By Jim Rossignol on September 11th, 2011 at 11:56 am.
Syndicate will reportedly be a 4-player co-op FPS, developed by Starbreeze. This thread on NeoGAF has some images and info which are apparently leaked from the Swedish edition of Game Reactor which is out next week. This what we know: “Chip Enhanced Gameplay: Slow down time, see through walls, and breach your enemy and everything digital in the world with Dart vision – A neural DART6 chip implant that allows you to interface directly with the Dataverse,” “4-Player Online Co-op: Assemble your Syndicate for global domination. A 4-player, online co-op experience like no other, with chip enhanced gameplay and 9 missions re-imagined from the original Syndicate,” “Visceral FPS Experience: Utilize an upgradable arsenal of futuristic weapons, armor and gear to annihilate your enemies and harvest their chip technology for personal advancement and sinister corporate greed,” “Sci-Fi Fiction: Immerse yourself in the world of Syndicate 2069, with a world-class sci-fi story experience, written by bestselling author Richard Morgan.”
Men will get shot from a first-person perspective. Yep.
11/09/2011 at 11:58 Stijn says:
Uh oh.
11/09/2011 at 16:28 Commisar says:
let the raging begin ala XCOM :)
11/09/2011 at 21:18 Kerbobotat says:
I dont get all this hate over the FPS’ising of games. But anyway
Heres an open source fan remake of Syndicate for my First-person hating brothers out there.
http://freesynd.sourceforge.net/
11/09/2011 at 23:05 Nicholas Totton says:
What’s so complex about why people don’t like it? They are making a new game in a loved franchise, and they are changing the entire genre of the series to appeal to the console kids. How do you not understand it?
11/09/2011 at 23:05 Kamos says:
What exactly don’t you understand? Instead of getting an updated, evolved version for a classic game, we’ll get yet another FPS spin off. That, and a link to a sourceforge remake.
EDIT: beat by Nicholas by mere seconds. :-)
11/09/2011 at 23:40 LostViking says:
I totally agree with Nicholas here.
I love bacon, but I don’t want every dish in the world to have bacon in it. I like cars from Audi, but don’t want every other car maker to copy them.
What is annoying about FPS-ing everything is that we don’t get to experience how a proper sequel made with todays technology would be like, without it having to be a FPS.
11/09/2011 at 23:47 Bonedwarf says:
Nicholas: No, they’re taking a beloved name, like Infogrames did with Atari, and slapping it on a turd and expecting it to sell based on nostalgia.
It will wallow in it’s own filth and mediocrity, and you will all buy it, because that’s what you do.
12/09/2011 at 06:19 Nicholas Totton says:
No I won’t. I’m one of those rare people that say something, then follow through with said statement.
11/09/2011 at 11:58 Lewie Procter says:
Finally. An FPS where I can slow down time.
12/09/2011 at 07:07 Belsameth says:
I LOLed :(
11/09/2011 at 11:59 Po0py says:
HAHAHHAHHAHAHHA!
Wait. Sorry. Just realized this is not supposed to be funny.
11/09/2011 at 11:59 pakoito says:
Wait a second…Syndicate was set in the future? I always thought it was a Mafia game.
11/09/2011 at 12:01 jellydonut says:
Seriously? Cyborgs, chip implants, laser weapons?
11/09/2011 at 12:24 pakoito says:
I always *heard* of it and saw 480×320 screenshots that I didn’t pay much attention to.
11/09/2011 at 12:46 Jackablade says:
You’re probably thinking of Gangsters. Similar looking game.
11/09/2011 at 13:15 Electricleash says:
EA have just seen the sales figures of DX:HR and thought:
-Hey we’ve ALSO got one of those scifi-cyber-punk IP’s, the collective says it’s time to milk our own proverbially fat cyber-punk cow.’
-Get on that Johnson!’
-yesir!
11/09/2011 at 13:18 JackShandy says:
Electricleash, I agree with everything your comment said right up to the part where this is a bad thing.
The more AAA compainies that rip off HR the better, as far as I’m concerned.
11/09/2011 at 13:29 pakoito says:
> You’re probably thinking of Gangsters. Similar looking game.
Right on the spot: http://img.squakenet.com/snapshot/9992/13367-GangstersOrganizedCrime.jpg
Well that means one more classic game to my backlog.
11/09/2011 at 15:52 pizzapicante27 says:
@JackShandy Beacuse clearly we need more of EA’s take on RPG’s like Inviscible War and DA2
11/09/2011 at 16:38 Spider Jerusalem says:
Man. Gangsters was so good.
11/09/2011 at 17:30 Strangineer says:
ElectricLeash: To my knowledge, Syndicate has been in development for around 2 years at Starbreeze…
12/09/2011 at 08:01 rei says:
Some of the script was leaked a year or two ago as well. It was horrifyingly painful, with an AI trying to learn how to love, or some such nonsense, and about as far from the original game as possible.
12/09/2011 at 08:11 zbeeblebrox says:
“I am not just any robot. I’m a robot…with the HEART OF A MAN!”
12/09/2011 at 17:47 Tatourmi says:
You sir don’t know the mafia very much. DO YOU THINK CRIME MAKES ITSELF? No, and how do you do it? With lasers. Simple as that. You are just a victim of mafia disinformation.
11/09/2011 at 11:59 arienette says:
“Sci-Fi Fiction” redundant much?
11/09/2011 at 12:27 Dawngreeter says:
It was approved by the Redundancy Department of Redundancy
11/09/2011 at 18:08 Antsy says:
That department is now closed. Some staff were moved to the Ministry of Tautology and the rest were made redundant.
11/09/2011 at 11:59 Juxtapox says:
FPS….
11/09/2011 at 13:21 empyrion says:
For Pete’s Sake?
11/09/2011 at 13:39 westyfield says:
For Phuck’s Sake.
11/09/2011 at 14:27 Sheng-ji says:
Gauss gun, from first person perspective…. Yes Please
I mean come on, they already wrecked the name with Wars, they couldn’t possible do any worse
12/09/2011 at 08:39 Matt says:
Don’t be hating on Wars, that game was dope.
11/09/2011 at 12:00 Hentzau says:
Oh. Good.
11/09/2011 at 19:48 Rhygadon says:
Help! I know you’re quoting a game … it’s a game I’ve played recently … where a character says that as you [blow him up / remove him from your team / deliver bad news / ???] … I can hear the voice … but I can’t remember the game! *hippocampal agony*
What game was that??
11/09/2011 at 12:01 faelnor says:
I too want to immerse myself in the world of Science-Fiction Fiction.
11/09/2011 at 12:25 Persus-9 says:
Science Fiction Fiction… yeah, I think there’s a game there. I’m thinking of some sort of Game Dev Story type game set at a science fiction magazine or publishing house. Managing a team of editors, writers, graphic designers etc. Balancing selling rights to make movies, TV series and games while trying not to ensure the dumbed down crap they turn into doesn’t alienate your fans. I’ll be interested to see how Starbreeze do it as an FPS, looks like they’re also setting it in a science fiction environment so I guess it’s all about the future of science fiction production and what they meant was science fiction science fiction. Perhaps some emphasis on industrial espionage, stealing screenplays and manuscripts to get the ideas out first and make the other company look like copycats. Interesting.
11/09/2011 at 12:58 westyfield says:
Written by bestselling author Italo Calvino.
11/09/2011 at 14:36 BathroomCitizen says:
For a moment you got me thinking about Science & Industry, the old Half-Life 1 mod. You know, the part where there are two corporations stealing scientists and hampering their enemies’ research.
Now, that was dope.
11/09/2011 at 12:01 jellydonut says:
Not necessarily a bad thing as long as the atmosphere is right.
Still, Paradox’s version might be more faithful.
11/09/2011 at 12:02 Stitched says:
“Paradox’s version”
What ?
11/09/2011 at 12:05 Axyl says:
Yeah, please elaborate. :)
11/09/2011 at 12:09 CMaster says:
Fred “Right” Wester, CEO of Paradox wants to make a syndicate-a-like game. Not entirely clear if he wants Paraodx to develop it themselves, or just fund another team to. Anyway, sticking with the perspective and gameplay of the classic Syndicate seems like just the right sort of thing for the budget range that Paradox funds games in.
11/09/2011 at 14:40 BathroomCitizen says:
If there’s one person that I have faith in, it is Fred Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive.
11/09/2011 at 14:52 JB says:
Right.
11/09/2011 at 12:03 Rii says:
“Men will get shot from a first-person perspective. Yep.”
EA men?
11/09/2011 at 12:03 Teddy Leach says:
And it’s from the Butcher Bay devs.
11/09/2011 at 12:06 Hanban says:
Loved Butcher Bay so I hope this is good.
Given the focus on 4-player co-op it could really turn out well.
Is there any other place I can get hold of something Syndicate-like to get my top-down jollies from?
11/09/2011 at 12:09 Stitched says:
http://freesynd.sourceforge.net/
11/09/2011 at 12:43 faelnor says:
It’s definitely not from the Butcher Bay developers.
11/09/2011 at 17:31 Strangineer says:
Starbreeze made Butcher Bay, or are you referring to the staff changing?
11/09/2011 at 22:35 Stitched says:
Butcher Bay was made by more than five people.
11/09/2011 at 12:03 bill says:
Yes!
I’ve been waiting for a sci-fi FPS where i could slow down time and have other special abilities! And shoot people!!
The PC has been severely lacking those!
11/09/2011 at 19:35 Bret says:
Hey, Tom Francis had the right of it when he said the only games that don’t need gratuitous slow motion are the ones that already have it.
11/09/2011 at 12:05 jellydonut says:
Oh wait what FUCK.
‘The game description was put up early on the EA Origin store together with some screenshots.’
‘The game description was put up early on the EA Origin store’
‘EA Origin store’
Great, another potentially awesome game raped by EA.
Fuck you, EA.
11/09/2011 at 12:13 Johnny Lizard says:
Yeah, fuck you EA. Fuck you for putting your game description up early, with screenshots!
11/09/2011 at 12:16 Werthead says:
Electronic Arts published the original game and kept the rights to the name, so it has been clear that EA was going to be publishing the game for some time, and unfortunately putting it on their propriety electronic store was going to be inevitable.
So this is not a great surprise. However, it should be available from other sources as well (and, at the very least, from stores).
11/09/2011 at 14:31 MadMinstrel says:
Who cares if it’s available from stores if you have to sign up with their crappy store and run their crappy executable 24/7? There’s no way I’m buying under those conditions.
11/09/2011 at 18:40 Shortwave says:
Man, you said that like a total douche but I agree 100%.
The second I noticed this was EA I did a face palm.
Up till’ that point I didn’t understand why all the comments seemed so negative.
Now I’ll continue to breed this negativity!
BUT.. As long as I can buy it anywhere but Origin I’m willing to give it a chance.
I long for more well done coop FPS games.
11/09/2011 at 18:54 Vinraith says:
@Sheng-Ji
Now see, the OP here is actually misusing the word “rape” in the way you suggest in our other sub-thread. I’d suggest directing your ire over here.
11/09/2011 at 19:30 Sheng-ji says:
@ Vinraith – taking our debate across multiple posts is really uncool. But Jellydonut, he is correct, if you want to learn of my opinion of your use of language, please see page 3, right at the bottom (Or p4 right at the top!)
11/09/2011 at 19:36 Vinraith says:
@Sheng-Ji
It was not my intention to be “uncool” but rather to point out an instance where I feel your complaints would be 100% valid, as a helpful illustration. In short, if those comments had been under this OP I’d never have posted anything to begin with.
11/09/2011 at 19:36 Antsy says:
Let’s instead say rapine!
I’m pissed off at the rapine inflicted upon yet another classic IP!
11/09/2011 at 19:54 Sheng-ji says:
@Vinraith – Sure, I get that, but you could have posted that in the thread where we were discussing it. The reason I found it uncool is that we may have disagreed over there – well I’m not convinced we do 100% but despite what everyone was saying, I wasn’t angry nor do I hold peoples comments against them personally. If it starts getting referenced in other places, it becomes a thing between you and I, rather than a debate we had in that thread. We have agreed and disagreed on a lot of different issues since I found this site and one of the cool things about it is that people on the whole don’t take it too personally.
