Evolve by Turtle Rock Studios

On February 12 2014 07:04 KobraKay wrote:
Looks cool. But as with almost any game that comes out these days..MP only right? God I must be getting old. I play to have fun, if I want to talk to people and shit I pick up the phone and arrange something.

God damn....

Evolve Expected To Receive Graphical Parity For PC, PS4 & Xbox One
In “Downplaying expectations of PC performance” news, it looks like the developers of upcoming game Evolve, created by Turtle Rock Studios (Left 4 Dead, Counter-strike: Condition Zero), will achieve graphical parity across the PC, PS4 and the Xbox One. This is according to an interview with Official Xbox Magazine US, in which they make some truly perplexing statements.

Phil Robb of the development studio:



They are still working on hitting that magical 1080p resolution and 60 FPS throughout each version of Evolve, however, but it is, “Too early to start making those sorts of promises.”

I say that these statements are perplexing because they just don’t make sense. Whether it is the PS4 or Xbox One; neither of them are nearly close to capable of reaching the graphic fidelity of a PC built when any of Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo’s recent consoles were released.

It shouldn’t even be necessary to remind readers that there massive differences in the capabilities of the consoles alone. The PS4, while still lagging behind against expensive PC’s, still greatly outshines its competition in terms of its GPU TFLOP/s and system memory (plus memory speed). Pretending that there are no differences between any of the consoles themselves, let alone between consoles and PC’s themselves, is disrespectful to the consumer’s intelligence.

This means that Evolve will look pretty much the same across all platforms for no reason other than to make somebody happy. Whether it is Microsoft, Sony, the publishers at 2K Games, or the development studio themselves; it sets up a circumstance in which the game’s fans on at least one of its released platforms are not going to be happy. Especially if their version would be capable of hitting 1080p and/or 60 FPS if it weren’t for graphical parity.

Evolve looks to be released on the PC, PS4 and Xbox One in Autumn this year.

Evolve preview: We have a new co-op champion
There's something in those trees... and it's monstrously good.


When the makers of Left 4 Dead say they've made a new multiplayer game, there are two ways to read it. On the one hand, whatever Turtle Rock studios do to avoid falling into the trap of reiterating the Xbox 360's hugely successful co-op zombie romp is immediately interesting - this isn't Left 4 Dead 3, this is something new.

But the second reading is more interesting: a new multiplayer game. Not just a new title, but a whole new spin on how we think about playing with others. Something as new and revolutionary as Left 4 Dead was when it ran screaming onto 360 and PC back in 2008, waving its arms, gurgling blood and flipping established multiplayer right onto its smug, complacent face. It's a massive claim. But is it one that the studio's new four-vs-one alien hunter can really deliver on?

Well, yes. We think it is.
...

Turtle Rock isn't entirely over its past flirtations with free-to-play for Evolve
Evolve developers Turtle Rock looked at going down the free-to-play path under THQ in its early stages of development, but while its new publisher, 2K, believes it will "shine brightest as a triple A title," senior producer Mike Boccieri told Polygon at a press event in Sydney last week, it "never says never."

"That is not going to change down the track, well, we never say never about almost anything," he said "But that's not anything that we have in the immediate horizon."
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Evolve: The Influence of Dota 2 and League of Legends
Everything comes down to characters.

During IGN’s first hands-on with Turtle Rock’s Evolve, I couldn’t help but draw parallels to Dota 2, League of Legends, and other MOBA influences. Characters have unique skills, complex gameplay relationships with each other that breed different strategies, and distinct roles within pre-defined classes.

This is, of course, by design.

“We realized from Dota, when you see this character, you understand what that character is capable of,” said Chris Ashton, design director and co-founder at Turtle Rock. “There’s still a whole s**t-ton of player skill involved, but that’s a huge understanding.”

In the instance of the Medic class, there are numerous variants of the same general role. Some are assault, some are stealthy, but they’re always healing. “If you pick the one that’s stealthy, I know what you’re going to do, to some degree, and I know as a teammate how to play off of that,” Ashton explained. “That became huge in the characters. It meant, too, later on, if we want to add more characters, it’s a very nice package.”

This is the direct result of early design problems in the inventory, which caused players to become overwhelmed by the amount of equippable weapons and gear.

“Originally we had no classes, and we had only four characters, and you had just a massive array of weapons and equipment,” Ashton said. “Even if we have a progression system which unlocks one at a time, at the end of the day there’s still a lot of gear.”

The development team needed to build an innate sense of cooperative play into its characters to combat Evolve’s potentially problematic variety. “If you take a medgun then I need to know that, because I don’t want to take a medgun, I want to do something else,” Ashton said. “Players can’t back themselves into a corner.”

League of Legends and Dota 2 both present similar options. Each player's particular character has something that makes them vital to success. Evolve, more so than most MOBAs, makes it easier to guarantee everyone has the right tools, regardless of skill, that will benefit their team.

“If you can make a bad decision in our game, if you can lose before the game starts, we’ve made a mistake. That’s where the characters came from.”

Evolve
Evolve Hands-On: What You Need To Know About Playing As The Monster

On April 17 2014 05:57 rebuffering wrote:
This game looks beast! Cant wait! I cant seem to find a release date tho, either im looking in the wrong place, or they haven't announced yet?

Evolve coming to PC, PS4 and Xbox One Oct. 21


Turtle Rock Studios' cooperative-competitive shooter Evolve will be released globally on Oct. 21 for PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One, publisher 2K Games announced today.

Evolve pits a team of four hunters, each with their own skills and specialties, against a giant, player-controlled monster in multiplayer mortal combat on a deadly alien world. The four-against-one game is in development at Turtle Rock, original creators of Left 4 Dead.

2K is offering a pre-order incentive for Evolve called the Monster Expansion Pack. It will include the Savage Goliath skin for one of the game's giant monsters, as well as a new monster character that will be released after Evolve ships in October.

For more on Evolve, read Polygon's hands-on impressions of the game's original four classes and the Goliath monster.

I had a terrible time playing Evolve, and now I can't wait to buy it

I had the worst experience playing Evolve at E3.

The game seems wonderful. The act of teaming up with three other people and jumping from your ship onto an alien planet and hunting what amounts to a Godzilla-style monster that's also player-controlled is amazing. The fact it's coming from the team that brought us Left 4 Dead gives me even more confidence that the final product will be a game that's enjoyable for the long term. It's a very impressive game visually.

But I didn't have fun playing it. This may have something to do with the fact that our medic was a complete muppet. He decided to pull aggro from some random wildlife on the planet, and was promptly killed. "Maybe stay with your team?" the PR person helpfully said.

"Can someone help the medic?" the same PR person asked in a tired voice later. "He's being eaten by a plant."