Report: Judge Awards Epic $4.45 Million in Silicon Knights Countersuit

[GloatingSwine]

but..... THERE WAS ONLY ONE VIABLE CLASS OUT OF SIX!


no, I really hated Too Human. I tried playing the Ranger class as my main character because I like guns.

Second Level? everything was immune to all of my weapons.

The Commando still had a competent melee, use it when required.

At higher levels it was the most broken class, killing entire enemy spawn groups before they'd finished their spawn animation. (and I say that in the face of my mate's berzerker, who could one shot some bosses, everything else I killed before he pinballed over to them)

The real problem with Too Human was that there was basically no information at all about how you were actually supposed to play it and it's not built around the expected genre conventions (It's secretly a twin stick shooter with melee). Nothing, for instance, tells you that the dodge roll makes you invincible. This meant that videogame reviewers, who are dim, couldn't figure it out and never actually progressed beyond the stage of dying all the time because they don't stop and think "maybe I'm doing this wrong" and try other things.

 

[warrenEBB]

I think this decision is a real shame. mostly because I've been struggling to defend SK for years, and now I'm wondering why I bothered.

I really enjoyed Too Human.
Once I beat it, it became clear that the early bosses were so hard because: the game was designed to be played through multiple times. It seemed like a game that reveled in being too hard and dense. (I remember thinking the beginning was confusing and awkward. the second world was frustrating. but by the third world I got it, and started kicking ass instead of dying. and then the fourth/final world was completely thrilling (all out war on hell!). In the end, the slow start made the second half more satisfying. I think most of the haters didn't finish the game.)

I hope Dyack doesn't remain silent on all this. I'm sure he's been advised not to comment on shit in a combative manner (ever again, if at all possible). but. I really enjoyed his rambling rants back during the NeoGAF crap. I really thought he was a misunderstood interesting intelligent dude. He said some weird things I didn't follow or agree with (one console future comes to mind).

but now I find his silence deafening.

 

[Eric Morales]

I believe this is what qualifies as a critical failure.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

And the last nail hit Silicon's Coffin.

I didn't have a side in this case but I have to go with Epic on this one. Mostly because they made the engine which Silicon voluntarily took.

I don't really understand your reasoning.

Epic supposedly supplied an engine that didn't (yet) have all its promised features. Epic block Silicon Knights from being able to let their witnesses testify on the matter.

Epic also claim that Silicon Knights may have possibly copied code from UE3, on the basis that Silicon Knights had the code available to them when they made their own engine. And a jury, which is unlikely to be able to understand what this even means, grants Epic $4.45 million.

Okay?

The reasoning is sound. You know what other game used the Unreal Engine 3 when it just came out? Mass Effect. And that game came out a full year before Too Human. Hell, Rainbow Six Vegas came out 2 years before Too Human came out and STILL garnered critical acclaim. Silicon Knights really can't pin Too Human sucking on the engine.

 

[AxelxGabriel]

Well Eternal Darkness 2 is off the table forever now >.<

It depends on who ends up with the IP once Silicon Knights goes under (and after this it'll take some sort of miracle not to go under). The best we can hope for is for someone who actually wants to do it to get the rights, but then we're lookin at a best case scenario of a couple years before we even hear anythin about it.

Knowing our luck, it'll be EA who gets it >.<

 

[PrototypeC]

Reading this, immediate reaction: "Awh, crap"

Regardless of the situation and the questionable nature of all this, EA getting even more bloody money is a dark day for the entire industry. Moreso that one of the few great Canadian companies has to go on top of that. I don't know if I buy Silicon Knights's whole story and why they should be paid, but there's no way we should be able to look at this and go, "this is good for us in the long run". It just isn't.