Also, I know you weren’t trolling, but that is a quite common troll tactic. I think keeping discussions self contained on here helps to maintain a friendly atmosphere.
11/09/2011 at 19:58 Vinraith says:
@Sheng-Ji
My apologies, then. It certainly wasn’t my intention to make it something personal, nor to troll of course.
11/09/2011 at 12:06 Lukasz says:
I am waiting for Alpha Centauri the FPS
11/09/2011 at 12:47 BooleanBob says:
It’s been handed to Raven, so you might have to wait ’til they finish up with Star Control 3: The FPS first.
11/09/2011 at 14:01 Wilson says:
@poop IV – I never played that much Cannon Fodder, but ‘where I press x to revive jops’ made me laugh. A very funny image for some reason.
11/09/2011 at 14:43 BathroomCitizen says:
C’mon, don’t be so snarky with Raven Software. They gave us Heretic 2 and Jedi Academy!
11/09/2011 at 15:39 LionsPhil says:
Slightly ahead of you there.
Although I forgot to allow for Stasis Field shielding meaning you get slow-motion dives.
11/09/2011 at 19:52 Renfield says:
Alpha Centauri the FPS? Rubbish. It’ll clearly be Alpha Centauri the 3rd-person action game with squad management elements. Mild fantasy horror.
11/09/2011 at 20:27 Kadayi says:
I guess someone got banned.
11/09/2011 at 12:06 Tretiak says:
Next: Age of Empires FPS.
11/09/2011 at 14:52 Sheng-ji says:
Mount and Blade?
11/09/2011 at 16:09 The Magic says:
With time powers
12/09/2011 at 03:25 JuJuCam says:
You know what? Mount and Blade with a sense of the progress of time and technology sounds amazing!
11/09/2011 at 12:06 CMaster says:
While it’s still a little “Why does everything have to be T/FPS, big 4 publishers, why?”
It doesn’t sound all bad. I’d love some Deus Ex multiplayer (like actual DX multiplayer, not the stupid deathmatch mode that came with DX:GOTY). I’m sure we’ll soon see how ridiculous it is.
11/09/2011 at 12:12 Stitched says:
Because FPS make a fuck-ton of money*
*as long as you are in the top 3 games in the genre or CoD
11/09/2011 at 12:48 CMaster says:
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they shouldn’t make FPS games.
I’m just saying the apparent need for everything to be an FPS confuses me. (Look at 2K – other than Civ, I don’t think they’re doing anything that isn’t a shooter). Especially when other game styles seem to be pretty much ignored.
11/09/2011 at 12:08 Tzarkahn says:
Yay Richard Morgan, there might be some Sex.
11/09/2011 at 12:16 lowprices says:
4-player co-op sex?
Not sure whether or not to be excited about Richard Morgan as writer. I really enjoyed the Takashi Kovacs books and The Steel Remains, but he also wrote the story for Crysis 2. Which was less ‘a story’ and more ‘several dudes bellowing conspiracy theories at each other.’
11/09/2011 at 12:25 Tzarkahn says:
Imagine if it was like Market Forces, Lawyer Car Samurai.
11/09/2011 at 12:36 Nick says:
graphic descriptions of cum on faces please.
11/09/2011 at 13:37 noom says:
I remain unconvinced by Richard Morgan. Altered Carbon was passable but I gave up on the Steel Remains less than halfway through. Not pleased to hear he’s worked on the story tbh :\
11/09/2011 at 13:40 westyfield says:
Argh, I was excited about Richard Morgan writing the story for this until you guys reminded me of that scene in Altered Carbon.
Grrrrrr.
11/09/2011 at 14:01 henben says:
How come Richard Morgan is getting work as a games writer and not Peter Watts, the guy who did the *novelisation* of Crysis 2? Watts is way better stylistically and in plotting and characterisation, and he actually knows about real science. His retconning of all the flaws in the Crysis 2 story was a joy to read. I hope some savvy game company hires him soon.
11/09/2011 at 15:52 LionsPhil says:
If there’s one thing uninspired sci-fi FPSes need, it’s more awkward attempts to try to write sex scenes for pathetic single nerd gamers.
11/09/2011 at 16:33 lith says:
Richard Morgan’s…OK…Market Forces was pretty good.
But I’m not sure what the hell was going on with Crysis 2. I can only assume that every third page of the script got lost on the way to Crytek, and that script was translated into German via Babelfish. Because none of the dialogue in that game made any sense.
11/09/2011 at 17:36 Kittim says:
@henben
I concur!
Morgan’s OK but I prefer Watts. I’ve only read “Blindsight”, not an easy book to get into but well worth the effort. It certainly made me look at the human brain in a new light.
Morgan on the other hand sticks these crappy little sex scenes in his books that just come across as crude, never erotic. They stick out like festering boils on an arse.
And his use of the C word is very poor. I’ve no problem with author using it as an utterance of their characters or if the character was thinking it. But to use it in a description of two people having sex, that’s just childish and poor vocabulary.
Also Watts is way cooler that Morgan! Early this year Watts got a necrotic illness which nearly killed him. So what did he do? Post the pics on his blog of course!
I won’t link to them directly as I’m not sure if the posting rules will allow it.
Here’s the site: http://www.rifters.com
It’s worth checking out, not just because of the gory pics but he also has some interesting stuff to say.
Sorry for going off topic. As for Syndicate, well I’m going to wait for a “Wot I Think”. From the sounds of it EA are hoping to do a Fallout 3 style reboot. Could go either way.
11/09/2011 at 12:09 danimalkingdom says:
Oh come on people, what did you think they were going to do?
I always envisioned a syndicate remake as being a first-person game. It may not turn out to be the best course, but you can hardly be surprised they’re going this way. As long as they’re taking their cues from the IP and not from contemporary fps gimickry we should be okay. Just keep the moral ambiguity intact, that’s all i ask.
11/09/2011 at 12:38 Kadayi says:
Agreed. That anyone thought, with today’s technology and 3D world creation tools a reboot would simply be an exact recreation of the isomeric play style of the original games is faintly bizarre tbh. Games are a reflection of the technologies available to them at the time. Back in 1993 true 3D engines were in their infancy, I don’t doubt though that if the technology & resources of today were available to Sean Cooper at the time Syndicate would of turned out to be a completely different beast.
I’l be honest the idea of 4 player co-op coordinating actions across a game level actually sounds pretty exciting. That the guys behind EFBB are working on it is even more encouraging because that was a bloody good game. Colour me intrigued.
11/09/2011 at 13:37 Kamos says:
Yes, of course… the first person perspective is the ULTIMATE perspective. That’s why since Wolfenstein 3D EVERY game has had the requirement of being a FPS. Hell, if chess was made today, it would have first person perspective. God forbid placing the camera in a way you can see the board. So retrograde.
11/09/2011 at 13:44 karry says:
“That anyone thought, with today’s technology and 3D world creation tools a reboot would simply be an exact recreation of the isomeric play style of the original games is faintly bizarre tbh.”
Did anyone TRY ?!
11/09/2011 at 14:39 Sheng-ji says:
Just be thankful Molyneux didn’t get his hands on it again – he wanted to turn it into an MMO
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/144507/molyneux-talks-game-design-and-next-gen/
11/09/2011 at 15:07 bill says:
Syndicate was a game where you had total freedom to wander around a city distrcit, filled with civillians, and where you could amass an army of said civilians to act as a human shield for you.
This seems to be a corridor shooter with force powers.
How are they taking inspiration from the original IP?
11/09/2011 at 15:28 Sheng-ji says:
Wow, Bill, you have seen the final level layouts and how the game will work…. Can you share your source?
11/09/2011 at 15:36 Kamos says:
I remember there was a mission where you’were supposed to assassinate a heavily guarded guy. I died on that one a gazillion times. Finally, I took a car, waited for him to cross the street and ran him over, leaving before his bodyguards could do anything.
This is part of the core gameplay in Syndicate. It allowed you to complete missions in the most absurd ways.
11/09/2011 at 16:20 Turkey says:
Today’s technology? More like lack of mice.
11/09/2011 at 17:44 Zrzosaar Xun 12 says:
“Agreed. That anyone thought, with today’s technology and 3D world creation tools a reboot would simply be an exact recreation of the isomeric play style of the original games is faintly bizarre tbh. Games are a reflection of the technologies available to them at the time. Back in 1993 true 3D engines were in their infancy, I don’t doubt though that if the technology & resources of today were available to Sean Cooper at the time Syndicate would of turned out to be a completely different beast. ”
Not really. Syndicate Wars was made in the days when there were tons of FPS games and it still had pseudo-isometric view.
What they have done when technical limitations went away was making allowing players to rotate view, to zoom in and out and to make buildings transparent. Oh and they have added flying vehicles.
Syndicate as a FPS wouldn’t make sense because in that game you’re basically an evil corporate gangster flying over a futuristic town in a blimp and giving orders from above to your cyborg puppets.
11/09/2011 at 17:49 Vinraith says:
In the wake of Alien Swarm and other, similar games it’s not as though a 4 player co-op game with an angled top-down third person camera is some kind of outlandish, ancient thing.
11/09/2011 at 19:32 Sheng-ji says:
@Vinraith, Ohhhh yeah, syndicate with alien swarm style engine, that would be really sweet!
11/09/2011 at 21:59 Kadayi says:
@Zrzosaar Xun 12
Syndicate came out the same year as Doom, 1993. It was really until Half-life, SiN & DX that FPS had developed to the point where in they’d be capable to covering the sort of bases and complexity a 3D n Syndicate would of required.
A game that’s co-op splinter cell/Deus Ex doesn’t actually sound all that terrible to me. Like anything the only thing people are really pissed about is the name (same with XCOM). It all seems a bit OTT tbh, given the original games still exist. It’s not like EA are George Lucas and erasing the past.
11/09/2011 at 23:09 Kamos says:
@Kadayi
Yes, they are not erasing the past. They are erasing the future – games like Syndicate won’t ever be made again because there is an arbitrary rule that dictates classic games must be remade into FPS’. That is worse than erasing the past, imho.
11/09/2011 at 23:14 Srethron says:
The issue is that, instead of learning from the past, they are rebooting it. Always as FPS. Imagine how games like Syndicate and X-COM/UFO could be built upon, instead of merely rebooted.
12/09/2011 at 01:05 Kadayi says:
@Kamos
“They are erasing the future – games like Syndicate won’t ever be made again because there is an arbitrary rule that dictates classic games must be remade into FPS”
Have you heard yourself? There’s absolutely nothing stopping anyone from making a modern isometric syndicate style game today or tomorrow. They just can’t call it ‘syndicate’ is all. Love original X-com? you’ll probably love Xenonauts then: -
http://www.xenonauts.com/
Too much melodrama tbh.
12/09/2011 at 08:40 psyk says:
“This is part of the core gameplay in Syndicate. It allowed you to complete missions in the most absurd ways.”
Like? the example you gave was not absurd.
12/09/2011 at 15:34 Werthead says:
“That the guys behind EFBB are working on it”
They are not. There’s been a lot of turnover at Starbreeze in the last couple of years and most of the team around when the excellent EFBB was made have moved on to found a new company (currently working with Bethesda on a new IP, I believe). It’s the same company, but not specifically the same people.
“@Zrzosaar Xun 12, Syndicate came out the same year as Doom, 1993. It was really until Half-life, SiN & DX that FPS had developed to the point where in they’d be capable to covering the sort of bases and complexity a 3D n Syndicate would of required.”
I think he was referring to Syndicate Wars, which came out in 1996. Though even that was still a little early for doing it justice in 3D. Around the time of DEUS EX I think would be the earliest it could work (though the vast chasms and tall buildings of JEDI KNIGHT in 1997 could have been a pointer for how it could work).
13/09/2011 at 00:05 Kamos says:
@Kadayi
“Have you heard yourself? There’s absolutely nothing stopping anyone from making a modern isometric syndicate style game today or tomorrow. They just can’t call it ‘syndicate’ is all. Love original X-com? you’ll probably love Xenonauts then… Too much melodrama tbh.”
