Rock, Paper, Shotgun

3000AD’s upcoming MMOFPS Line Of Defense is big. The latest devblog reveals at that one of the base areas, Nightbridge, which is a base within a ruined city, is: “…nearly 2km x 3km massive.” And the surrounding environment is even more serious: “The entire scene itself – like the other three – is about 64km x 64km. A lot of space to run around in with weapons of mass destruction.”

Mr Smart says he’s worried that players of normal FPS games might end up being a bit overwhelmed by it all: “My single greatest concern at this point is that it is so huge that most gamers used to the “closed in” level based design of fps games, may just get lost in there. Or at best, be intimidated by the size of it all.” More screenshots here.

The man who made a career out of complex space-sims and controversy is moving on. Derek Smart is now president of Quest Online, and has been rebooting free-to-play MMO Alganon. He’s also just announced an ambitious MMOFPS, Line Of Defense. We talked to him about both these things in the interview that follows…
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3000AD have revealed their next game, an MMOFPS called Line Of Defense. Encompassing both space combat and war across planetary landscapes, Line Of Defense a twitch shooter in “a massive open persistent game world”. It is apparently due for release later this year.

There’s an FAQ on the game here, but we’ve also got an interview with project bossman Derek Smart coming up later today, so stay tuned for more details from that.

Here’s a tale to warm the cockles of your dark, bitter heart. Lest you’ve not been following the remarkable fallout to Jim’s quickie post concerning the recent demo of Derek Smart’s latest indie opus, its sprawling comments thread has become something of a biblical epic of hate, love, redemption and disagreements about where people’s arms appear when they swim. Initially, the thread was as miserably expected: a few of our local Grumpymen took an immediate pop at Derek and his games, labouring under the delusion that his… ah, spotty reputation as a gentleman of the internet gave them free reign to insult him here. He responded in kind, as he is known to do. We sighed, and deleted most of the shouting, because we like to keep a happy house here. We also stocked our desks with caffeinated beverages and salted snacks, in preparation for a long night of troll castration. And then, a remarkable thing happened….
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3000AD’s new simulatory shooter has a demo, and you can get it here. It’s a mere 290mb. The demo includes a bunch of instant action scenarios and a taste of the various careers in the game. More info can be found over on the blog. We understand from the most recent postings that the game itself is imminent.

I noticed 3000AD had released seventeen (count ‘em!) minutes of footage from the flying section of their now-Beta forthcoming sci-fi multi-terrain elite-force-on-hostile-world-’em-up All Aspect Warfare electrovideogame. They’ve planning to release two more videos, one showing vehicular shenanigans and the other showing tactical fistifights. So well done them. I link to it, primarily as I’m aware that 3000AD are about as PC gaming as PC gaming gets and we’ve never said anything at all about them – and I wonder what everyone’s take on the critically divisive company actually is. Do feel free to speak. I was also considering doing one of my second-by-second running commentary of it, but… seventeen minutes, man! I have angry twitters to write in block caps.
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