By Jeff Bond on September 4, 2013 at 3:45pm
It's time to rewind back to PS2 days as more details emerge about the development of a new "TimeSplitters" game.
"TimeSplitters Rewind" is a collection of maps, weapons, and characters from the three previous "TimeSplitters" games. The title has approximately 35 part-time developers working on it and is powered by "CryEngine 3." There's just one problem: they don't have the blessing of Crytek, not yet at least.
Without that blessing, the game would most likely never see a retail release. The developers are reportedly working on obtaining approval in order to make this all a reality.
We're actually going to go ahead and start development on PlayStation 4. Just because we're pretty confident Crytek's going to say go ahead and do it. But we don't want them saying go ahead and do it when we're caught with our pants down and we're like halfway through development and start something for the PlayStation 4.
[S]ince they released the SDK to allow us to do this, we're going to go ahead and do it ourselves, and when they say 'yes' or 'no,' we can decide what to do with that. For now we're just going to go ahead and do it. So at least we're prepared
The game is roughly 20 percent complete already and right on track for an alpha release later on this year. The plan for the time being seems to be to release additional parts of the game such as characters, maps, and weapons as they become available.
One of the main issues that fans are wondering about is split-screen support: "CryEngine 3" doesn't have any. The game has always been about split screen co-op and four-player action. Without it, the game veers far off course from its roots as a fantastic local multiplayer game.
After all the recent media attention, Michael Hubicka, the project manager for "TimeSpliters Rewind," even stopped by reddit's /r/games to do a brief AMA. Here are some takeaways: They are developing for both PC and PS4, which will include support for cross-platform play so both platforms can play with each other; server admins can allow/restrict any platform. They have reached out to Microsoft but have received no response yet. "TimeSplitters" will also include traditional game modes such as "Virus" and "Flame Tag," and there will still be trophy challenges; they're even adding some of their own challenges. Assuming they get approval from Crytek, the plan is to release on all platforms simultaneously, with multiplayer allowing up to 64 players per server.
Split-screen currently isn't implemented because the focus is on the PC side right now, and there's no good way to do that. The PS4 version will have split-screen play. There are plans to allow modding, a soundtrack will include both original and new community made music. There will be bots, new maps, new modes, and even possible new characters.
Official Site Cinema Blend Polygon reddit /r/Games AMA
