By Craig Pearson on January 25th, 2012 at 4:49 pm.
Hello! I bring good news. The release date aiming cone for Bohemia Interactive’s sci-fi action strategy game Carrier Command: Gaea Mission has narrowed. The bad news is it’s only as specific as Q2 2012. Now I’ve been doing this job since 2000, and not once have I ever looked up what release date quarters mean. This chart did not help. So instead of explaining it further, I’ll have to distract you with some new screenshots of the game below.
Cast your gaze!
25/01/2012 at 16:56 Wild_Marker says:
You know, telling consumers your release estimate in a calendar that they don’t handle… might as well tell us the date in Klingon or something…
25/01/2012 at 17:03 Prime says:
HovpoH 12379.1 (1st June 2012)
http://qurgh.wizage.net/hovpoh.htm
25/01/2012 at 17:08 Wild_Marker says:
Ooh, ok, how about in Elder Scrolls Calendar?
25/01/2012 at 17:14 Prime says:
Roughly the 1st day of Mid Year, (the holiday of Drigh R’Zimb)
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Calendar
25/01/2012 at 16:57 Mungrul says:
OMG! Big Trak!
25/01/2012 at 20:07 Ross Angus says:
What are you talking about? That’s the Mako.
25/01/2012 at 20:46 Prime says:
The Mako was clearly modelled after Big Trak, the design that preceded Bioware’s game by nearly 30 years. Call it an Homage.
25/01/2012 at 16:57 dontnormally says:
Planetfield? Battleside?
25/01/2012 at 18:40 Dragon Master says:
Mass command? I can make out more than 1 Shephard in there.
25/01/2012 at 20:07 Monkey says:
Supreme Carrier Conquer Command 4
27/01/2012 at 10:04 KovuTalli says:
More like Hostile Waters 2. Looks great can’t wait.
25/01/2012 at 16:58 udat says:
Doesn’t it just mean “by the end of June”?
Anyway, I am curious and cautiously optimistic about this game as I loved Carrier Command, the conceptually similar Hostile Waters was great fun, and Bohemia make interesting games.
Those don’t look like Mantas though :(
25/01/2012 at 17:05 Mungrul says:
“Those don’t look like Mantas though :(”
Is that so bad?
A Manta as rendered on the Amiga
25/01/2012 at 17:05 Prime says:
One of my Most Anticipated! I’ve blogged about it and everything. Go, Carrier Command! *waves flag*
25/01/2012 at 17:17 ZamFear says:
You know what this combat armour needs? Big blinkenlights to alert the enemy to our presence and give them something to aim for!
26/01/2012 at 10:06 BoZo says:
And they say chivalry is dead.
25/01/2012 at 17:19 Signum_01 says:
Soldiers of the future must have glowing bits on their person, presumably to make it easier for people to shoot at them in the dark?
25/01/2012 at 17:25 Wild_Marker says:
Well duh, otherwise they would still be in the “dark ages”.
Besides, lights in the future are stealthy, as proved by Sam Fisher’s head thingy that noone ever seems to spot.
25/01/2012 at 22:40 swiftshlock says:
Don’t be too hard on the poor Tron guys. They were so happy to get a new job after the dotcom bubble burst…
25/01/2012 at 17:25 Kollega says:
Some letters underneath the fiscal year chart spell out “Jason”. Heh.
25/01/2012 at 17:34 The Sombrero Kid says:
Q2 2012 means spring, if they said Q2 of the 2012 financial year it could be anywhere between now and spring 2013 (EAs 2012 financial year for example is april 2013 to april 2014 because they think jesus was born a year late or something)
26/01/2012 at 05:01 dsi1 says:
I can see being a few months off, but come on a whole year!?
26/01/2012 at 12:04 D says:
They have to do it that way, to make it look like NBA 2013 actually came out that year, or something.
25/01/2012 at 17:47 Caleb367 says:
Holy heck I’m giggling like a schoolgirl.
25/01/2012 at 17:48 vecordae says:
The armor and vehicle design really does remind me of Mass Effect.
26/01/2012 at 13:36 Prime says:
…and?
25/01/2012 at 17:55 Radiant says:
ONLY since 2000?
Wait what do you mean it’s 2012…WHERE HAS MY LIFE GONE?
25/01/2012 at 17:55 Lev Astov says:
I’m really looking forward to this, but I have a serious problem with the way those flying vehicles appear to not be capable of flight.
