In case you haven't heard of Firefall, let me tell you about it...

[hadati]

WHAT IS FIREFALL?

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/27311539?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/27311539">Firefall ChinaJoy 2011 Trailer</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/red5">Red 5 Studios</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Well, Firefall is a team-based shooter with elements of an MMO mixed in that's been being worked on since 2005 by a group of gamer-developers in Cali called Red5 studios. The game was announced to the public 12 months ago at PAX Prime in Seattle, WA. and will be showcased again at PAX this weekend!

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?

The graphics look kind of like Borderlands meets Robotech.

IS IT PVP OR PVE?

There's equal parts PvP and PvE.

IS IT FIRST OR THIRD PERSON?

You can switch to either 1st or 3rd person.

WILL THERE BE ANY VEHICLES?

There's vehicles and a cool army system where you can unlock call-down abilities like mortar strikes.

WHAT OTHER GAMES IS IT LIKE?

It's got bits of Tribes in it (like jumpjets) which add to the verticality of the game. I personally can see younger players who will compare it to Halo, but with the balanced classes of Team Fortress 2. OFC it also looks a little like Borderlands, so some may compare it to Borderlands or Rage because of the post-apocalyptic future it takes place in.

WHAT CLASSES CAN I PLAY?

There are currently 4 well-balanced battleframes (aka classes) announced: Assault, Recon, Medic and Engineer. You don't create separate characters for each, though. You simply level up each battleframe independently.

WHAT'S THE LEVEL CAP?

The game is about horizontal progression, not vertical, which means a level one player could take out a level 30 player (that's the current cap) if they are more skilled.

HOW MUCH WILL IT COST? MONTHLY FEE?

There is an item mall planned but the game looks like a AAA title and it's going to be 100% COMPLETELY FREE to download, free to play, NO MONTHLY FEE, and the items for sale on the item mall are NOT pay 2 win. They are funny things like mustaches, army customization stuff (part of what they are calling "Warpaint"), and stuff like that. The devs are completely against selling anything that will give you a competitive advantage in PvP.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS?

The system requirements haven't been announced, but they are gearing it to run "very well" on an Nvidia 9800 graphics card (i.e. you should be golden even if you are running a 3 or 4 year old gaming system) and they are even working on making it scalable to the point it can run on an older laptop!

WHEN WILL IT BE OUT AND CANIHAZBETA?

December 2011, but you can sign up for the beta (which is starting at the beginning of September) simply by signing up on the Firefall forums. Please use me as your referrer (Hadati). /SHAMELESSPLUG ;)

HOW WILL BETA WORK?

The beta invites will be going out like Google+ invites... i.e. when someone gets invited, they will get 1 invite, etc. so you only invite people who are really going to play and who you know, because it is, after all a team-based shooter.

Like I said earlier, Firefall will be back at PAX Prime this Friday, Saturday and Sunday and I encourage you to watch the gameplay videos online.

Hope to see you in beta! :)

[Anthile]

Viral marketing, much?

[hadati]

I love the game so dearly that I took the time to hand-write and link up the entire entry you see above. I have been following the game since it was first announced. If you research the game at all, I think you'll find it's quite unlike anything else on the market at the moment and worthy of, if nothing else, a second look. /2cents

[outoffeelinsobad]

Is this the part where we try to convince you to not support the work of chauvinists?

[hadati]

If you are referring to Orson Scott Card, he's barely involved. His daughter is working with Udon (a manga company) to create a free manga that will be released over the next few months to help answer questions about the story behind the game.

[Rii]

Yeah, we've heard of it.

It sounds vaguely interesting, but something about the trailers doesn't quite gel with me. But I am on the lookout for a new multiplayer FPS experience and have yet to discover the perfect candidate, so it's not outside the realm of possibility.

[squirrelfanatic]

Rii, thank you for that link. Sometimes when I read thread titles like this one I can't help but think: "In case you haven't heard of RPS and its coverage, let me tell you about it...".

[P7uen]

Yeah it's for some competition they are running to win Firefall loot: http://www.firefallthegame.com/commu...ag.7463/page-2

My first contribution -
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/for....9943#post29943

EDIT - man, the community at RockPaperShotgun sucks ass.

