DICE Denies Battlefield Heroes TF2 Rip-Off Claims

[[MyIS]Spawndemon]

In an article posted over on VideoGamer (http://www.videogamer.com/), DICE discusses the claims against BFH being a rip-off of TF2. Take a look:

Speaking to VideoGamer.com in an interview at an EA Games label event in London today, Ben Cousins, executive producer at DICE, responded directly to those who have claimed the game looks too similar to Valve's team multiplayer first-person shooter TF2, saying: "Those guys aren't artists."

He said: "If you asked our art director he would point out probably 200 differences in the art style between our game and Team Fortress. There are only two cartoony shooters out there and those are the two. If there were 50 cartoony shooters out there we wouldn't be having this discussion. No one says that Battlefield: Bad Company's ripping off Call of Duty because it's realistic."

Cousins revealed that DICE considered changing Heroes' art style from cartoony to realistic as more Team Fortress 2 details emerged, but decided to continue with its original design.

He added: "We developed our art style in January 2007. At that point there were very little images out there from Team Fortress. As more details about Team Fortress came out we said 'well there's a similarity here because we're both cartoony, shall we change and go realistic again?'. But no we decided we wanted to keep going. The alternative would have been another gritty, realistic WW2 game and everyone's fed up with those. We really believe in our style and we're just going to go ahead and do it."

To check out the original source for this article, click here (http://www.videogamer.com/news/25-04-2008-8133.html).

[Alex98uk]

Well said!

[xXSniper1432Xx]

According to my Games for Windows Magazine, DICE had this kind of game planned way before tf2 was shipped. They said they were thinking about this since BF1942 was shipped.

[|D|-Jaws]

-edited by Jaws

[Alex98uk]

So you agree with idiocy? You agree that Valve aren't artists? Because DICE just basically fired the first shot at DICE for no reason.

No... you mis-understand. They are saying the people who compare the two aren't artists. An artist would tell you lots of differences between the two, they are not saying Valve aren't artists... :rolleyes:

"DICE, responded directly to those who have claimed the game looks too similar to Valve's team multiplayer first-person shooter TF2,"

[|D|-Jaws]

No... you mis-understand. They are saying the people who compare the two aren't artists. An artist would tell you lots of differences between the two, they are not saying Valve aren't artists... :rolleyes:

"DICE, responded directly to those who have claimed the game looks too similar to Valve's team multiplayer first-person shooter TF2,"

Ok, I can go with that. I'll edit my post to reflect the same. Sorry about having to use the Queen's english.

So how do they know that the critics are NOT artists? I guess normal people are not allowed to make comparisons.:rolleyes:

[Alex98uk]

Hehe, because if they were artists, they probably wouldn't say they are the same :D

Ah, i'm just pointing out what i understand

I didn't mean to use the :rolleyes: smily to ill effect

[Copy_of_Blah]

"If you asked our art director he would point out probably 200 differences in the art style between our game and Team Fortress."

Corner any artist that's using others' assets or styling and ask him/her what makes his unique and you'll get about 200+ differences. Add that to the fact that they are on a payroll and what do you end up with?

But who cares anyway? BFH isn't a big deal. It's an interesting concept and it looks to be coming out before the Quake Live or Fallen Empire: Legions- but other than that, it doesn't seem like much.

[Alex98uk]

True, who cares if it's a slight copy. If it is good, i'll play it :)

[|D|-Jaws]

Hehe, because if they were artists, they probably wouldn't say they are the same :D

Ah, i'm just pointing out what i understand

I didn't mean to use the :rolleyes: smily to ill effect


It's ok, I have very thick skin. ;)

In any case, I think that responding or any response just adds fuel to the fire. If TF2 were released AFTER BF:H, then the tables would be turned. Alot of this is because spatially, they are very close to eachother.

I don't feel that TF2 is cel shaded. I find that it is more of a CG animation like you see in Pixar films. BF:H seems to be more in the cel shaded arena. They are very different styles but because TF2 came out first...people will compare it to that. It's more about ripping off an idea rather than a style imo. As for cel shaded FPS games, Warsow has been around for a couple of years and it's cel shaded. Good game as well.

