By Jim Rossignol on May 4th, 2011 at 3:02 pm.
Science fiction FPS Section 8: Prejudice is finally out on PC today, for the slim price of $15. I’ve had a go at the single player campaign this week, which is a few hours long and encompasses most of what you’ll find in the multiplayer, while still being very much a scripted story sequence (as opposed to the pseudo-multiplayer single-player of the original.) It’s okay. I’ve not yet bothered with multiplayer, since we really need servers and PC community to be live and playing to make any judgement about it. As such I’ll say more about Prejudice in a few days time. What we can say now, however, is that TimeGate have announced a new mode “Assault”, which will unlock once the game sees 10-million online kills. Assault is apparently a race to capture the control points in the fastest time, with one team defending and ther other attacking. Since it’s already been out of Xbox for a while no, the kill-counter already reads six million, so I don’t think that new mode will too far away.
04/05/2011 at 15:14 Turin Turambar says:
With the influx of pc players in a few hours (and remembering the BC2 competition, pc players are faster at killing :D), i think it will unlock in 32-40 hours.
04/05/2011 at 15:15 DarkeSword says:
Anyone on RPS grab the PC version? I’d like some folks to try this out with. Share any decent servers!
04/05/2011 at 15:35 Teddy Leach says:
Me! Me! I did!
04/05/2011 at 16:49 Nicholas Totton says:
I did, but I still can’t play it. Steam refuses to let me install it. I have had it pre-ordered for about a month now, but Steam never gave me the option to pre-load it, and now that it’s out I can’t even install it.
04/05/2011 at 16:55 Miker says:
I restarted my client and I’m downloading it right now, albeit at a painfully slow speed.
04/05/2011 at 17:12 Nicholas Totton says:
@Miker: Ya, that’s what I had to do. It’s a huge download though so I doubt I will get to play it today. Frustrating to all hell that they didn’t let us pre-load it. The games already getting off to a terrible start and I haven’t had a chance to play it yet. That’s never a good sign.
04/05/2011 at 17:39 DXN says:
I haz it! Having played the 360 version for a few hours I was very impressed. Sure, the style is all basically very generic, and the Single Player seems frightfully dull (really just a glorified tutorial with some shiny set-pieces thrown in), but I had a blast playing the multiplayer. It’s derivative, sure, but it’s *good* derivative – taking and pleasingly melding the best bits from (off the top of my head) Tribes 2, TF2, Halo, Planetside, and Monday Night Combat. A fine pedigree! And cheap!
However the Steam servers are currently too busy to handle my request to actually download it! Boo!
04/05/2011 at 18:39 RaytraceRat says:
“Steam servers are currently too busy to handle my request to actually download it! Boo!” – same here.
04/05/2011 at 20:42 rivalin says:
If you’re clever you’ll go into settings and switch your location to a country where it is a period of low internet usage, i.e. before 5pm
05/05/2011 at 00:31 Milky1985 says:
Well its current 12:30AM here in the UK and its still saying “steam servers are too busy to handle your request”… so I think theres another issue other than demand!
04/05/2011 at 15:17 abhishek says:
Does is have dedicated servers on the PC or will it be using the GFWL matchmaking thing the first one did?
04/05/2011 at 15:26 Miker says:
It has dedicated servers, but beyond that I’m not entirely sure how things work.
04/05/2011 at 15:27 Dominic White says:
The 360 version has dedicated servers, even (you have to rent them via a third-party, admittedly) – you CAN use matchmaking, but it’s highly recommended against.
For the PC and (forthcoming) PS3 versions, you should be able to download a linux or windows dedicated server app and host your own server box.
04/05/2011 at 15:20 Giaddon says:
Heck yes there are RPSers ready to jump on this. Here’s the forum page:
http://rockpapershotgun.com/rpsforum/topic.php?id=4511
and here’s a search that will lead you to the steam group:
http://steamcommunity.com/actions/Search?T=ClanAccount&K=Section+8%3A+Prejudice
04/05/2011 at 15:22 VA1N says:
Everything I’ve heard about the console version has been positive. People say that the campaign, like you said, is nothing special but does introduce weapons and stuff well. I’ve had it preordered for a couple weeks now so I’ll be on tonight trying it out.
