Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

GTAIV to use Engine from Table Tennis 83

Posted by Zonk from the expressive-thugs dept.
WedgeTalon writes "Joystiq reports that GTAIV will be using the engine that powered Rockstar's Table Tennis — Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE)." From the article: "I contacted MTV News' Stephen Totilo to see just how definite this was, and he returned, I met with Rockstar publicists and producers for Table Tennis twice prior to the game's release. Both times they volunteered that RAGE would serve as the engine for all next-gen Rockstar games. Including GTA? I asked both times. Including GTA they said both times."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

GTAIV to use Engine from Table Tennis More

GTAIV to use Engine from Table Tennis

Comments Filter:

  • So...? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Kesch ( 943326 ) on Friday June 16, 2006 @05:42PM (#15551906)
    We beat up hookers with ping-pong paddles now?

  • Table tennis (Score:2, Funny)

    by Ramble ( 940291 )
    Table tennis?

    Won't someone please think of the children!

  • Just imagine what secrets they could lock in there! Perhaps, you can pick up a prostitute and shoot some ping-pong balls around!

  • Ping pong... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dubmun ( 891874 ) on Friday June 16, 2006 @05:49PM (#15551976) Homepage Journal
    That game is pretty good looking. They could do worse than to use that engine.

  • This Just In (Score:5, Funny)

    by notBowen ( 811056 ) on Friday June 16, 2006 @05:49PM (#15551979)
    GTAIV supports up to five pedestrians on screen at once.

    • Re:This Just In (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      dude, that was san andreas.... we're talking next gen technology here, so up to 10 peds at once... and up to THREE unique car models at once!!!!

  • 2d (Score:2)

    by iMaple ( 769378 )
    isnt table tennis ping pong, where you hit a small ball with a paddle. The last time I played that videogame it was a on a new machine less than 20 years old with really nice beep sounds. Boy, I cant wait for the next GTA . (actually reinds me of a Simpsons epsiode where they are abducted by some kind aliens who show off their ping pong game) :)
    • THere's been a lot of commercials for it on G4. The graphics don't look bad, its a full 3D game. I still get wierded out when I see the commercials though.

    • Re:2d (Score:4, Funny)

      by MrSquirrel ( 976630 ) on Friday June 16, 2006 @06:04PM (#15552104)
      *the aliens show off their advanced computer program*
      Homer: Marge and I played that back when we were first dating.
      *The Simpsons scoff*
      Kang: Anyone from a species that has mastered intergalactic travel
      raise your hand. [raises his tentacle]
      Kodos: [raises his tentacle]
      Bart: [raises his hand]
      Homer: [slaps Bart's hand]
      Kang: All right, then.
      Marge: I'm sorry. Your game is very nice.

  • This is surprising? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by xswl0931 ( 562013 ) on Friday June 16, 2006 @05:50PM (#15551984)
    I don't see why anyone would be surprised by this. You think Rockstar spend R&D $$$ to create an engine that would only be used for one game?
    • More specifically, did anyone think Rockstar spend R&D $$$ to create an engine that would only be used for one Ping-Pong game of all things?
    • Well, we're talking about very different purposes here so the engine would be very flexible.

      • Well, we're talking about very different purposes here so the engine would be very flexible.

        The problem with very flexible engines is that they are essentially a poor reimplementation of C compiler and OpenGL library - assuming that they use compiled scripts, of course; if they use interpreted scripts, it's more like a Basic interpreter and the Draw command, at least as far as speed is concerned ;).

        I'm not dissing Rockstar's engine, since I've never seen it in action, but just pointing out this little

  • Does it bother anyone else...? (Score:5, Funny)

    by MarkusQ ( 450076 ) on Friday June 16, 2006 @05:52PM (#15552005) Journal

    Is it just me, but does anyone else think it's odd that the people who brought us "Hot Coffee" decided to go with an engine specifically designed to model bouncing balls?

    --MarkusQ

  • It is 100% Certain (Score:5, Funny)

    by Karma Farmer ( 595141 ) on Friday June 16, 2006 @05:57PM (#15552051)
    This just in... Slashdot.org reports that Joystiq.com reports that Gamespot reports that TotalVideoGames.com reports that MTV reports that a public relations spokesman who was involved in the marketing for one of Rock Star games has claimed that he has full knowledge of future product implementation decisions.

  • GTAIV?!? (Score:3, Funny)

    by bunions ( 970377 ) on Friday June 16, 2006 @06:00PM (#15552066)
    Bleech. If I get a vote, I vote GTA4. I don't think we need to introduce MORE weird shit into our acronyms.
    • Uh, since when do roman numerals count as "weird shit"? Since the No Child Left Behind act?
    • You'll take 4? I think they're trying to pull a Tony Hawk, but worse. Let's look at the list of games, shal we?

      GTA
      GTA: London 1969
      GTA 2
      GTA 3
      (here is where GTA 4 would fit in, except we already have 4 games behind it, so it should be 5)
      GTA:VC
      GTA:SA
      GTA:LCS
      GTA4?

      By my reconing, it should be GTA8. If you want to leave out London1969, it's 7. Just because you're changing engines doesn't mean you get to fuck with how numbers work.
      • Rockstar did not invent this. Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, Final Fantasy X-2. (Note to mention the american numbering, 1, 2, 3, 7 ...).
        • It actually seems to be a common tactic (the american numbering pisses me off... "let's not release games in america!").
          Tony Hawk did it. 1,2,3,4,underground, u2, american wasteland....
          MegaMan did it. MegaMan 1-8; Megaman X1-8; MegaMan Zero 1-4; MegaMan Battle Network 1-6. That's probably the worst, overall. That, by my reconing, makes 26 MegaMan games. Honestly, I can't think of any series that's worse than that.