Nah, it’s not that there is too much melodrama in what I said – it is just that there is too much stupidity in one who analyses my argument and dismisses it by comparing Xenonauts to what EA could potentially do. Between that and your condescending tone, I can’t be bothered to elaborate. In time: go play Sauerbraten, I hear it is a great alternative to Battlefield 3.
@psyk
My point was that in Syndicate it was often not about charging in with guns blazing, but about waiting for the right moment. In my example, I botched the mission a hundred times and then something unexpected happened – my mark decided to cross the street, giving me the perfect opportunity. Ah, it reminds me of another game that was also very much about “maneuvering” around insurmountable odds – Commando.
Anyway, maybe it is just something that arised from the way I played (I heard people saying the exploded everything and got away with it), but this is something I’d expect to see in the new Syndicate game. Actually, I’d like to see how a spy vs. spy / Commando co-op game would turn out.
11/09/2011 at 12:09 Eclipse says:
At least it’s from Starbreeze (Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena, Escape from Butcher Bay), and that’s a very good thing.
But seems like it will be a single player fps with a single main character (at least the story seems to be around a single man).
4 players co-op seems to be interesting.
I’d rather see an Rainbow six-like game (the first one) in the Syndicate universe than this
11/09/2011 at 12:42 Jazz42 says:
..erm you’re forgetting the best game they made. The Darkness.
Not a PC game, but still far superior to the Riddick games…apart from the bits in no-mans land.
11/09/2011 at 12:45 BurningPet says:
The original key members of Starbreeze all left.
They are basically a new team/studio.
11/09/2011 at 14:33 mangrove says:
Yeah, they became Machinegames and were acquired by Zenimax last year, who changed their name to something like Zyklon B Sweden.
Apparently they are working with the idtech 5 engine. Good stuff.
11/09/2011 at 23:21 Srethron says:
Starbreeze = fingers crossed for no TAGES DRM. Among other things. But, I must admit, I’ve been somewhat disappointed with the performance of the primary unit.
11/09/2011 at 12:13 DeanLearner says:
I don’t understand why they do this?
If it’s to interest “new” players, why even bother associating it with the name syndicate because surely it won’t mean a thing to them?
If someone remakes Theme Hospital as a first person shooter, I’ll be jolly ticked off.
11/09/2011 at 12:15 Stitched says:
To reboot a franchise to make money.
I thought this was obvious.
11/09/2011 at 16:06 Bobby Oxygen says:
Because nothing frightens publishers more than new IP’s. If it doesn’t have any brand recognition, it must be evil and scary, and they’ll have nothing to do with it.
12/09/2011 at 03:54 JackShandy says:
90% of new IP’s die, I’m told.
12/09/2011 at 05:43 Erd says:
I’m in the same boat. It seems utterly pointless to attach the name. It might make men in a board room feel more secure, but the reality seems like the strength of the IP is worthless when pitching to a market with no preconceptions to it. They won’t call it Syndicate 3 or ‘sequel to the 90′s smash hit Syndicate’.
11/09/2011 at 12:14 rocketman71 says:
I’m still waiting for the Populous reboot. It’s going to be FPS of the year!
11/09/2011 at 12:20 lowprices says:
Meh. Wake me when they reboot Tetris as an FPS.
11/09/2011 at 13:23 JackShandy says:
I’m still waiting for the Dwarf Fortress FPS.
11/09/2011 at 13:41 westyfield says:
I’m still waiting for the Call of Duty turn-based strategy game.
11/09/2011 at 13:53 Dozer says:
@JackShandy you’re joking, but I think a first-person Dwarf Fortress could be workable. You’d play as the fort leader, the 3d world would probably look not unlike Minceraft, you’d find a desk and draw up plans and give them to your miners and cabinet-haulers. Basically the gameplay would be broadly the same as DF is now, but you’d have a player avatar character in the world, and the world would be rendered in 3d as well as in 2d on the charts and plans on your character’s desk.
Another game that went to a first-person perspective very well: Silent Hunter III, about seven or eight years ago. Was very immersive (pun!) to be wandering around the command room of your submarine, seeing your crew in 3d in your face, as well as as little 2d icons on a crew manifest diagram. Still mostly I’d be controlling the submarine with the HUD and keyboard shortcuts and viewing the 2d maps and diagrams.
(I’ve never played Syndicate and have no idea if it can be turned into a good FP-game. I don’t have an expectation this is going to be good though… but it’s nice to have a little hope…)
11/09/2011 at 14:44 Sheng-ji says:
http://firstpersontetris.com/
Best I can do for you all
11/09/2011 at 14:53 Kamos says:
Dungeon Keeper also allowed you to run around in a first person perspective. There is nothing wrong with first person as long as it is a means to an end, and not an end in itself.
11/09/2011 at 19:16 DigitalSignalX says:
@Sheng-ji that was awesome.
11/09/2011 at 12:17 Anthile says:
If it’s a good game, I might even buy and play. If it sucks, I won’t. I don’t have any nostalgia associated with the name Syndicate and I don’t think it was even particularly amazing.
11/09/2011 at 12:17 Stitched says:
Countdown to rage post about boycotting EA and Origin in 3…2…1…
11/09/2011 at 16:32 Commisar says:
too late :)
11/09/2011 at 12:19 Moni says:
Oh my knees are jerking, I can tell from the screenshots it plays like consolified rubbish. God, I bet there’s even a cover system.
11/09/2011 at 13:07 Unaco says:
Yeah… and we saw how terrible the cover system was in DXHR. I bet they’ll even put in Regenerating Health, just to make their copying of DXHR more blatant.
You can also tell from the screenshots there’s going to be retailer specific pre-order exclusives for it.
11/09/2011 at 14:45 Sheng-ji says:
Oh God and the screenshots clearly show always on DRM.
12/09/2011 at 01:10 kongming says:
I, too, am baselessly skeptical that this game will follow the prevailing trends of all other big budget FPS games.
11/09/2011 at 12:19 arash says:
so…. basically EA gets Starbreeze to make Syndicate as “Deus Ex HR, but with an Left4Dead flavoured multiplayer”.
Look, I’ll still probably play it, but it smells like disappointment already.
11/09/2011 at 12:21 Stitched says:
Whenever someone says “I’ll probably play it”, I always read it as “I’ll probably pirate it”.
11/09/2011 at 12:19 Cunzy1 1 says:
LE VISAGE. C’est triste.
11/09/2011 at 12:24 Matt says:
“9 missions re-imagined from the original Syndicate,”
wait – isn’t the whole game ‘re-imagined’ into something that isn’t actually Syndicate?
11/09/2011 at 13:16 MadTinkerer says:
The number one thing for me is: will the dude you’re looking out the eyes of be the guy you’re controlling OR:
Will the guy you’re controlling be a puppet agent of another character which is the actual “you”?
One of the most delightfully sinister aspects of the original Syndicate games was the fact that the agents were all mind controlled puppets enslaved by you. If you get to “respawn” when you die by taking over another sleeper/host/civilian, that would totally be Syndicate right there.
Wow, I just realized how much The Matrix’s “Agents” were ripped straight from Syndicate. Well anyway…
11/09/2011 at 14:47 Sheng-ji says:
Actually Mad Tinkerer…. You’ve just made me realise – Syndicate was from first person perspective!
12/09/2011 at 15:37 Werthead says:
One of the screenshots shows a platform in the sea, so I assume they are specifically remaking the Atlantic Accelerator mission from the original game, amongst several others.
11/09/2011 at 12:24 Kollega says:
EDIT: I have to say that i was a bit harsh on cyberpunk. Dosen’t change the fact that i’m seriously tired of seeing it in the gaming news.
EDIT EDIT: the original post about the dislike of cyberpunk is removed, since i don’t find myself dedicated enough to fight in a protracted Internet argument. Especially if i can’t win it and admit my mistake. Call me cowardly, but arguing takes up a lot of time, and i feel like it’ll be better spend doing something else.
I really should learn not to begin said protracted Internet arguments.
11/09/2011 at 12:37 Kollega says:
Advance Wars?
In seriousness, though: TF2 is a fine example of a game that dosen’t take itself seriously, and is all the better for it. I want more of that, less of cyberpunk. Or we could have narrative complexity, but in a pastel-colored adventure with a happy resolution. More of that, less of cyberpunk, please.
11/09/2011 at 12:45 Jazz42 says:
difficult to not do Syndicate with cyberpunk considering..well..it’s cyberpunk.
I remember playing the original on my Amiga many many many moons ago. I can’t say the same for Team Fortress..nor would i really want to.
11/09/2011 at 12:51 BooleanBob says:
Advance Wars was always amusing. Everyone was so damn happy to be at war with each other!
11/09/2011 at 12:54 Kollega says:
I know that original Syndicate was cyberpunk. Dosen’t change the fact that i don’t like cyberpunk and would much rather see it go away for a while in favour of… say, in favour of relaunching Spore or making a new SimCity game, one that is actually good. EA, get to it!
11/09/2011 at 12:56 Dawngreeter says:
You know what I hate? Like, really hate? No? Well I’ll tell you anyway.
Russian realists being overly represented in modern culture. Why can’t we have more Nietzsche and less Dostoevsky? Not to diss Ana Karenina or anything. Fine piece of literary work. But I’m just so tired of all the references to social framework within which prominent characters operate and the harsh everyday life putting a strangling leash on dreams of unrealized dreamers. Can we have something for the more sophisticated among us, who would prefer, say, a movie version of Teletubbies?
11/09/2011 at 13:04 Kollega says:
So. If it’s dark and gritty, it’s neccesarily sophisticated. If it’s bright and cheery, it’s neccesarily for kids. Yes.
I understand that you and many other people here are annoyed with my neverending posts calling for less dark grittiness, but that argument dosen’t really hold up. You wouldn’t call the bright spy movie parodies like TF2, Evil Genius or No-One Lives Forever kiddy – or would you?
11/09/2011 at 13:09 CMaster says:
No, but your insinuation that Cyberpunk is everywhere and constant is pretty out of whack. Yes, we’ve had Human Revolution, E.Y.E. and Hard Reset this year, but before that? I’m sure there’s something between then and invisible war, but it’s hardly a constant gaming theme.
Oh and of course the “for more discerning tastes” line. “I don’t like it, therefore it is for idiots”.
11/09/2011 at 13:13 Kollega says:
Well, okay. I admit my mistake with the “discerning tastes” line. Sorry, everyone involved. Maybe i should just edit that out? Call me a coward, but i don’t really feel like devoting the time to fight in a flame war. Especially now that i’ve realized my mistake.
I really should learn to keep my irritation with dark grittiness to myself. But alas.
11/09/2011 at 13:23 fenriz says:
at the moment we are pessimistic about the future. When the world starts becoming a better place to live in, we will definitely be seeing the shiny and glossy type of sci-fi.
what else? I love beneath a steel sky.
11/09/2011 at 13:29 henben says:
Why is cyberpunk “in” at the moment? It deals with unregulated corporations controlling the direction of society, amoral hackers who work for the highest bidder, prosthetics and augmented reality systems that can enhance human capabilities, environmental collapse… Can’t see why that strikes a chord with people.
11/09/2011 at 13:37 Kollega says:
@henben: Well, i probably don’t like cyberpunk because i think about these issues a lot as it is, don’t feel like i can do much to solve them, and i’m rather prone to depression on top of that.
@fenriz: I can’t wait for the brighter sci-fi to reemerge when the world gets better. IF it gets better.
11/09/2011 at 14:03 pipman3000 says:
cyberpunk is still 1000x better then that stupid steampunk “superglue some gears and a pressure gauge to my gameboy, dress and act like a classless manchilds interpretation of a british gentlemen, etc” crap.
i strongly dislike who ever came up with steampunk and i hope they feel bad for making it.
11/09/2011 at 14:56 Sheng-ji says:
I like steampunk personally, but I do appreciate it’s not going to be to everyones tastes – But the only steampunk I’ve loved is Thief’s version.
11/09/2011 at 14:59 GBoyzJay says:
Actually, Steampunk is a fair bit more than that. Perhaps you might want to read “The Difference Engine”, to give you an idea. The whole point of Steampunk is not “What ho, tally ho, strap some gears on and it’s all good”, it’s an alternate history… What if Babbage’s computer had become the real thing, a worldwide system of pneumatic pumps carried your mail, and the terrible victorian ethos survived to the modern day?
