By Jim Rossignol on July 3rd, 2009 at 8:29 pm.
A mission! Should you choose to accept it, this internet will self-destruct in five seconds, etc etc. Go and get the Section 8 beta from Fileplanet, and find out what is a-happenin’ in this multiplayer sci-fi shooter. Blues reports that even this simple task won’t be made too easy, as “this event is a staggered beta with keys distributed first come, first served with limited access. Beta keys will be distributed on a regular schedule.” Sounds limited.
And yet, if successful, you will earn some kind of imaginary badge from the RPS Downloading And Playing Academy Of Testing Games That Are Not Finished Yet. Go!
03/07/2009 at 20:43 Psychopomp says:
I’ve never heard of this “Section 8″ you speak of.
Downloading now.
03/07/2009 at 20:45 Derek K. says:
Apparently I don’t meet the criteria for Beta.
Must be looking for fairly high end – what do you have, Psychopomp?
I’ve got a gaming laptop, so it’s high end for a laptop, but a generation behind desktops.
03/07/2009 at 20:46 Alexander Norris says:
Access to Section 8 Closed Beta is limited to US and Canada users only.
:/
03/07/2009 at 20:47 pirate0r says:
I read about this in a preview a while back in game informer. Now I just have to wait in the fileplanet queue *sigh*
03/07/2009 at 20:48 Jim Rossignol says:
Mr Norris: read the title of this blog post. It’s fun, and informative!
03/07/2009 at 20:49 asdf says:
I got in. I put down that I have an ultimate gaming machine, and using win 7.
03/07/2009 at 20:55 Psychopomp says:
@Derek
It’s pretty low-end.
2 gigs of RAM, x2 Nvidia 8500′s, and a 2.8 GHz dual core processor :\
03/07/2009 at 21:08 linfosoma says:
I was never able to grasp this notion of adding flashlights into futuristic armors.
Why don´t they just go ahead and attach a gigantic neon sign saying “Im here!” too?
03/07/2009 at 21:14 Crescent says:
Damnit, only US and canada.. :( “open to all users” is a lie.
03/07/2009 at 21:27 a says:
The fileplanet capcha seems to be broken for me. The image keeps coming up with “invalid code”. Strange.
03/07/2009 at 21:28 MiniTick says:
In as well. Hopefully this will be something interesting and not Generic Sci-Fi Shooter V: Return of the Son of Space Goblins.
03/07/2009 at 21:29 a says:
Oh, nevermind. One should always read the IMPORTANT NOTES before complaining.
03/07/2009 at 21:42 Arca says:
Hello proxies~
03/07/2009 at 21:56 Garreett says:
I haven’t heard of betas being released over Fileplanet (boo hiss) for months.
03/07/2009 at 21:58 Nerd Rage says:
I heard about this one a few months ago, it looks pretty interesting. I guess I’d call it Battlefield 2140-like gameplay and setting crossed with Savage-like class and equipment mod options. A little bit anyway.
There’s some uniqueness beyond that, like the whole “burning in” thing. The powered armour is less WH40k and more Ironman.
03/07/2009 at 22:04 manergy says:
Got in, looking forward to testing this out.
Running Vista, AMD Quad @3.4ghz with 4 gigs of ram
03/07/2009 at 22:36 El_MUERkO says:
what i get trying to download:
CLOSED BETA – Now open to all users!
Access to Section 8 Closed Beta is limited to US and Canada users only.
03/07/2009 at 22:53 Tei says:
Is simple. Is closed, but is open. And is closed to all. The everybody. To all users. NOT U.
03/07/2009 at 23:05 Y3k-Bug says:
First of all, lol Tei.
Secondly, good god Fileplanet is the worst. Just abysmal.
That said, I’m in the beta! WHEEE.
03/07/2009 at 23:07 MiniTick says:
Me again. And guess what? It seems like the client won’t accept my beta key. It prompts me for a CD key, but when I press okay there is a sound effect and nothing else.
No confirmation, no rejection, no graphic change.
Nothing.
I think this is a very important bug they need to fix.
03/07/2009 at 23:31 fail says:
I want to know why public betas are given to fileplanet exclusively. I mean honestly, if you want to beta test a game with people who are stupid enough to pay for free demos and game downloads your game deserves to fail.
03/07/2009 at 23:35 Spectre-7 says:
Because Fileplanet pays for the privelege. Never under-estimate the power of a big, fat moneyhat.
03/07/2009 at 23:41 Logical2u says:
So is there going to be any sort of general “Rock Paper Shotgun” gang beta-ing this game (that is to say, the lot that manage to either live in NA or bypass Fileplanet’s restrictions)?
03/07/2009 at 23:50 pirate0r says:
Well i’ve had a quick play of the game. The power suit is very ironmanish which is cool and there are a couple vehicles and powers suits available which give it some variety. Section 8 seems like a pretty interesting game. I’ll have to play some more later.
04/07/2009 at 00:00 Psychopomp says:
haven’t gotten a chance to play.
At first I couldn’t join any servers
Now I can’t even *see* servers.
04/07/2009 at 00:04 Anonymous says:
LoL wtf is this shit, no matter what I specs I put says I’m not qualified
04/07/2009 at 00:04 Spectre-7 says:
Crap. Logically, that means that next there will be no servers… and then, of course, comes the end of the world.
I’m scared.
04/07/2009 at 00:20 Redford says:
Redford KEY GET! Not even downloading yet though, so important opinions will be saved for later.
