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Why Robin Makes Batman Better The least sinister Lex Luthor of all time (including Gene Hackman) has got himself another video game voice over gig, as actor Michael Rosenbaum is announced as the voice of Hayden Tenno, the cold-blooded protagonist of Digital Extremes Dark Sector. No stranger to VO work, Rosebaum has provided voices for Jackie Chan Adventures, Justice League, Static Shock, and Batman Beyond, as well as video game roles in Gladius and Yakuza. “We are thrilled to work with Mr. Rosenbaum on Dark Sector,” said Suzanne Sutton, PR and Marketing Manager for D3PE. “His experience in portraying tormented characters on-screen translates incredibly well to the tortured character of Hayden Tenno in Dark Sector, a true anti-hero who makes no excuses for his actions.”
Sutton of course is referring to Rosenbaum’s darkest role, Adina in Sorority Girls. Still can’t believe he didn’t see Oscar gold that year.
I was not very impressed with Dark Sector when I briefly checked it out at the Tokyo Game Show earlier this year. This video almost makes me want to give it a second chance… almost.
As you can see above, it’s obvious that they share similarities – the white/black duotone; the menacing stance; the even more menacing bladed weapon… you get the picture. Heck, you can see it.
Ignoring the fact that I had to flip the Dark Sector art for symmetry, if someone told me the same art director had been behind both pieces, I’d probably believe them.
What do you reckon?
One of our tipsters sent us a link to GamingSA’s story on Digital Extremes’ Dark Sector, which was being demoed at eGames. I’ll be posting my own impressions this week, but I just wanted to address an error in the story.
Dark Sector, being developed by Digital Extremes, was one of the first … next-generation titles to use the Unreal Engine 3 many years ago, and the first next to Unreal Tournament 3 to make use of the UE3 on PlayStation 3.
Sorry, no. Dark Sector runs on a proprietary engine. That’s straight from DE’s Meridith Braun, who I had the pleasure of speaking to at length when she showed off a video of the game during a promo event for Pariah. Peter Silver from D3Publisher also confirmed this fact again yesterday.
I can understand how you might confuse it with Unreal Engine 3, especially when you consider DE’s close ties with Epic, but it’s definitely the company’s own hard work. I suppose DE could take GamingSA’s comment as a compliment.
EGAMES EXPO – Dark Sector demonstration [GamingSA]
I had about 15 minutes to play around with D3 Publisher’s Dark Sector today and while I loved having the ability to arbitrarily and capriciously lop off limbs and heads with a Krull-like throwing blade, the shaky controls and spastic graphics just killed the game for me.
When not in motion, or under any taxing special effects, the graphics aren’t really that bad. In fact, I initially kind of liked the look of the game. But once I started taking fire and jumping stuff, things nose-dived. In one scene I dropped down from a ledge, at the request of the game, and the animation showed my character float out off the ledge and then drop straight down, his legs never really bending. When explosions hit near the character the entire screen turns red, I don’t mean like a red tint or a blood effect, I mean an ugly red that blanks out the entire screen.
Hold it right there, buster! Cross platform third-person-shooter Dark Sector developer Digital Extremes is claiming that its criticism of the Unreal Engine 3 was taken way out of context. Word has it that Digital Extremes picked its own custom engine due to alleged problems with Epic’s Unreal Engine 3. In an interview with Australian website Gameplayer, Dark Sector director Steve Sinclair said this: A lot of promises were made about the Unreal 3 Engine, particularly on PS3. But as we see now, the time frames haven’t been met and now a lot of games using it are being held up.
To which Digital Extremes were taken out of context within the conversation. How do you take a quote like that out of context? CEO James Schmalz now says:
Anyone for more Epic/Unreal Engine dirt? Yeah, me too. Love a good soap opera. The latest plot twist comes from Dark Sector devs Digital Extremes. Specifically, game director Steve Sinclair: A lot of promises were made about the Unreal III engine, particularly on PS3. But as we see now, the time frames haven’t been met and now a lot of games using it are being held up.
Not nice words. Especially when you consider that Digital Extremes are old-school Epic fanboys, using older versions of the Unreal Engine on Pariah and Unreal Championship. The plot thickens. Dark Sector Hands-On [Gameplayer]
