More Articles on Korea: Forgotten Conflict
Korea: Forgotten Conflict - New MediaKorea: Forgotten Conflict FeatureTVG Reveals Korea: Forgotten ConflictLatest Features
Gears Of War 2 - Cliff Bleszinski Q&AStar Wars: Clone Wars Q&AFable 2: The Molyneux InterviewTom Clancy's HAWX Q&AFootball Manager 2009 - Q&AUser Reviews
There are currently 0 User Reviews for Korea: Forgotten ConflictWrite your own review for this game today and you will receive 100 Gamer Points.
Click here to register
Korea: Forgotten Conflict Feature Feature
Stephen Leyton
16/12/2002
We sit down with Plastic Reality to discuss this new RTS/Action title coming to Xbox and PC later next year.
Cenega, the Czech based publisher who have already one of the most eagerly awaited titles for 2003 in Shade: Wrath of Angels, is building up their 2003 release schedule with a 3D RTS/Action title based around the Korean War. Coming from Eastern block developers Plastic Reality Technologies, this will be available on both PC and Xbox.
Taking on the role of the Commander of a group of five military specialists (a medic, a demolition expert, a sniper, a scout, and you) you will face fifteen missions of action and tactical conflict spread over five campaigns.
Have you the guile to survive? We spoke to two of the development team, Michael Lekovski, game designer, and lead programmer, Petr Smilek, to get a fuller insight on Korea: Forgotten Conflict, released in the second half of 2003.
Q: What has the team done before either collectively or individually?
Previously we developed a budget logic puzzle game, LocoCommotion, for Take2Interactive about two years ago. Sold as Toytrains, it was a success, especially in Germany. The player had to solve more than 50 puzzles and create new levels.
Q: Why develop a game based on the Korean War? Did this conflict give you more scope than WW2 or other wars? How have you researched the game?
From the very beginning we wanted to bring gamers a top rated game from a very attractive surrounding and we soon realised that we could use the Korean conflict, which happened only five years after WW2 so this was the perfect choice. In our endeavours to get it looking and playing right (authentically) we have collected a large amount of material and started to study this war and today we can make the statement that the here year long Korean War was a bloody conflict which turned into a conflict called the “Cold War“ - a kind of war between democracy and totality. To design a game inspired by such a historical event is very inspiring.
The game perspective seems somewhat unusual. Explain why you chose this 'fish eye' view as opposed to the traditional views found in strategy games. Do you not think that there is a chance of alienating players with this perspective?
We do not think so. For example, in Commandos the player has only one possibility to set a camera view. In Commandos 2 the player may rotate the camera 90 degree, in interiors rotation is 360 degree. Why? To provide the player real joy and better feeling in the game. Our technology allows us much more. In Korea: Forgotten Conflict you may look behind the corner of the building without being disorientated by rotation of the scene in 90 degree. The player may zoom without decrease of graphic quality, etc.
The player who would like to completely use all advantages of 3D technology should play Korea: Forgotten Conflict. If the player is more conservative, he may set the camera's characteristics, which are according to his needs and imagination, of monitoring the battlefield
Q: What do you believe this game offers the strategy player above what they are used to (apart from the setting)? What makes Korea stand out in a crowded market?
Forgotten Conflict provides an unusual setting, one that has so far been dismissed, which will surprise the player with its diversity. New and different weapons (unavailable in WW2), the first use of jet aircraft in conflict, along with operation of secret services and Special Forces. The surroundings offer the player a variety of locales. For example, the war-torn city of Seoul, the airfield of An Tung, which currently serves as a base for modern Mig15, or the debarkation of allied forces by Inchon. Korea: Forgotten Conflict brings new technology, has fantastic graphic and great playability. What wish you more?
Q: Who do you assume at the start? Do you have a choice of starting characters? What are your main objective and sub objectives?
For each mission lead officers will choose members of the commando team. Each character may be also chosen by the player himself. The player, through the briefings, will realise that, for instance, in next mission he will need an expert for demolition tasks. So he has a possibility to choose his best character. Each mission has some primary and secondary tasks, which means that during the action the tasks may change. The player himself, according to his tactic, ability and cleverness may choose variety of solutions. Of course, the rating may be even better by achieving of the bonus tasks.
Q: What is the make-up of your squad? How are they replaced if killed? Do they have individual attributes? If so, what are they?
Members of the Commando are replaceable. It depends on the type of mission. Sometimes it may happen that if a particular member of the Commando dies, the game is over. In this feature the game is similar to Commandos. The question of inclusion of RPG features has not been solved yet and we are presently thinking of ways to do it. But now itās clear that the player will face unique characters, not anonymous soldiers.
Q: How realistic is it? Do you use any 'developer license' in regards to gameplay? E.g. does a character die by a single shot, etc (how many detection points does a character have)?
The soldier may be killed by one shot, if the soldier uses an adequate gun. The detailed surrounding is a great help for the player. The member of the Commando may hide in a bush and stay undiscovered by enemies standing very close to him. When itās raining, aiming will be reduced due to poor visibility and other factors.
Q: Tell us a bit about your 3D engine. What will be discernable to the end user with this engine?
In Korea: Forgotten Conflict, we use the new Typhoon engine (the XReality Engine was heavily re-designed into the new Typhoon engine, which is better suited for large outdoor environments) with the following features:
· very detailed 3D graphics, engine pushes up to 500,000 triangles per frame.
· highly detailed dynamic shadows.
· dynamic lighting.
· flexible weighted animation blending system.
· multitexturing (lightmaps, detailmaps, etc.).
· special vegetation rendering system (grass, bushes,ā¦).
· state of the art particle systems.
· extensive LOD support.
· advanced physics system.
· support of vertex shaders for character animation and vegetation (trees, grass) animation.
· support of pixel shaders for advanced terrain texture synthesis.
· full 3D motion planning (navigation meshes) for excellent AI path planning.
Q:Are there any differences between the PC and Xbox versions? Are you developing the console version?
The differences will be applicable to each machine. We will strive to get the best out of both the Xbox and PC and will not view any of the formats as a port. We will develop both formats.
Q: What weapons, equipment is available? Are they real world weapons? How are these gained?
All weapons are real, according to time and use. In Korea: Forgotten Conflict the player will encounter at least 50 different types of guns and vehicles, including aircraft and helicopters. The player will be able to use a variety of equipment, including pistols, guns, machine-guns, flame thrower, anti-tank guns, etc.
Q: How diverse are the missions? How many are there and what environments do they take place over?
As mentioned above, the player will fight in a variety of surroundings such as streets of Seoul, join the debarkation by Inchon or capture a modern model of enemy aircraft from a Chinese airfield. The Korean environments are varied and the player will spend many hours of engrossment. The game consists 15 missions divided into 5 campaigns, which follow key events of the Korean War and total time of play will be around 50 hours. Variability of solutions and achievement of bonus tasks will provide a longer time of play.
More on this early next year
