By Jim Rossignol on August 13th, 2009 at 11:00 am.
So the Section 8 beta has now opened up to everyone, here. We’re aiming to get a big RPS posse online over Saturday, and we’ll set things up in this forum thread. I’ve noticed some surprise from people about how good Section 8 is, so if you’re sceptical, now is your time to take a look and decide. I think it’s pretty damned good, and I’m looking forward to playing some games with RPS folks over the weekend. (Alternative download for file.) And, well, expect problems: it’s a beta. Other instructions on the official forum here.
13/08/2009 at 11:07 Howard says:
Fantastic. Downloading now…
13/08/2009 at 11:21 Howard says:
Yea gods I hate Fileplanet…
13/08/2009 at 11:34 Asskicker says:
Any mirrors?
I refuse to wait 2 hours to download something.
13/08/2009 at 11:35 Vandelay says:
Downloading too (or more accurately, waiting in queue to download.)
Think this could be quite good fun, a sort of Battlefield with jet packs.
13/08/2009 at 11:41 Howard says:
Finally got tot eh end of the queue and stated the actually download. BTW, 2.1 gig? Wowsers…
13/08/2009 at 12:24 Lack_26 says:
I guess I’ll download this one over night. I always over run my download limit, and at £1 a gig, it hardly seems worth it. At least 0AM to 8AM is free.
13/08/2009 at 12:29 Vandelay says:
Finally started downloading and at a decent speed.
@Asskicker – No, this is annoyingly exclusive to Fileplanet.
13/08/2009 at 12:33 Jockie says:
Whats the speed cap on FP for a non subscriber? Downloading from the other link at the moment, but it’s not going above about 165kbs.
13/08/2009 at 12:36 Ansob. says:
The Dystopia Global League is hosting a copy of the file, but I’d rather not put out the link publicly in case their server explodes (I’m not sure it can serve out 200+ copies of a 2Gb file and still run the DGL website), so I’ll post if I get the all-clear from the server admin.
Also of note: FilePlanet’s CAPTCHA system seems to hate Firefox, so switch to IE or other if you get “INVALID CODE” consistently.
13/08/2009 at 12:43 Larington says:
440 meg into the download. Part of me wants to hate this game because of what it isn’t trying to be, the rest of me says that it isn’t very fair of me to be so judgemental, so I’m going to give it a fair go.
13/08/2009 at 12:46 Jim Rossignol says:
“because of what it isn’t trying to be”
What isn’t it trying to be?
13/08/2009 at 12:50 paddytehpyro says:
Managed snag it last night before the servers imploded it seems. But yeah, great fun imo. Not that dis-similar to ET:QW. A fair bit better though.
13/08/2009 at 12:51 Asskicker says:
Thanks for posting the the mirror! :)
13/08/2009 at 12:59 Vandelay says:
@Jockie – not sure if there is a limit. I’ve been downloading at 1.1 MB/Sec for the majority of the download. That is using their download manager though.
13/08/2009 at 13:06 Hermit says:
if folks are having Fileplanet issues you could try
http://games.on.net/file/28816/Section_8_Open_Beta_Client
This was the only other download location I could find, but I nabbed it from here last night and it works fine/is the correct version.
Played about with it for an hour or so this morning. Once you get your head around the deluge of information the game throws at you on the HUD it’s highly entertaining. Especially the stompy mech suits.
13/08/2009 at 13:08 Hermit says:
(Gah, lack of edit function)
If anyone finds any download links elsewhere, the corrct filename should be “Section8-BetaTest-GS-7310F.exe”
13/08/2009 at 13:19 Brad Grenz says:
I’ve downloaded, installed and tried to play and I can’t get past the log-in. Plays a nice little CGI video but then refuses my fileplanet user and password. Conveniently there is no in game way to quit the program if you can’t log in so you have to alt-tab out and kill it via task manager. Not a great first impression.
13/08/2009 at 13:27 Jockie says:
@Brad – I assume you have to use the Fileplanet key to create a game account over at the website for the game, which is the first link in the article. I’d attempt to prove my theory if the bleedin’ page would load.
13/08/2009 at 13:28 Lilliput King says:
I’m maxing out my pathetic 200 kb/s connection on the alternate link, thanks again Jim + Hermit. Really looking forward to this.
13/08/2009 at 13:30 blargy says:
@ Brad
I had the exact same problem with the closed beta.
Hope it is not screwed up for me too….
13/08/2009 at 13:52 JuJuCam says:
I’ve never actually seen my net connection maxed out via http… huh… *bookmarks games.on.net*
13/08/2009 at 13:55 JuJuCam says:
Oh I just realised it’s an Aussie server. So that makes sense, considering Australia is the country from which I am downloading from. I’m clever.
13/08/2009 at 13:58 Dominic White says:
Just played my first round of this, and it’s definitely much more ET:QW than Tribes, which suits me fine. Nice to play something semiserious looking where you take more than one hit to kill.
13/08/2009 at 13:59 bitchtitz says:
After a half hour wait in the queue and a pitiful 2 hour download time it is not accepting my username and password, and I have to CTRL/ALT/DEL to get back to desktop. As a demo, it works great, it’s showing me exactly what not to spend my money on.
13/08/2009 at 14:04 Dominic White says:
I love how people are writing off a game based on the first hour of open beta. Does nobody even know what beta testing is anymore?
13/08/2009 at 14:12 Vandelay says:
I had the same problem with the log-in, but discovered that I had to use a user-name that I haven’t used for about 5 years.
Played a couple of rounds and had some good fun and was even managing to get a fair few kills. Need to play around with the different load outs to see what toys it has lurking about the place as I didn’t really get to try out any of that stuff, besides the grenades. On the whole, good first impressions and would probably be even better with a coordinated team.
13/08/2009 at 14:39 Alaric says:
Are you guys able to play? I can’t see any servers for a few days now.
13/08/2009 at 14:41 Rabbitsoup says:
better than QW:ET????
right gogo gadget install!
also is the pc beta meaning pc balance and focus???
13/08/2009 at 14:50 Ssonicblue says:
Okay, no. I’ve had some interest in this game, but if the beta has SecuROM, I’m not screwing around: Instant permaban from my computer.
