.

“Too Human” is produced by Canadian-based Silicon Knights, bringing a wealth of knowledge, story-based design and gameplay expertise to the next generation of video gaming, and committed to elevating games to the prime form of entertainment.

For more information, please visit the official Too Human website at www.xbox.com/toohuman.

Rumor has it that Molyneux is currently working on Denis Dyack II, which is said to feature more realistic gameplay, and possibly a dog.

Hold on a moment...I just actually read the full article instead of skimming it, and it turns out that Molyneux simply feels sorry for the flack that Denis Dyack is catching over Too Human.

"I feel sorry for Denis Dyack because you know, I think a few things were said wrong, there was that really unfortunate showing at E3 a few years ago. Everyone got on the bandwagon of saying things about Too Human. Now I've played it and, you know, it's a good game. It doesn't deserve a lot of that harsh criticism.

It all makes sense now! Molyneux of course caught a lot of flack himself when he released Fable on the original Xbox, a game that decidedly did not live up to his creative vision. You can see where I could get confused.

I kind of apologised at the end of Fable 1 about actually saying things that didn't end up in the game. I've tried to be really really careful about what I show and I think everything I've talked about in Fable 2 you can now play in there, so that was really important. But what I realise over time is that talking about a game before it's released is a dangerous game.

Sort of like writing out a news post before fully reading and understanding the source article, which I would never, ever do.

Peter Molyneux: 'I feel sorry for Denis Dyack' [Videogamer.Com]

I was basically calling out people who had no way of assessing the game... All I wanted to point out to people is that this is so ridiculous... I went through all of this for two reasons.... If you're going to look at the NeoGAF forum as a non-profit organization, if it does not reform itself, it's eventually going to crumble. There's going to be a point where they step over the line where someone's going to shut them down. That would be a loss for everyone.... The question I have to ask the moderators of GAF: Are you going to follow your own rules? With people making GIFs of myself that are, I would say, attacking me.... Why haven't 180 people been banned now? If I wanted to move in and shut that place down, do I have grounds under their own forum policy?

There's more. Oh, yes. More. Hit the jump for more excitement!

NeoGAF and other forums like this that don't have good management are not only hurting society and hurting the videogame industry, they're in decline, and they need to reform quickly before people stop listening to them... If the moderators and people who run the site think they aren't doing any damage, they are sorely mistaken, and it's only a matter of time before something bad happens.

This all has basis in philosophy, science fiction, and social theories that Dyack has been reading and pondering. No, really. Those interested in learning more about NeoGAF, its influence and who owns it, 1Up has a insightful feature.

Dyack Talking Gaf [1Up]

"Interview with Silicon Knights about Too Human" [Eurogamer, via VG247]

But as I hacked my way through the Xbox 360 game's first six hours of the single player campaign — putting me at about half-way through, according to the game's own Stats ticker — I began to mostly puzzled by what it was the team was doing with its time. Too Human seems surprisingly unpolished for a game that's been in some form of development for a decade, delayed multiple times, one due to be released in less than two months. Granted, the letter that accompanied our preview copy of Too Human did warn that our pre-release build was not "final retail code" and may have gameplay bugs that "will be addressed in the final retail game."

That was certainly taken into consideration as I completed Too Human's first two chapters, but some of the core issues I had with the game aren't the kinds of things that will likely be ironed out in the final thrust of development.

After going hands-on with Too Human for the first time at GDC, I was primarily concerned about the game's combat mechanics. They certainly take some getting used to. The player will use the right analog stick for melee attacks, simply pointing in the direction of the enemy to target it. While that may sound straightforward enough, being trained to use the right stick for aiming or camera control by previous action games may lead to some initial awkwardness.

You can spice up your attacks by lobbing robotic foes into the air with a double tap of the stick, keeping them aloft with gunfire, but that tactic felt largely pointless. As a Champion class character, bullets and laser-fire are no match for my hammer or sword, so I found myself doing it only out of obligation, occasionally an attempt to break the monotony.

It seemed more appropriate for me, as a Champion, to limit myself to melee combo chains and air attacks only, in an effort to raise my experience bonus and build up a cache of Ruiner moves — those screen clearing attacks that are accompanied by a light show and, later, a spirit animal (mine's a raven!). This leads to same rather repetitive gameplay. Adding to that repetition was a limited bestiary, some rather mundane puzzle solving and long stretches of slogging through wave after wave of enemies.

