Since my first rant about studios and props departments, I've since played Quake 4 and COD2. It seems that both studios are taking this to heart. Quake 4 brought to you buy the same folks that created the Elite Forces series seems to have taken at the very least design ideas from EF and used them for some of the Strogg equipment in Q4.

This is great, not that I want to see recycled props, but the more variety of objects in a world, the more realistic a world then becomes.

Compare Land Of The Dead Road to Fiddler's Green to Quake 4, it's more than Q4 having a better engine, it's the level of detail to the objects in the world, it's variety of objects in the world.

Doom was better than Wolf3d because it had serious geometrical diversity, Not just room after room with the same pile of trash in various corners.

COD2 offers the same graphical jump you expect from a version 1 to a version 2, but you can see common props, the radio being a great example, the texture looks better (though I haven't compared the two side by side) but otherwise the radio is about the same as it was in the first game, other objects are the same way, yet you've got a new and more detailed world, and clearly not having to re-create the radio saves time that can be put to other stuff.

I'd rather the time be spent in creating a compelling story, better ai, and compelling world than to recreate the same object over and over again.

Here's hope!