13/08/2009 at 14:53 Howard says:
Okay, I’m lost. Can someone help my tired old brain
It’s all installed and it has accepted my CD key but I cannot login. No matter what I enter in the user/pwd boxes it just keeps saying that if I don’t sign in, nothing will be changed and then boots me back to the login screen.
What am I missing?
13/08/2009 at 14:54 Sartoris says:
You’re supposed to register at GameSpy and use that information for login.
13/08/2009 at 14:59 Howard says:
Register what? A new account? I already have 2 GameSpy accounts, one of which is attached to the email I used to register for Section 8. Neither logins or emails will work in Section 8
13/08/2009 at 15:03 Howard says:
OMFG
You have to go to Gamespy and LOG IN THERE, then log into Section 8!
Did I say I fucking LOATHE FilePlanet?!
13/08/2009 at 15:08 MeestaNob! says:
OK, before I grab the client from gamesOnNet, what will I require to get it going, CD key/account wise?
13/08/2009 at 15:27 Ansob. says:
I finally managed to find one of my many GameSpy/FilePlanet accounts and get the game to recognise it. I think Howard’s right; you need a GameSpy-activated account for things to work (I recently activated one so I could play R6V2 online, and that was the only one that worked).
In other news, client’s installed and works. I’ll go post in the thread and hopefully I can play with everyone on Saturday. :D
13/08/2009 at 15:28 Ansob. says:
Also man, I totally have an email from Jim Rossignol himself. It’s a bit like an autograph but less awesome.
13/08/2009 at 15:39 Llama says:
im getting 3MB/s on this one
http://public1.nl.fileplay.net/downloads/1858326-eca731db31949ff67cb26ea2aac50065/fetch/fps/section-8/game-client/Section8-BetaTest-GS-7310F.exe
13/08/2009 at 15:51 DarkNoghri says:
I had problems with the userid/password thing in the closed beta. It’s not actually the userid (which would be your email), or it wasn’t last week. It’s the name that gamespy greets you by. It’s odd, but the name that fileplanet greeted me by (darknoghri) didn’t work. I had to configure a gamespy login with a unique nickname, or whatever.
Gahh, gamespy integration.
13/08/2009 at 16:14 Baka says:
Just tried a round, it’s a bit clunky and at least as an Assault Class with Lock-On not much aiming is required but it’s rather fun.
Will take a closer look with my TF2 buddies the coming days, we will see how the game’ll hold up then!
13/08/2009 at 16:15 Flappybat says:
Badly needs the sniper rifle nerfed, the rocket launcher buffed and the robot armor suit to actually be good at something other than melee.
13/08/2009 at 16:19 Howard says:
Hmm… interesting. Definitely more ET than Tribes (the jetpacks are pretty much decorative) but still a pretty good game.
Agree with Flappybat about the weapon balancing – something is definitely off there.
So, this RPS bash on then?
13/08/2009 at 16:23 Hermit says:
For anyone struggling with the login (like I did), you need to goto http://www.gamespy.com first and login. Make sure your Username is still active (In some cases, you’ll probably find it’s “in use”, in which case you have to pick another). Once you’ve got that working, login to the client with your Username (not email) and password.
Yes, it is a right faff.
13/08/2009 at 16:30 Azazel says:
This looks enough like the kind of thing I’d want to play for me to go through the rigmarole of involving myself with Gamespy. Which I will do later tonight.
13/08/2009 at 16:35 aldo_14 says:
Is there a torrent or anything, or is one of the sources resumable? I’m not sure I’m going to be able to download all in one go…
13/08/2009 at 16:39 JuJuCam says:
Speaking as someone who hasn’t had a great deal of experience with online FPS (the only two I’ve ever played with any regularity were Natural Selection and TF2) I’ve enjoyed the hour or so I spent playing and could see myself playing more. Probably will tomorrow.
Favourite moment was dropping in right behind a sniper who was giving me grief and slaughtering the dude.
13/08/2009 at 16:57 tekDragon says:
They had me until the second registration just to play.
Next game please.
13/08/2009 at 17:13 Mad Doc MacRae says:
This registration nonsense (which I’m hoping to defeat using bugmenot) won’t be part of the actual game, will it?
13/08/2009 at 17:19 Rabbitsoup says:
how the hell do I log in?!?!?!
is this is broken?
13/08/2009 at 17:21 Alex says:
Might I suggest this site http://www.fileplay.net/file/5922/section-8-beta-test-gs-7310 as an alternate download.
The speeds I am getting are quite alright at 900 KB/sec.
13/08/2009 at 17:29 mandrill says:
Apprently I do not meet the screening criteria. Some open Beta.
13/08/2009 at 17:38 Rei Onryou says:
The registration is basically the same thing that was needed for Battlefield 2. You need to create a username for your Gamespy account and log in using that (not your email).
13/08/2009 at 17:41 Tom says:
Cor blimey this game is freak’n awesome!
13/08/2009 at 17:49 EyeMessiah says:
Imo, it isn’t trying to be Barbara Streisand.
13/08/2009 at 17:53 Tiktaalik says:
The early verdict is full of win. Sniper rifles do seem to be ridiculously powerful though, especially if you get locked on.
13/08/2009 at 17:54 Vinraith says:
What the hell? I’m normally not much of an MP gamer (aside from the occasional spurt of TF2 interest) but Jim’s enthusiasm has convinced me to give it a try.
13/08/2009 at 18:04 The Fanciest of Pants says:
Having fun with it, but I’m not getting any sound :<
Anyone else having the same problem?
13/08/2009 at 18:08 Marcin says:
I tried the beta a month back and it felt generic. I tried it last night and it was a total blast. I think maybe my FPS instincts were off the first time …
It’s a bit of QuakeWars (dynamic missions, deployables) meets Planetside (dynamic spawn) with a dash of Battlefield (Squad spawning, upgrades) and of course a jetpack. All good things, and plays quite, quite well.
13/08/2009 at 18:12 Howard says:
Actually, I’ve gone off this rather quickly. When your shooter fails to make sense as a shooter you have issues. The damage dealt by any given weapon is, as far as I acn see, utterly random. Whack someone in the head with a missile they take zero damage Whack someone else, it insta kills. Similarly you can go up against someone who has just survived a fight, has no armour or shields and lay into them with the auto-targeter (something that DEFINITELY needs to be removed) and even though you are on full health, the annihilate you.