Too Human isn't just about swordplay and shooting, it's also about the hunt for loot. One of the more addictive aspects of titles like Diablo, World of Warcraft or Phantasy Star Online is the finding of something precious. Silicon Knights looks to have added loot in spades. There are swords, staves, pistols, rifles, leggings, helms and much, much more, all with various attributes and upgrades to collect. You'll regularly find, buy and build stuff that's better than what you're currently equipped with.

The interface for dealing with your massive amounts of loot is handy. Items that have better stats than your current equipment are shown in yellow. Less favorable stats are listed in red. You'll be able to salvage your unwanted goods from any point, no trekking back to a retailer to resell your outdated chest piece. Just hit the "Y" button. There's a hitch there, though, there's no going back to "town" until you're done with the quest at hand. That means item repairs will have to wait. There's also no way to stock up on health potions or green herbs or whatever one needs to heal their wounds. You'll have to settle for random Health Orb drops.

That means, unless you're of the self-healing BioEngineer class, you might die. You might die a lot. My character, Shin, has died 23 times in six hours. That's 23 times I've had to watch the rather long, unskippable scene of a gleaming white Valkyrie descend from the heavens and revive me. Good thing there is almost no tangible penalty to death... or is that a bad thing?

You might consider your in-game deaths bad if you expire because of Too Human's frustrating camera system. There are something like seven camera styles to choose from — like standard, near, far, iso and strategic — but all have their share of quirks. It wasn't uncommon for the camera to be pointing just slightly in the wrong direction, with something important out of sight. There's no free look while in motion either, you must pause the action to look around. One can reset the camera behind Baldur's back with the left bumper, but at times the game will override your chosen camera angle or simply refuse to reset it to your liking.

There are plenty of rough edges in Too Human, from questionable interface choices to the oddly placed voiceover to some very unattractive graphics. Some of the game's visuals are strong, others are just plain ugly. Too Human's mechanical beings look fine, but its flesh and blood humanoid characters can look downright ugly. Animation is stiff, lip synching is clumsy and never is the uncanny valley more prevalent than in some of the game's cut scenes. Character models have obviously been given a great deal of detail, but even in the game's major players, faces have sharp angles and poorly rendered hair, visual blights that do a disservice to the games cinematic portions.

There's much more to be explored in Too Human. Obviously, there's the second half of the game's core campaign, the cooperative multiplayer mode, and the game's five character classes. And we have yet to touch on the game's storyline. We'll have more hands-on impressions of these aspects of the game throughout the week.

Those on board with reinterpreted Norse mythology and cyber-gods and giant glowing bears? Say you're "For." If you think the whole thing stinks of puerile fantasy and bad art? Consider yourself an "Against."

Dyack writes "When the game is released and everyone plays game all the speculation will be over. If I am wrong and gamers in general think the game is 'crap' then I am comfortable with getting tagged 'Owned by the GAF'." Every single other person who thinks or hopes the game will be an epic failure gets their own tag — "Owned by Too Human."

Yes, it's that sound of an idea. Unquantifiable and as ill-conceived as nearly any industry figurehead attempting to interact with or counteract the bad publicity of the internet's anonymous trolls.

I don't think I'll be weighing in with my own GAF username — my awful tag is just awful enough, thank you, mods — but I can't say I'm not a fan of the drama. Not sure how big a fan I am of Too Human, yet, though. In fact, I think I'll go play some Too Human, right now and sort that out.

Too Human - Stand and be counted [NeoGAF]

Speaking to GameDaily, though, Dyack also said he thinks we'll see continuing consolidation in the games industry itself, with the big publishers eating up the smaller ones until there are only a few major companies left for all products, Hollywood-style.

Of course, bigger publishers are less agile, and this future for the business is pretty bleak as far as risk and innovation goes. Dyack said that studios will be challenged in maintaining their independence and creativity:

"It is definitely more difficult to stay independent as time goes on. However, we really don't think about this very much, and instead turn our focus and attention toward what is best for moving the interactive entertainment medium forward. Making excellent games helps pave the way for the future of any developer, and any developer's mantra should be 'quality first.'"

Dyack: Future Will Only See Handful of Publishers [GameDaily]

In even better news, Denis writes that "there will be plenty of time for press to critique Too Human as they will receive evaluation copies well in advance of the release date." We're expecting to get a new preview build pretty soon and look forward to spending plenty of time with the game.

