By Jim Rossignol on March 31st, 2011 at 8:01 am.
There’s some new Hawken footage. Hot damn.
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ROBOBIFF: New Hawken Footage
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31/03/2011 at 08:05 Jonathan says:
Do. Want.
31/03/2011 at 08:26 Kdansky says:
While it does indeed look very nice, it could use some more color than just grey. The billboards are a nice start, but all buildings are the same. Surely in the future we will have invented paint, right?
31/03/2011 at 09:27 Alexander Norris says:
Why the hell can we not preorder this? I want to preorder this. I am literally asking for a chance to give them money.
31/03/2011 at 10:09 gorgol says:
This looks really good.
I hope they have a way to foster a community around the game, something that encourages clans, pro-gaming, foruming, pvp video makers, etc, and that it’s not just a case of playing with random people.
31/03/2011 at 10:10 Balm says:
No, it dosn’t need more collor. It’s ideal this way.
31/03/2011 at 10:41 Dozer says:
Clearly in the future everyone sees in ultraviolet. Except for mech pilots.
31/03/2011 at 10:54 Muzman says:
There’s quite a bit of colour splashed around, just not on the ground/whateversurfacethatis (highway? Rooftops?). They’ve captured that insanely busy quality to the look of SE Asian cities very nicely with all the small signage and so on (but in the future). I guess there’s not a huge amount in that particular area. There’s other levels though. Maybe there’s a ‘redlight district at night’ one in there.
31/03/2011 at 11:16 HermitUK says:
It also does Blue and Sand, no doubt with other colour combinations yet to come.
It looks awesome, by the by. Will be preordering as soon as I can.
31/03/2011 at 11:29 battles_atlas says:
@ Kdansky
Has no one told you about Peak Paint? The future is muted
31/03/2011 at 11:35 StranaMente says:
I really have to agree with Kdansky. The game is nice but some color might help. All that grey is over killing.
31/03/2011 at 13:15 Wulf says:
Food for thought: All the brown didn’t kill Morrowind because Morrowind was genuinely interesting to look at. I think this rule applies to Hawken and its grey.
And yes, yes yes yes! I want to give them money too! I stand with Mr. Norris on this. Why can we not give these ladies, gents, and such our cash for their efforts? Perhaps for entry to a local-only beta so that we can ta least give the tech a spin?
31/03/2011 at 13:21 shinygerbil says:
In the future, we will live in a celebrated and enlightened culture where everybody paints their building a primary colour and everybody else agrees how wonderful it looks.
(The colours look good to me.)
31/03/2011 at 15:54 Hanban says:
Oh my god. Since there’s been no word on Mechwarrior: Living Legends for ages I am -very- excited about this.
31/03/2011 at 17:50 Mistabashi says:
I agree with all the people who disagree with the people who disagree with the colour scheme. In case that causes some confusion, I’m saying I think it looks great.
I also agree with the people who disagree that agreeing to take pre-orders isn’t an agreeable idea. I think, hold on lemme just read that back… Yep, I’m pretty sure that’s what I agree with.
31/03/2011 at 18:41 Rhin says:
To be fair, it does look like no one has bothered re-painting in some time, and the paint has faded with age (and bright sunlight) and been caked over by heavy dust and soot. In fact, it almost looks like the cities are mostly uninhabited (maybe the current residents all live underground?)
31/03/2011 at 08:07 faelnor says:
Looking very good! A shame I don’t like MP games anymore. I can see myself playing that with bots a lot though, hope they include it.
Also, I get a very nice Ghost In The Shell : Stand Alone Complex vibe from the way the city is designed and the color palette. Gave me a craving for a Tachikoma combat sim.
31/03/2011 at 08:16 Dhatz says:
hope is there will be mod
31/03/2011 at 15:20 phuzz says:
There was a PS1 Ghost in the Shell game which featured you playing as a Tachikoma. See here..
(actually, apparently it’s a Fuchikoma, close enough).
On topic: Robobiff looks good :)
31/03/2011 at 08:08 konrad_ha says:
Dear god, I have to have this even if I don’t dig the gameplay.
31/03/2011 at 14:37 scut says:
This is pretty much my sentiment. The gameplay is the sort of circle-strafing and bum-rushing that really disappoints me in shooters. Still, the visual beauty alone makes me happy it’s getting made. I hope they release a nice art pack of all the concept work.
31/03/2011 at 08:09 The Army of None says:
Wot a SPECTACLE. Do want.
31/03/2011 at 08:17 Dhatz says:
only problem with graphics is the AO that is unrealistic
31/03/2011 at 08:27 erhebung says:
What is “AO”?
31/03/2011 at 08:41 BooleanBob says:
Adults Only? I.e. unrealistic robo-wang. I, er, couldn’t claim expertise in the area.
Army of None is correct, though. This is spectacular.
31/03/2011 at 08:59 TheSaddestSort says:
Looking marvelous.
31/03/2011 at 10:35 Calneon says:
AO when talking about graphics means Ambient Occlusion, which is a shadowing technique which simulates the shadowing of one object on other nearby objects (not actual shadows). I’m not sure what Dhatz means when he says it’s not realistic.
31/03/2011 at 11:42 Stuart Walton says:
I wouldn’t say the unrealistic AO is a problem. In fact, implementing more realistic lighting could be detrimental to gameplay. The amazing thing about the game is how ‘readable’ the environments are given the muted colour palette and all the complicated structures in those colours. The AO is quite pronounced, it looks as though it’s baked in to the textures (so may not be real AO, I suspect a bit of both AO and baked-in), this really helps a player ‘parse’ a scene quickly. Watching the video you never get disoriented, that is a testament to the artwork. Gameplay and fun should always trump realism.
31/03/2011 at 13:26 Muzman says:
Just out of interest, where is this stuff in some way obvious in that video?
31/03/2011 at 15:40 LionsPhil says:
What Stuart said. For something so grey-brown, it’s pretty dang good at not becoming a whole smear of indistinguishable blobs that then need highlights. Although the bots get subtle-ish HUD ones anyway.
…speaking of HUD that cockpit is wonderful. I love all the monitors fritzing out when it overheats and the various panic-beeps.
31/03/2011 at 08:10 Kid_A says:
It’s… beautiful.
31/03/2011 at 08:12 James says:
Very nice, the scale of the machines comes across and that’s something by itself. This could be a lot of fun actually.
Anybody know how many artists they have, and how long they’ve put into it so far?
31/03/2011 at 08:27 doeke says:
It is made by a small team, who currently have been at it for 9 months. Their sound designer is currently answering questions on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/gfamk/i_am_the_sound_designer_for_the_futuristic_mech/
Also, this game looks freaking amazing. I have more than once wished this game existed and soon it will…
31/03/2011 at 08:29 Stardog says:
http://www.adhesivegames.com/team.html
Khang Le – Art Director, Co-Founder and CEO
Jonathan Kreuzer – Technical Lead, Co-Founder
Dave Nguyen – Designer/Artist, Co-Founder and Director of Mail
Christopher Lalli – Animator, Co-Founder and Loose Cannon
Nhat Nguyen – Environment Artist
Long Hoang – Artist, Intern Program Graduate and Career Maverick
Branford Miles Williams – Artist, Lead Intern
Timothy Ridley – Artist, Intern
Lynn Hye Ryoung Yang – Artist, Intern
The Departed :
James Hawkins – Senior Environment Artist, Senior Diet Coke Consumer
Jon Lee – Artist, Intern
Silvia Liu – Artist, Intern and Sign Maker
31/03/2011 at 08:29 zbillyboob says:
See previous post. Nine months I think with quite small team.