It’s just madness…
13/08/2009 at 18:32 undead dolphin hacker says:
So is it QuakeWars except good, or is it just QuakeWars but all of you actually enjoyed QuakeWars?
13/08/2009 at 18:36 Jim Rossignol says:
It’s less complex than Quake Wars. I think it’s a fairly similar quality of game, otherwise.
13/08/2009 at 19:03 SuperNashwan says:
Apprently I do not meet the screening criteria. Some open Beta.
Same here, mailinator address didn’t work, mytrashmail did though. Makes you wonder why they bother.
13/08/2009 at 20:29 Lilliput King says:
Oh my, it’s rather fun.
Dolphin, I thought Quake Wars was rubbish (despite wanting to love it – I just thought it was pants every time I tried it) but am really enjoying this.
I’m not sure what the difference gameplay wise is. Perhaps less insta-death/overpowered vehicles, and better gunplay. Or perhaps it’s just much simpler, and doesn’t have Quake Wars’ messy concept mashup.
13/08/2009 at 20:41 Tei says:
Quake Wars is complex? uh..
My opinion whould repeat other people. Damage feels somewhat random. You do more damage on the head? don’t seems so. The sniper guy is ridiculously overpowered on a open area map. Turrets are not that usefull at all. Where are the vehicles? Bullets spam. My team has anhilated the other team, and the other team was using all the tools of the game and teamwork …so… uh… It seems most people like it, and It runs smooth on my PC. Also interesting graphics… for a boxmap.
13/08/2009 at 21:04 Kits says:
Spent a few hours playing, earlier today, it’s a lot better than I was expecting, and ran surprisingly well. I imagined it would stutter and slug its way along. Generally dont really enjoy arena type games, but the maps are large enough, and the extra mini-missions diverting enough, that it didnt get stale straight away for me.
And I doubt the problem with the weapon damage is as much it being random as claimed. You have a bunch of passive ability points to assign; if your weapon isnt doing much against someone, chances are they’ve pumped them all into the +armour or shield ability.
13/08/2009 at 21:06 Dominic White says:
Yeah, Kits is right. Damage isn’t random – it’s just that every target is different. If you smack a guy full-on with a rocket and he just shrugs it off like it’s nothing, chances are that he’s running in a tank-suit.
13/08/2009 at 21:12 Jim Rossignol says:
I think it is simpler than Quake Wars: there are less individual weapons and tools, less vehicles, and the objectives are more straight-forward. The combat is slightly slower paced with more hitpoints too, so general skirmishing lasts longer.
13/08/2009 at 21:15 roBurky says:
Main positive difference between this and my brief play of Quake Wars is that this doesn’t have spawn killing.
13/08/2009 at 21:19 mandrill says:
has anyone else encountered a 1628 error during installation?
Oh it let me in eventually btw. I had to get the verification code in an IE tab in FF then go back to a FF tab before it would give me a beta code. I hates GheySpy, it used to be quite good (about 12 years ago) but now it sucks donkeys :(
13/08/2009 at 21:19 Ansob. says:
Doesn’t help that the beta only has 30% of the deployables available for use. It’ll probably be more complex come release.
Regarding the weapons, range seems to have a lot of impact; for example, the pistol will do next to nothing outside of a 5m range, but as soon as you’re within that 5-10 shots are enough to kill someone, since it bypasses shields.
The HMG seems to just chew through anything it sneezes at, mostly thanks to its ability to just ignore armour whilst doing more or less the same damage as an AR. The sniper rifle’s been fine for me – it usually takes three or four shots to kill me, by which point I’ve had time to take cover, and the AR is surprisingly good at long range. The shotgun seems to be in real need of a buff. Its effective range is even shorter than the pistol’s, and it really doesn’t do enough damage anyway.
Oh, and there are frustratingly few long-range weapons. I wish the pistol were more like a cross between the AR and sniper rifle in terms of damage/rate of fire, and that the HMG were more like a cross between the AR and shotgun in terms of accuracy and damage. The rocket launcher feels a bit odd as a weapon – its only reliable use is destroying turrets and the like, so it seems like it could have been an inventory item instead of a weapon.
13/08/2009 at 21:31 Okidus says:
its asking me for a CD key
13/08/2009 at 22:02 Tei says:
Okidus, visit the fileplanet page, keys are given there.
13/08/2009 at 22:04 MacBeth says:
Fileplanet keeps dumping me out of the queue… Q_Q
And the Australian download site said it would take 3 days to d/l… though that’s now dropped to a mere 18 hours… phew…
13/08/2009 at 22:05 MacBeth says:
It did however give me a key, so I have one to return to the RPS pot – will email you Jim-bob…
13/08/2009 at 22:06 Tei says:
MacBeth: try the Llama download link. It worked for me.
13/08/2009 at 22:10 MacBeth says:
Gah, now it’s back up to 2 days, 20 hours
13/08/2009 at 22:14 Rei Onryou says:
My issue with Quake Wars is that it diluted the skirmish action of W:ET by adding vehicles and all the different deployable types. In W:ET, a skilled player could survive multiple fights, but in QW, death came too quick from too many sides and the spawn wait was a pain.
With Section 8, there’s no wait to spawn (or at least its been that way on the servers I’ve played on), nor spawn killing (a big plus). I like the fact that vehicles are limited at the moment, but worry that tanks will spoil it a bit, as well as AA gun spam. Plus, I could hold a checkpoint singlehandedly for a whole round. That’s the epic action I like.
13/08/2009 at 22:29 Fullbleed says:
Llama is a absolutely beautiful man for posting that link! Got an average speed of 500-600KB/sec which is good for me.
13/08/2009 at 22:31 Fat says:
I’ve had a play with this tonight and it’s fun and feels quite fresh, i guess, but the guns just dont feel that fluid or like they really do much damage at all. I’m not after an instagib fragfest, far from it… i’m more of an ArMA/BF1942 guy.