It is, to be fair, often translated as “Stick a gear and some pipes on it, it’s good”, but it doesn’t have to be. Just like Cyberpunk isn’t “Stick a leather trenchcoat, some mirrorshades, and a green-screen computer on, it’s all good.”
11/09/2011 at 15:12 cjlr says:
Hey now, the Difference Engine is fantastic.
Not that there’s much OTHER good steampunk, but still… How much good cyberpunk was there (IS there)? Sturgeon’s law, guys. Sturgeon’s law.
11/09/2011 at 12:24 razzafazza says:
would have been more interested if the paradox rumours that its a GTA-like were true. i could really picture a new syndicate game as some mix of Red Faction: Guerilla and Prototype but that d have been too good to be true…
this sounds like another story-based FPS and instead of being able to create my own agents (and get them killed!) i ll have to play another douchebag created by a marketing department through his familiy issues =/
maybe the coop might be interesting though…
11/09/2011 at 13:39 henben says:
Yeah, a GTA type design would have made total sense. A lot of the powers would have translated across: the loyalty gun which gave you a crowd of expendable followers. Couldn’t you also hack into cars and control them?
11/09/2011 at 12:26 megazver says:
I am actually okay with this. I do want to play Swat 4: Deus Ex edition and the big publishers are the only ones who can afford to make it. An old Syndicate-style game, on the other hand, is within reach of the middle tier and the indies so that’s who should be going for it.
11/09/2011 at 12:50 CMaster says:
I too would love to play Deus SWAT, by whatever name it comes out under (in fact, it’s a game design I’ve pitched around groups of gamers for years). I’m concerned what we’ll actually get is Gears of Cyberpunk however.
11/09/2011 at 12:26 HexagonalBolts says:
What is the job description for the person who writes things like ‘A neural DART6 chip implant that allows you to interface directly with the Dataverse’?
11/09/2011 at 12:35 megazver says:
“Just some guy who translated some bits from the Swedish article”?
11/09/2011 at 12:46 Tokjos says:
Bestselling author.
11/09/2011 at 12:30 Zogtee says:
I am old, so I remember the C64 days when Ocean would routinely buy all movie to game franchises and without fail turn them all into platformers. Total Recall? Platformer. Lethal Weapon? Platformer. And so on.
This reminds me of that, when devs and publishers are opening graves looking for old games that can be recycled again and without fail, they turn them into FPS.
11/09/2011 at 15:46 LionsPhil says:
It does appear to be very much that kind of thing.
11/09/2011 at 12:33 Dawngreeter says:
You know what, this is awesome. I really feel we need a 4-player coop shooter of the first person variety. I think it’s a very underused genre and had I three friends, I’d have no way to interact with them in some sort of multiplayer shooter capacity. I especially feel it is important that we do this in a game which tries to assure us it has something to do with a completely different game we played as kids. And anyway, my inner child was woefully underabused these days.
11/09/2011 at 12:35 Isometric says:
hmmmmmm
11/09/2011 at 12:45 Stitched says:
You have totally won the thread.
11/09/2011 at 12:42 Napalm Sushi says:
I see indoor corridors, a scripted set-piece and a very distinct lack of panicking civilians.
Oh well.
11/09/2011 at 12:48 Jimbo says:
“Chip Enhanced Gameplay…”
All gameplay is enhanced with chips.
Also, that syndicate guy looks suspiciously like he just walked off the cover of DX: Invisible War. You can just tell he’s about to bro out and hold his gun sideways.
11/09/2011 at 12:56 Anthile says:
He does indeed look quite a bit like the Invisible War cover guy.
12/09/2011 at 01:46 JackShandy says:
Is that first screenshot…
…black and gold?
11/09/2011 at 12:49 Jackablade says:
Not sure about this one. I suppose as long as you can still form an army of mind controlled NPCs and melt people with the gauss gun it’ll still offer everything I played Syndicate for back in the day.
11/09/2011 at 12:53 Sorbicol says:
First X-COM, now this? Stop raping my childhood and make it stop! Make it stop!!!!
11/09/2011 at 13:53 pipman3000 says:
stop comparing everything to rape you adolescent.
11/09/2011 at 13:58 pipman3000 says:
oh no they’re remaking this top down manshooter as a first person manshooter this is just like having some dude hold me down and force himself inside of me! the first person perps is like vaginal/anal tearing, the co-op is like mental/emotional trauma, the graphics like being called a filthy lying whore, and the price tag is like having to buy a rape kit in alaska
this vidyurrr gmae = just like being raped – sorbical: rape expert
11/09/2011 at 14:20 Prime says:
Hey, guess what Pip – Internet usage is changing/enlarging the semantics behind the word ‘rape’! This happens ALL THE TIME in the English language (Gay used to mean Happy, etc…). Rape in this context has semantic association with the physical sexual act, yes, but as applied in this circumstance it is being used differently. I would suggest the meaning of this “to rape a childhood” is closer to “despoil, sully, tarnish” to a degree (in the commenter’s mind) similar to that of sexual assault.
How about we lay off the linguistic fascism for a bit, yeah? Or are you also camped out on MTV forums objecting to use of the word “Pimped” meaning to “customise/personalise in an elaborate/extravagant fashion”?
11/09/2011 at 15:21 Sheng-ji says:
@Prime, I’f you’re OK with the word rape being used in this context, then you make me sick. The English language is a beautiful thing and there are many ways to express yourself without resorting to using emotively charged words.
The OP used that word because he is grossly exaggerating his point by a massive amount in order to achieve two things. Firstly he wants the kind of sympathy afforded to a rape victim. Secondly he wants to make his point actually seem to be legitimate.
11/09/2011 at 15:41 Sorbicol says:
Ah the unending and rather unedifying ability of holier than thou people to be offended by absolutely everything they read on the internet.
If you refer to the oxford English Dictionary, I believe you will find the following definitions of the word “rape”
I of course meant the use of the word “rape” in this sentence with regard to the second definition, even if I am getting a bit metaphysical by referring to my Childhood as a place.
Anyone who thinks otherwise should probably stop playing games, get out more and understand the language they are using somewhat better.
11/09/2011 at 15:51 Sheng-ji says:
No-one is destroying your childhood. When this game comes out, your memories will be as intact as they are now. And unless your ENTIRE childhood was syndicate and xcom(In which case, you’ve got bigger problems) then they are not destroying your entire childhood. Furthermore, lets not skip the word wantonly – EA have not set out to destroy a minuscule percentage of specifically YOUR childhood. Finally rape, in all contexts is a very serious criminal offence and no matter what the dictionary says, the legal definition of rape is rather rigid. EA, by releasing this game are not committing a criminal offence. Rape is.
By releasing this game, EA are not raping you. If you believe they are, then you need to stop playing games and get out a lot more… In fact, If you genuinely believe this is the equivalent to rape, then just stop playing games forever before you end up in a mental hospital
And if I’m not allowed to be offended by you comparing rape to a videogame, then what am I allowed to be offended by? I find it quite sick that you use the term so freely with absolutely no context of what rape is and what it does to victims of rape. You are clearly not one and I hope you never will be, because in my professional life I have to help ensure that rape victims get justice (Both falsely accused and genuine victims) and you have no idea – most victims would prefer to have been murdered.
And finally don’t use the dictionary to find a precise definition then use metaphorical abstraction to make it actually fit – we are either going precise or metaphorical, but the two don’t mix. The dictionary gives you a definition for the use of the word pertaining to a person or a place – a particular position, point, or area in space; a location. Not your childhood memories… You are using it pertaining to a person, at best, yourself – which leads us the the first definition you published above.
But here’s the acid test. Text your 100 closest friends who have not seen this post three words “I’ve been raped”. If even a single one of them interprets that to equate to this situation, I will concede that the English language is indeed changing to include this situation under the term rape.
11/09/2011 at 17:03 Lars Westergren says:
Well spoken, pipman and Sheng-Ji. I always get cheered up when someone dares to speak up online for basic human decency.
11/09/2011 at 17:41 Sorbicol says:
Sheng-Ji,
Well done for completely missing the the entire point of what it is was I posted above. You can’t qualify your argument just by using the phrase “it doesn’t matter what it says in the dictionary.” I afraid that everything I said in that first post is entirely based in context of that word’s meaning in the English Language, and quite clearly at no point did I mean that EA were literally fucking me up the arse in releasing Syndicate as an FPS game, which appears to be the context in which you are taking that sentence and the word “Rape”.
I’ll apologise for using a contentious word, but not in the context in which it was used. You have turned this into an issue because you want to, not because you need to.
11/09/2011 at 17:46 Vinraith says:
@Sheng-Ji
Text your 100 closest friends who have not seen this post three words “I’ve been raped”.
Text 100 of your closest friends with “my childhood’s been raped” and see how many of them misunderstand it to mean you’ve been sexually assaulted. None will, because that’s a known phrase in common discourse with an understood meaning rooted in the second definition of “rape” specified above, and furthermore you know that. You don’t like that meaning, you don’t like that phrase, and you’ve made it a project to “change” that by getting offended every time you see it used. That’s fine, good luck with that, but don’t play ignorant about known meanings and uses of the word and don’t put words in other people’s mouths to try to make your case.
11/09/2011 at 17:58 Zrzosaar Xun 12 says:
It kinda reminds me what happened to me once when I was a kid. I went to city centre and met an older teenage kid. Took away my keys and my school legitimation and threatened to rape me if I won’t give him a handjob. I cried but I had to touch him down there until he was satisfied… Curiously he didn’t ejaculate. He proposed me that he’d do the same for me but I refused as I was a good Christian kid (actually I remember asking him – “Why don’t you catch some girl?” and him just chuckling. I was that naive back then). I remember that the first thing I did was taking a shower. Feeling dirty and crying under a shower.
Yeah, so, I have to say that the whole re-imagining stuff feels just like that, except that it lasts much longer and I don’t cry as I’m a grown man. So, even if you’re not right to call it rape, it’s certainly comparable to some form sexual abuse. That what I can say from my experience.
And all these lies about technological limitations, about FPS being the only valid genre, etc. are exactly like stigmatization of sexual abuse victim by the society.
It all makes me feel dirty…
11/09/2011 at 18:14 Sheng-ji says:
@ Vinraith – As Sorbicol quite clearly pointed out with his dictionary definition – and note: he went there, not me – The Oxford English Dictionary, which only a week or two ago completed this year’s update, does not recognise this use of that word.
My personal crusade is not against that word, yes the act is vile and hateful, but one thread where I object to it’s use a crusade does not make.
But you are not wrong on one point – I do have a personal crusade. It is to stop this kind of stupid overreaction. And yes, I will continue to call people out when they make idiotic statements. I will point out quite how much they are overreacting and I will tell them in my plainest English exactly what I think of them.
I know exactly why people misuse words like rape – it’s to try to provoke an emotive response and give their statements power. But, as he clearly defined, the term cannot be applied to his childhood. You cannot rape a childhood, no matter what you do. If it was accepted into common use, it would have been in the dictionary. But it’s not, and neither should it be as it is an illogical, manipulative statement.
And I will not hesitate to call people out for doing this.
11/09/2011 at 18:22 Vinraith says:
@Sheng-Ji
The usage in question is outlined in definition 2 in the OED, it is in common usage. Childhood is a metaphorical place, and like any place can be “raped” by the definition in question. Hell, this particular usage was the basis of an entire episode of South Park, it’s hardly some new and unknown thing. You are certainly free to be offended about anything you like, but you’re just making yourself look silly here, and undermining any genuine point you might have in the process.
11/09/2011 at 18:23 Sheng-ji says:
Zrzosaar Xun 12, No-one will believe that story, so before I block you for, in my opinion pretending you have been sexually abused and likening it to a company making a product you don’t like could you answer the following question: Who said FPS is the only valid genre?
From what I can tell from a few upcoming big releases, we have Old Republic – not a FPS, Skyrim – not and FPS, Diablo 3 – not an FPS.
Whats selling on steam right now: Men of War – Strategy, Dead Island – ARPG, Call of Juarez – FPS, Rock of Ages – Racing, Pride of Nations – Strategy, Sims Medieval – Simulation
One game, at number 3.