Beaten to the punch.
31/03/2011 at 08:31 James says:
That’s a little on the large side of small, but it’s still very impressive work.
Thank you, helpful posters who’ve spared me and countless others the tedium of our own searches.
31/03/2011 at 09:52 TillEulenspiegel says:
Yeah, that’s approaching a normal-sized team in days gone by.
Assuming an average salary of $40k for the non-interns, you’re talking about $180k spent on wages alone so far, nevermind the studio in LA. Not a huge amount, but a figure that implies a bit more investment than your average indie.
31/03/2011 at 10:57 Beartastic says:
Less than your average indie, sure but it’s way, way less than even your average next-gen B-title. Not to mention AAA titles.
To put it in perspective, at 180K they would have spent as much as Angry Birds. It’s mind-blowing that they’ve made something this amazing and even moreso that it’s on a shoestring.
31/03/2011 at 08:14 JuJuCam says:
Very pretty, and amazing audio work, but it’s not a mech piloting game unless there’s a possibility of breaking limbs or killing pilots within cockpits and salvaging the remains… Hmm… Anyone know a relatively recent title that even attempted this?
31/03/2011 at 08:22 James says:
I think it’s probably a real mech piloting game. My first clue was that it had mechs, which was a start but not enough for my satisfaction. However, I quickly noticed that the view is set from inside of a (presumably) mech cockpit.
I shall let my observations stand on their own merit.
31/03/2011 at 08:28 JuJuCam says:
Those aren’t mechs, they’re Space Marines in mech clothing.
31/03/2011 at 08:29 James says:
Oh.
31/03/2011 at 08:45 sassy says:
Not space marines. The lack of bravado and body odor is a distinct giveaway. I’m afraid the only alternatives are mech or really good cosplayers.
31/03/2011 at 14:23 Berzee says:
A long series of potential replies I rejected for not being witty enough, has led me to the realization that if someone made a game called CHECKERS WITH GUNS, whereupon you played checkers pieces what had guns, that could be a game.
31/03/2011 at 08:20 Dyst says:
It’s probably too much to ask, but I’d love to be able to see the pilots hands when in that first person mode. Looks like you’re in the cockpit of the mech, and I think it would be great if you could see your character frantically pushing buttons and what not. Racing games can do it, and while this a small dev team they have already done amazing work so it seems like they could pull it off.
31/03/2011 at 08:46 sassy says:
I think that would just be a distraction.
Even if it weren’t then it still wouldn’t add much for the amount of effort needed.
31/03/2011 at 13:27 Wulf says:
No. D: That would ruin it for me, at least. I mean, you have an interestingly odd world there, it looks like it could be a future Asian setting, but it’s still odd, and this means that I can imagine my pilot to be something of a transhumanist post human if I desire, in an age of morphological freedom. I mean, the idea of something being set in the future and body mods not existing is… is… silly. And that’s being polite. When body mods are available, very few people are going to stick with the human baseform without at least some minor modifications. And the world will get less xenophobic from there.
If I were to see a perfect human fiddling around with the innards of that mech, it would ruin my belief that, hey, at least this is one Sci-Fi setting which doesn’t ignore the potential of morphological freedom, which is an undeniable artifact of the distant future. Not to mention that there’ll be people who’ll augment themselves with cybernetics due to cybernetics being far, far superior to biological alternatives, too. (A great example of this is BloodNet, for those who remember that. Vampires in cyberspace. And Elvis!) Seriously, in the future, there will be much body modification. And as it becomes more publically available, very few people will remain unmodified.
I suspect that people will even have their base code changed so that if they choose to mate the old fashioned way, their changes will be carried on by their children, and those changes will continue on past their own lives, despite them probably being long-lived at this point. We’re talking potential near Singularity shit, here. In fact, this might even be a post-Singularity setting, and this isn’t a war but just what people do for fun. That’s imagination for you.
But the moment you put a perfect human pilot in there, you kill all that potential. All of it dead, lost, like tears in the rain or something.
31/03/2011 at 13:30 Wulf says:
Blargh. Not editing. I’m afraid that I’ll lose my post to the spam filter.
Anyway, I also hope that if pilots can be removed from mechs, that we’ll be given a Shofixti-like ‘glory device’ (read as: suicide bomb) so that I can scream and smash that, thus engulfing the potential looter in an entirely deserved nuclear explosion.
31/03/2011 at 15:09 LionsPhil says:
tl;dr Wulf doesn’t want to see human hands because he wishes to imagine that the mech is being piloted by his awesome murry-purry fursona.
31/03/2011 at 16:40 Kron says:
I actually like where Wulf is going with this.
As a transhumanist myself, morphological freedom ftw!
31/03/2011 at 17:40 Consumatopia says:
If you want weird transhumans in the cockpit, then put weird transhumans in the cockpit. But, clearly, there is supposed to be some sort of smaller entity within each of these mechs–otherwise, why show a cockpit at all? (Actually, if you’re assuming transhumanism, then the cockpit makes no sense–people would just connect their brains directly to the mech and it would look like any other FPS.)
And it sucks that you never see these smaller entities–anything from your own hands, your own Metroid Prime-esque reflection in the glass, corpses inside destroyed mechs, pilots fleeing damaged mechs, noncombatants hiding, or guerrillas firing anti-tank weapons at you.
31/03/2011 at 08:22 gwathdring says:
You can really feel the vehicles. This is outstanding work, so far. :)
31/03/2011 at 08:24 thesundaybest says:
Oh to live in such times as these, where my ten year-old dreams come true. Glorious days!
31/03/2011 at 08:24 zal says:
I was incredibly psyched before, and now I’m beyond thrilled, especially at what looked like direct involvement of that hovering airship in the combat. soo cool.
31/03/2011 at 08:27 Grey_Ghost says:
Wow.
31/03/2011 at 08:31 mkultra says:
Not impressive at all.
31/03/2011 at 10:01 D says:
It tries way too hard to be distilled awesomeness. It would be much better if it looked less awesome. I am also a person that is never impressed.
01/04/2011 at 00:34 GHudston says:
Not constructive at all.
31/03/2011 at 08:38 kikito says:
I would like to see puny humans running away. So I can step over them.
31/03/2011 at 10:12 P7uen says:
Over?!
31/03/2011 at 11:18 Gonefornow says:
I’d like it if the spectating mode (do MP games have that anymore?) wasn’t a floating camera, but a civilian you could run around and possibly get stomped on (?) or over, if the pilot is nice enough.
