By Quintin Smith on June 7th, 2011 at 12:29 pm.
Since all these blockbuster trailers have the RPS integrity meter showing a dangerous reading of 4.3 corrupts, allow me to bring us back down to Earth with the launch trailer of an indie game. Atomic City Adventures – The Case of the Black Dragon is a single player 3rd person action game by Windstorm Studios, one of several teams that formed by the staffers of Ensemble Studios after Microsoft closed them down. Continuing the trend of devs having no idea what “launch trailer” actually means, the release date for Atomic City Adventures is still simply “this summer”, but you can be sure we’ll post more when there’s something to play.
It was originally meant to be an MMO, say Windstorm, before unfortunate “economic realities” set in. I hate reality!
07/06/2011 at 12:36 thegooseking says:
Is it an MMO that’s been scaled back to a single-player game or an MMO that’s been scaled back but still has some multiplayer functionality?
Either way, it looks good. Ok, it doesn’t look good, but it looks good. If you see what I mean.
08/06/2011 at 05:20 MadMatty says:
everything looks good after all those E3 trailers hahaha, but yeah i know what you mean.
edit:
its a bit brief too see what the game is really about, and also the framerate of the game is lagging a bit here and there
07/06/2011 at 12:36 Drake Sigar says:
A third-person superhero game with the style of Freedom Force would be welcome, but the trailer didn’t show us anything except some lukewarm combat. More larger than life voiceacting and cheesy monologues damnit!
07/06/2011 at 17:04 Wulf says:
Sigh. I miss Freedom Force.
“Lightning Rex, you are go!”
*A lightning tossing T-Rex stomps off in the direction of some comical communist Russians.*
“Look comrades, CAPITALISTS!”
Capitalist dinosaurs! Apparently they could somehow tell that the gigantic lightning flinging reptile was a capitalist.
I loved Freedom Force and its batty character creation system, which let me create a lightning T-Rex to use as an entirely valid hero, despite no one actually realising that it was ever a T-Rex. I think it must have stolen Clark Kent’s glasses or something.
07/06/2011 at 12:38 Inigo says:
“Ensemble Studio staffers” in this case meaning “the guys who cleaned the toilets and the sandwich van lady”.
07/06/2011 at 13:01 brulleks says:
Why was the sandwich van lady so dirty?
07/06/2011 at 15:16 nayon says:
zing!
07/06/2011 at 12:39 Post-Internet Syndrome says:
Best. Music.
07/06/2011 at 12:40 JackShandy says:
I see the future will bring us crotch-propelled jet bikes. I approve.
07/06/2011 at 12:44 wu wei says:
One reality is fine. It’s when you start piling up multiple realities that it all falls apart in a retconned mess.
07/06/2011 at 12:45 Firkragg says:
Red ‘iz fastah!
07/06/2011 at 12:55 QuantaCat says:
SCRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND!
07/06/2011 at 13:03 brulleks says:
Lol. I thought the same thing after seeing the image, then I just got Simpsons: Hit and Run vibes from the video, with added hovercar.
07/06/2011 at 13:00 skinlo says:
So what do I do again?
07/06/2011 at 13:02 AndrewC says:
Anachronox meets Omikron meets Freedom Force meets GTA! Oh come on!
But if it’s just a G-force/Aquanox flying shooter thing that might be a bad thing.
Best of luck to them!
07/06/2011 at 14:24 QuantaCat says:
or simply scrapland.
07/06/2011 at 13:03 scut says:
Someone made the mistake of recalling X-Com Apocalypse as aesthetically pleasing.
07/06/2011 at 13:27 soldant says:
Oh wow. I actually laughed. Well done, sir!
07/06/2011 at 13:19 fuggles says:
And to think they said the Quake 2 engine was dead.
07/06/2011 at 13:30 Inigo says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmortem_spasm
07/06/2011 at 14:27 Torgen says:
It’s Torque, so not far off.
07/06/2011 at 13:26 Fede says:
The flying and shooting around buildings in a futuristic city thing reminded me of the awesome G-Police.
Hmm, anyone know if G-Police (1 or 2) is being sold somewhere digitally?
07/06/2011 at 13:54 TeraTelnet says:
That depends. If you have a PS3, it is available on the Playstation Network.
07/06/2011 at 17:42 Fede says:
I’m PC only right now, but thanks anyways :)
07/06/2011 at 13:44 Novack says:
This is a very rough preview of an ongoing development guys. Still-under-dev thingies look like this, dont be that harsh.