11/09/2011 at 18:39 Sheng-ji says:
Vinraith, the whole point of the dictionary is to provide concise definitions for words. I don’t know if you noticed but I quoted the exact Oxford English definition for the word place and it seemed to concentrate on physical locations. You can’t mix precise definitions and metaphorical examples.
And please don’t try to back up your argument with “There was a whole episode of South Park about it”, whilst telling me I am undermining my own argument.
Please, Vinraith, may I ask you a direct question. If you believe that it is quite appropriate to use the word rape to describe this situation, what word would you use in place of rape to construct a similar statement about the following scenario:
I have developed a product which can affect your brain, specifically the part which holds your dearest childhood memories. It is a machine which broadcasts radiation across the whole world affecting everybody. It is designed to manipulate your childhood memories so that you remember with fondness any product which pays me enough. I first turned it on a year ago when startup soft drinks company Coca Cola paid me £1000.
I’m sure we agree, that scenario is way off the scale compared to EA is bringing out a game and it’s set in the universe of another game I loved but I’m worried it may be crap. But we’ve already blown rape on the EA example… so we need a word several magnitudes worse than rape….. I’ll await your answer with eager anticipation.
(P.S. I chose Coca Cola not because I believe they are in any way shape or form evil, but because I personally have very fond childhood memories of the drink)
@Sorbicol – firstly I apologise for misspelling your name above, I think I corrected them all. My problem as I stated above is not the fact that you wrote a contentious word, it’s that you used it in a completely inappropriate way. You gave me the concise definition yourself, and it has two – 1) Being forced into a sexual act or 2) Destroying or ruining a place.
Your childhood is not a physical place. Even if it was, this is not spoiling or ruining it. How will your fond memories of the original game possible be affected if this game is rubbish. They won’t unless you let them be. (So I guess it’s more masturbation than rape) .
You took it to concise definitions, not me. So your use of language was wrong. Worse than that however was why you did it. Which I have written about plenty above.
11/09/2011 at 18:52 Vinraith says:
You can’t mix precise definitions and metaphorical examples.
*blink* Seriously? Several centuries of art and literature beg to differ.
Please, Vinraith, please may I ask you a direct question. If you believe that it is quite appropriate to use the word rape to describe this situation
Where have I said, or even suggested, such a thing? My argument is that the phrase being used here is common usage, it is easily understood to the entire audience (including yourself, you might as well just break down and admit that), it is not intended to convey what you keep insisting it is intended to convey. Nowhere have I suggested that I agree with the sentiment being expressed.
As to your scenario:
But we’ve already blown rape on the EA example… so we need a word several magnitudes worse than rape
No, we haven’t. I certainly haven’t used the word “rape” to describe my feelings about the Syndicate situation, and you’ve made it abundantly clear that you haven’t either. The semantic problem you describe is Sorbitol’s issue, not mine or yours. Perhaps he feels the situation you describe is on par with this one. Perhaps he feels that both situations are bad enough to qualify for the term “rape” and would apply it to both. I don’t know, I’m not him, and I’m certainly not here to police his use of language. Strangely, you seem to be.
11/09/2011 at 18:52 Prime says:
Sheng-ji, I’m sorry but it is hard to take your points seriously when you are, as Vinraith has pointed out, ignoring facts which don’t help you and twisting people’s statements. We get that you’re angry, and we can understand why, but I honestly believe that the use of the word, as Sorbicol has chosen to, is perfectly valid English. English is a beautiful language but pretending that only nice things can exist within it is to misunderstand linguistic development. The OED is also NOT the sole custodian or final authority of what is, and isn’t, part of the language: everyone is, in the way they use it to communicate. As such, ‘rape’ in the context used above performs its job amazingly well.
Futher, being used to describe the denigration of an artistic work or even an era of human development does not, emphatically not, demean or insult the other usage of the word, that of sexual assault upon a person. The people using that term do not intend to demean anyone who has suffered rape. At least two of my very dear friends have suffered rape in their lives; for that I prefer not to use the internet-born version of it. But I will defend its right to exist as a linguistic tool.
Yes, the word has is being used because it has power, but it only gets that power when people like you choose to respond to it in the way you are.
11/09/2011 at 19:08 Rii says:
Can we vote? I’m in with Sheng-ji, pipman, et al. It’s an ugly and singularly tasteless expression that reflects poorly on those who use it.
And yeah, the same does go for ‘pimped’.
11/09/2011 at 19:12 Sheng-ji says:
@ Vinraith – Sorry if it seems like I made assumptions as to your viewpoint – In all fairness, I did use the word if quite deliberately
To everyone else. I believe I have made my point as adequately as I can. I am not going to repeat myself and once I have finished this short (hopefully) post, I will post no more, though I will read what others want to write. I will be particularly fascinated if Prime would tell me which facts I have ignored!
I do think it’s sick to liken rape to a company making a product someone may not like. No matter how metaphorically. Further more, my big problem with that is it is at the top end of the extreme scale. There is no where to go after rape, it’s as bad as it gets for most people.
I don’t like extremism on this forum and I will call it where I see it. (I don’t see myself as policing it, I wasn’t forbidding it’s use, nor do I have the power to do so, as the word police implies – this is another example of the same kind of extremism, but I will challenge your point of view, and do so in my own straight forward way. I try not to offend, and I hope I haven’t)
Finally, there is only one authority who keep track of the common usage of the English Language, Oxford Dictionary. And they have just updated. And they do not cite this as a valid use of the word. If it was in common usage, it would go in. They work in concise definitions, there is no room for a metaphorical interpretation of what is printed in that book. If you are unsure of a words exact meanings, you can look it up in the same book. When i said you can’t mix precise and metaphorical, I meant this.
11/09/2011 at 20:11 Arathain says:
“Can we vote? I’m in with Sheng-ji, pipman, et al. It’s an ugly and singularly tasteless expression that reflects poorly on those who use it.
And yeah, the same does go for ‘pimped’.”
My vote’s firmly with you, Sheng-ji et al. It’s my least favourite Internet “but it’s just a word and words only ever have meanings and never contexts” expression. ‘Pimped’ comes pretty high up there as well. Since when did something that evil become cool again?
11/09/2011 at 22:03 FunkyBadger3 says:
Finally, there is only one authority who keep track of the common usage of the English Language, Oxford Dictionary. And they have just updated. And they do not cite this as a valid use of the word. If it was in common usage, it would go in.
Point of logic – but where do OED get their new definitions from?
11/09/2011 at 22:22 Jimbo says:
Well I don’t know about you lot but I could murder a pint after that little debate.
11/09/2011 at 22:31 Johnny Lizard says:
I agree with Sheng-ji.
12/09/2011 at 01:53 Vinraith says:
Amen to that, Jimbo.
11/09/2011 at 12:59 MadTinkerer says:
I have several thoughts in short order:
1) Thank goodness it’s not a Facebook game.
2) Syndicate is a far more appropriate franchise to get the FPS treatment than X-Com. (EDIT: Well far less inappropriate at any rate.)
3) As a giant games publisher this is pretty much what you have to expect from a giant game publisher. And remember it’s not just any giant game publisher, but in fact EA Themselves. Just because Ubisoft is Ubisoft* and Activision is Activision**, that doesn’t make EA any less EA***.
*”Fuck the customers!”
**”Fuck the unsuccessful developers, and fuck the successful ones harder!”
***”Hey it’s been a while since we accidentally killed a game studio, let’s resurrect one of their most beloved franchises to remind everyone about what we’ve done!”
4) It’s not just the Clueless Publisher thing going on here. The way games are currently conceived, pitched, approved, and developed is fundamentally flawed. It’s a systemic problem that EA are trapped in, as evidenced by the fact that every large publisher is doing pretty much the same thing as this when they aren’t churning out multiplatform sequels.
Until the big publishers figure out how to make smaller games that don’t sacrifice sound & graphical quality, they can’t risk all that Big Game money on something that might not Sell Big.
5) EA need to start pitching their older franchises to their EA Satellite developers. This probably the easiest and most likely solution under EA’s current structure. It’s not a perfect long-term solution to the above points, but it would be a huge step in the right direction (e.g. eventually ZERO publisher-owned studios).
11/09/2011 at 15:26 Sheng-ji says:
On the plus side, if they make a bit of money and get a bit of interest in the name, a proper sequel may be on the cards. Does depend on the game being good though!
11/09/2011 at 13:02 Zarunil says:
Oh COME ON!
If this and X-COM actually turn out any good I will eat my hat with mustard.
11/09/2011 at 13:31 Kadayi says:
Well it depends what you measure of good is tbh. If it not being an isometric perspective game makes it not good, then the odds are stacked against it already. I mean in one of the DX:HR threads there was a guy complaining about it not living up to the original title because you couldn’t pick up the pizza boxes for instance.
11/09/2011 at 16:02 IDtenT says:
The alternative would be tomato sauce instead?
12/09/2011 at 01:16 kongming says:
“Well it depends what you measure of good is tbh. If it not being an isometric perspective game makes it not good, then the odds are stacked against it already.”
Actually, if you’d been following the development of XCOM at all you’d know that the odds are stacked against it because it’s a dumb fucking game being made by dummies.
11/09/2011 at 13:12 coldvvvave says:
I like how I posted vid of original in a drama thread on forum and everyone ignored it because it contradicted their “THEY ARE RUINING MY CLASSIC STRATEGY” attitude. This game was a perfect candidate for a reboot. It wasn’t a strategy game. It was a top-down shooter with elements of sandbox gameplay and some between-mission tech unlocking. FFS.
11/09/2011 at 13:18 MadTinkerer says:
As I said elsewhere: far less inappropriate to remake as an FPS.
(EDIT: lost track of where this was in the thread. :P )
11/09/2011 at 13:22 coldvvvave says:
There are two threads, two threads of whining by people who didn’t play the original. I’m already feeling an EMPERORS FYUREH rising deep inside me.
11/09/2011 at 13:13 feda says:
I just threw up in my mouth.
11/09/2011 at 13:16 Lamellama says:
Syndicate Blah blah FPS blah future blah weak sauce.
11/09/2011 at 13:17 Soon says:
But do I get to drive/fly a hovercar?
11/09/2011 at 13:26 coldvvvave says:
No, you are going to man a machinegun-plasma cannon and shoot other cars/boss-helicopter. That is the only thing I’m not going to like about that game.
11/09/2011 at 13:22 voidburn says:
Today, a solid piece of my childhood has just been sentenced to death. There’s no explaining to these people what they’re about to do to a game that inspired me so profoundly. I feel outraged and I need to process this grief in order to better understand why Syndicate meant so much to me, and better remember it for what it WAS. Ye be damned console gamers, ye be damned to eternal FPSing.
11/09/2011 at 14:32 Uthred says:
Not to interrupt your insane and misguided hatred of consoles, but Syndicate was released on consoles back “in the day”. OH NOES! THEYVE BEEN HERE ALL ALONG.
11/09/2011 at 15:33 Sheng-ji says:
Hehehe, Uthred wins 1 Internet point for knowing what he’s talking about
11/09/2011 at 18:57 Kamos says:
You both lose 1 respect for pretending that being released on console 15 years ago is the same as being released on console today. Back then having a game on two different platforms – say, PC and SEGA Genesis – resulted in two completely different games. Now it results in ports that often don’t even adapt the control scheme.
So yeah, go ahead and gang up on him for pointing out the obvious increase in influence that the console as a platform – and also as a target market – has had on another platform, the PC.
12/09/2011 at 02:26 Uthred says:
Sometimes it resulted in different games, sometimes it resulted in very, very similar games. As was the case with Syndicate, you know, the game were talking about. Also I dont think “CONSOLES ARE WHY ALL WE GET IS FPS’s” is either a reasoned or correct argument. FPS’s sell better than other genre’s on any platforms, videogames are now big business, big business likes to make big profits to keep shareholders happy. Its neither rocket science nor the fault of consoles.
11/09/2011 at 13:29 ceebux says:
Man it really sucks how when they bring out a new game in an 18 year old series the old one literally disappears from all servers, CDs, floppy disks and hard drives the world over.
Go fire up your Amiga and have a cry. Jesus Christ.