04/07/2009 at 00:23 Alexander Norris says:
Mr Rossignol: my comment was a disguised and ultro-condensed lament on the topic of region-restricted betas, all delivered in the span of one smiley face. No one recognises the genius of my post-modern urban diatribes.
I am saddened.
04/07/2009 at 00:27 ORYLY says:
Isn’t this the FPS that the Kohan devs were working on?
04/07/2009 at 01:49 Psychopomp says:
@Alexander
Consider it revenge for Spotify…
Or is it the other way around?
04/07/2009 at 02:09 DethDonald says:
I believe I stumbled onto a web page about this game. It was comparing its screen shots with screen shot from Halo 3 and they were very similar looking namely the way the characters jump while holding a rocket launcher.
04/07/2009 at 03:23 Marcin says:
I was briefly interested and then I read the Fileplanet bit. Why does it always have to be Fileplanet? :|
04/07/2009 at 04:18 Halbyrd says:
Yeah, Fileplanet is annoying at times, but you can access this beta w/o handing over any money. They do make you wait in queue for a bit, but the free servers are fast enough for my needs, at least. All in all, I consider it superior to the connection-choking nonsense that is the Blizzard Downloader (to name a random example from my list of Things Wot Has Caused Me Grief Recently)
04/07/2009 at 08:27 MrBejeebus says:
hrmph, im not in canada or the us, wont let me do anything :(
04/07/2009 at 16:52 MrBejeebus says:
it still lets you download the client though, fail fileplanet…
04/07/2009 at 17:16 dsmart says:
Oh man, this is as mediocre as they come. If you’re looking for a Tribes or Tribes2 style revival, this ain’t it. Even the Instant Action guys (ex-Tribes) couldn’t pull that off since Legions is, well, rubbish.
No offense intended, but looking at Southpeak’s slate, it is anyone’s guess what is going on there given the recent hash of mediocre to just.plain.bad titles.
04/07/2009 at 17:54 Psychopomp says:
Still can’t connect to any servers, and there’s been no response from the devs on the beta forums, short of an old thread where people who had the same troubles as me were asked to give more specifics about their rig. Not even a “we’re working on it.”
Does not bode well.
04/07/2009 at 21:59 dsmart says:
Well, they can’t all be like us ;)
/ducks and runs
04/07/2009 at 23:21 autogunner says:
why would anyone want a rehash of tribes when you can still play the original and best for free? devs do better work when making somthing new. from what i have seen the team are very motivated to make somthing good and fresh
05/07/2009 at 00:03 dsmart says:
Yah, because 90% of the games coming out are not a rehash of something else. Are you a gamer?
05/07/2009 at 05:44 idmmao says:
I at least had no problem signing up, downloading, signing in, and joining several servers. It makes me think of enemy territory: quake wars more than anything else.
And lastly, dsmart is obviously deeply biased, though it’s always fun watching him rip into any game that isn’t his and any developer who isn’t him.
05/07/2009 at 06:00 Redford says:
Odd, because I feel this game is brilliant. Even though the basic concept of the game is nothing new, they’ve added tons of new touches and polishes all over the place, and have managed to take everything I hated about the wide-theater FPS and change it to happiness and goodness. No more 1-hit KOs, no more movement issues, no more artillery which can be accidentally be used to kill half your team.
But perhaps I have already said too much.
05/07/2009 at 11:31 autogunner says:
What? that had nothing to do with what I was talking about. If you dig up all the rps coverage on this game you can see that the team really seem to love what they i doing, surely you can respect that?
05/07/2009 at 11:34 autogunner says:
damn lack of edit function:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/03/03/what-is-section-8/
05/07/2009 at 12:43 argh says:
Takes a million shots to kill someone no thanks. Not to mention all the noobie indicators to help you, an arc indicator to show you where the nade lands, no recoil, etc.., cmon.
Why can’t someone just copy the original tribes with better graphics and call it a day? Competitive FPS gaming has gone downhill ever since they had to cater to console gamers.
05/07/2009 at 13:07 dsmart says:
@ idmmao
Since thats obviously rubbish as regulars here can attest to, I’m not even going to grace that nonsensical remark with anything other than this.
05/07/2009 at 21:02 autogunner says:
your right it isnt that much fun….
06/07/2009 at 01:32 Mark M says:
Mr. Rossignol:
Legend tells of a third North American nation that is neither US nor Canada… if such legends were true, the post title could not be considered informative.
06/07/2009 at 02:24 Pace says:
depends on your definition Mark.
06/07/2009 at 05:53 Mark M says:
Pace, I’d invite you to examine the map you linked.
There is no North America on it. There is a “Northern America”, which is not the same thing as “North America”.
“North America” is a continent. “Northern America” is apparently a UN-defined “geographical subregion”. This post title says “North America”, not “Northern America”.
I invite you to use a little more care in the future to prevent another embarrassing incident in which you fail to demonstrate the ability to read.
06/07/2009 at 06:23 Pace says:
Oh my. Well if you’re that worried about the extra “ern” in that graph, read the whole article then.
If you want a better example, then take this quote from Fowler’s Modern English Usage as referenced in that article: “”the term ‘North America’ may be used to mean the United States and Canada together.”
All I meant before is that there isn’t one rigorous definition for what North America is. Hell, in some parts of the world the continent is just America (North, South & Central all in one.) (like on the olympic rings.) Anyhow, most of the time it seems with regard to games for release dates and regional releases and such, North America means the US and Canada.
And my goodness I certainly meant no offense, apologies if you took it that way.