BF1942 Concepts is also really cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXirgwyK2BY

[Rhino]

Even if it was a rip off, which it aint, who gives a damn? Inspiration is out there, no matter where inspiration comes from, inspiration is only a good thing epically for the games industry! I'm sure the developers of BFH have had a lot of inspiration from games like TF2 but that has only helped them make there work better. I'm sure DICE have had this concept of a cartoon BF floating around for some time as well, just has not been put into action until now.

[Sir. Tasty]

Its free. nuff said.

[AeroTow]

They are both cel shaded but thats where the similarity ends. Even the colours are different, i would say BF:H has more vibrant colours.

[GrossKopf]

From the screenshots I've seen, BFH's graphic quality isn't anywhere NEAR TF2's quality, to if EA ripped it off, they did a bad job.

[xXSniper1432Xx]

Its free. nuff said.

Ditto. :thumbsup:

[CenturionWarrior]

Customization of the characters is the best feature other than the game being free.

[Alex98uk]

If every character is different, when your looking across the Battlefield, how do you know who is on your side?

I mean, in BF2, name tags don't appear on distant players.

[iQu'e]

Royal army players can only have a brown-ish look while National army players can only wear black clothes. Still annoying :D

But you get used to it (it was damn annoying getting used to the 8 different skins in CS 1.6, with the crap graphics that game has)

[Chris_Redfield]

Anyone who wants to take this guy seriously needs to check this line out-

"No one says that Battlefield: Bad Company's ripping off Call of Duty because it's realistic."

Mhm, last time I checked BFBC Beta videos, it was UT with Molle vests and leather combat shoes.

[|D|-Jaws]

They are both cel shaded but thats where the similarity ends. Even the colours are different, i would say BF:H has more vibrant colours.

They are not both cel shaded. Team Fortress 2 uses illustrative shading.

http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2007/NPAR07_IllustrativeRenderingInTeamFortress2.pdf

[Vash2051]

True, who cares if it's a slight copy. If it is good, i'll play it :)

Why fix what isn't broken right?

[Alex98uk]

Why fix what isn't broken right?

Bingo :thumbsup:

[vfn4i83]

EA/DICE is just geting a ride into the succes of TF2, like it did at ET:Quake Wars and DCon.

[Sir. Dosedmonkey]

They said they were thinking about this since BF1942 was shipped.

Well that's a blatent non-truth there.

I see this just as a back peddle in a website interview. There are similarities between the games graphical style, I think most people have accepted that and are just waiting for the released product, but theres plenty of new non-cartoon world war 2 games such as Company of Heroes that are doing very well, and to say that there are lots of 'realistic' ones is different to saying non-cartoon styled.

But mostly this article just makes me think some people can't take a little bit of comparison, it's not even criticism. We've already seen some DICE people have a good sense of humour as they posted on their own website then Heroes/TF2 photoshop joke.

So yeah, lets just look forward to another game to play, wether it looks realistic like many games before or cartoony like a few games before. :laugh:

[Alex98uk]

But mostly this article just makes me think some people can't take a little bit of comparison, it's not even criticism. We've already seen some DICE people have a good sense of humour as they posted on their own website then Heroes/TF2 photoshop joke.


Actually, there have been a lot of people on websites, including this one automatically claiming the game will be bad because it's a TF2 rip off. So, like any decent dev company, they gave their own opinion.

Rep for doing it :)

[drunet]

But no we decided we wanted to keep going. The alternative would have been another gritty, realistic WW2 game and everyone's fed up with those.

I beg to differ with that guy here - I think if you look at it - people have been screaming for a bf1942 remake for quite some time. I for one would be all for it. The good old days of bf1942/DC will always be missed.

[Alex98uk]

I beg to differ with that guy here - I think if you look at it - people have been screaming for a bf1942 remake for quite some time. I for one would be all for it. The good old days of bf1942/DC will always be missed.

This forum represents a very small percentage of Battlefield players.

I'm glad they had the balls to try something different!