Video la Republic

Republic has been in development for as long as anyone can remember, and the hype surrounding the title (including talk of a graphics engine capable of handling an infinite number of polygons and an entire city modelled right down to individual flower petals) has been frankly ludicrous. Some of the more sceptical amongst us were beginning to doubt that the game was anything more than a cynical ploy to reduce the bank balances of gullible venture capitalists.

Hopefully any lingering doubts can be put to rest by the release this week of a new video featuring some two and a half minutes of what purports to be actual in-game footage. Included are impressive swooping shots over the city rooftops demonstrating the grandiose architecture and the vast size of the game world, with a minimum of polygon popping visible as the game engine adjusts the detail level in the distance. There are also scenes showing (sometimes violent) interaction between characters, a military parade, and the city's power station in the rain. The city still has a somewhat washed out look, and texture detail is sparse for the most part, but there are at least some real time shadows now, something which has been noticeably absent from previous screenshots of the game.

To judge for yourself whether Republic is living up to the hype, download the trailer, which is now available right here on EuroGamer courtesy of our friends at the blueyonder multiplayer gaming service. Both high (48Mb) and low (27Mb) quality versions of the trailer are available. To view the high quality trailer you will need the DivX codec, which you can find here. Both versions of the trailer must be download to view them - you can't stream them from the server. If you have any problems, try right clicking on the link and select "save target as".