31/03/2011 at 13:36 Wulf says:
As I said above – given the incredibly unique nature of the mechs, having humans present would really ruin it for me, at least. It looks like the sort of future which technology has reached a point where humans probably wouldn’t look that human anymore. So I’d see every fleeing human as a distracting anachronism.
31/03/2011 at 15:12 LionsPhil says:
Running-with-the-bulls-but-instead-of-bulls-its-giant-robots mode is the most wonderfully ludicrous idea for spectator mode.
31/03/2011 at 08:46 skyturnedred says:
If any game needed destructible environment, it’s this one.
31/03/2011 at 10:30 Evil Timmy says:
I was thinking the same thing. “Wow, imagine if you could take a chunk off that building and crush that bastard,” then, a dozen seconds later, “That billboard is suspiciously fragile looking, a few well placed rounds, and…”. Not that this isn’t tweaking that part of my brain that’s still lusting after an experience like the first time I fired up MW2 already, but that would actually give it a chance to not just scratch but maybe even replace that particular itch.
31/03/2011 at 08:47 irongamer says:
HELL YES! Love the art style and atmosphere.
31/03/2011 at 11:34 thessalian_pine says:
Frickin’ impressive indeed. Very nice Art. Would like to see some maps with more open terrain as well but this looks very promising as it is.
31/03/2011 at 13:41 Wulf says:
Agreed! That art really has some soul to it. Nothing makes me happier than when I can see the love that went into crafting something. Where someone really cared about every little detail, and they wanted to make it different, and visually interesting.
I’ll be just as happy exploring in this as playing the game.
Please let the cities be massive and procedurally generated, please let the cities be massive and procedurally generated…
31/03/2011 at 08:47 sassy says:
Anyone know if this is exclusively mp? I really only care for sp and my connection drops out too much for mp anyway.
Still this is relevant to my interests!!!
31/03/2011 at 18:40 Yosharian says:
Seems like it’s only multiplayer, I also lament the apparent lack of singleplayer.
31/03/2011 at 08:50 Metonymy says:
Reminds me of Assault Suits Valken, in terms of capturing the theme of personal combat suits. Great fluff.
31/03/2011 at 08:50 MrMud says:
I like my mechs a little more lumbering but this looks really cool.
31/03/2011 at 13:42 Wulf says:
Yeah, these are really organic, fluid, agile mechs. Not at all like the mechs we’ve pretty much invariably seen before in games.
I approve!
31/03/2011 at 08:52 DevilSShadoW says:
This is clearly one of the highlights of 2011. Best work I’ve seen come out of an indie studio. Great environments, great sound effects and from what i can see, amazing gameplay. Keep it up and you will definitely have me as a customer.
31/03/2011 at 08:53 Warth0g says:
Wow looks (and sounds) incredible… really kinetic, great sense of weight and heft..
Is it MP only then? A single-player campaign in this setting could be pretty awesome… takes a lot of dev resource to do though I suppose….
31/03/2011 at 08:54 Personoic says:
BUENO.
31/03/2011 at 09:18 Stijn says:
“Does not reflect the quality of the final product.” I hope it does, in a way.
31/03/2011 at 09:25 JB says:
Truth ^
31/03/2011 at 09:24 JB says:
Turrets – Excellent, love the animations and sound. Would be nice to see them in action though!
Support Ship – Fricking ace! Loving that a lot. More please!
This looks to be a lot of fun. Overall I’m pretty excited to have a crack at Hawken. And despite having a good inkling of how that video would end I was still rooting for the player all the way =)
31/03/2011 at 09:30 Dominic White says:
I know it’ll upset some people, but I REALLY hope they limit the rate at which you can turn, even if you’re playing with mouse/keyboard. The illusion that you’re piloting a hefty piece of jumpjetting military hardware could be ruined almost instantly by someone twitching around 180 degrees in the blink of an eye. There’s a reason why Shogo felt like running around in noisy metal pajamas instead of piloting a giant robot.
Having lighter, faster-maneuvering mechs and heavier ones that take longer to swing around or corner (lowering turning speed further when running would make sense) would introduce some nice additional control elements.
Hell, some weight added to the basic close-quarters aiming wouldn’t go amiss too. I’ve been replaying Battlezone 1 & 2 lately, and while it can sometimes be frustrating that I can’t be pinpoint-sniper-accurate in it, there’s a very good reason for it: I’m driving a tank, not pointing an ACOG-scoped bullet hose with my own two hands.
31/03/2011 at 09:36 tomeoftom says:
^More than agreed. The whole /point/ of mechs is that you can have options like that. I just really hope that they make equipment and upgrades visually identifiable, so there’s some semblance of real strategy to the fights. Anyway, how incredible did that last duel look?!!!! This has led me to use multiple exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!!
31/03/2011 at 10:11 Metonymy says:
The only way limited turn speed can be acceptable is if “looking” is immune to the effect.
Ie, you can instantly look through your entire field of view, which should be 270-180 degrees, but the mech takes time to actually turn in that particular direction. This would require a second set of keys for strafing and turning, (Q+E) though it’s hard to tell what will work best. Hopefully disabling the HUD is an option, but I have a bad feeling about that.
Based upon what we can see here, they’re limiting vision to the direction you’re facing, probably to make it look better for the video. If this is actually how it’s played, where you have to t u u u u u u u u r n, the gameplay could end up being very bad.
Why does that matter? Because if you have some crap console-level gameplay on a generic mech game, there will be zero competitive play, and thus there will be no metoo fanboys, and the casual money they bring in. No competition = very unhealthy for this kind of game.
31/03/2011 at 10:25 Gnoupi says:
Limiting the rate is useless, as it will only make you drag your mouse several time on the table, and can be circumvented by any gamer mouse by changing its dpi.
If you want to emulate a mech, , in my opinion, it has to be like a tank: with a delay in turning, like following the pointer. But it has to be really fast following, to keep the pace, while still giving the impression of controlling a mech and not directly the body/view.
31/03/2011 at 10:33 Dominic White says:
“Limiting the rate is useless, as it will only make you drag your mouse several time on the table, and can be circumvented by any gamer mouse by changing its dpi.”
Aformentioned Battlezone games have full WSAD + Mouse control, and DPI has nothing to do with it. Each vehicle has a maximum rate at which it can turn (move that mouse as fast as you like, it won’t turn any faster than gently dragging it), and inertia – in a super-heavy tank, you have to stop turning early or you’ll overshoot your target. You’re thinking as if this game is a straight FPS and not a mech combat game.. and that worries me.
The ‘MUSTTURNQUICKQUICKFAST MOUSE SHOOTY PERFECT YES’ mentality is probably the single greatest threat to this game now.
31/03/2011 at 10:54 Dozer says:
Yes. Separating the camera from the gunsight and the direction of the mech chassis is a great idea. You could either have it so the camera is controlled completely separately to the gunsight/chassis direction (by using FreeTrack or TrackIR), or that the gun/chassis will always chase the pilot-view camera.
Armed Assault did this, and it was crazy. In ArmA and its predecessors, you can set an amount of gun-aiming ‘float’ where you can aim your gun without turning your body – so if you’re facing a house, you can shoot any part of the house without your view changing, and with your crosshairs moving around an invisible rectangle in the middle of the screen. Anyone watching would see you lying still and with just your gun and arms moving. Move the mouse to the edge of the invisible aim-float rectangle and then your torso and legs start to turn too.