11/09/2011 at 14:48 Prime says:
What’s so wrong in asking for an update to an old game that stays true to the original, may I ask? You wouldn’t buy a 1980s cellphone even though they had some classic models. Just…make the same game, but with newer tech. Elaborate on it,certainly, but retain the spirit of it or you’re simply bastardising the license to make what you would have made anyway. Why is that so offensive to you?
11/09/2011 at 15:03 Kamos says:
The lack of first person shootery and chest high walls offends him.
11/09/2011 at 13:31 tossrStu says:
I’m with Dan That on this one:
http://www.sizefivegames.com/forum/index.php?topic=551.msg55709#msg55709
I had Syndicate on the Amiga. Loved it. Definitely looking forward to this.
11/09/2011 at 14:09 Unaco says:
Well said that man.
11/09/2011 at 16:17 c-Row says:
Agreed. People should wait and judge it for the game it is, rather than the game they all want it to be.
11/09/2011 at 16:29 Sheng-ji says:
Hurrah, let’s have some positivity about games for once! I too will wait and hope it is good and judge it on it’s final results. In the meantime, I will allow myself to be a little bit excited, because I am.
11/09/2011 at 16:58 Lars Westergren says:
Yep, put me in the positive crowd. Sounds and looks great so far.
11/09/2011 at 13:33 Calabi says:
I think you know something is wrong with the mainstream triple AAA development, when they start digging up lots of corpses from the past.
11/09/2011 at 13:35 Tams80 says:
Saw “4-player co-op FPS”, but found out it was online. Booo!!! Hiss!!!
Only local, local and online mixed, and online will do!
11/09/2011 at 14:09 pipman3000 says:
hotseat co-op only please
11/09/2011 at 13:36 Azhrarn says:
Ok, so while the Syndicate games were certainly shooty games, turning those real-time tactical combat games into an FPS is a terrible idea.
The IP lends itself to it I imagine, but why ruin yet another beloved franchise by turning it into yet another bloody man-shoot, a real-time tactical cyberpunk game would have worked rather well in this day and age I imagine.
Is this coming from the success of the Deus Ex reboot or is it lack of creativity from EA’s part? Either way, I mourn for the loss of so many genres. Any and all strategy sub-genres appear to be dying out, not due to lack of demand but due to design by “market-research comity”. =(
11/09/2011 at 13:58 Cross says:
You’re right, except one thing: This game has been in the works for a long gottam time, so it has nothing to do with the success of Deus Ex HR, if anything, it simply means this gets more attention.
11/09/2011 at 13:43 7rigger says:
Not really as maddening as the XCOM FPS, Syndicate always played like an action game and I get the feeling the original’s would have been FPS’s if not for the technology, especially from the intro to Syndicate Wars.
I’m looking forward to this. Never can have too many co-op games. I just wish they weren’t all limited to 4 players
11/09/2011 at 13:55 Cross says:
“Immerse yourself in the world of Syndicate 2069, with a world-class sci-fi story experience, written by bestselling author Richard Morgan.”
“bestselling author Richard Morgan.”
So they’ve done it again, put up a book writer to write a game. Guess we can be sure the story will be uninteractive, linear and complete bollocks then.
11/09/2011 at 14:11 pipman3000 says:
at least its not that mormon writer who hates the gays and liberals
12/09/2011 at 15:55 Werthead says:
Richard Morgan was also the guy who wrote CRYSIS 2, for what that’s worth. More to the point, he’s also the guy who wrote the excellent novel ALTERED CARBON, which has a distinctively SYNDICATE-like vibe (in terms of the setting, not the plot though). Especially when the guy walks into the rival faction’s base tooled up like a nutcase and goes to town on everyone with a mixture of lasers and machine guns. There’s also a scene in a hotel lobby involving dual miniguns. No personality-rewriting, though.
11/09/2011 at 14:06 Unaco says:
Hmmmm. I don’t know what to make of this just yet… will have to wait and see what they come up with. Sure, Coop FPS isn’t what “Syndicate” means to me, but I can imagine it possibly working. As long as they keep/maintain certain aspects of the originals… the setting, the ruthlessness, the Dystopian brutality, the atmosphere. DXHR has shown that a modern studio can take a beloved IP and make something equal to that original game… a resurrected franchise is not necessarily going to produce a terrible game in an effort to cash in. Admittedly, DXHR kept the DX playstyle, whereas this is changing the type of game quite significantly (from Real-Time Tactics to Coop FPS), but it could still work.
I think some of the reaction, although expected, is a bit too much though. I think people should maybe drop the talk of ‘raping’ your childhood and the like… there is hardly any equivalence here. At the end, if they make a bad game, that’s what there is… a bad game, with a beloved name. That’s nothing. It’s hardly like your Uncle sitting you on his lap and putting his hand up your shorts… It shouldn’t really be compared the ‘rape’.
11/09/2011 at 14:51 John P says:
No it hasn’t.
11/09/2011 at 15:02 Unaco says:
Yes it has.
11/09/2011 at 15:19 Big Murray says:
DXHR is at least in the same genre as the original. And is a sequel/prequel. This is just taking the name of a well-loved IP and slapping it onto a generic new FPS to get attention.
Imagine if they said they were going to make a new Deus Ex reboot instead of DXHR … Deus Ex stunningly re-imagined in the strategic collectable card game genre.
11/09/2011 at 15:22 Kamos says:
Actually that sounds pretty cool. But it wouldn’t be Deus Ex.
11/09/2011 at 15:35 Sheng-ji says:
DX1 was a FPS with light RPG elements
DX IW gets ignored
DXHR was a third person stealth game with light fps elements
In my opinion
Both were great, top of their genres
12/09/2011 at 00:09 Srethron says:
DX 1 was an RPG with light to medium FPS elements (re: Yachtzee’s review). I agree with you on the rest.
11/09/2011 at 14:09 Prime says:
It’s an FFS, not FPS.
11/09/2011 at 14:16 c-Row says:
Maybe I was too young at that time, but Syndicate was hardly a tactical game at all. You just armed your guy(s), walked around and shot every enemy in sight – no tactics needed. This makes far more sense as an FPS than X-Com.
11/09/2011 at 14:30 c-Row says:
How does it not make any sense?
Why should a game series be limited to a single genre only? By that logic, Fallout should have never be translated into a FPS, there should have been no Star Wars role playing games (KotOR) or a Warcraft-themed MMO. Please correct me if I am wrong, but they all scored high ratings and were loved by reviewers and players alike.
11/09/2011 at 14:47 Unaco says:
What of the setting, the atmosphere, the style and the feel of Syndicate? The World of Syndicate? Can a game not carry the name if it conveys these things perfectly?
11/09/2011 at 14:50 c-Row says:
Fallout 3 is still called Fallout. My point still stands.
11/09/2011 at 15:15 fenriz says:
you think it wasn’t tactical only because you haven’t tried american revolt.
11/09/2011 at 15:19 Kamos says:
You have Star Wars hats, Star Wars action figures, Star Wars t-shirts, Star wars toilet seats and anything Star Wars you can imagine. Of course you’d have Star Wars games in all genres, because the main thing is STAR WARS. Fallout and Warcraft are also unique or successful enough settings to justify branching.
How exactly does Syndicate’s generic cyberpunk setting compare to any of the above? It is a game best remembered for its *gameplay*. When people feel nostalgic and talk about it, the last thing they talk about is the setting! Not so with Star Wars, Fallout and Warcraft – enough people apprciate those for something that is not the core gameplay.
If you’re going to ressurect a game best remembered for its gameplay, why is it unreasonable to expect the gameplay to be mantained?
11/09/2011 at 15:51 c-Row says:
“Generic cyberpunk setting”? As opposed to “generic post-apocalyptic setting” and “generic fantasy setting” you mean?
Syndicate’s gameplay was all about researching new equipment, improving your agents, and sending them into a country, armed to their teeth, stealing items, persuading people and shooting other syndicate’s agents, cops and targets marked for assassination – all happening in realtime rather than turn-based and in a “generic cyberpunk setting” presented from an isometric point of view. The way I see it, this reboot shares as many similarities with its predecessors than Fallout 3 did with Fallout 1 + 2.
11/09/2011 at 19:07 Kamos says:
Fallout is NOT a generic post-apocalyptic setting. It IS post-apocalyptic, but there is a whole fucking BIBLE of fallout background. It has tons of easily recognizable elements that are “Fallout-y”. Not to mention some of the craziest, most rabid fans ever seen.
Warcraft might be generic in the sense that it has orcs and elves, but it is also successful. Very, very successful. It has books and stuff other than the games being sold. I have actually had to endure a fan of the setting telling me why it is a more important piece of fiction than Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones.
Does Syndicate have that?
11/09/2011 at 14:18 sinister agent says:
Great, because when I think of being a sinister overlord remotely controlling his obedient cyborgs, I think of four normal humans with free will that I have no control over and who will likely be either massively obsessed screeching nerds who care about nothing but playing in the most boring, efficient way, or ordinary people who can’t shoot for shit and have no idea what they’re doing.
Change is fine, but there’s a point where you’re making something that has so little in common with the original that you’re not making a new spin on it anymore – you’re just calling a table a spade.
11/09/2011 at 14:19 Daz says:
I’m fine with it being an fps, I just hope they keep the ability to level entire buildings, that was awesome in syndicate (or was it syndicate 2, argh).
12/09/2011 at 07:24 M. Jims says:
As an ordinary person who can’t shoot for shit in computer games, I feel like I’ve let you down.
EDIT: Reply fail, meant to be for previous post.
11/09/2011 at 14:31 Acosta says:
It’s too bad I respect RPS and Jim enough, because I really would like to start insulting and swearing at this moment.
11/09/2011 at 14:32 Unrein says:
Jesus… I don’t mind it being an FPS, but this looks like just another plot based linear shooter. Hell, even X-Com has some semblance of management gameplay and non-linearity!
11/09/2011 at 14:35 Unaco says:
You can tell that from 5 screenshots, some box art, and some wordy marketing spiel? Well done you. That’s a talent.
11/09/2011 at 15:04 Unrein says:
“Take on the role of Miles Kilo, Eurocorp’s latest prototype agent, and embark on a brutal action adventure of corruption and revenge.” “…9 missions re-imagined from the original Syndicate.”
Really? You can’t smell it? Not to mention the 1UP article about Starbreeze speaks volumes about the direction they’re going for.
11/09/2011 at 14:33 Hodge says:
Someone should buy the rights to Apple Records and put out some new Beatles albums – those old overdriven Rickenbackers are sounding way out of date.
11/09/2011 at 21:38 Bfox says:
Thank you, that’s exactly how I feel about this.
11/09/2011 at 14:34 Olivaw says:
I’m not going to read these comments because I’ve heard people talking about the XCOM game lately and I’ve had my fill of self entitlement over long dead franchises.
But I just want to say: Richard Morgan is writing this? Richard K. Morgan, who wrote Altered Carbon, the best science fiction novel of the last decade, is writing this cyberpunk video game developed by Starbreeze?
Well I was already kind of on board, but that’s soundin’ pretty good to me!
11/09/2011 at 14:49 Cinnamon says:
There are plenty of recent novels that I think are more acclaimed by Science Fiction fans. Altered Carbon actually alienates a lot of Science Fiction readers because it is seen as using graphic sex and violence to sell copies and is a bit slack when it comes to other areas. Didn’t make much of a dent on the Hugo or Nebula awards.
11/09/2011 at 15:02 Robin says:
Didn’t he also wrote Crysis 2 (which was.. well.. shit)?
11/09/2011 at 15:11 FunkyBadger3 says:
Richard K. Morgan, who wrote Altered Carbon, the best science fiction novel of the last decade, is writing this cyberpunk video game developed by Starbreeze?
Bad decade for SF, really.
11/09/2011 at 15:23 cjlr says:
Bad decade? Get out. Stephen Baxter? Vernor Vinge? Charles Stross? Robert J Sawyer? John Scalzi? Jon Courtenay Grimwood? Elizabeth Bear? And Paolo Bacigalupi to cap the decade?
You don’t read the right things, if that was a bad decade for SF…
edit – that was just novels. Ted Chiang is the best SF short story writer in years if not ever.
