Tom Clancy's EndWar

13th April 2008, 10:03 am by whtan2000

Evolution

A game can change a lot between when development first begins and when it heads out the door to be shipped to a game store near you. Units often evolve from one form to another. It's a common occurrence in game development and Tom Clancy's EndWar is no exception.

A Tale of Two Gunships

Today we're going to take a look at two helicopter gunships from EndWar. The first is the AH-80 Blackfoot used by the Joint Strike Force (JSF). Below is a piece of concept art for the original design of this unit. As you can see it looks very similar to the RAH-66 Comanche. The Comanche is a cool stealthy chopper, but the EndWar team felt it was overexposed and overused in games and film. Not only that, but the Comanche program was cancelled back in 2004 so it really didn't fit as a "future" attack chopper. As a result, this design was scrapped.




The team decided to go with a newer; more futuristic design for the JSF gunship while still retaining some basic elements of the original. This new Blackfoot is based in part on various experimental Canard Rotor/Wing (CR/W) UAVs while still retaining some characteristics of the original design. This resulted in an more futuristic aircraft that fits in perfectly with the futuristic setting of EndWar.




The PAH-6 Cheetah used by the European Federation Enforcer Corps underwent a similar evolution. As you can see below the original design was just too similar to the current Eurocopter Tiger. Again, the Tiger is a fine aircraft, but definitely not futuristic enough for EndWar.





It was replaced with a new design that is actually a mish-mash of various European attack choppers blended with a few elements from
sci-fi vehicles. One bit of influence is from the 1980's TV show, Airwolf. This is where the Cheetah gets its long, sleek look. There is no one helicopter which the Cheetah is based on, this makes it one of the more unique designs in the game. Of particular note are the turreted rocket pods.





That's all for today's entry. Next week we'll take a look at some of the small arms of EndWar which didn't make the cut and get a closer look at the assault rifle used by the JSF. Till then, this is Li C. Kuo, the Community Developer for EndWar, signing off.

*As always, you can head to www.endwargame.com for more info on Tom Clancy's EndWar.

source : http://blogs.ign.com/Ubisoft_EndWar/

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