But you could use TrackIR to control your head separately to your gun and your body. So you could be lying down facing the house, aiming at the alleyway to the side of the house, and looking over your shoulder. Really difficult to get used to – I walked sideways into a lot of fences while trying to get through gates.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOToqJQmPfs&t=1m0s
31/03/2011 at 13:47 Wulf says:
I… I don’t agree.
I mean, there are many games with walking tanks (wanzers!) in them, but let’s just play let’s pretend for a moment, can we?
1. What if this is in a reality where the elemental elements that compositely make up that reality were different?
2. What if the physical laws of that reality were different?
3. What if technology had evolved to a point where our real world metals could be altered in such a way to be light enough to construct a light, lithe mech, whilst still being as sturdy?
4. What if there are magnetospheric/antigravitational fields at work, reducing the weight of the mech?
Take your pick.
The point is is that this isn’t so much a near future game. It’s more Ghost in the Shell – it’s a much more distant future setting. For the same reason that I wouldn’t want to see normal, human pilots because they’d be a jarring anachronism, I don’t want to see slowly moving, lumbering mechs for the same reason. I like that the turning is fast.
In the future, mechs are more agile and fast than you!
I mean, why not?
There are plenty of slow, clunky walking tank games out there. Can’t we let this one be different? Please?
31/03/2011 at 14:04 Dominic White says:
I’m arguing specifically against Mechwarrior-style ‘walking tank’ gameplay here, though. I just want there to be some sensation that you’re actually controlling a 10+ ton piece of metal, rather than being yet another instantly responsive FPS superhero who can jump ten feet, twist 180 degrees AND score a perfect headshot on an enemy in one half-second motion. I was using Shogo as an example, because the mech levels in that were exactly the same as the on-foot levels, but it was basically shouting ‘THIS IS A GIANT ROBOT’ in your ear every half a second. All the noise and sound and fury in the world can’t convince me that a 50 foot tall sci-fi death machine is exactly as agile and fast as my unarmored soldier man on foot.
Ever play the Transformers: Armada game on the PS2? As unrealistic as you can get, but there was inertia, weight and power behind those robots in disguise. When Optimus Prime stopped from a dead run, he’d dramatically skid a good distance. When you landed from a long fall, there was an enormous crash and your movement was slowed. You couldn’t twist around instantly either. Quickly, yes, but not instantly. The newest Transformers game, while decent, lost that. It played exactly like Gears of War. There was almost no sense of being in control of anything with mass.
The turning speeds and aiming limitations shown off in this video here are perfect. If those carry over to mouse/keyboard play, all the better. What I don’t want is to open fire on a mech I’ve flanked and have him flip 180 degrees in the blink of an eye and hit me instantly.
31/03/2011 at 14:32 Berzee says:
Hear hear! (hear)
Whenever you choose something different than a plain old human for a player character, you hope the choice will be reflected in the feel of the controls. Even if you had mechs that were more agile than humans…that would still be a *different* feel than the average FPS (though with instant reflexes in human-character FPS’s, I dunno how you’d convey something more agile =).
Well, similar example — if there was a game where you rode a tiger, or were a tiger…those are more agile than humans but certainly heavier also. Not mutually exclusive, I think
I too hope for, not necessarily stompyness, but at least heftiness. (Else this is Crysis with a more notable HUD =)
31/03/2011 at 15:15 LionsPhil says:
The one that really got me on the last video was that mechs went from strafing left at full speed to strafing right at full speed instantly. That kills any sense of inertia and really is just FPS-dress-up. Movement, at least, needs some inertia.
…I’ve yet to see this one because YouTube is buffering at a mighty 40kBps. Hooray.
Ok, there we go, it’s done. First-person covers many ills. I’d actually rather it stayed in it during the sit-down and blow-up parts.
31/03/2011 at 17:58 Lilliput King says:
Dom: Totally agree. If your mechs are so lithe and agile that they’re indistinguishable from humans then, well, what’s the point?
31/03/2011 at 09:33 tomeoftom says:
AAAH! I need to give them my money! I cannot containt myseflkHALdoawhgilGBi gulao nrt@)
31/03/2011 at 10:14 P7uen says:
I did taint myself after watching the vid.
31/03/2011 at 09:34 Theoban says:
I will buy and play any game where a giant ship turns up and interrupts everythiHUUURRRRRRNNNNNNN
31/03/2011 at 10:44 JB says:
And didn’t it sound great while it did itHUUUUUURRRRRRNNNNNNNN
31/03/2011 at 13:48 Wulf says:
I think everyone likes a good HUUUUUURRRRRRNNNNNNNN once in a while.
31/03/2011 at 09:34 westyfield says:
I didn’t like the previous footage (3rd person ‘spectator’ camera) – I thought it looked too fast and jumpy for my liking. This is much more appealing, it seems fairly solid. The weapon noises and damage indicators sound really satisfying – lots of whining as weapons recharge, big thumps and bangs when things get hit, and the frantic beeping of the “you’re about to die” machine made the video seem pretty tense.
Looking forward to this one a lot.
31/03/2011 at 09:41 soylentrobot says:
this just makes me think “what the devil are actual developers playing at when nine guys can do this in nine months”
31/03/2011 at 10:04 BurningPet says:
This old thing called programming an engine.
31/03/2011 at 11:08 Navagon says:
Apart from all those who, you know, license one.
31/03/2011 at 12:38 BurningPet says:
What about those? those doesnt have longer production time.
31/03/2011 at 16:58 Navagon says:
That’s a rather broad generalisation with plenty of counter examples.
31/03/2011 at 09:45 espylaub says:
Brilliant. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. it’s got style coming out its ears, the sound design is amazing (giant thing that goes HUUURRRRRRNNNNNNN == instabuy) and it just looks so wonderfully uncompromising and thumpy.
Dear developers: LET ME GIVE YOU MY MONIES!
31/03/2011 at 09:46 stahlwerk says:
I will go one step further and say hot diggidy damn.
Also, that’s not how cyrillic works.
31/03/2011 at 10:58 Dozer says:
I didn’t notice the shch-character masquerading as a W at first. I will now refer to this game as Hashchen. And downgrade it from hot diggety damn to plain hot damn as a consequence.
31/03/2011 at 13:50 Wulf says:
This is the future! The future! Language evolves!
*throws arms up.*
31/03/2011 at 14:43 cjlr says:
Languages might evolve, but alphabets generally don’t. The Latin alphabet carved into a 2200 year old monument is perfectly readable. The letters all do the same thing. Greek too; there are small variations in pronounciation, mostly vowel-related, but pi is pi and sigma is sigma, and never the twain shall swap.
Cyrillic is a bastardization of Greek, but the remaining letters (a good dozen odd have been dropped over the centuries) are recognizable in the middle ages.
Щ is Щ. That won’t change.
31/03/2011 at 16:24 Cynic says:
@cjlr
“Languages might evolve, but alphabets generally don’t.”
