Comments on: Red Faction, Fresh Explosioneering For 2009

By: MeestaNob!

MeestaNob! — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:12:05 +0000

@Bobsy
I think there is a pretty good (but publisher-relevant statistically small) amount of gamers which would clamber over their own mothers to see FreeSpace 3 on the beige wonder machine, but I fear if they couldn’t see a way of making it work on a console (and of course consequently fucking it for everyone who actually cared in the first place) then it probably wont happen.

The thing to remember is that the same people who would kill for FreeSpace 3 to happen, are the exact same people who to this day picket loudly for X-Wing or Tie Fighter (but not X-Wing VS TieFighter) 2, and that’s definitely not a small group.

The real issue is, do we trust the owners of these properties anymore? Volition post FreeSpace 2 is frankly cack, and LucasArts haven’t made a good game (or outsourced to make a good game) since Grim Fandango. That’s a very long time ago.

The numbers can be made to work, either game could be a success (the Star Wars property, even used and abused as it is today, especially), but it has to be handled right. If money men see the words Simulator anywhere in the genre column they’ll feint, but change it to Arcade Action (or similar) and the Angry Internet Men will burn something down. While the occupants are still in it.

If I was the sort of person who slept, I’d dream of Valve buying the FreeSpace series and doing something lovely with it.

By: Bobsy

Bobsy — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:52:57 +0000

Nobby: Is anyone going near Freespace 3 though?

By: Urael

Urael — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 09:16:14 +0000

Played the original, which promised the moon-on-a-stick but delivered almost nothing beyond an average corridor shooter, despite it being set on Mars. It even forgot about the endlessly destructible environments after a few levels in. The awful betrayal put this game in its coffin, while the bland sequel hammered more nails in and then nuked the entire graveyard. Nothing I’ve seen in the trailer for this new iteration above looks any different: just another bland, average, samey, wannabe action shooter.

By: LionsPhil

LionsPhil — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:28:21 +0000

Hunh. No editing any more?

Anyway: RF also had the rail gun from Eraser, complete with through-walls scope. That alone has got to be worth 5%.

By: LionsPhil

LionsPhil — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:24:48 +0000

Generic. Shame: for all its criminal shortness, underused gimmickry, and lack of polish, Red Faction wasn’t that bad.

And I can’t wait for pixel-shaded jelly-like energy effects to go the way of lens flare. Ugh.

By: manintheshack

manintheshack — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:06:46 +0000

@Man Raised by Puffins

The first time I saw Dark Void I couldn’t help but pity the developers. Not only did they come up the most generic, meaningless name for the game, but they were selling it on their astoundingly revolutionary ‘vertical cover system’. Y’know like Gears of War, but going up. Truly terrible…

By: MeestaNob!

MeestaNob! — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 03:03:26 +0000

@Mungrul
Almost makes you glad they aren’t going near making FreeSpace 3.

By: Wedge

Wedge — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:46:21 +0000

I played this at PAX some on the 360. I thought it was incredibly fun, though I spent as much time as possible ignoring any combat and just decimating buildings. The environment destruction is genuinely impressive and if it actually has level creation tools on PC, could sort of be the coolest thing ever.

By: Mungrul

Mungrul — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 20:42:03 +0000

How can the guys who made Freespace 1 & 2 be so shit at making modern games?

By: Smurfy

Smurfy — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 19:45:12 +0000

Ha I remember this. I got RF with my PS2, and I liked it (building tunnels with the Fusion Gun is awesome) so I got RF2, which was cool but I couldn’t see how it had anything to do with RF. And now this looks zany.

By: Man Raised by Puffins

Man Raised by Puffins — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 19:14:40 +0000

BorderlandsGuide: That quip would work a bit better if it was in response to this game.

By: spd from Russia

spd from Russia — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 18:49:01 +0000

Whizzo elaborate, what was so bad about it?