By Tim Stone on February 1st, 2009 at 11:52 am.
While I wish AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! every success, I can’t let the “there’s nothing like it” claim in the feature list go unchallenged. For the last two years Russian outfit Digital Dimension Development have been quietly peddling their own flying squirrel sim. BASE doesn’t have surreal skyscrapers, smashable panes or hand signalling, but it does have aerodynamic realism, a scary sense of altitude, and a demo that lets you hurl yourself off the top of Moscow’s loftiest landmark.
It’s a while since I played the trial, but I do remember getting a lot of mileage out of it. Though there’s only the one location, there are eight different challenges on offer ranging from the relatively simple - alight without turning yourself into a fleshy concertina – to the devilishly tricky – land on the roof of a distant tower block. Weather and equipment choices are reassuringly significant. The game even lets you select RPG-style skills and choose jumper weight (…within reason. Skydiving sumos are, sadly, not permitted.)
01/02/2009 at 12:14 Chaz says:
I always get a dizzy feeling of vertigo whenever I look at the photos on this website here http://tau.ur.ru/tower/etower.asp so I’ll have to give that BASE demo a go and see if it gives me the same feeling.
01/02/2009 at 13:10 bansama says:
This certainly looks interesting. I’ll have to give the demo a spin and so how quickly I turn into road kill.
01/02/2009 at 13:59 Pags says:
I remember you writing about this before in PCG.
01/02/2009 at 14:17 Flappybat says:
I bought this after seeing it in PCG. There’s a good game in there but it’s half baked at best. It needs a lot more development.
01/02/2009 at 14:19 Flappybat says:
They also haven’t updated the game for a year :(
01/02/2009 at 14:27 Adrian says:
I played the full version of this game and i have to say its one of the top 5 worst games i ever played :(
01/02/2009 at 16:40 Tim Stone says:
Adrian, care to go into more detail? What was it about the game that you didn’t like?
01/02/2009 at 17:17 qrter says:
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! — A Reckless Disregard for Gravity wins by virtue of its fantastic name alone. Get out, BASE.. just.. get out!
01/02/2009 at 18:45 malkav11 says:
This looks more appropriate to my desire to leap off tall things than AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! by simple virtue of it being more simulatory. When the buildings aren’t much more than a couple of polygons and the game is really more about passing through specified areas of space on the way down….boring. I just want to jump off the Eiffel Tower or the Empire State Building or whatever. (or, in MMOs, fictional equivalents thereof.)
01/02/2009 at 20:23 Adrian says:
“Adrian, care to go into more detail? What was it about the game that you didn’t like?”
Well in the game you can do 4 things.
You can choose your jumpsuit and location and do a career.
You can walk around on the towers/buildings/cliffs.
You can jump and fly through the air for a few seconds.
Then you can open the parachute and glide to the ground (or not haha)
The career interface is pretty bad and you have to wait a lot until you can do an event (healing takes a long time after you got hurt at an event) Plus you have to travel to locations just to find out that “you cant do that event jet”. This isn’t very fun.
About the jumping:
Well the “open the parachute and glide to the ground” part isnt very challenging or entertaining. Its actually pretty boring because it is be the same process every jump (with a few exceptions where your chute doesnt open right)
You can choose between different stats and jumpsuits but you hardly feel a difference when you do the jumps.
And the part where you can walk around on the “base” and look for a good spot for jumping is just done so bad. the walking feels like the developers animated it in 5 minutes and never finished it.
Well i guess people who play games like this dont really care for the quality of the walking animations or the game interface. People really play these kind of games because of the adrenalin rush you get from the jump and the few seconds of free flight.
And thats where the game dissapointed me the most.
Jumping off a building and falling through the air while the ground is only a few hundret feet away should be thrilling and should be the best part of the game.
But you get no idea of what it feels like to base jump. its just boring and repetitive.
01/02/2009 at 20:50 Micky says:
Pilot Wings anyone?
01/02/2009 at 21:36 jonfitt says:
Isn’t this fun?
01/02/2009 at 22:11 noexes says:
Good artists borrow, great artists steal
01/02/2009 at 22:14 Doctor_Hellsturm says:
where are the papers?
01/02/2009 at 22:42 qrter says:
Some great artists stole them.
02/02/2009 at 00:33 k.ong says:
im really digging the demo and wanting the game, but 30 usd seems like a bit much.
02/02/2009 at 12:26 Flappybat says:
I don’t think you can steal the idea of base jumping.
02/02/2009 at 19:54 Pedantic says:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rTJXsLb41yo
Video of Base if you want to append it to the article
sorry its not gametrailers :P
02/02/2009 at 23:48 Marcin says:
It tells me I need .NET framework 1.1.4322. When I check on Windows Update, I appear to be on version 3 something. Any way to bypass the .NET check?
03/02/2009 at 00:54 k.ong says:
I hope I’m not breaking any rules by asking this, but any of you victims want to provide me with a copy of their game?
03/02/2009 at 05:23 Muzman says:
I get that .Net update thing as well. It just doesn’t beleive I’m fully up to date