But really, i shoot people for what seems like an enternity… hitting them, not crappy shots that miss… and it takes forever to do anything… rockets are especially weak considering that they’re, um… rockets.
13/08/2009 at 22:55 Rabbitsoup says:
@Ansnob
the holding back of features for beta is silly for MP games and makes the whole balance in beta almost certain to be thown away on release
13/08/2009 at 23:15 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
If I don’t have to get it from Fileplanet, then I am all for manly robot shooting manliness action.
13/08/2009 at 23:22 Stromko says:
Fat: Hrm, what weapons are you using? I’ve just played a match as the standard assault type, using the assault rifle, it seemed like it took about 2 – 4 seconds of sustained fire to kill somebody. I’d usually die a couple seconds after realizing somebody had gotten behind me and was blasting me in the back.
To me that seems about right for an online FPS. If it doesn’t take several seconds to kill someone then they’re often dead before they can even register they’re under attack.
I can’t really vouch for its balance either way though from one round, I haven’t tried most of the weapons and I’m not sure which weapons I’ve been killed by.
13/08/2009 at 23:25 coupsan says:
I didn’t understand what I was doing. I was shooting people up close with a machine gun and wasn’t doing any damage at all. Same with the sniper rifle. And assault rifle. And pistol.
Guess it’s just not my type of game.
13/08/2009 at 23:27 Stromko says:
Having to get the beta from fileplanet is indeed a bit of a drag. For years they’ve been faking their queues (I’m rather sure) in order to get non-subscribers to consider paying them money. Fileshack and numerous other free download sites have never made me wait anywhere near as long as Fileplanet always makes me wait.
It can be the dead of night on a slow weekday and I’m still waiting in line 20 minutes at least. At least I don’t have to pay attention ot it anymore though, their autodownloader started it right up when the wait was over, and I was able to get a fairly decent speed, like 350 kb/s. Definitely less than most download sites but it wasn’t that big of a file so oh well.
13/08/2009 at 23:35 Fat says:
Stromko – I tried most of the classes… the rocket one (artillery?), guardian, assault, recon… maybe one other. Sniper rifle seemed to take about 3 shots to bring their shield down then same amount to take their health off, way over the top. Assault rifles seemed better damage by far even at fairly long range. Rockets don’t seem to have much/any splash damage and i shot someone “POW, RIGHT IN THE KISSER” with one, and it didn’t even take his shield off. So it’d take about 3-4 rockets to kill someone too, which again, seems a little OTT, but less so than the sniper rifle damage.
I didn’t feel any more defended playing a heavier class, so not sure if there’s any health/armour bonuses depending on loadout.
13/08/2009 at 23:50 Fullbleed says:
Ok ive installed it and ive got a game spy account ready, but where do i get the CD key from?
13/08/2009 at 23:51 A-Scale says:
Wow, was that ever complicated. Seemed fun enough, but I don’t think it has the strategic depth it is shooting for. It felt like a hodgepodge of BF2, Quake Wars and something Protoss, but in the end was sort of a muddled mess. I did like the high speed running and jumping with jetpacks though.
Also, those chicken walker things are OP. Jesus Christ are they OP.
13/08/2009 at 23:56 MWoody says:
Arrrrrgggghhh – got it from that Fileplay link above, and the file is corrupted: a checksum fails on one of the CAB files. It might have been an error in the download, of course, but still, ouch. Particularly annoying after all the trouble I went through to get a damn code (switched browsers, computers, and deleted my entire HOSTS file before it would let me see their damn CAPTCHA).
14/08/2009 at 00:12 Lilliput King says:
@A-Scale
I dunno, I think it’s pretty on message. They aren’t going for something enormously strategically complex, but a more arcadey affair entirely.
Tactically it’s brilliant – the one on one dogfights are really engaging. Damage taken from long range hurts the shield, and from short range hurts the armour, and the strengths of both can be customised on your loadout, so you know what damage you can take at what range etc, and can vary your range to spread damage evenly for maximum effect.
Then you’ve got the lock-on, which you can use straight away to try for a quick kill, or save it up for when your opponent tries a cheeky jetpack-dodge.
The jetpack opens up the terrain in fairly interesting ways mid-dogfight as well, allowing you to escape for a few seconds to regenerate shield and repair if you have the presence of mind.
Also, I think people might be getting confused about both the missile launchers and “random damage.”
Missile launchers are pretty wank against anything which isn’t a building, vehicle or chicken walker. For those three things, they’re good.
The idea of random damage may be coming from the passive suit upgrades you can put on your character. The build I use, if the loadout screen is to be believed, has 248% of the shield of a fella who hasn’t put any points in the shield, as an example. I can see that confusing people.
14/08/2009 at 00:14 DMJ says:
Opinion: Initial.
Hmm, the jetpacks play almost no role in combat, since they seem to run on the same batteries Gordon Freeman’s HEV suit uses (rechargeable AAA batteries). It would be nice if we could… you know… actually use this much-vaunted feature for more than “I think I’ll bypass these pretty but meandering stairs”.
The lock-on feature isn’t as “dumbed down” as it might at first appear. It never seems to go for the damaging headshots. So it seems to trade damage for accuracy, and a skilful player will out-damage a player who relies on lock-on.
I sincerely like the free-roaming drop-pod feature. The most cinematic part of Planetside, the hot-drop, happens every single time. Yay! And I’m starting to get a feel for how long I can leave the retrobraking before I go “splat” or end up dazed on the floor. Looks like a nice balance between saving a few seconds of spawn time and risking being helpless when you arrive.
The sniper rifle seems about as effective as harsh language at killing your enemies. Still, it is about the only thing effective at range.
I like being able to make my own classes. Switching from sniper rifle to heavy machine gun and lobbing some grenades at the fools who crept up behind me (I knew they were there because they handily appeared on my minimap because of my deployable sensor) was a nasty surprise for them, I expect.
I wish it had Titan mode from Battlefield 2142 though. I loved that game mode.
14/08/2009 at 00:20 Lilliput King says:
Bah, shoulda mentioned this in the other post, but Fat, there isn’t actually ‘classes’ in the traditional sense. If you go from the main menu then;
Dropship > Loadouts > Click on a loadout
You can make a new class, including how fast it is, how quickly the jetpack recharges, how good the armour is etc, along with weapons and special equip.