11/09/2011 at 15:39 Olivaw says:
Fuck the Hugo and Nebula awards, Altered Carbon was white hot cyber noir excellence.
And yeah, Crysis 2 was kind of a shitshow, and his non-Takeshi Kovacs books haven’t grabbed me at all, but Syndicate as a universe was practically tailor-made for Morgan to do his thing.
I won’t make any real commitments to the quality of the game (though Starbreeze has a good track record) but I am willing to go on record that the story will be pretty good!
11/09/2011 at 16:00 Cinnamon says:
The Hugo award nominations for the past ten years is a pretty good reading list. But I’m not sure that it’s for someone who thinks that cyber is a white hot word in 2011.
11/09/2011 at 16:48 Olivaw says:
Well the important word there was “noir” but I know it must be hard to read from all the way up there on your high horse BUT REGARDLESS there’s been like eight cyberpunk games released this year. ‘Cyber’ is a word that I have heard more in the past seven months than in the past five years combined! Not just from games either, movies too! Shit, Ridley Scott is even making a Blade Runner sequel!
2011 is the cyberest year.
11/09/2011 at 16:55 Cinnamon says:
So you are too white hot, cyber and noir to do anything other than say “fuck you” to the novels selected by the Hugo awards? I’ll stay up here on my high horse rather than join you if it’s all the same to you.
11/09/2011 at 20:47 Cryo says:
I didn’t like Altered Carbon. Like, at all.
12/09/2011 at 16:09 Werthead says:
“Didn’t make much of a dent on the Hugo or Nebula awards.”
Irrelevant. Both awards are predominantly American awards for American writers. Non-American authors basically have to live in America (Gaiman), attend Worldcon regularly (Stross) or be a huge, zeitgeisty bestseller (Rowling, Suzanna Clarke) to stand even a chance of getting nominated for the Hugo.
For example, this year’s Hugo winner, BLACKOUT by Connie Willis, was given to her because she’s written some good books in the past, she’s popular Worldcon guest and people like her. They certainly didn’t give it to her for the book, which was hideously-badly-researched, overwritten guff which required a detailed knowledge of WWII which Willis did not even remotely possess.
“Bad decade? Get out. Stephen Baxter? Vernor Vinge? Charles Stross? Robert J Sawyer? John Scalzi? Jon Courtenay Grimwood? Elizabeth Bear? And Paolo Bacigalupi to cap the decade?”
Robert Sawyer is not a good writer, at all. I wouldn’t say ‘hideously bad’, just ‘mind-shatteringly inept’. Grimwood is good. Scalzi is okay, as MOR space opera goes, but not a patch on the likes of Reynolds or Hamilton. Vinge and Baxter did their best work in the 1990s and produced little of note in the 2000s. Stross is highly variable, but great when he’s on top form. Bear is reasonable. Haven’t read Bacigalupi yet.
“You don’t read the right things, if that was a bad decade for SF…”
It was not a great decade for American SF. Very little of genuine interest or power by an American writer was written or released. The best stuff came from British or Canadian authors, and ALTERED CARBON and BLACK MAN are both right up there with the best novels from the decade, alongside Priest’s THE SEPARATION, Reynolds’ CHASM CITY, maybe a few others (I’m told good things about Watts’ BLINDSIGHT and Harrison’s LIGHT as well).
11/09/2011 at 14:35 vash47 says:
What a shame.
11/09/2011 at 14:41 T4u3rs says:
http://sfgospel.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341ce22f53ef011168c500d4970c-800wi
11/09/2011 at 14:45 Iskariot says:
Uhmm, is this game online multiplayer only?
I am very interested, but only if it offers a cool single player story and campaign.
12/09/2011 at 03:32 JiminyJickers says:
Same for me, don’t mind so much this being a FPS (not so for XCom). But if it isnt single player then not interested.
Also need the same sort of freeform cities to explore and follow your own method of completing the mission.
11/09/2011 at 14:48 Prime says:
I’m not so upset about the change to a FPS – with enough talent and clever thinking that may actually work (I’m thinking about Battlezone’s ability to organise units – that worked splendidly. Or even Star Wars: Republic Commando. 4 guys, one player.)
What has irked me, though, is the transition from single-player title to online co-op. Does every-bloody-thing have to be online these days? Gone is the lovely little tactical strategy game of my youth replaced by L4D in Cyberpunk clothing. Bleuch.
11/09/2011 at 20:01 Sheng-ji says:
Let’s hope it has a really good single player mode!
11/09/2011 at 14:55 ninjapirate says:
Meh.
11/09/2011 at 15:00 Hoaxfish says:
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
11/09/2011 at 15:05 Dakia says:
Damn, I was afraid this was going to happen.
11/09/2011 at 15:07 Love Albatross says:
With Richard K. Morgan getting involved in games writing, I wonder if he’s been approached to turn the Altered Carbon universe into a game?
I’m by no means a fan of the genre, but the setting would be perfect for an MMO. The various colonies with battling factions and leftover gear from wars, corrupt corporations, the remnants of an alien race, and then there’s the sleeves…saving money and XP to be able to buy a stealth ninja or gecko body, or even renting one out if you can’t afford it. Game devs, get it done.
12/09/2011 at 16:13 Werthead says:
The needlecasting/stack technology would work well as a great game mechanic, certainly, but I think it’d be better more as an RPG, mixing together the detective work Takeshi does with his tendency to ludicrously over-the-top ultraviolence. Though they can probably keep the required two-bad-sex-scenes-per-book offscreen in the game.
I would be impressed to seem them make a game based on THE STEEL REMAINS. Is gaming ready for a fantasy RPG where the main hero is gay?
11/09/2011 at 15:10 FunkyBadger3 says:
“Sci-Fi Fiction: Immerse yourself in the world of Syndicate 2069, with a world-class sci-fi story experience, written by bestselling author Richard Morgan.”
Stick it up your arse.
11/09/2011 at 15:13 JKjoker says:
i really wish someone would sit down with the devs after the franchise is properly destroyed and the game released, and just asked them how the holy hell they went from a top down strategy game to a co-op fps, im sure there is some sort of Kevin Smith style “he wanted non flying superman with no suit fighting a giant spider and Braniac wrestling a polar bear” story behind all of these
11/09/2011 at 15:15 Love Albatross says:
:)
Source, for those not aware of the reference.
A fantastic story with a great twist ending.
12/09/2011 at 07:27 coldvvvave says:
Except Syndicate was not a strategy game at all.
But don’t let facts stop your whining.
12/09/2011 at 09:57 neolith says:
@coldvvvave:
Managing finances, the squad, weapons, upgades to augumentations, planning your next moves on the worldmap, waiting for the right moment to use drugs and using civillians to win a level where you were hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned – yep, you are right, no strategy at all in Syndicate.
11/09/2011 at 15:13 Big Murray says:
Please shoot me.
Co-operatively or not, just shoot me now.
11/09/2011 at 15:17 PeopleLikeFrank says:
Ahhh, the headline of this story was enough to give me a hearty LOL. Thanks EA, great start to a Sunday morning.
11/09/2011 at 15:28 PeopleLikeFrank says:
Although, to be slightly more constructive: it seems to me there’s an interesting potential to work with a difference between single player and co-op? Pull the camera out & above for single player (or have one player as a commander-type controlling any empty slots), while having multi-player in the first or third person perspective? There *is* some good potential in “Deus Ex SWAT” as pointed out up-thread, but this would let SP still work with multiple agents in the oldskool way. It would also take too much money and design time to implement, so it won’t happen. Oh wells.
11/09/2011 at 15:18 fenriz says:
How can Syndicate be FPS if the staple of the old ones is to control different persons based on the items they have(persuadertrons etc) and augmentation?
I hope at least they preserve the most obvious element, total city exploration.
11/09/2011 at 15:20 Big Murray says:
Simple. This is nothing like Syndicate. It has absolutely no relation to Syndicate whatsoever. It’s just using the name.
11/09/2011 at 15:26 Love Albatross says:
It probably started life as new IP and EA forced/allowed Starbreeze to use the Syndicate name to help it sell. Movies do this all the time. I assumed the same thing happened to XCOM.
11/09/2011 at 15:44 fenriz says:
Jesus. Now that i didn’t know.
Wow, kill me now.
Well Paradox, you’re our only hope. For a more sensible work.
We need maturity in games SO BAD. And not the useless type of writing maturity, sex and deep characters’ psychologies, that’s cinema. gameplay design maturity.
11/09/2011 at 15:24 metalangel says:
The agents should only be able to say ‘SELECTED’.
…
I’m serious. They’re being controlled remotely, they’re all connected to the big man up in the airship, and to each other, they don’t need to talk.
Instead, we’re going to get:
-Commander John Fuck: Commander of Omega Team. With a large facial scar he got during the same futuristic Middle East conflict that left him grizzled and disillusioned, he’s the tortured man in charge of the best team in Eurocorp. He carries an assault rifle with an underslung grenade launcher.
-Aureola Perkytitski: Her exposed midriff and medicine ball-sized breasts have led many a foe to believe her a mere bimbo. That’s before she uses her gauss-sniper rifle to fire a slug through their eye socket at a distance of 10km!!!!!!
-Tyrone “Stereo” Blackingman: He don’t take no shit, dig? And if’n yall doubt this 250lb slab of solid muscle and attitude is joking, his explosive shell-firing minigun “LaShonda” and remote-detonation plastic explosives will deliver a punchline you won’t live long enough to forget.
-Maho Sawai: While still in the fucking womb, she used her umbilical cord to access her mother’s CHiP and hacked into the FBI, CIA, MI6 and ATF. Now just turned 18, she’s five whole feet of flat-chested squeaky-voiced spiritual Japanese stereotype. She can break into any computer system, and her silenced SMG ensures nobody ever stops her getting out of the MZ (MISSION ZONE!!!)
-Case ‘Hardcase’ Kane: Airship-based director of Omega Squad. Their eyes in the sky, having had his arms and legs blown off in a dangerous mission into the megachav ghettos of New Coventry, he floats on his hoverchair providing intel and advice to his team.
-Quentin Sleazeworthy: Corrupt, backstabbing and profit-obsessed, he’s the ruthless Eurocorp executive in charge of the covert ops division.
11/09/2011 at 15:45 vash47 says:
You should do comedy. Seriously.
11/09/2011 at 15:50 LionsPhil says:
Nice.
11/09/2011 at 15:56 cjlr says:
That’s so believable I want to cry.
11/09/2011 at 16:00 c-Row says:
I’m gonna hire you to write the background story to my game some day!
11/09/2011 at 19:46 rlr149 says:
i want that game!!
11/09/2011 at 20:09 JFS says:
I came here to leave a spammy comment about how I’d never seen 6 pages of comments on RPS before (or at least don’t remember).
Now my mind has changed. I want to give you kudos, good sir.
11/09/2011 at 20:15 Vinraith says:
@JFS
*cough*
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/02/17/you-maniacs/
11/09/2011 at 21:08 Donjo says:
Brilliant :)
11/09/2011 at 21:15 Renfield says:
I think he’s the guy they need to hire to replace Quinns.
Edit: Or she! Apologies for male chauvinism.
11/09/2011 at 21:52 JFS says:
Oh my. Ubi-DRM. I wasn’t around on Castle Shotgun back then.
11/09/2011 at 21:58 FunkyBadger3 says:
Win.
11/09/2011 at 22:03 CMaster says:
@Vinraith, @JFS Coming a close second (and probably with many, many more words, thanks to Wulf)
12/09/2011 at 12:23 Zarunil says:
That’s gold.
11/09/2011 at 15:28 Nick says:
Cool, another bland sounding shooter.
11/09/2011 at 15:35 pressstart says:
Why is it 4 players? Why not 3 or 5? I understand the use of 4 players on consoles when they use it for splitscreen or offline play, but if it’s online, why 4?
11/09/2011 at 15:57 c-Row says:
Probably because Syndicate always featured up to four agents.
11/09/2011 at 15:44 NothingFunny says:
coop(4player!) and story doesnt mix well at all
11/09/2011 at 15:46 pelham.tovey says:
This isn’t terrible news. Remember, we’re only ever half a dozen Persuadertron shots in the EA boardroom away from turning this into the free-form corporate espionage action game it should be.