Quite incorrect on your part.
Only 100 years ago, F was used as S on written documents, and 2000 years ago there was no letter U or J, instead V and I (capital i) were used. J only became it’s own letter and sound around 1524. Wikipedia has an article on each letter.
So nerr.
31/03/2011 at 19:32 Rhin says:
“That’s not how cyrillic works” is about as valid an critique of a logo as “the K is backwards”.
31/03/2011 at 09:48 MrBRAD! says:
With 3d, I might even have the chance to tell where the floor ends, and the walls start.
31/03/2011 at 09:50 Jonathan says:
I wish the terrain was destructible though — those spheres (which I imagine holding gas or fuel) are just begging to go KABOOM.
31/03/2011 at 10:08 Zarx says:
or maybe even the ability to shoot the base causing them to fall on enemies lol….
31/03/2011 at 10:58 Bodminzer says:
Yuck, I’d hate for something to fall on my lol :(
31/03/2011 at 10:06 Zarx says:
This looks all sorts of cool and the world needs more mech games
also 2D cockpit is so retro funky
31/03/2011 at 10:21 HexagonalBolts says:
That smoke effect…. om nom nom nom nom
31/03/2011 at 10:25 roryok says:
right, I’m off to go find, install and play Mechwarrior 2 again. Then Ghost Bear’s Legacy. then Mercenaries. Then Terra Nova. Then I will stop.
31/03/2011 at 10:48 Matchstick says:
You have a copy of Terra Nova ?!?
Damn you, I’ve been looking for one for ages :(
I keep hoping it will appear on GoG one day…
31/03/2011 at 10:59 roryok says:
sadly no, I’ve been trying to get it on ebay for ages. I have the other three though. There are a couple of copies on there but I’m only after one with the original box, for my box collection
31/03/2011 at 11:21 Urael says:
I have one too. One of the prides of my collection – took me literal years to track down!
31/03/2011 at 11:45 roryok says:
I am envious
I almost have every Looking Glass game (missing Terra Nova, Flight Unlimited 2 & 3), and most of the LucasArts adventure games. Not sure where to go after that…
31/03/2011 at 10:31 Ultra Superior says:
F****N BRILLIANT
31/03/2011 at 10:58 Man Raised by Puffins says:
Oh. Oh my.
31/03/2011 at 10:59 Bodminzer says:
Seeing that massive spaceship turn up and make its massive spaceship sounds did funny things to me.
31/03/2011 at 11:00 Flameberge says:
Wow, unlike over at PCG, not a hoard of moronic spoilsports talking about waah waah waah not mechwarrior waah waah whinge my life is an empty shell of misery waah wahh bring back mechwarrior waah wahh I want it now whinge moan bitch waah
This has my approval. Especially as the only way we’re going to get this game is if they really feel there’s an audience for it. They’re such a small team I imagine they’re all very aware of the coverage they’re getting, and the comments their footage is engendering. People being nonsensically negative are likely to hurt its chances of ever making the PC, as I can see this going Xbox Live / PSN. Let’s a face it, a big wad of cash from MS or Sony is probably just what they want right now, so they can polish up their game and have a bit logner developing it, and more power to them, frankly.
31/03/2011 at 11:05 Dominic White says:
Anyone whining for a new Mechwarrior game, and not actively playing Mechwarrior: Living Legends (or the fan-updated MW4: Mercs) is a tool, and should be mocked at length, because you’ve got two very good games to pick from right there.
The whole ‘giant robots should be tanks with legs’ thing is silly, anyway. In Battletech, there’s plenty of mechs with proper arms and hands that can climb surfaces and grab things and generally move in a much more humanoid fashion. They just couldn’t model those in early Battletech games because the technology was just too primitive, so they basically made them into walking tanks.
31/03/2011 at 11:27 Urael says:
Heh, most of what gaming does is silly. Superheroes? Silly. Elves and Orcs? Silly. the Walking dead? Silly. Platformers starring chunks of meat? …you get the idea. :)
Yes, the concept of a walking robotic tank is deeply impractical but that doesn’t stop it from being also COMPLETELY AWESOME.
Have you got any links for the Mechwarrior 4 fan stuff? Not that 4 is my favourite addition to the series – too slick, too ‘arcadey’. To my mind the series has been in decline every since 3.
31/03/2011 at 11:31 Dominic White says:
No, a giant robot that can punch through buildings and throw tanks is COMPLETELY AWESOME.
A giant robot reduced to exactly the same role as a tracked tank with more guns is rather dull. It’s taking a whole world of crazy sci-fi potential and stripping it down to its simplest, most limited aspect. Like I said, the mechs in Battletech could do a ton of stuff. Punching, kicking, picking up trees and lampposts and braining the other guy with it.
The videogame adaptation made is significantly less awesome by vastly reducing the number of things you can do. Just take the legs off your average Mechwarrior mech and you’d find that it behaves exactly as before, just set a bit lower down.
Anyway, you can find the updated MW4 here:
http://www.mektek.net/projects/mw4/
31/03/2011 at 12:32 Urael says:
It’s not an either/or proposition here. Both are COMPLETELY AWESOME in their own ways. You prefer one, I like the other. Did you ever play Slave Zero? That was an amazing game. I love the bit where he stomped on the little vehicles. And where he roared. And where he…yeah I loved all of it. Shame you can’t find a copy nowadays or get it to work when you do. Damned Windows ME.
Ta for the link. Will have a nose at that later.
31/03/2011 at 11:05 Icarus says:
This, want, now.
31/03/2011 at 11:23 Navagon says:
If this plays half as good as it looks we could start to see the beginning of an indie golden age here. So called AAA developers are increasingly losing ground on PC. Their anti-customer bullshit is only increasing their irrelevance. With titles like this and Amnesia a market with the major publishers taking a back seat actually doesn’t look so bad at all.
31/03/2011 at 13:52 Wulf says:
That pretty much sums up how I feel.
Let the untamed, unbridled creativity commence. If you make it, indie developers, we will buy it. We are still that starved of imagination.
31/03/2011 at 14:05 Navagon says:
The primary difference between an indie and an AAA title is that the AAA has to play it reasonably safe to avoid putting people off. The indie has to take chances in order to stand out.
Of course that doesn’t stop many an indie churning out tried and tested games like the Asteroid clones out there, but it’s plain which model benefits gamers more overall. It’s really starting to take off now and titles like this do make you wonder what AAA titles will have left to offer should this kind of quality become more commonplace in the indie scene.
Long live the indies!
31/03/2011 at 11:24 sasayan says:
yes, Yes, YES.
31/03/2011 at 11:45 noproblem says:
This is a meka fan’s wet dream.
Can’t wait!
31/03/2011 at 12:02 jimjames says:
This does look amazing and I was really blown away. But now I’m wondering how much of this amazing look is down to the expensive unreal engine they’re using.
Although, you can’t take away the fact that the city design is unlike many other western shooters, however gray it may be, is still impressive.
31/03/2011 at 12:26 theleif says:
Oh, la la!
