By Jim Rossignol on June 20th, 2008 at 8:11 am.
The new Brothers In Arms game is looking rather good. In fact it’s one of the FPS games for 2008 that I am most looking forward to. There was something simplistic-yet-deep about the previous games, and so I’m hoping that Hell’s Highway can deliver the same kind of crouching-behind-a-tractor intensity that made the first game so compelling. This time, however, that tractor, or fence, or pile of sandbags might not be so static: the new Brothers In Arms game features massively destructible scenery. Bricks will shatter, fences with splinter, and stuff will go all Physics when grenades explode nearby. You can check it all out in the trailer after the jump.
Nazi go boom. But will there be decent co-op? Hmm.
20/06/2008 at 08:44 windlab says:
Nice graphics, I wonder if you can be hurt/killed by falling debris and flying shrapnel.
20/06/2008 at 09:14 Gap Gen says:
Spot the Medieval 2 menu-button-press sound effect at the end.
20/06/2008 at 09:32 Chaz says:
Very nice indeed, I’m really looking forward to this one.
20/06/2008 at 09:50 C0nt1nu1ty says:
splodes? distorying stuff? Why do I get the feeling I’m in Company of Heroes but as a grunt this time?
Anyway I’d like to see them implement some kind of Light tank rams buildings and makes walls fall off kinda action, that would be awesome.
20/06/2008 at 10:00 feffrey says:
I never got into the BIA games. Are they better than the COD series (not 4 of course).
20/06/2008 at 10:21 C0nt1nu1ty says:
Better or worse is a bit difficult to say, I’d say….different.
Whereas the COD games are very refined traditional FPSs BIA tend towards a sorta tactical hybrid especially as there is no cross-hair (you literally have to look down the sights).
The majority of game situations are designed to be more realistic (you can get killed really easily, guns are not that accurate etc) and rely heavily on tactics, using troops and lots and lots of flanking manoeuvres.
Some people love it some people not so much, depends if you want run and gun or if you want something a bit more tactical
20/06/2008 at 10:34 Jim Rossignol says:
Yeah, I think I like BiA so much simply because they aren’t really comparable with traditional FPS games. Having to command fireteams and use cover really makes a big difference to how you respond during play. It’s much more intense than most FPS games simply because you have other people to worry about.
It did rather devolve into samey “supress and flank” tactics for the most part, and some of the level design was just dull, but I’ve been constantly surprised how few designers have tried to pinch its mechanics. There’s elements of it in Gears of War, but clearly Epic’s focus is on cinematic fights rather than realistic skirmish tactics.
20/06/2008 at 10:58 Jonathan says:
Reply to Gap Gen
Uncanny. Really quite out of place when you think about it. Certainly isn’t what dog tags sound like.
20/06/2008 at 12:19 Cooper says:
What’s the bet that the clip of that building’s roof being blown off and the chimney stack flying off was pre-modeled and that the environments are no where near as desctructible in normal gameplay?
20/06/2008 at 12:25 TychoCelchuuu says:
I guess sandbags blow up in chunks of four now. I have to say that while I loved the first two Brothers in Arms this one is looking a little melodramatic in parts and a little silly in parts. The big old floppy-limbed Nazis flying everywhere when you throw a grenade looks ridiculous and completely out of place in a series that takes (took?) World War II seriously.
20/06/2008 at 13:05 Vasara says:
I agree, it looks like the new physics engine is geared more toward awesomeness than realism. It reminds me of Company of Heroes, complete with sandbags that are apparently glued together at some points and characters flying around like, well, ragdolls. Although I don’t think it was that bad in CoH, only the bigger explosives caused infantry to fly around.
Apart from that, it looks pretty nice, especially the wooden things and buildings.
20/06/2008 at 15:16 Brad says:
There is no co-op, randy admitted that in an interview. co-op was one thing i was looking forward to, and now there is no hope for it.
which sucks
20/06/2008 at 21:23 Chris R says:
Ooooo, I haven’t played a WW2 shooter since COD2, since I was bored to tears with the whole WW2 scene… but this looks good! I’m a huge fan of destructible environments.
21/06/2008 at 01:06 Dave "Arjuna" O'Connor says:
test