By Jim Rossignol on June 14th, 2012 at 8:30 pm.
Oh, oh! There are too many games. This trailer has reminded that I’ve got to go back to space-exploration and rock-hauling thingum Miner Wars 2081 and see how they’re getting on. If this latest trailer (below) is anything to go by they’ve made spectacular progress since I last looked in, with a lot more action, and plenty more space content. Also I like it when a PR blurb asks a ridiculous question: “Ever wonder what a Russian trade station, a Euro-American survey site, or an Outlaw base would look like in the year of 2081, ten years after the solar apocalypse?”
Sure! Hit me.
The games are piling up. I’m being buried alive! They’ll find me dead in here next spring, covered in, uh, data?
14/06/2012 at 20:34 Billzor says:
Cool. I think I’ll get motion sick, though.
14/06/2012 at 20:40 f1x says:
Descent is it you?
14/06/2012 at 20:54 frightlever says:
IIRC some of the team currently working on Miner Wars previously worked on Descent. To what extent I can’t remember.
Just tried downloading the current alpha (pre-purchased as soon as I saw it) but the installation snarfed. It’s come on in leaps and bounds graphically since the early builds.
14/06/2012 at 20:57 f1x says:
it definitely looks very similar, which is a good thing
14/06/2012 at 21:02 LionsPhil says:
Indeed. This is very, very deliciously Descent-esque.
14/06/2012 at 21:50 LennyLeonardo says:
Holy crap, I finally figured out what “IIRC” means! I feel so alive!
It’s “I’m in Rochester Cathedral”, right? Isn’t it?
14/06/2012 at 22:17 LionsPhil says:
Close. It’s actually Ripton.
14/06/2012 at 21:37 Easy says:
(sigh)*hugs a 51/4″ floppy*(sigh)
15/06/2012 at 00:59 Zaboomafoozarg says:
Welcome, Material Defender.
15/06/2012 at 22:44 Network Crayon says:
“I was once called that yes…”
14/06/2012 at 20:40 aurens says:
i would think solar death would preclude any significant military engagements. can’t imagine there would be too many survivors.
14/06/2012 at 20:44 Big Murray says:
COAL. IN YOUR FACE.
(… nah.)
14/06/2012 at 21:00 Mr. Mister says:
Wait a min-
COALFACE!
14/06/2012 at 21:36 Leetables says:
Coalface?
COALFACE!
14/06/2012 at 22:27 neonordnance says:
COAL! FACE!
14/06/2012 at 22:44 Mr. Mister says:
COOOOOAAALFAAACE, COOOOOAAALFAAACE!
14/06/2012 at 22:56 Greggh says:
WAR… FACE?
15/06/2012 at 09:01 f1x says:
FACE THE COAL
15/06/2012 at 11:19 max pain says:
COALFACE!
14/06/2012 at 20:53 Mr. Mister says:
Solar apocawhat?
/
Also
“Oh, oh! There are too many games. ”
Yep. Wee need to colonize another planet and fill it with labour workers so that the rate game designer/average person goes down again.
14/06/2012 at 20:59 JB says:
Surely the title for this piece should be “Back at the WARFACE!”
14/06/2012 at 21:03 Phantoon says:
That’s ridiculous and you are a silly person. It clearly should’ve been An Experimental Descent into Mining.
14/06/2012 at 21:28 NathanH says:
Damn you, I came to this comments thread to say that.
14/06/2012 at 21:03 Yemala says:
Are they still doing a pile of spinoffs pre-release? I alpha funded this, and then they started /another/ alpha funding for a ‘mmo’ offshoot, and were talking about mobile tiein apps launching simultaneously and silly things like that, and I have to admit, it gave me a pretty bad case of buyer’s remorse.
So I would be interested to know the state of all that, without having to look it up myself >>
14/06/2012 at 21:13 JackDandy says:
And here I thought this project was dead. Nice.
14/06/2012 at 21:45 rockman29 says:
Did I see Geomod?!
15/06/2012 at 13:30 Smion says:
According to the website, they use something called “VRAGE” for all the destructo-explodey goodness. Incidentally, that name sounds far dumber than even GeoMod.
14/06/2012 at 21:51 Coroner says:
I’ll just leave this here
http://www.planetdescent.net/index.php?action=tpmod;dl=item116
14/06/2012 at 22:24 felisc says:
*points finger at you* Neeeeeerd !
ok no, thanks actually.
14/06/2012 at 21:53 abandonhope says:
This looks original and promising, but the active internet [connection] required part is a little worrying considering the disconnections I experienced playing the demo a couple months back.
14/06/2012 at 22:10 Ernesto says:
Come on! You mean always-on-DRM? Why? Please don’t tell me it’s another multiplayer shooter. Argh!
I never had the chance to play Descent, so I wanted to give this a try. Maybe it’s bringing joysticks back ;)
14/06/2012 at 22:49 LionsPhil says:
The original Descent from GOG has aged remarkably well, although I’m not sure how well it works with a stick in practice—I’m mouse-and-keyboarding it. In theory DOSBox will map any Windows-compatable game controller into a fake DOS-era stick on ye olde gameport, but practice is rarely the same.
14/06/2012 at 23:03 Phantoon says:
It’s MADE for a joystick. That said, once I got mouse sensitivity bumped up beyond the base limit, the game plays great.
Again, though, made for a joystick.
15/06/2012 at 04:18 abandonhope says:
Definitely, definitely made for a joystick, although I found the controls more intuitive and mouse-friendly than in Freespace 2, where sensitivity was quite impossible to turn up to a usable level. I tend to prefer the perfect mouse control in Freelancer to a joystick, but I can see why a game with as much realism as Miner Wars would want to give the joystick some love. If it lives up to its potential, squashes bugs and perhaps drops the always-on DRM, I could see myself finally investing in one.
14/06/2012 at 22:33 Shortwave says:
I’m excited for this. YOP.
14/06/2012 at 22:57 Greggh says:
You guys have GOT to cover this game in one of those wonky reviews you do, pretty please
15/06/2012 at 02:35 mAnon says:
Holy crap! The chairman! I’m sold!
P.S.: Reminds me to play Descent.
15/06/2012 at 02:54 arrjayjee says:
Can’t wait to play the finished version. I need a new 6DOF shooter, and if it’s claustrophobic all the better.
And if you want to play the original in your browser (I hope you’re using Chrome) you can do so right here. It’s still awesome. Low res, but awesome.
http://www.naclbox.com/gallery
15/06/2012 at 04:35 ayo says:
waaah Descent,Battlezone http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/807779870/bionite-origins,Carrier Command http://www.carriercommand.com/all are back ……..WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU TERRANOVA
15/06/2012 at 04:36 ayo says:
Looks Very Very nice:-)
15/06/2012 at 07:12 RakeShark says:
I keep waiting for something like this, to actually be something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDJxJ8MUhMA&feature=relmfu
15/06/2012 at 07:46 ChainsawCharlie says:
Bought a bundle long time ago where you could get a beta key for this. Never got it to work.
15/06/2012 at 11:12 slight says:
So there was a game from the early 90s quite Descent like except that it had low gravity and you had to balance on your thrusters, a bit like Thrust or Oids (<3). I can't remember the name and Google isn't helping… Any ideas?
Edit: Actually probably more like late 90s.
15/06/2012 at 12:09 iZen says:
Looks like Forsaken, if anyone remembers that.