Were I to reach my goal in this industry, it would still be many years from now when I'd have the pull to suggest buying the Eternal Darkness IP... unfortunate. The only possibly good thing that could come out of all this is a new company with a bit of a faster game creation cycle getting the IP and actually making a game with it. Like AxelxGabriel, I don't suppose we're that lucky... If Silent Hill has taught me anything, it's that even the most foolproof IP can still be ruined eternally by clumsy hands. Fallout 3 taught me that old IP retaken can be an amazing thing, if you can accept some on-the-surface bizarre changes, so don't give up just yet.

 

[randomsix]

I guess we'll never see Too Human 2 then, which is a shame because Too human had great potential.

(Yes I liked Too Human, get off my back!).

I agree with you 100%

This is honestly almost a big a tragedy as Advent Rising not seeing a sequel. I loved the cliff hanger both games ended on... Time to go be sad...

I see your advent rising and raise you a psi ops.

OT: I've never been the biggest fan of the unreal engine for anything that allows for three dimensional movement, but SK should have done their own research and known what they were getting into when they decided to use it.

 

[shintakie10]

Well Eternal Darkness 2 is off the table forever now >.<

It depends on who ends up with the IP once Silicon Knights goes under (and after this it'll take some sort of miracle not to go under). The best we can hope for is for someone who actually wants to do it to get the rights, but then we're lookin at a best case scenario of a couple years before we even hear anythin about it.

Knowing our luck, it'll be EA who gets it >.<

Unless an indie dev picks it up the chances of EA or Activision not pickin it up are slim at best. Its got enough fan support in order for one of them to want to snatch it up. The worry is that they don't think it'll sell well enough to do anythin outside of prevent their competitors from pickin up the IP.

 

[piinyouri]

So.....no fighting ice giants in robotic finland of the future?

*weeps silently*

 

[duchaked]

nice choice of an image for the article lol...

playing through X-Men Destiny atm and well...it's okay Silicon Knights, but for your sake hope this recent game made y'all at least a $4.45 million profit lol...

 

[Lugbzurg]

Silcon's wallet is gunna be thor tomorrow.

Well they ODIN me some money

Would you two keep your uproar down a few notches!?

. . .

Thank you. Keep it LOKI.

 

[likalaruku]

All this talk of suing for millions is making me irritated & nauseous.

 

[TheLazyGeek]

Silcon's wallet is gunna be thor tomorrow.

Well they ODIN me some money

Would you two keep your uproar down a few notches!?

. . .

Thank you. Keep it LOKI.

C'mon, please. Idunn think you should be joking about this.

 

[JediMB]

And the last nail hit Silicon's Coffin.

I didn't have a side in this case but I have to go with Epic on this one. Mostly because they made the engine which Silicon voluntarily took.

I don't really understand your reasoning.

Epic supposedly supplied an engine that didn't (yet) have all its promised features. Epic block Silicon Knights from being able to let their witnesses testify on the matter.

Epic also claim that Silicon Knights may have possibly copied code from UE3, on the basis that Silicon Knights had the code available to them when they made their own engine. And a jury, which is unlikely to be able to understand what this even means, grants Epic $4.45 million.

Okay?

The reasoning is sound. You know what other game used the Unreal Engine 3 when it just came out? Mass Effect. And that game came out a full year before Too Human. Hell, Rainbow Six Vegas came out 2 years before Too Human came out and STILL garnered critical acclaim. Silicon Knights really can't pin Too Human sucking on the engine.

You missed the point.

Too Human ended up not using UE3, because it didn't have the needed (and promised features). After paying for the engine, they ended up having to spend precious development time on creating their own instead.

While I can't speak for how good (or bad) Too Human is, its visuals are a hell of a lot more impressive than the original Mass Effect's, with an exception only for human faces, and combat looks to be a whole lot more flexible. (And Rainbow Six Vegas had rather shitty visuals too.)

I say that assuming that the claim regarding missing/promised features is true, Silicon Knights deserve compensation. If they're lying, however, they obviously don't deserve anything. But pretending that Epic are in the right simply on account of Too Human not being a good game is absurd.