04/05/2011 at 15:28 Dominic White says:
Yeah, tons of positive feedback and reviews so far. Seconding what I’ve heard about the campaign – it’s a decent enough time-filler, but by no means the focus of the game.
04/05/2011 at 15:28 12kill4 says:
I picked it up this morning in memory of the old tribes 1 days. I know they’re gone but a jetpack every now and then sooths my weathered soul.
04/05/2011 at 20:37 xfxian says:
Shazbot… :’(
04/05/2011 at 15:35 Evernight says:
Damn you Timegate – I wanted to play this game, but you release it 5 days before a AAA title like Brink comes out. I am not going to buy two class based shooters in a week!
Had this game come out 1 or 2 months ago it would have been golden. Now though. IDK.
04/05/2011 at 15:36 Teddy Leach says:
Well, by all accounts the single player is supposed to just be a glorified tutorial for the multiplayer, so that’s no bad thing.
04/05/2011 at 15:44 Dominic White says:
That was more the case with the first game than the sequel. The original games campaign was a series of glorified botmatches that took you through all the key locations in the multiplayer maps. Word is that the campaign this time is somewhat longer, and takes place on actual new campaign-specific levels. Somewhat more of a scripted mission-set this time, too.
04/05/2011 at 16:09 Teddy Leach says:
5 hours, from what I’ve heard. But most reviews and previews I’ve read are under the impression that it’s still mainly there to prepare you for the multiplayer.
04/05/2011 at 15:38 Lobotomist says:
Buy or not Buy ?
That is the question…
Help RPS crowd
04/05/2011 at 15:43 Miker says:
I think it’s well worth it for the price. Even if the community dies in the first few months, you can rest easy knowing that you only spent $15 on it. And if you’re looking for a review, here’s Eurogamer’s whopping 9/10: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-04-20-section-8-prejudice-review
04/05/2011 at 15:45 Dominic White says:
A key thing is that the bots are apparently excellent, so even if it fails to take off with a huge audience, every playmode should still be viable, forever.
04/05/2011 at 15:54 Lobotomist says:
Its not on steam ?!
04/05/2011 at 15:56 Miker says:
Apparently eastern Europe can’t buy it from Steam, but I think it’ll be sold on the UK D2D site or something. That’s if you’re in eastern Europe. Otherwise, I don’t know why it’s not there :(
04/05/2011 at 16:00 Lobotomist says:
Apparently Israel too. Why , oh why ?
Guess i better save that money for Brink than…
04/05/2011 at 16:54 Xan says:
It’s not on Steam because they won’t allow you to buy it if you’re in a country that isn’t on GFWL’s supported list. If you are on the list you can buy it from Steam.
And you can’t go wrong with a 15$ multiplayer shooter, in the worst case you’ll get bored after 100 hours?
04/05/2011 at 17:36 Tacroy says:
See, part of the reason why Section 8 got a 9/10 from Eurogamer was almost certainly because of its price point. If it weren’t for that $15 price tag, it would probably have been a 7 or so.
This is why I think we need to update the video game reviewing system. Before, when a game was released for $50, it would stay at $50 basically forever; stores would occasionally have sales or whatnot, but the price was pretty much constant over the lifetime of that release.
Nowadays though, our gaming needs are being met more and more by the incredibly price-nimble digital distributors. Not only can you generally rest assured that the price of any game will go down over time, eventually hitting the $9.99 point or lower, but digital distributors are also willing to sell new games at different price points, which makes a direct out of ten rating between them weird – did that game get 9/10 because it’s cheap and okay, or because it’s excellent and expensive?