Best of lucks to WindStorm guys!
07/06/2011 at 14:01 Grygus says:
To be fair to the community here: if what you’re showing is a very rough preview of an ongoing development, do not call it a “launch trailer.” That’s pretty much an implicit denial of everything you said, isn’t it?
07/06/2011 at 14:32 Novack says:
Well, thats not really something to do with being a kind person… and prevent yourself from snarky comment on everything you see in front of you that doesn’t accomplish prestablished structures on what a title should say.
Im just saying, its not like Im pointing anyone, Im part of the community as you, so is not my intention to polarize about it.
I like to consider small studios in a special light, like, wait and see the gameplay before trashing it because looks aesthetically unfinished (as opossed to mainstream crap with gorgoeus photography and zero gameplay).
Besides, those guys are really good developers, and some guys here even spoken over the line about that too. Apparently everybody here is 14 years old?
Anyway, just saying.
07/06/2011 at 14:46 Berzee says:
lol
07/06/2011 at 22:49 pipman3000 says:
you can stop pretending you aren’t the developer now.
08/06/2011 at 05:26 MadMatty says:
@ Novack +1
07/06/2011 at 14:24 Novack says:
Edited, this was a reply, sorry :/
07/06/2011 at 14:30 Torgen says:
The title of the video is “Launch Trailer.” The developers named it that, no one else.
Insulting those who point that out to you does nothing to change that.
07/06/2011 at 14:34 Novack says:
Torgen, please read the comments again, and see who is insulting, because Im not.
Are you so rigid that you can automatically trash something because the title says something you dont consider appropiate?
07/06/2011 at 14:40 thegooseking says:
Novack, my post heavily implied (though apparently not heavily enough for some people) that it doesn’t matter that the graphics look 10+ years old: it’s still interesting. The only other person who’s commented on how it looks is scut, who was clearly joking. That’s a far cry from “everyone here” being 14 years old.
I appreciate that you’re trying to defend an indie developer, but you’re defending them against basically no-one and being rather rude in the process by suggesting that commenters are immature.
07/06/2011 at 14:48 Novack says:
@thegooseking, you’re right, I was also exhagerating with the the 14 years old line.
I was not considering your comment though, I was more on the lines of mentioning the devs with “the guys who cleaned the toilets and the sandwich van lady”, or comments whos only point was to speak of the graphics like a posmortem spasm of Q2 engine…
I honestly think some of those comments are immature. Not in your case though, apologies if you felt offended.
07/06/2011 at 15:29 Berzee says:
But if the game comes out and looks pretty much like this (which would be fine if it is fun fun fun) — then can I make fun of you for saying that a “launch trailer” shouldn’t be expected to have representative graphics?
I probably won’t make fun of you, but you know…just in case. In case some fun needs to be made.
07/06/2011 at 16:25 Vexing Vision says:
Negative criticism is important too, especially for indie devs who usually can’t afford to gamble.
That said, I think that Scrapland looked better and more interesting, and that was a serious amount of years ago and still a boring game.
07/06/2011 at 20:11 Novack says:
@Vexing, asbolutely, I think that about criticism too, one of the most useful resources that money gives to big studios is the QA testing on every step of the development.
So I agree that feedback is necessary. I doubt however, that harrasing the developers would work as constructive feedback.
07/06/2011 at 15:07 Shazbut says:
Indiana Jones typeface?
07/06/2011 at 15:59 Gabbo says:
I like the pulp-y presentation of the trailer, even if I have little idea what is actually going on.
I await more information.
07/06/2011 at 16:14 Moonracer says:
I’m hoping this ends up being like GTA in pre-nuke Fallout universe. Not enough pretty sci-fi drive by games.
07/06/2011 at 23:32 mjig says:
I wish someone would make a single player supehero game with the gameplay quality of an action game but the customization of CoH or Champions. Freedom Force was great but I want to make my own superheroes.
08/06/2011 at 07:53 fuggles says:
You do know that you COULD make your own heroes in Freedom force right? A whole world of customisation awaited you.
08/06/2011 at 09:12 mjig says:
I know, but not nearly the level of customization I wanted. It wasn’t expected in those days, of course, but it would be nice to see now.
08/06/2011 at 00:55 afarrell says:
Those are Judge Bikes, surely?