I mean, the vertical thrusters are all the way at the back end of the things! What holds up the front? I’m not sure I can play a game that so blatantly disregards even the most basically reasonable design principles.
25/01/2012 at 18:01 vecordae says:
If you look at the picture immediately above you’ll notice that they have additional vertical thrusters under the winglets on either side of the fuselage.
EDIT: Nope! I was wrong. Those are missile pods or some such. Apparently what keeps these things aloft is childish fancies
25/01/2012 at 18:18 westyfield says:
They might have jets on the bottom, like an F-35. Not sure where the air intake would be, perhaps some sort of scoop underneath the nose.
25/01/2012 at 18:26 Brun says:
If you look at the picture above you can see that they have a single thruster in the forward fuselage (you can see its exhaust, which is the same graphic as the exhaust for the two rear engines).
25/01/2012 at 19:45 jon_hill987 says:
A wizard did it.
25/01/2012 at 20:08 Monkey says:
Assuming they’re flying forwards maybe airflow is keeping the front end pointing straight. But yes i find it so unbelievable i might just kill a puppy
25/01/2012 at 20:55 Brun says:
Having vertically oriented engines like that would make little sense on an aircraft that required forward motion to remain in the air. They’re clearly supposed to be analogous to modern helicopters.
25/01/2012 at 21:14 Droopy The Dog says:
In line with sticking uncovered bright lights on all thier infantry, the fuselage of that aircraft is made of balsa wood and the engine pig iron, those thrusters are actually in line with the center of gravity.
25/01/2012 at 18:23 jonfitt says:
Look like it has cutscenes!
If it’s anything like ArmA2, there will be a significant portion of the cast who are Czechs doing bad American accents and swearing a lot to add authenticity. :)
Dialog like: “F**k! S**t*! It’s all gone to s**t. Enemy. Man. At. 100. Metres. Let’s f**k their s**t now.”
Oh at least that’s my recollection.
25/01/2012 at 18:24 jonfitt says:
I am definitely looking forward to this btw. I find the hilariously bad BI dialog part of the charm.
25/01/2012 at 18:54 Ergates_Antius says:
Waiter waiter, there’s a people in my Carrier Command.
25/01/2012 at 19:28 Inglourious Badger says:
In my experience of game release estimates Q2 2012 = sometime in 2013
Also, my how pretty this looks! Got to love designed for PC graphics engines
25/01/2012 at 19:39 neolith says:
Pleasedontscrewitup. Pleasedontscrewitup. Pleasedontscrewitup.
25/01/2012 at 20:04 Riaktion says:
Really looking forward to seeing how this turns out, I loved Carrier Command on my Amiga, and then Hostile Waters, I hope this is a good addition to the.. erm.. Off shore commanding genre
25/01/2012 at 21:15 Droopy The Dog says:
The facial expression in the 7th picture is straight out of everyone’s first attempt at G-mod posing.
25/01/2012 at 23:37 unfairrobot says:
Permission to “SQUEEE!”?
25/01/2012 at 23:40 Prime says:
Granted.
25/01/2012 at 23:42 unfairrobot says:
SQUEEE!
25/01/2012 at 23:53 Prime says:
SQUEEEE!
26/01/2012 at 01:59 Hendar23 says:
Enemy. Plasmagunner. 200. Meters.
Oh no! Four. Is down.
26/01/2012 at 08:09 Neurotic says:
People who know what they’re doing will buy it for a few squid from Steam; and all the uncles and aunts and parents and clueless types will grab it off a shelf for twenty. It’s win-win for the devs, and means more investment in the game which makes it a win for us too. Yay!
26/01/2012 at 10:24 GuillaumeJ says:
The differences between my visual memory of playing a lot Carrier Command on my CPC, and the screenshots of this remake are so big than I’m not sure I can believe it’s the same game…
26/01/2012 at 23:35 captain nemo says:
I still get a kick out of ‘Hostile Waters’ every once in a while (“My name is Ransom !”, “This is not a gun !”)
Cannot wait for this.
27/01/2012 at 07:16 NamelessPFG says:
They’re saying it’s not vaporware? That’s reassuring. I hope this game turns out good, and hopefully a bit more polished than ArmA has a reputation for.
Also, does anyone else find the Manta redesign to look quite a lot like UT 2004′s Cicada?