31/03/2011 at 12:39 Napalm Sushi says:
Is it me, or does the disclaimer at the start sound like a sarcastic brag once you’ve actually seen the video?
31/03/2011 at 12:49 Dakia says:
Wow, that video is amazing. I want this even more now than I did before.
31/03/2011 at 13:05 Shazbut says:
Christ. What an achievement. The cityscapes kind of remind me of Tekkon Kinkreet
31/03/2011 at 13:12 Wulf says:
Holy crap I want to play this! I want to go and explore in a mech, and stand on things, and look awesome.
I suppose a lot of my interest in this is that the robots are really interesting, even mildly organic, in their construction. It reminds me of how the Charr build things – bulbous, round, not all flat square chunks like we usually see with mechs. And the world, despite being dystopian, is peculiarly bright. It’s almost like a playground that’s been constructed for those robots to faff around in, and this is part of some sport.
If it was all dark, grimy, and had the very blocky mechs of old, then it might not have caught my attention, but this really is something a bit different. And the blessing of mech games is that you never have to see the pilots, so one can do whatever the hell they want with that thanks to their imagination. I don’t know about you, but my mech is going to have been stolen and is now piloted by an Ur Quan-like spider person.
I might get bored of the fighting, but if the maps are big and possibly even procedurally generated, I can see me having fun for a bit just running off, leaving everyone else to fight, and seeing what I haven’t seen yet. Plus it’ll be fun getting randomly ambushed by someone who’s doing the same whilst enjoying the mechanical scenery.
I definitely dig the aesthetic here, though. I get an odd more organic Transformers vibe off it all. I like it.
31/03/2011 at 14:35 Berzee says:
On a very slightly related note, *are* there any FPS’es with procedurally generated maps?
31/03/2011 at 21:38 Dozer says:
Minceraft? That has procedurally generated maps. And shooting, once you’ve crafted a bow.
01/04/2011 at 07:06 Berzee says:
*PUNCH*
31/03/2011 at 13:21 Jesse L says:
When when??! ARRGGHH!
I hope the devs don’t listen to anyone on any comment board anywhere and just finish doing exactly what they’ve started.
31/03/2011 at 13:44 shinygerbil says:
Actually, after watching the vid a couple of times, I don’t think I like the look of the gameplay all that much.
It looks like Unreal Tournament with mech skins. Pretty, yes; mech-y, no.
This game ought to slow down a bit for a start; it does look a little bit twitchy. I also hope there is a lot of mech variation and customisation in the style of the Armo[u]red Core series. Nothing beats going round flattening your mates’ nippy little two-leggers with a dumpy caterpillar-tracked tank that hits like a wrecking ball.
Also I’d like to see morHUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRNN alright I’ll buy it.
31/03/2011 at 13:59 Wulf says:
I’ll do a quick write up of what I said on the other page – essentially, this is a far future game, and with technology or even an alternate reality, or a tinkered with reality, who’s to say that mechs can’t be lithe, agile, jumpy things?
1. What if this is in a reality where the elemental elements that compositely make up that reality were different?
2. What if the physical laws of that reality were different?
3. What if technology had evolved to a point where our real world metals could be altered in such a way to be light enough to construct a light, lithe mech, whilst still being as sturdy?
4. What if there are magnetospheric/antigravitational fields at work, reducing the weight of the mech?
Take your pick, perhaps even a mix of all of the above.
My point is is that since this isn’t a clunky walking tank game, you won’t see people lumbering slowly forward, or taking ten minutes to perform a full turn, and the game won’t seem like it’s being played in slow motion. It’s not typically mech, but isn’t that a good thing? These guys are trying something new. And personally? I bloody want to embrace it!
I just think that this game should be allowed to be. No beating on it because of what it is. There are Mechwarrior games out there if you want them, but that’s not what this is, this is a game about robots which are faster than you, more agile than you, quicker than you, and can jump higher than you even without the aid of a ridiculous looking jetpack. This actually feels future-y. So let this one game be. Let at least one mech game be marginally original.
It’s like the RPG thing… it really is. Why do we keep wanting to go back to medieval England? Why? Why?! Why?! *falls over.* There are plenty of games of that sort, plenty! On the PC, on the console toys, everywhere! We see one game that’s different and people are complaining because it’s not the same as every other mech game?
Seriously?
*explodes!*
31/03/2011 at 14:26 shinygerbil says:
This just in: RPS commenters not allowed to have personal tastes.
Mechs can be lithe, agile, jumpy things if they want. But then it won’t be to my personal taste. (Hint: the developers are allowed to ignore my personal requests.)
…..But OK, I’ll take the bait.
1. Then that’s OK by me.
2. Then that’s OK by me.
3. Then that’s OK by me.
4. Then that’s OK by me.
I am perfectly capable of suspension of disbelief, in other words.
No, it’s not typically mech, and that’s fine and dandy, but if it’s typically just another Unreal Tournament-style FPS that’s not really any better.
This game should absolutely be allowed to exist – I ain’t going to stop it. It looks beautiful, it looks like a labour of love. It looks like a lot of things. But that doesn’t mean I’ll play it and love it, if I don’t like the gameplay. I’m not beating on it because of what it is.
So far, from my limited knowledge of this game, it does seem like there is indeed a lot to differentiate it from other mech games – and of course this is a good thing. (Note that this doesn’t actually necessarily follow – there are certainly games out there which are different in a bad way. Different doesn’t automatically mean good.)
There does not, however, appear to be much to differentiate it from other FPS games. While of course this isn’t automatically a bad thing, it does somewhat lessen its appeal to me.
I don’t really know where this talk of medieval England and RPGs comes from, but I guesHUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRNNNN
31/03/2011 at 14:54 cjlr says:
In principle, I agree.
BUT:
1. What if this is in a reality where the elemental elements that compositely make up that reality were different?
Then everything else would be utterly unrecognizable. I would have thought you’d get that, for someone always trumpeting the diverse.
2. What if the physical laws of that reality were different?
No. Either you have our universe, (or a TINY variation on it), or there’s no way in hell you’d have human-like mechs stomping about a human-size city with human-size buildings on an earth-like planet and a sun-like sun with a blue sky and clouds and a temperate climate about 1 AU from a G star…
3. What if technology had evolved to a point where our real world metals could be altered in such a way to be light enough to construct a light, lithe mech, whilst still being as sturdy?
This one I can buy. You could totally build a mech out of aerogel and carbon silk. Except – projectile weapons have recoil, which affects the gunner proportionally to their mass – something that like would have to use energy weapons. Or else it’s more massive, but then, something more massive would have bigger problems – concentrating the mass on two tiny little feet will go right through most ground short of several metres of concrete. Tanks have their weight spread over several square metres of tread, and they still can’t cross soft ground.
4. What if there are magnetospheric/antigravitational fields at work, reducing the weight of the mech?
Again, this one is plausible.
Another good one! Well, except aerogel isn’t magnetic. But even though we don’t know how to do antigrav there’s no reason we won’t figure it out in the future. But then, there are so, so many applications beyond just what is implied by the footage.
Video games should have physics consultants.