  • eureka! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by underwhelm ( 53409 ) <underwhelm@NOsPAM.gmail.com> on Friday June 16, 2006 @06:00PM (#15552069) Homepage Journal
    I've been pounding my palm into my temple, trying to force myself to imagine why in the world Rockstar Games created and published a table tennis simulator.

    It makes perfect sense to me now--it's so obvious! It's just a proof-of-concept of their new GTA engine.

    They didn't make table tennis and think to themselves: "hey, it turns out we've got a great new foundation for our 3d sandbox franchise!" It's been the other way around the whole time. "we need a great new foundation for our 3d sandbox franchise... but let's do something small and simple first to get all the kinks out."

    I wouldn't be surprised if there's a ping-pong minigame in the next GTA.
    • That's *exactly* what I was thinking, underwhelm. Very craft. Although don't dismiss the table tennis simulator out of hand; I heard it's really good.
    • I've been pounding my palm into my temple, trying to force myself to imagine why in the world Rockstar Games created and published a table tennis simulator.

      Wow, sounds like you need to get out more.

    • Actually, I think you might be a little off on the motivation. After all, Rockstar has never been a company that cares about working out the kinks in their engines/games (GTA:VC was filled to the brim with annoying bugs but still sold insane numbers). No, I think it's more likely that Take Two, because of their financial troubles, asked Rockstar to give them a game for a particular release period (helping to fill the gap until GTA4) and they came up with Table Tennis. Let's face it: Rockstar doesn't nee

  • Americano (Score:2, Funny)

    by cno3 ( 197688 )
    Those are going to be the sweatiest-looking sex avatars ever rendered in a console game.
  • I was waiting for this news to break. I figured it was coming sooner or later. I haven't seen the table tennis game, but from what I've heard it's pretty cool. But, come on, look at Rockstar's game releases. Did you really think they were designing a game engine for the 360 just to make a table tennis game?

  • Hell yeah. (Score:3, Informative)

    by crhylove ( 205956 ) <rhy@leperkhanz.com> on Friday June 16, 2006 @07:42PM (#15552567) Homepage Journal
    the engine is beautiful. Now let's see them catch up with SAMP for the next game:

    http://www.sa-mp.com/ [sa-mp.com]

    rhY
  • why the hell Rockstar Games made a bloody table tennis game (and promoted the hell out of it). It's a tech demo, like DOA Beach Vollyball. Then again, I'd be mad if I paid $50 bucks for a tech demo and didn't even get scantily clad women to go with it.
  • I knew there was more to it than ping pong, I thought there might have been a secret joke or something that R* would put out a ping pong game, and this is it, their game engine is so advanced that they can take a minigame out of the full game and release it as a full fledged game on its own. At first I thought it just just a throwback to Pong but now I can see the truth, this will be one awesome engine.

  • The graphics will still be bad (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Repugnant_Shit ( 263651 ) on Saturday June 17, 2006 @12:59AM (#15553643)
    Table tennis doesn't have wide expanses of outdoor scenery. Look at the screenshots available at http://screenshots.teamxbox.com/gallery/1427/Rocks tar-Games-Presents-Table-Tennis/p1/ [teamxbox.com]. They can't compete with any other modern engine like UT, Doom, or Source.

    For Rockstar, those are good looking screenshots. But why not license something tried and true, something that's good for outdoors. UT comes to mind. Hell, if Bethesda licenses the Oblivion engine, use that.
    • One of the programmers for Rock Star San Diego (the team that made table tennis) came and talked at my university about the technology behind the game. It was actually very interesting, and screenshots don't do it justice. There is beautiful cloth and hair simulation, sweat, high resolution normal mapping, global illumination, and more. On top of all that, this is all on the Xbox 360... all the engines you mentioned were developed for the PC. I highly doubt there are any good engines being sold for the
      • You make an excellent point -- if I had mod points atm I would have modded you up. One other thing about the Tennis game is that it's rather fun to play, especially in vs mode with a friend. The control system is quite easy to get to grips with, yet complex enough so that it's difficult to master it (but when you do, it becomes a very strategic game). It's not just ping pong upgraded to 2006 style graphics.
    • didn't rockstar do enough damage to THE CHILDREN with the GTA:SmutAndreas? this so called "ping-pong" is clearly [teamxbox.com] a pervert simulator, where you play a big bald weird guy training himself to mollest yet more innocent pigtailed children!
    • Bethesda didn't create their own engine for Oblivion, they used the Gamebryo engine. [emergent.net]

  • About Damn Time (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ClamIAm ( 926466 ) on Saturday June 17, 2006 @01:38AM (#15553748)

    It sounds like no one else commenting actually played GTA3/VC/SA. The engines in those games, while impressive, were buggy as hell. I only bought SA (I played the others a bit), but I was pissed when I kept getting stuck in the ground and mowed down by rival gangs. It was simply impossible to believe that this was the third game made with this engine, yet they still couldn't get collision detection down.

    And call me crazy, but I'm totally holding out for a Wii port. Smacking your hoes feels much better when done in a natural motion. Hitting X just doesn't cut it.

    • Fuck GTA. I want a pimping game. You can drive your car around by holding the wiimote like a steering wheel, and bounce it up and down to bounce your car. You can pimp smack your hoes by backhanding them with the wiimote... Ah, that would be fun.
  • This is an interesting concept. Neal Saferstein Neal Saferstein

    • Re:Concept (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      You're a tool trying to get your name indexed. Nael Sefartsien Nael Sefartsien

Slashdot Top Deals

THEGODDESSOFTHENETHASTWISTINGFINGERSANDHERVOICEISLIKEAJAVELININTHENIGHTDUDE

Close