If you open up, tell us how it plays, maybe give us a bit of juicy info, or just ask us outright, you will find RPS people will like you more than if you do the marketing thing. Do a search or click Rii's link, read some comments and allay some of our fears, for example.

We're a nice bunch really :)

[hadati]

I don't need to be in their online swag give-away. I'm attending PAX. I'm going to get whatever sort of giveaway stuff they are offering free just by attending their booth. I wrote the post because I love Firefall and wanted to let people hear about it. Someone posted a bunch of links from RPS about FF, so it looks like you've already heard about it though. If it's not your cup of tea, that's fine. I just wanted people to hear about it in case they hadn't.

Peace.

[Tei]

I am looking forward for the game, and I suppose a lot more here in RPS. Viral marketing in somewhat poor execution is a bad thing, but here is just funny. OF COURSE, we know Firefall*


*actually, not everyone reads all the articles, so maybe there are people that don't know about it, but odds are that these lurkers don't read the forum anyway.

[measurements]

I don't need to be in their online swag give-away. I'm attending PAX. I'm going to get whatever sort of giveaway stuff they are offering free just by attending their booth. I wrote the post because I love Firefall and wanted to let people hear about it. Someone posted a bunch of links from RPS about FF, so it looks like you've already heard about it though. If it's not your cup of tea, that's fine. I just wanted people to hear about it in case they hadn't.

Peace.

P7uen says it best. And you'll probably find that what isn't our cup of tea (taking the big risk of talking for more people than myself) is a kind of mildly condescending sales pitch way of communicating that really doesn't treat us as the discerning consumers that we are.

And if I stop pretending to know what I'm on about and just talk about me: I'm already looking forward to Firefall, Orson Scott Card or not. I have my caveats about free to play games but I can assure you that I'll be giving it a try, and still would if it cost a tenner.

[Althea]

If you are referring to Orson Scott Card, he's barely involved.

Does he still get money from it? Yes? That's problematic enough.

[squirrelfanatic]

I agree with P7uen too. Don't get the impression that the people around here are unfriendly or offensive. Maybe an introductory sentence like "I know that there has been a bit of coverage on this here on RPS (link), but in case you haven't heard of Firefall..." would have helped people figuring out that your post was not intended as viral marketing.

Peace.

Peace to you too. And scones.

[DigitalSignalX]

It's worth a try, I signed up for the forum and will try the beta if I get the option. I've enjoyed Cards books and hopefully this has a interesting plot.

[P7uen]

Just out of curiosity since we're here anyway, is there any consensus on the 'best' f2p model currently available for these sort of shootybangs?

There are always mentions of pay to wins, or free to plays that fail because no one buys hats, etc. Not really playing many it's all a mystery to me, are there any big name successes that have made a proven go of it already?

[measurements]

I could elucidate on why I don't like free to play I suppose. But it's not even free to play. Even Dragons Age: Origins pissed me off with a guy in camp that you could talk to until a certain point when the bioware points window DLC nonsense bit of the game popped up and said "you ain't got this yet, cough up, fool".

Basically, Free to play games manage to shoehorn in terrible ways to remind you that you are playing a game and you're not even playing it the best way. Also, compared to subscription models on MMO's it means that some player are more equal than others, and if you are a paying player then there's a whole bunch of free loaders clogging up the servers and reducing service levels (support tickets and what not) for the paying players. Subscription models keep everyone on an equal level.

Further more, the items or game cash or whatever you can buy is often preposterously priced. The gold cash in realmofthemadgod seems utterly insane, for example. I think it costs more than the US debt for another eight slots of chest inventory. Which flippantly brings me to another f2p negative: the free stuff can end up remarkably hobbled and stunted purely to encourage you to cash in.

So to actually address your question P7uen, I haven't ever seen a decent f2p model, but I'm prepared to judge as they come.

[Tei]

I agreed. To me pay to play is a much better enjoyable experience. Except upfront box. It just suck to pay 60 for a mmorpg, and then 15$ montly.

[Althea]

I agreed. To me pay to play is a much better enjoyable experience. Except upfront box. It just suck to pay 60 for a mmorpg, and then 15$ montly.

That's why you don't buy MMOs on release day. Wait until they come down in price after a few months or so, plus they'll have some patches by then so you'll miss early bugs.