Thus, I think game reviewers should really stop rating PC games on the funky ten point scale that’s really more of a four point scale. What I think they should do instead is pick a price at which the game would be a good purchase, and use that as a rating. For instance, Section 8 would have probably received a $20-$30 score, meaning that it’s a good buy at the current price of $15.
04/05/2011 at 15:44 RLacey says:
I liked the original. I like what I’ve seen of this. So I preordered a few days ago.
Why do all the games I want have to come out just before exams, though?
04/05/2011 at 16:03 phenom_x8 says:
yeah, it looks like every games were made to split our attention from something else ! Thank God I’ve been finishing my thesis this morning, so you’re on your own Rlacey! :) Good luck and dont get distracted!
04/05/2011 at 17:28 RLacey says:
Mmm. Medical exams are not going to thank me.
04/05/2011 at 17:46 Giaddon says:
But think of how well you’ll be able to answer the questions about the effects of high-velocity arms fire through dura-alloy armor at long, medium, and short ranges.
04/05/2011 at 15:56 Kieron Gillen says:
This is just a ruse to make journalists say I LOVE PREJUDICE or something
KG
04/05/2011 at 16:03 Giaddon says:
“Prejudice will deliver the goods with efficiency” – Destructoid
“Prejudice can be entertaining” – Gamereactor
“Prejudice certainly does a lot” – IGN
Quickly grabbed from Metacritic. Probably more fun ones buried in the full reviews.
04/05/2011 at 17:15 Zarunil says:
“I LOVE PREJUDICE” – Rock, Paper, Shotgun
04/05/2011 at 16:00 Anton says:
This is just disappointing. The game is not available here in the Philippines, but it is available in Singapore, Hong Kong, & Taiwan (got the info from the D2D page)!!!
I was so looking forward to this game. I am utterly disappointed. =(
04/05/2011 at 16:08 phenom_x8 says:
Have you checked it on Steam (maybe its available on its store)?? It looks like every game was available for me there (I’m in Indonesia)! Although I’m not sure whether it is because of my profile still showing that I lived in USA or there is divine power involved! :)
04/05/2011 at 16:18 Anton says:
It’s also not available on Steam. I’m still hoping that it’ll show up in a couple of hours; May 5 here is May 4th in the US.
[Edit : changed the dates from 14 & 15 to 4 & 5 =P]
04/05/2011 at 16:29 phenom_x8 says:
Then I wont be able to get it though! Thats fine, just wait until its reach $5 then! BTW, good night Anton!
04/05/2011 at 16:53 Anton says:
Nice to see a fellow SEA sharing the pain =P hehehehe. At least we get EA games cheaper here than in the US =P
05/05/2011 at 01:37 phenom_x8 says:
EA games cheaper in SEA?? Is that true?? I never check that one! Too Busy with my steam and GOG account ! Needs to check it than, thanks for the info, Anton!
04/05/2011 at 16:01 zergrush says:
How fast is this game? Is it more like an old-style fast-paced fps or akin to the modern iron sight camper friendly manshooters?
04/05/2011 at 17:13 Koozer says:
it’s in the middle. I’d think of UT with jetpacks and less crazy guns.
04/05/2011 at 19:03 Jamison Dance says:
It is pretty slow-paced. You take a lot of damage before dying.
04/05/2011 at 16:02 Thunderkor says:
Grr, I ordered it on Steam but the Install option isn’t showing up yet. I know their sales update at noon local time so maybe that’s when it will let me download it. I was also concerned over this vs. Brink but this had vehicles you can order and also I hardly ever buy full price games, so if Brink is any good it will still be around in a few months when I catch it on sale.
Of course by then everyone will be great at it and I’ll get slaughtered like I do in Bad Company 2, but I can live with that.
04/05/2011 at 16:19 Teddy Leach says:
Given the size of the game and Steam’s notably shonky servers whenever anything releases, they really should have had a preload.
04/05/2011 at 16:25 Teddy Leach says:
Would it kill them to let me start the download even just an hour before the release? Evidently.