End Game Approaches [Silicon Knights Blog]

The game is releasing on August 19 in North America, but the once four-player co-op has been trimmed to two because, after play-testing it for awhile, he realized that there was too much going on with that many players.

Later, Dyack told me that the engine still supports four player co-op, but that things were getting too confusing on screen once you factored in the four players, their special attacks and spider-bots plus the army of creatures that would spawn to deal with them.

None of the game's maps are randomized, he told me, but the creatures that spawn in them are. The game will take a player about 15 hours to get to level 30 and 50 to 60 hours to get to level 50.

"I don't know how long it would take to see everything, I don't even know if that's possible," he said. "Too Human may look like an action game, but don't be fooled—it's actually a very, very deep role-playing title."

I did enjoy my time with the game, but still feel like I'm not quite getting it. G4's Adam Sessler and I worked through a chunk of co-op, playing through levels side-by-side and I could see how having two more players would make things unnecessarily convoluted.

What I couldn't see, in my short time with the game, was it's depth. There were hints that deep play was present, especially in the weapons upgrades and spells, but 20 minutes or so in a co-op match isn't the best way to explore that.

The action element of the game seemed to handle fine, though I never really got a sense of my character's power. Slapping the stick left to right to clear out robotic trolls and goblins was pretty slick, but it felt at times that the action on the screen was disconnected with my movement. I guess I didn't always feel like I was actually in control, it was almost as if the game was, at times, on auto pilot.

The sound, which was impossible to hear in yesterday's setting, could certainly help with some of that, but I think that either I need a better understanding of the nuance of the controls or that, perhaps, there is no nuance to the controls.

Too Human is certainly an interesting looking game, and the art design is slowly winning me over, but this is just going to have to be one of those titles I have to really sit down and play for quite awhile before I can figure out how into it I will be.

Everyone needs to firmly understand that the console manufacturers have a closed model. If they win market dominance, it moves the market toward a monopoly, because it's not an open, competitive market. If Nintendo wins 95% of the market, it definitely becomes a monopoly, because if they control the hardware, they control everything else. The current parties who are involved in pushing forward closed systems will never want a single-console future, because it goes against the current business model that they're trying to apply.

What I'm saying is going to happen is that the economics of the industry will not continue to support multiple closed models. It's too difficult, it's becoming too expensive to create games, and eventually — it's really switched from back in the really early days of the NES, when people would do almost anything to get a Nintendo license to work on the hardware. Now look at Grand Theft Auto IV and how Microsoft is paying lots of money to get it as an exclusive or even just get it on their system.

Those kind of market forces, the actual economics, are really going to change things. Not only are the third parties going to want a single console, I think eventually the first parties are going to start considering it. They're spending a tremendous amount of money on research and development, and if they can't win their closed market competition, then they might look at it and say, "Is this really worth it?" like Sega has in the past.

It's not a matter of console manufacturers wanting to change, it's a matter of whether the economy of the videogames industry can continue to support the current model. If you talk to developers and publishers, you see a lot of groups disappearing now, a lot of closures of developers, because the economy is so hard. If all the third parties go away, there's not going to be a games industry, so something's got to give somewhere.

I think stories like [the ones in the books] Hyperion or Altered Carbon or very serious science fiction — we need to get stories to that level in the video game industry... Bubblegum stories are OK, but there's no reason we can't aspire to do more for those who want to do more. Certainly there's room for everything. If Too Human can say anything, it's that it can be done, and we should at least attempt to try.

And what I think — it's really interesting, that I didn't know that, that all the major hits had been significantly delayed... Hopefully that will bode well for Too Human. In the end, we could only make the type of games that we're proud of making, and we just, from Silicon Knights' perspective, we will not give in to anything else. We just won't let it happen.

Bad things. You know, I've got a sort of samurai mentality on some level. Just sort of the Bushido code. One of the main tenants is: Prepare yourself for death. And if you don't fear death, then you don't have to worry about it, you don't concentrate on it.

So I think with this industry, that's pretty important. You know, if I worried about dying every day, I'd be all-consumed. Because there are so many things, and so many problems that could occur. And I don't want to concentrate on that goal. I don't want to be distracted by some negative possibility when I can focus on the positive. So, yeah, it would be really, really bad, and in some sense... Would it kill us? I don't know. We'd probably recover.