14/08/2009 at 01:14 Fat says:
Yeah, i saw that… didn’t get to test it out yet. I was mainly complaining about the weapons. I will give it another go obviously, it’s not a terribad game… just needs a few weapons tweaks.
Will try making my own classes as it sounds as though you can customise more than just the weapons you carry, which i wasn’t expecting… hence why i stuck with the premade ‘classes’.
14/08/2009 at 01:32 Lucas says:
I killed a few hours with this today. It’s a blast!
The official forum has a manual for the beta: http://forums.timegate.com/showthread.php?t=14404
Fileplanet was a pain as usual. I had to use IE instead of Firefox to solve the captcha. Then there’s GameSpy for the game login, but luckily it took one of my pre-existing IDs.
I’m in for saturday.
14/08/2009 at 02:19 x25killa says:
Played it during the closed beta @ i37. It’s a very good game, managed to pre-order it with bonus items (new armour, new decals for assault rifle and a powerful pistol) while I was @ i37.
14/08/2009 at 02:36 Vinraith says:
OK, I played it a bit. How is this different than every other multiplayer shooter on the market? Based on having played for about an hour it just seems insanely generic. I’m happy to be shown why I’m wrong.
14/08/2009 at 04:14 k4el says:
Whats with the fileplanet hate? Membership isn’t expensive and it does get you quite a bit. Access to tons of betas, some times free games and a reliable up to date place to get patches at high speed. It’s been worth it.
14/08/2009 at 04:14 Arturo says:
Dear IGN,
Die in a fire. Thanks. Goddamn ridiculous amount of hurdles to log into the game. Maybe even a ‘quit’ button from the login screen would be helpful. Good freaking lord.
14/08/2009 at 04:30 Spectre-7 says:
Vinraith: I played in the closed beta for a week or so, and left feeling much the same way. Although it’s a sound enough design, there’s just nothing about it that feels new or original. It’s like the developers lifted a bunch of features from other multiplayer games and squished them together with a bit of Elmer’s glue.
To be honest, I’m sort of envious of the folks who feel totally blown away. To me, it totally lacks that magical spark.
14/08/2009 at 08:34 DarkNoghri says:
For me, at least, I like the sprint/jetpacks/mechs/tanks thing. Maybe it is generic, but I spend my time TF2ing and L4Ding, so it’s mostly new to me.
Still, not something I’d spend a ridiculous amount of time on.
14/08/2009 at 10:28 ChampionHyena says:
From a developer I’ve never heard of and a renowned publisher of shitty games comes…
…one that’s pretty bad-ass. Huh.
Seems a little threadbare in places (and I have to keep suppressing my old Tribes instincts), but… color me impressed! I’m gonna keep beta-ing, see how it turns out.
14/08/2009 at 12:20 l1ddl3monkey says:
Been playing it all morning.
It’s not groundbreaking but once you get some teamplay going (does the voice comms work? That’d really sort it out) and the objectives start falling to your little squad it’s enormously satisfying.
Liking the customised outfit; my heavy MG and shotgun with extra damage points and boosted shields with the radar invisibility gadget combo have made me extremely annoying to snipers and enemies who bunch up around turrets (which can’t see you while the radar invisibility thing is on).
The heavy suit is good fun if there are three or four of you wearing them on a rampage as well.
14/08/2009 at 12:29 LionsPhil says:
Well, all this account nonsense has killed my enthusiasm pretty damn hard.
14/08/2009 at 13:00 fullbleed says:
I still can’t get a beta key from film planet as each it just comes up with invalid code, I’ve tried disabling my firewall and anti virus but nothing works.
14/08/2009 at 15:23 Phinor says:
I had to use Internet Explorer to get the code visible on Fileplanet. On Firefox it just kept saying invalid code no matter what I tried.
The game itself was surprisingly good. It’s heavily consolized but it still has it’s own flavour added to the general mix unlike some other console multiplayer fps games. It’s no Tribes but depending on what the full version brings to the table, I might seriously consider buying this title. Just needs more depth and more of everything.
Or maybe I’m liking it because fps games have have been quite absent lately…
14/08/2009 at 16:51 RC-1290'Dreadnought' says:
It doesn’t care about my gamespy account. Maybe because I’ve had to create 5 different names for 5 different games. But choosing the best one should select that one… C’mon gamespy, just sell out to steam, then the problems are solved.
14/08/2009 at 17:41 Lim-Dul says:
Here’s a wall of text I posted on another site. Remember – it’s only my opinion, not a given – if you enjoy the game, then all the better for you:
OK, it’s time for some in-depth Lim-Dul whining after more gameplay time. Well, not really whining, actually simply providing criticism because I won’t be buying the game and hence don’t whine, which would imply playing despite criticizing it. :-P
1. The description of the gameplay/setting/ for those not in the know:
The game is set in some kind of generic futuristic war I couldn’t care less about. Queue the ever so popular (recently) neon lights on battle suits, shields, mechs, yada, yada.
The gameplay is the usual Battlefield (et al) control point stuff with even the map previews looking laughably like BF2. Instead of tickets DECREASING, you play until one team reaches 1000 points but otherwise everything is as seen before apart from additional ways of getting points known as DCMs (Dynamic Combat Missions – more on this later). Capturing control points is called “hacking” (because it’s SO cool and original) and actually requires you to press a key instead of just standing around – you’re also vulnerable while attempting it.
There are six predefined classes BUT everything is customizable – you can choose your own loadout with primary and secondary weapons, additional devices (like repair tools, sensor jamming devices, grenades – you get the idea) and special abilities that boost your stats e.g. attack strength, shield strength blah, blah. The downside of this is that everybody uses the same character model and you have no clue for what targets you should go for since guessing their loadout is impossible – even if there will be more models in the game they certainly won’t be tied to the equipment, since you can change literally everything. In addition to that the effects of all these abilities have to be naturally smaller than in games with well-designed and well-balanced classes so that players don’t create “killer combos” and hence no matter the pseudo-class, everything plays and feels very same-y. It’s probably the first game that springs to my mind where even playing a sniper doesn’t feel much different from playing an assault-type character.
