Satellite Of Love: Syndicate Remake On Show

Aha, good to see the spiritual Syndicate sequel (the real one, not that dreary cash-grab from Starbreeze a couple of years back) breaking cover again after its successful Kickstarter. The good stuff - an early glimpse of Satellite Reign's unfinished world, with its newly animated civilians scampering about - doesn't kick in until 6m40s mark, but let's not be churlish - it's always fascinating to see how videogames get made. Especially when it involves quite as much brutal puppy sacrifice and breaking into DARPA bases as the 5 Lives team gets up to. Frankly I'm amazed they're prepared to show all that in public. And so much nudity too! Whatever makes a more comfortable working environment, I guess.

In fact this first significant video diary covers how they're achieving decent mo-cap animation on a budget for the game. Rather than hiring an expensive studio and buying lots of ping-pong balls, they're using PlayStation Eye cameras and special software to achieve a similar result. It's impressive stuff and, frankly, even if it's not up to Serkis standards it's more than appropriate for little roaming/easily-murdered pedestrians.

Again, there's a glimpse at very early footage of the game right at the end, so stick around for that.

More on the game proper is promised for the next diary, but if you're interested in the technical side of things there's further discussion of their webcam skullduggery here.

I really hope they finish this before they release it, rather than do the Early Access thing. I want to play a proper, working, satisfying Syndicate game after all these years, not make do with piecemeal stuff because I can't wait a few months longer.