The mystery "third-person action/psychological thriller" may very well be published by Sega, however, as SK prez Denis Dyack has said the relationship with the label is a "long term opportunity." We trust that Denis knows exactly what a long term opportunity is and look forward to learning more about Eternal Darkness II. Oops, I mean, whatever "Project Number 3" is going to be.

Eternal Darkness 2? [TooHuman.net]

Niagara has always been an industrial city and that's starting to change. We're going to start seeing things in this region that people are not used to.

It writes refreshingly of Too Human: Part I, that "Claiming up front that your game is going to be a trilogy in the tradition of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings is a bold statement. After all, Weekend at Bernie's only made it to two movies. Too Human has an intriguing story-based plot that may very well live up to that claim. Play as a cybernetically enhanced Norse god as you defend humanity from evil machines."

You may remember project lead Denis Dyack writing that a "firm date with tons of new info is coming soon" back in August of last year. That means we're now doubly informed, possibly knowing Too Human's planned ship date and that "soon" means "within the next six months" to Dyack.

Thanks for the pointer, Mike!

Silicon Knights' Dyack: Quebec Game Company Subsidies 'Insane' [Gamasutra]

The 360 and the PS3 are equal in power in my eyes. Maybe the PS has more processing power. The 360 has more available memory. It's pretty much a net, net.

Imagine a unified platform — one console for all gamers — that would bring a massive paradigm shift to the games industry, where games would become better in quality, cheaper, and more widely available. Sound good? It can happen. Better yet, it's inevitable. It will happen... A one-console future is a future I think we can't avoid - and thankfully, it's a future where everyone would win.

The market is also split in an unhealthy way between the major manufacturers. Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony all may have equal marketshare this generation, making it extremely difficult for third-party publishers to choose what platform to focus on.

Not that it's easy for first-party manufacturers, either. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have put tremendous resources into trying to make the best hardware, including spending significant amounts of money trying to get exclusive mega-titles like Grand Theft Auto on their system first.

Despite all this, it's still not enough. The economics of the proprietary models seem to point toward spending more money and receiving fewer returns with each generation, with no clear winner.

Dyack also claimed that the Too Human demo "will speak for itself." Can't wait to hear what it has to say.

Too Human Confirmed for 2008 - Demo Forthcoming [TooHuman.net]

According to the suit, which seems more than $75,000, Epic Games misrepresented the abilities of their Unreal Engine 3 when selling the license agreement to Silicon Knights. The suit says that Epic failed to "provide a working game engine" to Silicon causing them to "experience considerable losses."

The developer was rumored to be experiencing problems with the Unreal Engine platform last summer, but later denied speculation it was dropping the platform and commented that the game was still "progressing very well." Silicon Knights eventually decided to drop the Unreal engine and instead build their own, according to the suit.

Silicon also claims that Epic has been "sabotaging" Silicon Knights efforts to make a game by using the money earned from their licensing deals to make their own games rather than to provide support for their engine to Silicon and other licensees.

Update: In a nutshell, SK claims that Epic used a slicker version of their Unreal Engine for Gears of War and released a hamstringed version to SK and others, in order to show them up at E3. They also failed to release the Gears version until much more recently, SK claims. They also claim that Epic made several very specific statements about what the engine could do, but which it was never able to deliver on including the number of on-screen characters and lighting effects.

The suit is based on a dozen causes of action including fraud, negligent misrepresentation, intentional interference with contractual relations, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, breach of warranty and a violation of North Carolina's unfair and deceptive trade practices act.

The suit also says that Epic missed the deadlines for providing both the 360 and PS3 engines. Finally, the suit alleges, the SK gave up on the engine and built their own, which is what Too Human use.

Hit the jump for the press release or the link to download a copy of the suit.

SILICON KNIGHTS SUES EPIC OVER UNSATISFACTORY PERFORMANCE OF UNREAL ENGINE 3

ST. CATHARINES, ONTARIO, CANADA, July 19th, 2007 - Video game developer Silicon Knights, Inc. has filed suit against Epic Games, Inc. for breach of contract, fraud, and several other tort claims in federal court in Greenville, North Carolina. In the lawsuit, Silicon Knights alleges that it has lost revenue as a result of the considerable delay in developing its video game for the Xbox 360, Too Human, because Unreal Engine 3, a game engine licensed from Epic, did not work as Epic represented it would and, moreover, Epic has been unable or unwilling to fix it.

