Before we kick things off, I have some homework for you. Don't worry, you'll enjoy it:

Check out the TeamFortress Heavy Weapons Guy Trailer!

Yeah, and go ahead and download it at full resolution, so you can watch it big and beautiful on your widescreen monitor. Don't stream a grungy pixelly low-res picture from YouTube, no, get it at full resolution and look at it in all its glory because we're going to be looking at the details. Watch that sucker. (I've watched it a dozen times and it still makes me laugh). Then watch it again! And again. Now that you're over it, do me a favor and watch it again -- this time, look at the many faces of the Heavy Weapons Guy. Watch how you can read his thoughts and emotions. You can almost see him thinking. See what I'm saying?


I would go so far as to say that Valve's character and facial expression technology is as advanced as any Hollywood movie studio -- yep, as good as Pixar or Dreamworks. It's even more of a technical marvel, because it's designed to render in realtime. I think this video backs me up. Stylistically, it's pretty compelling: not really photorealistic, but rather like reality caricatured. His hands are enormous and his neck is a wedge. The Heavy Weapons Guy speaks with every movement and every thought exaggerated and telegraphed, but he looks good.


Last week I wrote at length about storytelling in games, commenting on the various techniques for getting a story across in the midst of gameplay. I didn't go into detail about the specific nuts and bolts of, say, creating good characters, but what you're seeing here is a great tool for the job. It's not like this guy is written to be all that deep or emotionally conflicted, but we gamers nonetheless form an attachment to him because his personality is so strongly defined with his animations and human expressions. "Some people think they can outsmart me," he says, his eyes peering off into the distance. Then he gets all philosophical. Deep in thought. The gears are turning, but we can't hear what he's working through in his head. "Maybe," he admits -- this is a guy who knows his limitations. "Maybe."

It's ironic for Valve to showcase this technology with TeamFortress 2, a game that basically has no story whatsoever. Some red guys and some blue guys are apparently deeply involved in a war that for some reason involves flags. I can only speculate. Yep, the action in TeamFortress isn't ever going to stop for soliloquies! But I have to think Valve realized that the TeamFortress characters, with their ridiculous proportions, made for a perfect technology demo.

Some of the best character rendering tech on the planet? I'm sold. And, you know, as a side benefit, I'm even more excited about TeamFortress 2 -- if that's even possible.

      -Fargo

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