11/09/2011 at 16:10 fenriz says:
Oh yes. Free-form. i can almost picture it. From the giant explorable HQ skyscraper of the corp where you can handle dozens of different sectors from research to production to stock exchange, to accessing a global dynamic “total-war”esque scenario that shows every metropolis with on-going objectives becoming available(seizing factories for production, seizing scientists, stealing documents, killing other agents, robbing enemy-owned banks, sabotating production and convoys for stocks to go up, capture and hold power plants to blackmail cities). Then a roster of agents to augment from the bones, to muscles and organs and finally deploy for the mission, consisting in strictly non-violence until a simple, 10seconds fast hit location is reached by travelling through a lively city dipped in a sickly orange sky , either by public transit or cars driven with the one click of the mouse, very indirectly, all very much not accessible, not user-friendly, not goddamn VISCERAL, not for kids.
Here’s to living outside of reality.
11/09/2011 at 19:19 Kamos says:
That sounds like a game I might like.
12/09/2011 at 10:29 JiminyJickers says:
I would also like that game. I so wish game makers would step up complexity such as fenriz describe.
11/09/2011 at 15:48 Azradesh says:
Oh FFFS!
11/09/2011 at 20:35 Hoaxfish says:
FFPSFS
11/09/2011 at 16:02 Hodge says:
Five pages of comments in a few hours. If you’re still wondering why they’re wheeling out the Syndicate brand after all these years, there’s your answer. We really do get the games we deserve.
11/09/2011 at 16:08 metalangel says:
How does that work? This is five pages of DO NOT WANT.
11/09/2011 at 16:12 c-Row says:
Some of us actually do.
11/09/2011 at 16:13 coldvvvave says:
Five pages of whining by people who never played original game.
11/09/2011 at 16:22 metalangel says:
Five pages of whining by people who never played it.
Snore…
EDIT: Oh. Good thing you changed that. I agree, now.
11/09/2011 at 17:00 Turkey says:
This FPS fatigue — the rioting is intensifying to the point where we may not be able to contain it.
Why contain it? Let it spill over into the message boards and twitter, let the posts pile up in the forums. In the end, they’ll beg us to save them.
11/09/2011 at 20:29 TheGameSquid says:
So all we need now is for RPS to get hold of one of those canisters of Ambrosia…! And continue paying Page every 48 hours…
11/09/2011 at 17:03 Vinraith says:
So we’ve moved from a glut of zombie games (games about zombies) to a glut of game zombies (the corpses of game franchises past, reanimated as unrecognizable, brainless monsters, indistinguishable from the rest of the horde). AAA industry trends are fascinating.
11/09/2011 at 17:04 Jac says:
Pretty sure when they were developing syndicate wars the devs stated they wanted to implement a first person mechanic but the technology wasnt there.
11/09/2011 at 19:07 Sirbolt says:
In conjunction with the top down view, yes. Just like you could possess the monsters in Dungeon Keeper. It’s a far cry from going full blown FPS.
11/09/2011 at 20:58 jalf says:
But that doesn’t necessarily mean it is a good idea. Many good games were spawned from the limitations and constraints (in terms of developer time or hardware capabilities) of the time. Every developer always want to do *everything*. Where games become interesting is in the bits that are left intact after those dreams meet reality. The compromises they made, the features they were willing to cut, and the ones they managed to keep.
In Syndicate’s case, what’s interesting is not the developers’ original intention, but the game they ended up with. It was a great game. The one they originally wanted to make may not have been.
11/09/2011 at 17:24 Daniel Klein says:
The point. They are missing it.
11/09/2011 at 17:26 trigger_rant says:
Oh dear.
11/09/2011 at 17:41 vodka and cookies says:
I don’t get why people keep comparing to Deus Ex 3 when Syndicate and DX3 both ripped off Blade Runner’s visual look by a huge amount.
I would have preferred a third person action game to an FPS one.
EA could keep all the old timers happy by doing a HD remix of the original Syndicate 1/2 and releasing them on Origin or Steam plus it could be some handy PR.
95% of gamers have no clue whatsoever what Syndicate is so I could see why they rebooted it into an FPS.
11/09/2011 at 18:00 drewski says:
As with the XCOM reboot, I will not really consider this a proper Syndicate game. It’s just a spinoff that happens to use the same license.
Hope it’s a good game though.
11/09/2011 at 18:02 kuran says:
I thought E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy was very close to being a FPS Syndicate.
11/09/2011 at 18:15 Binary77 says:
Do you reckon they’ve intentionally made that guy in the likeness of Michael Fassbender? Maybe he’s gonna do the voicework aswell?
Oh & yeah…..THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!!!
11/09/2011 at 18:28 Seraph says:
I love Starbreeze.
11/09/2011 at 18:51 Prime says:
.
11/09/2011 at 19:04 Navagon says:
If there’s one thing worse than yet another generic console FPS it’s yet another generic console FPS that represents the end of all that made its IP what it is.
11/09/2011 at 19:35 Antsy says:
Reply fail.
11/09/2011 at 19:36 terry says:
My scepticism is augmented.
11/09/2011 at 20:26 TheGameSquid says:
How totally not unexpected.
11/09/2011 at 21:27 Turkey says:
Yeah, it’s kinda hard to be upset when you see the slap coming from a million miles away.
Also it’s hard to top the dissapointment of Xcom
11/09/2011 at 20:27 TsunamiWombat says:
All together now… *inhale*
http://nooooooooooooooo.com/
11/09/2011 at 20:55 jalf says:
Ok, I have nothing against first-person shooters, and I have nothing against old games being revived as first person shooters (I’ve been pretty upbeat about the XCOM game so far), but it does get a bit silly when **every** revival of an old game is as a FPS game.
Announcing this now, after XCOM really just feels like a sad “me too” thing.
11/09/2011 at 20:56 rawrty says:
This got way more interesting for me once they said Richard Morgan is writing the story line. I rather enjoyed his Takeshi Kovac novels and thought Th1rt3en was a decent enough cyberpunk novel about augmented soldiers. I was disappointed to see him turning to the fantasy genre in his most recent stuff. It’s good to see him working in the cyberpunk genre again even if it is for a game.
12/09/2011 at 00:36 kupocake says:
‘Bestselling Author Richard Morgan’ sounds so much more palatable than ‘Lead Writer of Crysis 2 Richard Morgan’, doesn’t it? I wonder how many different ways we can be flung through level transitions in this one?
12/09/2011 at 00:38 Cahir says:
terrible
12/09/2011 at 00:51 TheGameSquid says:
Personally, whenever I see Morgan’s name on a cover of a movie(?)/game/book I’m inclined to run away and duck behind the nearest rock-like structure.
13/09/2011 at 01:58 Werthead says:
THE STEEL REMAINS was not a great book, though it had its moments. Happily, the sequel THE COLD COMMANDS is far superior, most notably for making it much more explicit that the world is actually a very far-future SF setting (and possibly set in the Kovacs universe) and calming down about the having-a-gay-hero-aren’t-I-daring angle.
11/09/2011 at 20:57 Eddy9000 says:
I just don’t know why they’ve abandoned the flourishing and lucrative isometric squad based shooter scene, and chosen the aging first person perspective, last popular on the amiga in the early 1990′s. I mean who still plays first person games anymore? By making this decision they’ve clearly abandoned current PC gaming trends; deciding instead to produce a game based on the minority market of gamers old enough to be nostalgic about times when the technical limitations of the PC foced developers to use the unrealistic first person perpective, rather than making a game using modern eye-shattering isometric bit-maps and the immersion this allows.
Wait…what?
11/09/2011 at 21:11 pupsikaso says:
Why?
11/09/2011 at 21:32 Davie says:
Hoooooooo boy.
Next week: Toady has been bought by Activision, and Dwarf Fortress II will be a shooter.
11/09/2011 at 22:16 metalangel says:
@Renfield: I’m very flattered to be compared to the very high standard that is Quinns. Certainly I have the bastard to blame for my love of WURM and M&B: WFAS.
If you want to read more of my shit, I have a Deadjournal (gasps from the back of the room – I’ve been told it should be upgraded to WordPress/Tumblr/Blogspot yes yes yes I know) you can enjoy… though given it was used as an actual dull journal of my dull life if you want to enjoy the game-relevant stuff you can start reading my Fallout 3 diaries on this link:
http://metalangel.deadjournal.com/?skip=50
11/09/2011 at 23:09 Pathetic Phallacy says:
Hey, it worked for Starcraft Ghost and Command and Conquer Renegade! They were awesome!!!!!!
12/09/2011 at 00:18 Darko Drako says:
FPS FFS
12/09/2011 at 00:27 Laephis says:
Can’t wait to see what EA does to Ultima when they finally get around to “resurrecting” that series.
12/09/2011 at 00:32 Cahir says:
I can’t wait to see what EA does to Ultima when they decide to finally “resurrect” that series.
12/09/2011 at 00:34 matrices says:
How much of the Starbreeze team is still around from the Riddick days? Because this game could be amazing, regardless of the source material and adaptation characteristics.
12/09/2011 at 00:36 Cahir says:
Nice
12/09/2011 at 00:38 Grape Flavor says:
On the one hand I think it is a shame that every reboot of an old game has to be an FPS, as I enjoy other types of games as well. And I can see how it disappoints fans of the originals who were hoping for a modern version of what they loved so long ago.
On the other hand I think it is quite juvenile and ridiculous to passionately hate upon what could be promising and perhaps even innovative FPS games, just because they happen to have taken their respective franchises into a different genre.
So yeah.
12/09/2011 at 08:51 Nick says:
With innovative features like slowing down time, how could anyone be skeptical?
12/09/2011 at 09:45 Subject 706 says:
True, in a way, but since we can be about 99% certain it will NOT be innovative, cynicism and whining is quite understandable.
12/09/2011 at 00:55 FRIENDLYUNIT says:
Jesus. I mean I love coop FPS. Just why do they have to do this to make one?
I was going to ask “Ok now how do I have to write to to ask them to stop” but then I realised this sort of behaviour is common, and considered completely socially acceptable. And by “behaviour” I mean finding something good from The Good Old Days then making a remake with the soul and guts ripped out for money.
I mean look at Transformers! This is the world we live in now.
It’s so, so odd though that games like DX:HR can exist though. I’m still shocked at it’s goodness.
12/09/2011 at 01:12 Shiny says:
OK, bring on the Star Control FPS, the Populous FPS, the Nethack FPS, the Dungeon Keeper FPS, the Dune FPS, the Alex Kidd FPS, the Warlords FPS, and the Darklands FPS. Then my last emotional ties to gaming can be completely severed.
I’d list Might and Magic and Warhammer, but, you know…
12/09/2011 at 01:32 DOLBYdigital says:
I see what EA is doing here… They are just going to release ‘reboots’ of all the classics made more accessible for better sales (whether that’s a good idea or not) and force all the hardcore PC gamers to use Origin. Interesting move if that is what their plan is that may work if they stick to it :)
12/09/2011 at 03:18 Atrak says:
I’m sad, I really would love to see a HD version of syndicate, however if Paradox is going to make its own syndicate-esque game I am fine with an FPS however it will need at least a couple of things.
1. I want to see the persuadeatron in this game, they better not leave it out or make it lame! like it knocks someone out for a minute or whatever. I want to see armies of ‘zombied’ citizens following me picking up stray weapons.
and
2, I want to hear that voice when i choose my weapon.. Uzi.. Minigun..etc..
sorry if someone mentioned these already theres 7 pages of comments and well I am lazy.
12/09/2011 at 04:47 deadly.by.design says:
Considering there were slim chances of it ever coming back in its traditional form, I’ll keep an eye on this.
12/09/2011 at 07:55 Branthog says:
I just suddenly lost interest.
I’m a grown ass man. I don’t have play dates. Just who the hell am I going to “co-op” with?
12/09/2011 at 08:25 Balerion says:
At first I didn’t know what to think about this… then I imagined something like Deus Ex meets Left 4 Dead… and after that I realized I’m going to regret that
oh well, one can dream
12/09/2011 at 08:47 shagen454 says:
Fail. Isometric or the game never existed.