As Denis Dyack, President and Founder of Silicon Knights, explained, "Our strong preference is to focus on making games, not be in court. Unfortunately though, as explained in our lawsuit, we have had extensive problems with the Unreal Engine 3 that Epic has been unwilling or unable to rectify. For more than a year, we have been trying to reach an agreement with Epic to resolve these issues without resorting to litigation, but were unable to come to reasonable terms with Epic. Regrettably, we are now forced to go to court in order to achieve satisfaction. We remain hopeful, however, that we can reach a reasonable business resolution with Epic at some point."

The lawsuit further alleges that Epic in fact never intended to deliver Unreal Engine 3 as a fully functional game engine as promised. Instead, Epic collected licensing fees from Silicon Knights and others in order to fund the development of its own video game, Gears of War. "No doubt Gears is a fun and phenomenally successful game, but as we alleged in our complaint against them, we strongly believe that from the perspective of someone waiting for a game engine that Epic promised it would deliver almost two years ago, it seems pretty clear that Gears was built on the backs of the Unreal Engine licensees. We certainly stand by our allegations in the lawsuit that instead of using our licensing fees to develop and support the Unreal Engine 3, Epic used that money to build Gears," said Mr. Dyack.

Based on Epic's website and press releases, it appears that Epic has sold licenses to Unreal Engine 3 to over 150 video game developers and publishers. For more information about this lawsuit, contact Chris Holland, Partner at the law firm of Krieg, Keller, Sloan, Reilley & Roman, LLP in San Francisco, California.

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But worry not! Dyack says the game will see a proper coming out party at an unnamed upcoming show. He revealed that "we have another event planned in the future for Too Human that we thought would be more appropriate." He added, "If it were not for this event, we would have shown Too Human at this year's E3."

We're all really thrilled Denis, but I think I'm going to have to wait until the whole thing is wrapped up before I check it out. Hopefully, I'll still have full control over my bowels by that time, lest I pay the price by enjoying it too much.

Dyack Explains Too Human's No Show at E3 [GameDaily.biz]

While game details are still scarce, with Johnboy confirming that the company is still figuring out how they plan to see revenue from the game (subscriptions and/or in-game purchases), the only concrete details are that the game uses the BigWorld Engine and will be set "on an Earth-like planet." Looks like Romero subscribes to Denis Dyack's marketing theories.

In addition to his MMO, John reveals there's "no way" he'll work for a publisher again, calling the process "a treadmill." It sure didn't work out too well for Daikatana, eh, John?. Michael McWhertor

Q&A: John Romero On Slipgate's Big MMO Plans [Gamasutra]

Denis does drop this teeny bit of info on the planned epic.

I'd say Too Human is the best game we've ever made. It's far more advanced than anyone outside of the company knows. We're probably at a much further advanced stage than a majority of games that developers are showing to the press right now but we're just not talking about it. And the reason for that is after E3 2006 we really started to rethink previews and the way games are shown to the press.

As we've mentioned before, Dyack wants the industry to mature to the point where games are not only code-complete, but already manufactured before anyone sees them. He has some good points, ones that could help avoid rushed games and blown budgets, but skip the Molyneux apologist bits.

Also, keep an eye out for a neat Dyack trick: internal vomiting. Sounds tasty! Michael McWhertor

Hard Day's Knight [GamesIndustry]

From Dyack:

• Animation blending was not tuned on properly in the combat shown in the demo. Too Human looks much better with blending turned on
• We are polishing the 18 different weapon classes. That's right. We only showed 4 in the demo: 1-handed sword, pistols, 2-handed staff (glaive) and a heavy laser. There is so much more we have not shown.
• We have not started optimizing specifically for frame rate yet, but we will have a game at a solid 30fps when we are finished

I know this game was supposed to come out on the PlayStation and Gamecube at certain points, but I'm sure Silicon Knights is gonna nail it this time for sure. Michael McWhertor

The Path Ahead - Blog #26 [IGN]

Comparing poor reception of Too Human at E3 2006, Dyack points to negative early looks at films like Titanic and games like Halo as examples why games shouldn't be judged until they're complete. I can get on board with that.

What I can't agree with is Dyack's interest in seeing a single console format (despite the money it would save me and my fellow gamers). His argument is:

I think we're moving towards a homogeneous platform whether people like it or not. At the end of the day, I think it's in everyone's best interest that there be one hardware console, whether it be Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo or whether all three of them got together and said, "Ok we're going to agree upon a standard for everyone to make." [...] We'd rather spend time making the games than worrying about the hardware. And if everyone had the same hardware and when you made a game you knew you got 100% penetration because anyone who plays this game had to buy this hardware platform just like a DVD or whatever standard media format's going to be. I think that would ultimately be much better for gamers.

