Folks, you have to check this out. TechBoyJK posted it in the other thread - it's the "beyond 3.0" demo. Stick with it - the first ten minutes is nothing, then there's another fifteen minutes of Roberts talking (I was working and paying next to no attention to it), and then they finally get started with a demo. The graphics and scope are simply amazing. Frankly one of my concerns was that such a long development cycle would inevitably make the graphics look outdated. Well, even if the game takes another five years to come to market, if they can deliver playable rates with these graphics I'll be well satisfied. The level of detail is great, and the scope is completely amazing. Obviously the choice of Cryengine was no mistake - this scales absolutely beautifully from very intimate human scale to world scale.
This also eased my mind on the likelihood that this whole thing will crash and burn due to Roberts running out of cash, or being released in half-assed form like Duke Nukem to recoup some losses. I don't think Roberts is going to have a problem raising additional money as needed. Worse case, if Roberts folds then someone else will surely pick this up. It's that good. The flying (and damage) physics are still kinda arcadish, but definitely acceptable; I suspect they represent a compromise between realism and ease of use. The Poop-o-meter has apparently not yet been implemented - or maybe that's a popup rather than a GUI meter.
But overall, it's very playable.
They also display some of their tools for world creation. Frankly, I thought their previous creation tools demo was absolutely pathetic. These are completely different. This isn't creating some rudimentary barren "world" with a big cartoon crab - in mere minutes, they create the infrastructure of a cohesive, living heavily populated world. In just a couple minutes, they have a world that supports a quick flyover, but they also have tools (some still in development) to populate the interior. Even without specific quest & content creation, one can travel around the city (indeed, the world) via public transportation and gawk at buildings, billboards, etc. Or simply fly over it. The terrain generator is much, much better as well, so sparsely populated worlds can also be made interesting in a relatively short period of time. The procedurally generated areas definitely look procedurally generated, but they are undoubtedly better than any procedurally generated terrain areas I've seen before. These tools are definitely licensable, if Roberts wants or needs to do so.
This is a framework onto which they could deliver more initial content than a Fallout 4 or Oblivion, and yet could easily release additional content for years, not only in big chunks (planets, systems) but also in content & quest packs, since they will already have the basic framework and infrastructure in place. There is a HUGE amount of detail here, and if Roberts can recreate this with a week (or a month, or three months!) of developer and/or artist time for each system, he's going to be an extremely wealthy man indeed.
Assuming there is a single player component, this will definitely be a buy for me. This definitely changed me from a skeptic to a believer. The last release convinced me that Roberts truly intended to release a game. This convinces me that he CAN release a game. And barring any unforeseen events, that he WILL release a game. It's that good. Can't say I'm a Roberts fanboy yet - but I can no longer say I'm NOT a Roberts fanboy either.
https://www.twitch.tv/starcitizen/clips