Having the flexibility to do capture sessions on short notice is essential to a robust and fluid animation pipeline. On previous projects where I have worked with out-of-house mocap studios, I've had to wait for weeks to get data, and then sometimes much longer before we could actually see the animations in-game. This is a huge competitive advantage for us versus development environments that need to work with out-of-house mocap studios. Once we have a move-list designed and laid out for a character, it is not uncommon to see new animations in the game within 24 hours.
Midway Chicago has an internal capture studio, so we are able to go quickly from concept to completion. For us, this has meant a strong reliance on motion-capture technology. We have been really going for top quality motion with an emphasis on realism in our animations. Sadly, the developers went bankrupt and no sequel is in sight.Ģnd playthrough: Easy Mode + Collectibles - 2h25mJason Kaehler, Animation Lead Psi-Ops presents a unique challenge from an animation standpoint. Psi-Ops, in spite of its flaws, is still an amazing experience and highly recommended. It was a tiny little bit more polished, came with a mysterious and varied soundtrack and just kept the pacing under better control. Personally, I've had a good time with this game, but Second Sight is the clear winner here, without a question. But hey, at least you have unlockable extra missions, player skins and modes so you have the encouragement to get back and invest more hours. These are no huge flaws and will not leave a sour taste in your mouth but there is also the very short length, the lack of variety in bad guys and the story being rushed and ending on a cliffhanger.
I know, for the time being, PC variants of console games weren't the greatest and the same applies to this case: background music constantly stuttering, minimal crashes and texture glitches. Now, what SS does not have is some entertaining boss fights and there is enough for Psi-Ops to stand out. Another hint at Second Sight: some puzzles await you here as well and they too don't stagnate the progress for too long. The environmental props help you fighting off your enemies quick and intuitively. Hell f*cking yeah! Psi-Ops too features amazing physics and responsive controls, allowing us to go on a rampage with style. So how are the abilities, are they fun to use and efficient enough?
And just like in Second Sight (the comparison is simply unavoidable), you regain all your elements piece by piece as you play through. An attractive blonde frees us from our cell and injects a drug to help us remember who we were and what tricks we have up our sleeve. Well, not quite.ĭespite the impactful and a technically impressive CGI intro, it starts almost the same as Second Sight, with our protagonists isolated somewhere and his mind wiped. It was meant to be a fast and action-packed blockbuster with cool psychic powers and I'd say they succeeded at the formula. One of such projects was Psi-Ops and just like Second Sight, it's been released in 2004, only a few months earlier. Stranglehold, The Suffering, Mortal Kombat, you name it. The company known for working on rather short but highly entertaining titles.