Play Magazine UK Article on TimeSplitters 4

[DrkSnpr14]

Posted by Jestem
The article was entitled 'The Truth Behind TimeSplitters 4'

The article kicks off with a history of Free Radical. Everything we know about was repeated there. It then goes into why the company didn't push for TS4 to be released.

"People were pleased but we were starting to worry where the money was coming from for the next project," says Craig Collins, one of the 3D artists who worked on Future Perfect, talking about the studio reaction to it's release in 2005. "There's a big gap between a game being finished and game scores being revealed," he adds of it's critical success.

"Much like other sequels, Future Perfect was made because TS2 did so well, and we still had loads of ideas," said Tristan Reidford, Future Perfect's lead artist. "Unfortunately, Future Perfect didn't perform as well as expected in the shops"..."then Battlefront 3 came calling. Through all of this , it was always hard to resist discussing ideas for TimeSplitters, which, precisely because its not easy to summarise, is a  fertile breeding ground for gaming and innovation, and personally I can't wait to play the next one!"

The article then questions why FRD pushed for Haze over TS4.

James Cunliffe, lead animator of Future Perfect answers this. He says that FRD weren't in a rush to make TS4 and they wanted to try new things, so they worked on their IP Haze. However he says that before FRD closed its doors, they were developing TS4 and he says"I hear it looked pretty sweet. I saw some character designs they had done and they made me chuckle."

Some alternate character costume designs they said FRD worked on for Future Perfect were "Harry Tipper's original sabotage-inspired New York detective outfit and a schoolgirl outfit for Jo-Beth Casey" says lead character artist Ben Newman
 - but everything else made it in. The only concessions being made were how the technical constraints of the creaking PS2 were forcing the design somewhat.

The article then talks about Crytek purchasing FRD and what they plan to do with TS4.

The studio is home to a lot of ex-FRD staff so it's effectively being developed by the people who did the three previous games but there is one pitfall that TS4 won't be able to overcome, the absence of Ben Newman.

Members of the developing team of the previous three games then talk about how the 'look' of TS4 wouldn't be the same. "The look was heavily driven by Ben Newman." Newman is not part of Crytek UK.

The article then comments on the wide variety of characters in the series and how they claim that wouldn't be possible nowadays as it takes too much time to get a single character created. Newman says when they were developing TS2 it only took a couple of days to get a character from concept art to finished model because they could have a "lowly poly model and some tiny textures".

James Cunliffe then speaks about the struggle for a publisher due to the fact that "TimeSplitters is seen as a risk and harder to market". He then says "the differentiation between titles these day is wafer thin, everyone is chasing the same dollar. I don't dislike any genre, I just dislike the lack of choice. I do think there is a lot more room for experimentation in games , not just wrapping that is the graphics. Do I think there is room in the market? Yes. Who is willing to take the risks when games cost over $20 million? Not many. The industry's creativity is the casualty of it's own success"

The article then closes by saying "perhaps it's long overdue, but there's no doubt that TS4 will be on the horizon again as it's hard to imagine the likes of Sergeant Cortez and Jo-Beth Casey being kept away from the games industry any longer than the current predicament has already done."

Yes there is concept art but it really isn't anything special, just shots of various characters from different angles, some in black and white.

So that's all pretty much all of what the article had to say, it's not an announcement but at least TimeSplitters is garnering some form of attention from the media.

[Jolteon]

Surprising, TF:FP still recieved fairly high reviews from critics, as well as an IGN award.

[Undead Priest52]

Even depending on the Future Perfect sales, it seems like now-a-days, if they released TS4, it would be a big hit. I'm not sure what it is I'm trying to say, but I have a feeling more people would play it, even ones who have never heard of TimeSplitters.

[Drifting]

I think this is significant enough to move to the front page.

TS4 fills a niche that not many games are attempting to fill nowadays. While it will probably never be as big as CoD (and really, would we want TS to be that big?), I think the game still has plenty of profit potential. It's just that this time around, they'll probably have to go with a publisher smaller than EA.

[Undead Priest52]

I think this is significant enough to move to the front page.

TS4 fills a niche that not many games are attempting to fill nowadays. While it will probably never be as big as CoD (and really, would we want TS to be that big?), I think the game still has plenty of profit potential. It's just that this time around, they'll probably have to go with a publisher smaller than EA.

Conveniently enough, Drifting, you've said what was on my mind about this.

TS4 will just be too different (in a good way, of course) to not have high sales...

[Ts CRAZY23]

Conveniently enough, Drifting, you've said what was on my mind about this.

TS4 will just be too different (in a good way, of course) to not have high sales...

Like Catherine or Dark Souls.

[harrytipperrocks]

I don't understand what this means. Could someone please explain this to me?

[Undead Priest52]

I don't understand what this means. Could someone please explain this to me?

Unless I've got it wrong...
They're concerned about the making of TS4 because the sales of Future Perfect were low for their expectations.

[harrytipperrocks]

Unless I've got it wrong...
They're concerned about the making of TS4 because the sales of Future Perfect were low for their expectations.

Who's concerned? Play magazine, or Crytek UK?

[Sir Chimpalot]

I knew it, future perfect was a fail

[Cheese]

Who's concerned? Play magazine, or Crytek UK?

It would be more of Crytek UK/ Free Radical.

[I_ROBOFISH]

I hope that they choose pretty much any publisher but EA. Maybe THQ could give it a shot, considering that they've made some very fun games recently.

[Ts CRAZY23]

I hope that they choose pretty much any publisher but EA. Maybe THQ could give it a shot, considering that they've made some very fun games recently.

Seriously? The new red faction game was horrible.  No, THQ, its in decline.

[Drifting]

Seriously? The new red faction game was horrible.  No, THQ, its in decline.

THQ just published Armageddon. They had no hand in developing that game. I think THQ would be acceptable. Activision is a no-no because of their rampant price inflation and lack of price decay. It works fine for CoD but it puts less profitable games in an early grave. I'm also against Ubisoft due to their aggressive DRM policies on the PC.

[I_ROBOFISH]

Seriously? The new red faction game was horrible.  No, THQ, its in decline.

I liked it.

THQ just published Armageddon. They had no hand in developing that game. I think THQ would be acceptable. Activision is a no-no because of their rampant price inflation and lack of price decay. It works fine for CoD but it puts less profitable games in an early grave. I'm also against Ubisoft due to their aggressive DRM policies on the PC.

DRM is one of the reasons I don't like EA.