Your health is a combination of two things: automatically recharging shields and armor that can only be repaired by supply crates, uhm, sorry, supply stations and medics, uhm, sorry, green repair-beam guys (you can use the beam on yourself BTW). While this is a total rip-off of Halo 1 mechanics I actually have nothing against it – I find a dual system better than completely recharging health. Certain weapons also pierce your shields at close range.
A quite nice feature is the overdrive – a very fast sprint used to quickly cover large distances, triggered by holding the sprint button for a certain amount of time (by default it activates automatically). You also get a jetpack (*cough* Tribes *cough*) that allows you to fly short distances but in practice works more like a super jump.
When you die you can choose to spawn in absolutely-not-battlefield-style at your absolutely-not-battlefield-like squad or any other location using the absolutely-not-battlefield-like map. The twist here is that the respawn time is very short BUT the spawning process itself is actually dynamic since you’re being thrown out a dropship Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within style. This is pretty nice since it allows you to do something when spawning and provides some tactical decisions: you can spawn close to enemies but they will usually by protected by deployable AA guns which will damage you before landing, you can hit the air-brakes at a certain point to steer your flight and land comparatively gently OR you can not hit the air brakes at all which won’t damage you and deliver you to the ground faster but you won’t be able to land as precisely and suffer from landing-stun for a while (doing the crouching-fist-ground-trembles-and-cracks-landing kind of move seen in different contexts in hundreds of animes, sci-fi movies, games etc. ;-). This, of course, is nothing like parachuting in e.g. Medal of Honor: Airborne. While the idea is good it has its own share of problems I’ll discuss later.
Each player, apart from contributing to the overall success of the team, also gets requisition points that allow him to purchase additional equipment that is dropped after a while at his location – sentries, nay, AUTOMATED TURRETS (he, he), mechs etc.
Apart from the main objectives the aforementioned DCMs will trigger – they’re kind of “side-quests”. A VIP (LOL! They didn’t even go for an original name), convoy, intelligence (a.k.a. flag, symbolised by a briefcase – again, the originality) will appear somewhere on the map and will have to be delivered/escorted somewhere else. Upon successful completion (or failure) either team plus the individual players will get points speeding up victory or allowing the purchase of equipment as outlined above.
Ah! You’re also able to lock onto other people for a short amount of time while aiming (the length and/or ability to do so depends on various factors like chosen perks, distance, yada, yada) and surprisingly the auto-aim actually DOES correctly track your target.
2. Problems:
Yes, I know it’s a beta, so bugs don’t count. I also only mention issues that are either non-fixable that late in the development cycle or simply won’t be fixed because of the developers’ apparent intentions.
Absolutely everything in the game deals horribly low damage except for the mech’s punch (yes, it’s better to punch people than shoot them with the minigun ;-) and knife. This, coupled with the fact that most of the time everything is immediately visible on the map (except when you use this radar jammer (short duration), not a single enemy sees you etc. – these are all rare cases), means that there are virtually no ambushes and all encounters end being many-second long retarded out-strafing duels. It’s not a question of simply tweaking some weapon damage – it’s the intended Halo-like console-ish (the game is coming to the XBox360 after all) flow of the game, which perhaps some people like. It works on consoles, since the limited turning and aiming precision would break the game for unskilled people if they were being quickly killed by ambushing experienced players – this allows the player to react but is completely misplaced on the PC and reminds me of Battlefield Heroes combat.
Another problem of this gameplay type is reinforced by the “drop/spawn anywhere” mechanics – even if the enemy team sets up AA guns there will be a constant stream of players popping up all over the place in vital locations (if both teams know what they’re doing) resulting in dragged out clusterfucks. Yes, the more skilled team will win these by getting more points BUT this will come over as an artificial reward, rather than the usual satisfaction of having cleared out an area of enemies.
When you consider that there are things like the overdrive and jetpacks you truly can’t ever predict where the enemy will strike so the matches will result in endless back-and-forths when capture points are won and lost all the time since the maps are large and open like in the BF series, not closed with carefully designed choke-points like in e.g. TF2. While this might sound as if the rounds were very dynamic and exciting, it really isn’t – you have to try it out yourself.
But hey, does that mean that I simply don’t like the BF gameplay style? No, no! I played BF2 quite a lot back in the day. This gameplay style simply worked for it since it was very carefully designed. You knew where people MIGHT be spawning, knew where the assaults initially started and even if people could e.g. jump out of planes these had respawn timers and meant wasted team resources (yeah, you parachuted somewhere but a useful vehicle was lost in the process). Here the designers simply looked at the dropship concept and thought “*dur dur* that’s so cool”. Yeah, visually and from a single player’s perspective it really is – you do EXACTLY the stuff that’s shown in the cutscenes – but as a gameplay mechanic it fails.
Another very console-ish feature is the lock-on, which breaks the flow of aiming in quite annoying ways if you’re used to PC shooters. Yes, you could ignore it and simply aim well but then again it provides you with cheap auto-hits regardless of whether the enemy is using the jetpack or overdrive (making them a bit pointless as evasive devices), so mastering the transition between the two aiming modes potentially increases your efficiency. However, why introduce ANOTHER thing that needs to be mastered in a game that’s already overloaded with half-assed features and concepts? Shooting other people in games is, or rather SHOULD be a simple idea: the better you aim, the more effective you are. Here, you have another factor that influences your efficiency and this doesn’t make the game more difficult, just unnecessarily complicated since accurate shooting is already a field that offers unlimited potential for distinguishing more skilled and less skilled players. It’s so ironic that this is EXACTLY the kind of problem and bad game design I saw some days ago in a feature on ScrewAttack.com – I didn’t think I’d stumble upon a game like this so quickly, what a coincidence. ;-)
http://screwattack.com/TGO/Ep26
So yeah, there you have it. I dropped quite a few names in this post and some might argue that you could apply the “unoriginality” argument to virtually every FPS but each part of the gameplay mechanics is SO derivative of the games I mentioned, actually of many, many more I haven’t mentioned too, that it sticks out. The titles Section 8 apparently “drew inspiration from” had a main idea or concept that they tried to get right to the best of their designers’ ability and then built a whole game around it. Section 8 takes clues from everybody and hence gets NONE of them right since you’ve seen all of them done better elsewhere. Remember, “universal means good for nothing”.