31/03/2011 at 15:29 liqourish says:
to go back to the original point, I think this looks much more slow and deliberate than UT.
You’re slowly grinding your enemies to pieces with bullets, not jumping around and shooting them in the head.
I also have the feeling that it plays more strategically, with the various mech mechanics that there are. Overheating and such?
31/03/2011 at 13:55 Unaco says:
Hmmm… this is growing on me a little more. The first video left me thinking ‘lovely visuals, great environments… but I wish the mechs were a little more substantial… a touch slower, more stompy’. As a few people have said, they were a little too flighty and fast for my tastes. I prefer my mechs lumbering and stompy.
This video is showing them a little more to my tastes… they feel and look like slightly more stompy mechs in this video. Still a little too nimble, and not quite stompy enough for me… but it’s definitely closer than the 1st video. Alas, I doubt they will actually get truly stompy and lumbering enough for me though, but I’ll certain keep an eye on this.
31/03/2011 at 14:06 dragon says:
If this turns out to be as good as it looks, then it’s worth buy new hardware for (Crysis 2 failed to invoke that desire).
As for the complaints about the lack of colors: This is a torn up, futuristic urban environment with dust and wrecked buidings. That’s what things would look like: grey.
01/04/2011 at 08:17 Urael says:
.
31/03/2011 at 14:08 Wulf says:
Can we stop criticising this game for not feeling exactly like every other game out there and actually wanting to try something new with it, and presenting us with a completely different outlook on mechs that we’d never seen before, please? This is an original take on mechs. It’s not supposed to be the same as every other mech game you’ve ever played, ever. It’s supposed to feel different, to play different. Those are lithe, agile mechs, and I have a billion explanations as to why that could be. I’m happy with it, very.
But if we keep complaining about creativity, then developers are just going to go back to making boring, unimaginative things because that’s apparently what everyone wants, because they’re unable to cope with the idea of something being an original take on something that they’re familiar with. No, they’re not lumbering, they don’t take ten minutes to do a full turn, but they’re not supposed to be walking tanks. I’ve seen many anime cartoons with agile mechs, and I kept hoping that somehow, someday, they’d eventually make their way to games. And now they have! Can we keep them, please?
But if we keep attacking creativity like this… well, this is why we can’t have nice things.
31/03/2011 at 14:39 Berzee says:
They’re not criticizing it for doing something new. They’re speaking against the possibility that it controls like CoD. And this is alright. =)
CoD with jetpacks even.
31/03/2011 at 14:42 Berzee says:
Actually I just had the most amusing thought:
what if someone made a game where you control a Man with a Gun, but for some reason he controls like a stompy mechwarrior mech? But everyone else in the game is as lithe and agile as normal. You could explain it with some kind of brain injury that affects his balance and response times, but then he happens to have bigger guns than other people.
That would be a hilariously excellent (and creative?) control scheme :D
31/03/2011 at 14:55 cjlr says:
It would be Jurassic Park: Trespasser, and it would be terrible.
31/03/2011 at 15:24 Berzee says:
Addendum — I begin to see how taking old gameplay (CoD style, or more agile/mobile than that even) and placing it in a new context (mechs) could please the imagination. If someone draws as much joy from the setting as from the actual mechanics, feeling that “I move like a superhero but I’m a Giant Rooooobot!” could be joy enough =)
31/03/2011 at 18:29 Urael says:
Actually, having now seen the video, I’m not sure we ARE getting anything ‘new’. It looks and flows like any FPS arena man-shoot you care to name. Ok, it’s a little slower-paced (although this video does only show combat against one opponent) but I get what the people are saying about it looking just like yer basic UT/Quake shooty experience. I’d read the commentary over my lunch break but, being at work, couldn’t watch the video. Now that I have…well, I was expecting more, frankly. The chap who commented he was away to play all those classic mech games did kinda sorta imply – just by saying that – that this was one of those…but it clearly aint. It’s UT dressed in Mech clothing. Yet Another Multiplayer Arena Shooter, of the kind we seem to have been swamped with of late.
Is this all you can do, Indies? Give us variations on the manshoot-respawn-manshoot theme ad infinitum? I see no bright future here, however well the graphics and sound have been designed.
31/03/2011 at 23:55 Tenorek says:
I’ll be the first to admit that i have never played one of these “slow” mech games. But it sounds to me like that would entail; two mechs round a corner and see each other, stop moving, and fire upon one another till one falls down, whilst the survivor lumbers lazily around the next corner. Is that really preferable to something middle paced like this. I suspect the people complaining that it’s very fast paced like CoD have limited experience with CoD. If I’m going to play with mechs, which already stretch the bounds of reality/practicality in and of themselves, then I want to play with fun mechs.
01/04/2011 at 08:18 Urael says:
@Tenorak: Well, you’ve painted a lovely picture of what you think a slow Mech game is, and going solely by that somewhat ignorant, off-the-cuff impression even I’d be hard pushed to want that. The fact remains, though, that you’ve missed the point entirely.
What the old Mech games did is give you the experience of piloting a 20-100 tonne walking engine of death. Some were quick, some were slow, depending on the model/variant you chose to pilot; all could be deadly in the right hands. It’s the interface that is important here – YOU. With this game, you, by all accounts, ARE the mech, in an experiential sense. There’s no feeling of you – the pilot – wrestling with controls to manoeuvre your mech around (which I’ve made sound bad but only ever became in issue in a heavy battle due to inexperience or panic), of switching between systems to track down your targets or plan your route…there’s just fast-paced combat a la UT. Run around, shoot, don’t get shot.
People are making very heartfelt pleas for us to understand what this game is attempting – that Mechs can be quick and agile; this is absolutely something I can get behind in principle. But the classic Mech games have always involved a different, more considered experience from the quick, twitch-based, WASD shooters, and that’s what’s been utterly lost here. It DOESN’T look “middle-paced” at all. Ok, it’s not UT in Instagib mode with 32 people on a small map, but it’s still in the same approximate ball-park as those shooters.
See, if this game had been an open level – if you were rampaging through the countryside, and could then encounter a city like the one in the video, that would go some way to giving you the true vehicular experience. As it is, the level may just as well be the same ‘gladiators trapped in a coliseum’ experience we’ve been getting since Doom’s network gaming. Fact is, you could swap these ‘mechs’ for space marines and not notice the difference.
31/03/2011 at 14:09 Serenegoose says:
I’m not sure why people would want slow mechs. There’s something primal and predatory about how those things pace around the battlefield, and slow mechs wouldn’t make any sense in the first place – it’d be far more sensible just to build a tank, which doesn’t fall over when you shove it/blast a leg/any of the other things that make mechs (in reality) a ludicrous proposition. Having quick mechs that can bounce around and make your traditional tank look like a pathetic plastic toy in the hands of a malicious toddler is way more plausible, since you’d actually have a reason to build them.
31/03/2011 at 14:43 Berzee says:
Not slow — just massive. Like a tiger =)
31/03/2011 at 17:19 Wulf says:
The slow mech thing always confused me, too. I always enjoyed the old mech games, same as anyone else, with one of my old faves being Mechwarrior 2 (which was amazing). But as time went on I couldn’t stop thinking about, well, how boring of a concept it was to have slow mechs just because that might feel realistic or something. Did anyone care about the human movement in Brink being unrealistically agile? Probably not. So why apply that to robots? Why do robots need to be slow?