EDIT: I restarted Steam and it looks like I can download. At least, I would if the servers weren’t too busy.
Sigh.
04/05/2011 at 21:03 Thunderkor says:
I had to restart Steam also to get it to let me download. It’s just sitting there waiting for me to come home and play it now. Hoping my current rig will run it okay, but since I’m building the new one this weekend it’ll only be a minor pain if it doesn’t.
04/05/2011 at 22:32 Teddy Leach says:
It runs flawlessly on mine (after the two hours it took to download, then the further two hours faffing about with GFWL), and mine’s tremendously weak.
05/05/2011 at 15:52 Thunderkor says:
Yes, it ran very nicely on my old machine. GFWL didn’t give me TOO many hiccups but I already had it on my machine thanks to Batman: AA, Fallout 3, and Red Faction: Guerilla.
I DID have one annoying issue, though. I played for about two hours straight in the campaign mode. Then the game crashed between missions. When I got back in the game, it had not saved any of my progress. Stupid autosaves.
Lesson learned: I quit the campaign and resume it after every mission.
I haven’t gotten into the multiplayer just yet, I wanted to finish out the campaign first. But the multiplayer is why I bought it so I’m hoping to get past the campaign soon.
05/05/2011 at 22:39 Teddy Leach says:
If you finish the campaign you can get a snazzy suit of armour. Some armour has nice bonuses along the lines of extra upgrade slots, but the armour you get for finishing the campaign doesn’t. That said, you can unlock a lot of nice things for online during the campaign, so it’s well worth doing.
04/05/2011 at 16:29 paterah says:
Great, I get error at purchasing this and Shift and the sales end in few hours :(
04/05/2011 at 16:46 Tams80 says:
I was trying so hard to remember the name of this game. All I could remember is that Total Biscuit did a review of it. It looked great.
Is the Steam version any different (e.g. allows steam talk) or could I just buy it from D2D or GFWL and not miss out?
04/05/2011 at 18:18 Droniac says:
Actually most Steam features work with non-Steam games. All you need to do is manually add the .exe to your library (with Add a non-steam game) and then launch this new entry from within your Steam games library. This allows you to talk with your friends in-game, browse the internet, take screenshots, etc.
Section 8: Prejudice is not a Steamworks game. So what you can’t do is join someone in their current multiplayer game, gain Steam achievements, store save games or settings in the Steam cloud, or track time played through Steam.
04/05/2011 at 20:03 Tams80 says:
Ah thanks Droniac. Never had Steam features work with games I’ve added manually. Probably just my choice of games. I might try D2D or GFWL then. Steam is blocked here, but GFWL works.
04/05/2011 at 17:07 Vandelay says:
Was hoping this would have been released at midnight Valve time, so I could start it downloading before work UK time. How big is the download?
04/05/2011 at 18:04 Miker says:
It’s 6 gigs according to Steam.
04/05/2011 at 18:16 Vandelay says:
Hmm… might not get to play much tonight. Train delays are not helping!
04/05/2011 at 18:19 Droniac says:
It probably won’t be available for download until you get home. The Steam servers are overloaded, as usual.
04/05/2011 at 17:14 InsidiousBoot says:
The Steam servers are currently too busy to handle your request……………………………………………… sigh
04/05/2011 at 17:16 Psychopomp says:
If you’re having trouble downloading, switch your Steam download server to a US one. It looks like a bunch of servers weren’t mirrored properly, but most of the US ones are doing fine.
04/05/2011 at 18:50 RLacey says:
I’d forgotten that trick. Thanks :).
04/05/2011 at 19:42 skurmedel says:
You deserve a thousand Jaffa Cakes for this tip, thanks.
04/05/2011 at 19:52 RaytraceRat says:
Hey, that worked!
*passes a Jaffa Cake*
04/05/2011 at 18:22 DrGonzo says:
Any feedback on how it runs? I’m fairly sure it will be fine, but I’m increasingly aware of my dual core.