There's more to it than that, but you get the idea. I prefer the competition, personally, and don't look forward to another 3DO-type platform. Ever. Michael McWhertor

Denis Dyack's Utopian Video Game Future [GameDaily]

The version of Too Human shown at last year's E3 was half-baked. The Xbox 360 exclusive wasn't finished, and it showed. During the entire preview, the game's creator Denis Dyack kept saying that the tile wasn't done or that things we still being worked out. Dyack later wrote a very personal blog entry, saying the E3 experience was "painful." Once again, Dyack has opened up — This time over at Newsweek in which N'Gai Croal has let the Silicon Knights president take the reigns and write about how the practice of previewing games can be fixed. According to Dyack:

This preview and review process is the problem our industry faces: the media and game-opinion influencers are making pronouncements about a game way before it is even finished or even near completion. Notice that at every point in the development and marketing timetable, the press is seeing the games before they are actually complete. This is equivalent to sending movie critics to review Lord of the Rings before all the special effects are added. Imagine Peter Jackson standing up in front of an audience of film critics and saying, "We're going to take the character of Gollum and make him look human, but he will be all CG. We are confident it will look great as we are using the latest in motion capture and computer rendering technologies." Sounds odd, right? Well, that's what my fellow game developers and I have to do on a regular basis, even when we believe that it is not what's best for our projects.

Dyack goes on to say that games should take a page from the Hollywood PR text book and not be marketed until they are finished. He does have a point. Heck, he's got several points. Good read, slightly rantish and defensive, but smart and honest. Brian Ashcraft

Dyack Writes About Previews [Level Up]

While Canadian developer Silicon Knights can't divulge when Too Human will get released, company prez Dennis Dyack can offers his opinion on the console war. Silicon Knights previously had inked a second party deal with Nintendo, but signed with Microsoft in 2004 for the Too Human trilogy.

So, what does the totally partial Dyack say?

The 360 and the PS3 are equal in power in my eyes. Maybe the PS3 has more processing power. The 360 has more available memory. It's pretty much a net, net. The public perception of the PS3 was that it was much more powerful. To developers, they look even.

And to consumers? Whaddaya think, is there a discernible difference in what you've seen pre-release between the two consoles? What do you think?! Brian Ashcraft

Dyack Talks Next Gen [Mercury News, Thanks Qoo!]

Back at E3, I attended a behind doors for Silicon Knights' Too Human for the Xbox 360. Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack and his henna ink tattooed arm walked us through some game footage, repeatedly saying that this wasn't the final product.

Over the weekend, rumors surfaced that Silicon Knights was having probs with the Xbox 360 version of the Unreal Engine 3. The company was scraping the engine, causing massive delays. This is apparently not true. Dyack made an official statement:

Although we do not usually comment on speculation, rumors of Silicon Knights completely scrapping the Unreal Engine 3 on Too Human and massive delays for the Too Human product release are false. Too Human is progressing very well and we expect that gamers will be extremely excited with Too Human when we next show it.

To quell the non-believers, I think we need another henna tattoo, Denis. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [1Up] Thanks, Patrick!

"Too-Human is man versus machine struggle," says Denis Dyack. The Silicon Knights developer is telling a room full of folks about his upcoming 360 title, telling us that this first in a triology has been planned since 1994. All I am thinking about is what is on his arm.

"It's similar to Devil May Cry. Things like multiplayer online are going to set it apart. The title is no where near finished," he continues.

There's a large brown tattoo. A character that looks like a "P" sets off an intricate design the starts on the back of his hand and stretches up his forearm.

"Spike's going to play us through," he continues.

Spike also has a large brown tattoo. Spike's a big dude and bald. On his face. It hooks over his eyebrow, jags out on his cheek and jaw. Tattoo tips from Mike Tyson.

"The game was inspired by Norse mythology. We are big fans of it," Dyak continues. "We like that the Gods can die at any time. It's fatalistic."

The journos shuffle out of the room, and I approach Dyack.

"Is that a tattoo?"
"It's henna. One of our staffers did it. It's a Norse god that'll bring me luck at E3."
"How long did it take?"
"A couple hours."

Peter Moore, Denis Dyack is not.