In fact, according to recent technology projects like the BigDog, it seems that walkers are more likely to be clever and deceptively quick with their reflexes. Have a look at the BigDog on Youtube and you’ll see what I mean. That seems to be a more interesting promise than slowly moving walking tanks. Given that computational power is quicker than the human brain, I could see machines being speedy, quick, deadly predators rather than slow, lumbering things.
It seems we’re suffering with thinking about robots in the same way as we used to think about dinosaurs.
01/04/2011 at 08:38 Urael says:
Hehe. “Suffering”, Wulf? Like we poor souls are trapped with outdated understanding in our heads? If you’ve ever been on a Digg political thread in full firefight mode, you should recall how infuriating it is to be dismissed as incapable of understanding a point of view.
We get that you like new and different, and that new paradigms should be explored, and I do see how technological ability can out-strip what we used to project in our fantasies – Bigdog is indeed a stunning and revelatory piece of work. But I think people are projecting quite heavily on this game when it represents nothing more than another innovative design layered over the same, tired arena-shooting we’ve been playing ever since Doom’s multiplayer first showed us how. Fast mechs – technically possible though they may be – just mean we get the same fluid movement and twitch shooting from a gameplay perspective as we do in Unreal Tournament – circle-strafing et al. From a gameplay perspective they’re exactly the same as heavily armoured space marines. If poeple are down on the game it’s not because we’re not ‘getting it’, it’s because it’s just not what many of us apparently would prefer.
The word “stompy” as applied to mech games wasn’t popularised on RPS because it was fun to run at 140 kph. It’s because those old games gave you the thrilling feeling of piloting a massively powerful behemoth. Think of kids playing at being giants in the playground – they don’t start sprinting around the place. They move slower and more deliberately because in their heads huge and powerful is the same thing as slow, unlike those ant-like humans; in gaming it’s exactly the same. Mechwarrior understood this and gave it to us in spades. UT-style shooters, aped by this game, simply don’t.
Or would you argue that Warhammer 40K’s titans should be quick, too?
31/03/2011 at 14:10 Chunga says:
Looking good! Even if I am not much for FPS, I really like the mech and the gadgets. The closeup function looks really slick too.
31/03/2011 at 14:14 Xonze says:
Reminds me a lot of Heavy Gear, which isn’t a bad thing. I miss those kind of games. :( Can’t wait to see where it goes.
31/03/2011 at 14:35 pupsikaso says:
why, Why, WHY does it look like he’s using a controller??
Other than that, I hope they add destructible environments.
31/03/2011 at 15:33 Dominic White says:
Because have you ever seen a giant robot controlled with a mouse or trackball? That’d just be silly.
31/03/2011 at 15:53 dragon says:
It looks like he’s plaing it with a gamepad without aim-assistance. Painful to watch.
31/03/2011 at 14:53 Hmm-Hmm. says:
First thought: Man, oh man.. does this look awesome!
Second thought: I wonder what kind of hardware would be required to play this seamlessly.. Oh dear, I’m going to have to upgrade..
31/03/2011 at 15:40 Dominic White says:
If it’s using UDK, then I probably won’t need to upgrade at all. My mediocre PC (haven’t given it a significant upgrade in a good few years) runs anything Unreal-based at a solid 40-50fps at max detail.
01/04/2011 at 04:06 Sic says:
True Dominic, look at Batman. I have an average FPS of over 100 on a passively cooled 5750. Unreal Tech is slick stuff.
31/03/2011 at 15:57 DrGonzo says:
I must say, I have no idea what was going on in that trailer. I found it pretty much impossible to differentiate between the environment, the characters and the migraine inducing levels of motion blur.
Still, looks very stylish, and you can’t go wrong with stompy robots.
31/03/2011 at 16:49 Lilliput King says:
Post-processing has a way of doing that. Still, it’ll probably be easier at proper resolutions.
31/03/2011 at 16:37 eightbitrobot says:
Looks bad ass.. but it seems like it’s being played with a controller.
31/03/2011 at 17:16 shoptroll says:
I’m sold just by the sound effects alone. Really impressive work here!
31/03/2011 at 17:26 ChampionHyena says:
Good Christ.
31/03/2011 at 17:41 BathroomCitizen says:
exactly my thoughts.
31/03/2011 at 18:11 Highstorm says:
What do you suppose he’s doing there at about the 2:20 mark, when it switches to 3rd person? Auto-repairs? Setting up for artillery strikes maybe?
Looks fantastic, and my god the sound design!
01/04/2011 at 10:49 Stag says:
Maybe some sort of EMP which shuts down your robot?
I remember in MW3 there was the possibility to fall over because of a massiv impact of missiles and such.
When that happened you had to push ‘G’ to get up again while shouting “Come on!!!!” at your monitor and praying that the other guy won’t kill your defenceless piece of metal in that time.
31/03/2011 at 19:08 jwfiore says:
Man, this *looks* fantastic. I’m reminded of Borderlands’ graphical style in how the textures have that hand-drawn, slightly-outlined look. The fact that this is an indie game (and it looks better than most AAA releases) is blowing my mind.
The weapon combinations look like a lot of fun, too. In fact, being able to run around with two sniper rifles or whatever is one of the main reasons I like mech games.
Anyone else get a good look at the sun coming through those canopés?
31/03/2011 at 19:36 Davee says:
Looks great! Although I prefer my mechs less jumpy and more stompy :)
31/03/2011 at 20:32 RedYama says:
The “skatiness” of the mechs reminds me a bit of Phantom Crash, a fun little gem on the original xbox, has that same DOWNTOWN JAPAN FIGHT feeling.
31/03/2011 at 21:21 niffk says:
hot damn this looks like a lot of fun.
why the hell do all developers make trailers with console controllers though? it makes the player look terrible at the game.
31/03/2011 at 21:47 Tenorek says:
I really hope they at least allow for the option to play 3rd person. I would use it from time to time. Ever since a particular part of MGS4, I have been desiring a mech combat game that felt like that. The first trailer had me thinking this would be 3rd person. But either way, I am convinced I will be getting this upon release.
31/03/2011 at 21:58 Quine says:
In the future there will be robots!
The bass noise coming from that dropship made me go ‘ooh!’, and that doesn’t happen enough.
01/04/2011 at 00:47 GHudston says:
I -DO- dig giant robots!
01/04/2011 at 04:39 DOLBYdigital says:
Very good job team!
Love the art obviously and the gameplay style of half quick and half bulky style. I also thought I saw the player almost get out of their mech for a second there which makes me think you can swap mechs….
Either way, fantastic and will pre-order once its available. Makes me want to play phantom crash again
08/05/2011 at 00:32 ziusudra says:
Actually. I dont like the organic look of the mechs, but the footage is awesome. I would much more prefer a Gungriffon\Mechwarrior style semi simulation. with a cool story if possible. but really congrats must go for the developers. very awesome.