04/05/2011 at 19:35 Dominic White says:
It’s an Unreal 3 engine game, mosty using resources from a game a couple years back. Any midrange video card + dual-core should run it smoothly.
04/05/2011 at 18:38 Mad Hamish says:
I thought that was another Mass Effect 3 screenshot.
04/05/2011 at 18:43 Reefpirate says:
I’m selfishly glad that the servers are having trouble coughing up the game… And also non-selfishly glad because that means that this game, that from what I hear is excellent, is doing well on it’s release day. Selfishly glad because I’m at work for a couple more hours and I want to start downloading NAO! But I can’t because I’m at work! So none of you lot should be downloading it either! Pah!
04/05/2011 at 20:01 T4u3rs says:
I´m shamelessly connecting to my computer from work (TeamViewer) and shamelessly changing the download server to USA – New York (I’m in Spain)… and it works!
04/05/2011 at 20:10 suibhne says:
Does this game still have the same basic mechanics as the original Section 8 – like auto-aim, tons of random objectives, etc.?
04/05/2011 at 20:23 Miker says:
As far as I know, it keeps everything from the original, including the lock-on (which is entirely distinct from auto-aim) and the dynamic objectives and whatnot. The new stuff is the single player, swarm mode, assault mode, and probably some new weapons/items.
04/05/2011 at 20:56 Tei says:
I got somewhat disapointed by the original. Too much console ideas and console feel around. Like, nothing really is meaninful. The game was ok, but I played longer the demo than retail. Waste of money.
04/05/2011 at 22:03 Mac says:
How big is the download … damn the 40GB per month cap from BT :/
04/05/2011 at 22:23 Dominic White says:
5.5gb, give or take.
04/05/2011 at 23:02 Mac says:
Cheers
04/05/2011 at 22:22 Dominic White says:
Got the game downloaded. Got my hand back in with a little bit of the campaign, then went online.
Aah, I missed setting up impromptu turret-farms and sniping people with the big honking space-magnum pistol.
04/05/2011 at 22:33 Teddy Leach says:
You know, the most IRRITATING thing about GFWL is that I have to pay them my Earth money to change my username from the one I got several years ago, before I was known as Teddy.
It turns out ‘Teddy Leach’ is actually taken, so there’s an impostor running about somewhere.
Still though, paying to change your username! Bloody Microshaft.
04/05/2011 at 22:40 Sb3 says:
Finally managed to download the bloody thing. Took only 6 hours thanks to Steam’s bandwidth issues (brilliant idea not giving an option to preload, guys!) and now GFWL refuses to initialize, and I’m booted out of the game before the main menu. I tried entering the cd key various places in the GFWL client, but it’s apparently invalid. Now what, what sort of ritual must I perform so the sadistic GFWL gods will be appeased and allow me to play this bloody thing i paid for?
04/05/2011 at 22:43 Teddy Leach says:
Google GFWL and re-download the sodding thing. That worked for me.
04/05/2011 at 22:44 Sb3 says:
First thing I did. Nothing changed.
05/05/2011 at 00:04 Vandelay says:
I’m a little surprised that everyone is having difficulty downloading this. I did have to switch to US – Boston servers, but the download only took about an hour and half. Wasn’t any slower than Steam on the UK servers is for me.
Still hate GFWL, but it is thankfully invisible for the most part in this.
05/05/2011 at 01:51 jwfiore says:
Oi if you figure this out can you post your solution here, I am having the same problem. Tried reinstalling, tried clearing profile information, tried farting around with the GFWL marketplace, nothing is helping. I’m going to try updating .net, since I think that’s tied to GFWL.
I really, really hate this festering pile of shit DRM. It would be another matter if it actually kept people from pirating the games, but it doesn’t, so it’s really just there to punish the ones who pay for them. :<
05/05/2011 at 02:06 jwfiore says:
Edit: Figured it out! Are you running Comodo? Looks like it interacts with the AV/Defense in some way, devs said to uninstall everything but the firewall. Worked for me.