I don’t even know what this game might be advertised as – what is its main selling point, so that people don’t skip over it with a “seen-it-dun-it” kind of attitude?
Ah – have I mentioned the graphics that, despite using the Unreal 3 Engine, look very, very dull with the usual barren brownish-grey landscapes populated by the glowy-power-armor soldiers I already described? The same artistic effect might have been achieved literally 10 years ago with absolutely no difference when it comes to the overall feel of the environment.
So there you have it. I will be playing the game some more as long as it’s free but it’s absolutely not a contender for a purchase. And no, I’m not “too quick to judge” since no amount of content introduced in the final version or the tweaks stemming from beta feedback will change the core of the gameplay which is chaotic, yet boring, derivative and simply not fun since you will be constantly reminding yourself that you could pick up/return to basically any other multiplayer shooter for a similar, nay, better experience.
P.S. Wall of text hits everybody for 10000000000 damage. :-D
14/08/2009 at 18:02 Acidburns says:
I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve played so far. I’d like to see how the full range of deployables effects the gameplay. Mainly the deployable AAA. On the mars like map I was able to setup sentry/heal station combos around the cover where the enemy liked to land just out of the bases AAA range. Closed down that area quite well.
The shotgun seems a bit of a waste compared to the machinegun. I’d keep sneaking up to people with the jammer, locking onto them and taking them down in a couple of seconds (with the jammer on they can’t lock onto me either). Maxed out armour and repair and it seems like a good setup.
I thought the sniper rifle seemed a bit naff too compared the the assualt rifle, but it might do better if you max out on damage mods. It really seemed to tear up people with a lot of armour but low shields.
The dynamic mission thing is pretty cool. Graphics are solid, weapons at least sound meaty which is nice. I didn’t notice much in the way of bugs personally, anyone seen any?
14/08/2009 at 18:20 Kits says:
Only bugs I’ve noticed so far were the progress bars for capture’s, and the charge bar for your jetpack not moving at all, and once managing to drop myself into the ruins of a ship on the utah map and not get back out again.
14/08/2009 at 18:29 Jim Rossignol says:
Lim-Dul: Some good criticisms in there, but some poor ones too.
“this allows the player to react but is completely misplaced on the PC and reminds me of Battlefield Heroes combat”
Because all PC games have to be precise, twitchy, high-damage games? No, they really don’t, there’s plenty of room for games to be different. You’re slamming it for being generic, and yet arguing it’s not enough like other PC shooters?
“Yes, the more skilled team will win these by getting more points BUT this will come over as an artificial reward, rather than the usual satisfaction of having cleared out an area of enemies.”
So have people protect areas of the map like you would in any TDM game? I’m not sure why the rewards are “artificial”. The whole point of the game is rapid re-deployment. The team that can move its defence rapidly and solidly is the one that wins.
14/08/2009 at 19:04 Lim-Dul says:
“Because all PC games have to be precise, twitchy, high-damage games? No, they really don’t, there’s plenty of room for games to be different. You’re slamming it for being generic, and yet arguing it’s not enough like other PC shooters?”
No – I gave the answer to this retort in the same paragraph. The lock-on doesn’t add anything to the gameplay. It doesn’t make it easier/harder/more involved, it makes it more complicated for no apparent reason. If, let’s say, a game had night-vision goggles in red, blue and yellow instead of the usual green with 3 different buttons to activate them, would I praise this title for “not being like other games who only have green night vision goggles”?
“So have people protect areas of the map like you would in any TDM game? I’m not sure why the rewards are “artificial”. The whole point of the game is rapid re-deployment. The team that can move its defence rapidly and solidly is the one that wins.”
The rewards are artificial because the only indication that you’re winning any given fight is the blue/red bar at the top of the screen. You kill 10 enemies in a row, so what? New ones are coming in wave after wave as if it was Serious Sam – you can’t even push them back since they can spawn right behind you. It’s arbitrary.
In another game a feat like that would be rewarded with the line of battle shifting dramatically – here it just goes on and on and on without discernible results, especially since there isn’t a clear front-line, and at a certain point it just stops abruptly with a big “You’re Winner!” (pun intended) sign. You can’t really score a decisive victory gameplay-wise (as in: wiping the other team out or leading your team to victory very quickly etc.).
Yes – virtually all shooters keep score in some form but usually besides deathmatch Quake-style game where frags mean everything you actually feel as if you’re accomplishing something relevant in addition to that. Not so in Section 8. You don’t lead your team to a glorious victory in an epic battle, you make a blue/red bar grow longer and that’s it.
The rapid redeployment part has, like I wanted to point out, but perhaps failed to explain fully, almost no tactical component. You capture a point, run to the next, 10 seconds later the point you just captured get’s re-captured, especially since “hacking” is an automatic process once it starts, the end result being both teams chasing each other like in the Benny Hill Show – even with good coordination.
With the drop-in system the team who is winning is grounded and limited to the overdrive while the losing team can spawn anywhere it wants after dying and has several control points to choose from – chaos ensues without anybody ever feeling “in control” of the match and the winners having paradoxically less mobility than the losers.
14/08/2009 at 20:26 Acidburns says:
I think the lock on might good for helping the poorer shots get some good kills in. It reminds me a little of the heavy from TF2, where knowing tactically when to setup your gun is more important than your twitch skills. The lock-on doesn’t feel especially overpowering, and you can spend a lot of customisation points on it to increase the recharge and duration.
Maybe it’s because people are still learning the ropes but I found on several games one team really dominated the other team, holding all 4 bases for a long time. Numbers on both teams were even, so it was player skill that was making the difference.
I don’t know how the tank handles (not enabled in the beta) but interestingly if you complete the convoy mission you get to keep the convoy truck and it’s quite a beast.
14/08/2009 at 20:35 Dominic White says:
It seems that this game is specifically designed NOT to cater to the Tribes crowd.
This is good, as that game had a learning curve like a brick wall, and most players were twitchier than hummingbirds on amphatemines, able to perfectly hit you from a half-mile away while arcing through teh air at half the speed of sound.