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

Any of you do any independent research at all before believing every word of this? Better yet, did it even cross your mind if any of this was true, or did you just eat it all up? Of course you did. Just believe whatever someone says on an internet forum -_-.

$100 says you'd all nod along no matter what claim gets made here. The Escapist should do a little experiment to teach all the sheep here a lesson. Make up a random report that's totally untrue--say EA fired a woman for requesting an extension on her maternity leave and she is now suing them, or something. Wait for a few pages of "this is so messed up" and "I hope EA loses, hur hur." Then spring the trap and have a good laugh in their faces while reminding them all how libel is a criminal offense.

I would very much like to see it. Make it happen, Escapist.

 

[xxcloud417xx]

Silcon's wallet is gunna be thor tomorrow.

Well they ODIN me some money

Would you two keep your uproar down a few notches!?

. . .

Thank you. Keep it LOKI.

C'mon, please. Idunn think you should be joking about this.

All these puns are brining me to Tyrs.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

And the last nail hit Silicon's Coffin.

I didn't have a side in this case but I have to go with Epic on this one. Mostly because they made the engine which Silicon voluntarily took.

I don't really understand your reasoning.

Epic supposedly supplied an engine that didn't (yet) have all its promised features. Epic block Silicon Knights from being able to let their witnesses testify on the matter.

Epic also claim that Silicon Knights may have possibly copied code from UE3, on the basis that Silicon Knights had the code available to them when they made their own engine. And a jury, which is unlikely to be able to understand what this even means, grants Epic $4.45 million.

Okay?

The reasoning is sound. You know what other game used the Unreal Engine 3 when it just came out? Mass Effect. And that game came out a full year before Too Human. Hell, Rainbow Six Vegas came out 2 years before Too Human came out and STILL garnered critical acclaim. Silicon Knights really can't pin Too Human sucking on the engine.

You missed the point.

Too Human ended up not using UE3, because it didn't have the needed (and promised features). After paying for the engine, they ended up having to spend precious development time on creating their own instead.

While I can't speak for how good (or bad) Too Human is, its visuals are a hell of a lot more impressive than the original Mass Effect's, with an exception only for human faces, and combat looks to be a whole lot more flexible. (And Rainbow Six Vegas had rather shitty visuals too.)

I say that assuming that the claim regarding missing/promised features is true, Silicon Knights deserve compensation. If they're lying, however, they obviously don't deserve anything. But pretending that Epic are in the right simply on account of Too Human not being a good game is absurd.

See now your reasoning seems to be flawed here. Too Human technically still ran on the UE3 engine, just a severely modified one with "improvements" according to SK. They were contractually bound to use the engine so they had no choice but to use it.

And really Mass Effect looks a hell of a lot better visually than Too Human simply because ME actually ran smoothly. And really, your saying that Rainbow Six Vegas looked bad? That game came out 2 years before Too Human so saying it looks bad compared to it seems rather pointless. And you can't really discount my point of bringing up those two games because they used the UE3 engine and worked fine functionally, as have dozens of other games that came out before Too Human.

Epic is in the right here because SK broke the contract agreement of using the UE3 engine. SK heavily modified the engine and then named it the "Silicon Knights Engine". Most of the 4.5 million they have to pay up is reimbursing Epic for court costs. This was a frivolous lawsuit on SK's behalf.

Listen SK is a company that should have been closed down years ago. Living in Canada I can tell you that they've been surviving on literally millions of government subsidy dollars for years. It's not like they've made many reputable games since Eternal Darkness and that was 8 freaking years ago.

 

[Signa]

Silcon's wallet is gunna be thor tomorrow.

Well they ODIN me some money

Loki here, another pun.

OT: I think the worst thing about this news is it means that there will never be a chance for Too Human to redeem itself. There was a lot that the game did right, but the few things it did wrong were big deals. Given the cliff-hanger ending, it's like ending Starwars after Empire. No closure at all, right as the story started to really mean something.