Obviously this is less than ideal but at least it works as a hotfix until they patch it up.
05/05/2011 at 14:57 Tei says:
I got that problem in Bioshock, and solved it download a xlive.dll file that disable GFWL. Thats not a great solution here, anyway.
04/05/2011 at 23:05 Giaddon says:
In the game now, having a great time. Really fun to fiddle with the loadouts and get the right gear for the job.
05/05/2011 at 02:58 wazups2x says:
Won’t be buying because it has the terrible AUTO-AIM/ lock mode feature. Auto-aim does not belong in any competitive PC multiplayer game.
Also, not a fan of GFWL.
05/05/2011 at 08:05 Dominic White says:
It’s a game about stomping in a super-heavy suit of sci-fi power armor. One of the suits powers (other than limited flight, super-speed, dropping from orbit, etc) is a VERY brief lock-on mode. By default, you get 2 seconds of dead aim every 20 seconds. It’s very seldom enough to kill someone, but it will give you enough accuracy to track someone jetpacking over your head.
You can spec your suit to actually make locking on to you harder, so you don’t have to worry about this being used on you, or upgrade your lock-on capability.
How is electronic warfare an inherently ‘console’ thing?
05/05/2011 at 13:56 DarkeSword says:
You will be missed.
05/05/2011 at 20:42 wazups2x says:
@Dominic White
Yes, I understand how it works, I just don’t want any type of auto-aim or aim-assistance in the games I play.
Tribes, Quake and Unreal Tournament are all much faster paced games than Section 8 and they all worked great without any aim-assistance. The point is that there’s no reason for it to even be there on the PC version.
05/05/2011 at 23:12 jwfiore says:
@DarkeSword: I see what you did there.
@wazups2x: The reason you are saying the lock-on feature is terrible is that you haven’t played the game. I would love to see you hit someone at full-sprint (overdrive) with any of the guns enough to take their shield down without using the lock-on. The difference lock-on works in this and it would have been awful in UT/Q3 is that here, very few weapons are capable of taking someone down in two or three shots.
The combat in this game is, for me, very reminiscent of Tribes meets Halo. Tribes in that the players are highly mobile, with the jetpacks and whatnot, as well as the inclusion of deployables (turrets, vehicles, sensor arrays, etc). Halo in the sense that you have dynamic shields and static health, and you need more hits with most guns to take someone down (which leads itself to some fairly epic jetpack duels).
That said, there’s also one-hit takedowns. I realize that there is a comparison to codblops multiplayer here, what with the knife insta-kill, but here it feels more like a battle between who is better at moving and dodging rather than a battle between pings. It’s really pretty difficult to get close enough to someone to knife them, and even then one-shotting with the knife is not guaranteed.
I’m having a lot of fun with this so far, if you can’t tell.
05/05/2011 at 20:56 wazups2x says:
@DarkeSword
I will miss you too, but life goes on and we must move on.
05/05/2011 at 23:15 jwfiore says:
RPS: Post your GFWL IDs! Let’s shoot some men in jetpack armor together.
I’m in as “Jahnny Maverick”, which I realize is retarded-sounding, but I made it to fart around on my brother’s 360 and now I can’t change it without giving Microshaft ten bucks or some insane amount. So there it is.
07/05/2011 at 10:50 matrices says:
This game is a revelation. Stayed up until 5:45 AM EST playing this game. It reminds me of the wondrous time I had playing Unreal Tournament 2k4 Warfare mode for the first time. Finally, we have Halo on the PC – buttery smooth gameplay and perfect weight in gunplay – mated to Tribes-like elements of jetpacking, mid-air spawning, and fast sprinting.
I don’t know why mult-million dollar companies can’t get right what this little studio has done. Just amazing MP action. Heck, it’s even a little like Battlezone, tossing around deployable turrets and vehicles.