Pretty much every gripe Lim-Dul has there, I consider a plus point. I like being able to play a game where fights last more than a second, and I definitely think the lock-on is a nice concept. It’s pretty much an anti-jumpjet reaction, rather than something to be used for general combat. If someone is shooting past you at high speed, lock on and strafe them.
It’s fun and accessible, but there’s obvious room for a player to improve and learn. Still, the focus seems very much on team operations. A squad working closely together can do exponentially more damage than if the soldiers were working individually, and due to the low overall damage rates, there’s none of that perpetual FPS problem of you losing a teammate to the first bullet fired.
And… seriously, are you complaining that they call the VIP a VIP? It’s standard teminology.
15/08/2009 at 09:24 Rabbitsoup says:
Wow, came to say that after a night on mumble (like vent) the game now seems much more fun, there is loads of potential there. And if it had a bigger ad budget it would be flying of shelves upon release.,
Seriously though its not a demo though so why are the tanks AA turrets ect nbot there, remote mines are missing as well why do devs so this? it will cost them and make me wary of the retail game. also why have aim assist on the PC?????
@lim-dum
While the game is in no way perfect have to dissagre with the on graphics, I thought they were quite nice and run well on almost all rigs which is very important. Also all weapons do decent damage, the lack of 1 hit kills is there to encourage team play, focus fire is a beast and 1 v 2 rightly ends up in a lose for the lone player if the players are of anyhwhere equal skills.
Secondly they do keep score, but not in Kills to death alone, I assume this is done to encourage things other than pure DM play. meaning that 10 kills may mean nothing, while completing 1 convoy mission or holding a point is the aim.
Lastly the points are the fronts, and if you set up the AA ect can be held for a good period of time and focus the action. you cannot however expect free roaming spawn camp free vehicle and based turret deploying maps to employ choke points.
15/08/2009 at 10:07 Jim Rossignol says:
My understand re “ten kills not counting” is that well, no, because kills aren’t the objective: the team win is the objective.
I agree on the difficulty of tactical awareness and definite “front” thanks to the drop-in spawn, but that simply makes it more essential that squads work to secure bases and hold them until they need to react to a hack.
With sixteen aside you can have 4 fire teams doing just that.
15/08/2009 at 12:15 h4plo says:
@Lim-Dul:
Just had a quick response for your concerns with two aspects of Section-8 gameplay: that of the lock-on mechanic and of the seemingly long time that it takes to kill somebody. Two particular griefs that you had with the game tend to tie together – the auto-targeting system and the overall slow pace of combat. I’ve found there to be something of an elegant trick to using the auto-target – it isn’t about a momentary boost of efficiency, and nor is it an arbitrary crutch relied upon by the weak: it’s a fundamental kill mechanic with enormous flexibility.
You’re absolutely right – killing somebody does take a long time. I’d guess in the neighborhood of 15-20 seconds from 150+ meters out with an assault rifle, assuming the target had average armor and shielding. The key is /when/ the lock-on is used – if you hold off from using it until you’ve broken through a good potion of the target’s shield and then engage it, you’re pretty much guaranteed a kill if you’re solid on ammunition and they don’t leave line of sight.
What I find to be the most compelling aspect of the lock-on system, however, is that the method mentioned above is only the way that I use it. The system is flexible enough that it permits individual players to use it at times that suit their playstyle and equipment loadout. The sniper may choose to wait until he sees a target that’s had its shield drained by an ally and closes in for the killing stroke – but the armored badass soldier that carries a machine gun at close range could open with it, knowing that his target – if within about 50 meters – is as good as dead, no matter if it was fully shielded or not.
You’re also correct in saying that you don’t actually need to use the lock-on, and a player likely doesn’t even need to use it to do well in Section-8 – but it provides what is often that critical edge in an intense firefight, and being the player with a better understanding of the timing of lock-on can prove the deciding factor.
A strategy that my room mate and I have perfected over the years – honed specifically in World of Warcraft battlegrounds, where I played a priest and he a mage – is that of the strategy that has been fondly termed as Running Like a Bitch. The strategy is pretty straightforward: understand yourself, your team/partner, and the enemy situation well enough so that you can determine when you need to Run Like a Bitch in order to survive. Sometimes, the greatest victory comes after the most humiliating flight – and hey, you won in the end, so that’s all that matters, right? But Running Like a Bitch is pretty hard in Sector-8; the lock-on amplifies the difficulty curve of a successful flight many-fold. If your opponent saved his lock-on for the moment when you decided to flee, you will die unless you can find and duck behind cover immediately. Sure, you can evade him using the sprint boost thing (which I use constantly, mostly because it makes me feel superhuman more than most anything), but if you’re in an open field while it’s charging, it isn’t going to save you – but the lock-on will kill you. It’s good stuff – anything that makes me modify what I’ve found to be a conventional strategy is brain-fodder for me.
Also, to touch briefly on the dropship respawn mechanic: I hugely dig the animations and overall feel of it, particularly the red/blue/green color shift when you hit the air brakes just before impact. Although I kind of agree that it makes it difficult to predict where an enemy will land, it keeps the battle raging in a 360* arc at all times. I’m not actually sure that it grants a bonus to the loser in a conflict, either; they might get to choose exactly where to land, but they have to do so exposed and open to suppressive fire as soon as they land. If you run via the spring thing, it’s much easier to take a specific point of cover and hold it. Finally, it also forces teams to split their forces into groups that can control at least three of the capture points at any given time, so it always becomes a matter of determining which damn point the enemy squads will move towards next – so you know where to defend. I haven’t really pieced out together how yet, but as with most games, seemingly meaningless events initially chaotic often have an underlying ruleset or purpose.
15/08/2009 at 15:46 The Fanciest of Pants says:
Really enjoying the beta so far, apart from my sound not working for some reason(a few others on the S8 forums reporting the same, no fix yet).
I do think it would be cool if the passive upgrades had some sort of effect on your looks; extra armor plates shown as bulkier armor, shield capacity by some shield gubbinz or whatnot, stealth matrix but some jamming antennae dealies etc.
You get the point, wouldn’t be that hard to do from a technical standpoint, and would give you an idea of how someone was loaded out apart from the length of their shield/health bar.