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Red Orchestra Team Interviewed

Posted by Zonk on from the nice-job-gentlemen dept.

obchrisj writes "As reported by Slashdot on Monday, Red Orchestra, the popular UT2004 mod, won the grand prize (A full Unreal engine license and $50,000) in the Make Something Unreal Contest. FileFront had a chance to sit down and chat with the team members of the popular modification to discuss their multiple-award winning success." From the article: "You could call it a first person shooter but I feel doing so is unfairly categorizing Red Orchestra as yet another WWII shooter. Our main focus with Red Orchestra is realism, we want the gamer to actually feel the tension and fear of being a soldier fighting for his country and livelihood during the war. With our focus on realism you won't find any crosshairs to aim with, or health packs to heal yourself." Update: 01/26 21:34 GMT by Z : Fixed bad link.

16 comments

  1. What is the Red Orchestra link in the article... by jasonmicron · · Score: 1

    What is that link supposed to link to? Looks like it links to a hosting service.

    Or am I misunderstanding the intent of the editor?

  2. I'm curious about game balance, has anyone played? by Prien715 · · Score: 1

    WWII was anything but balanced in real life, so I'm curious how the balance works in the game (since they supposedly focus on realism).

    All told, Russia had 20 million casualties total (one front, only fighting the Germany for the most part) while Germany had "only" 4.5 million casualties (fighting both Russia and US/Britain/Canada) (source).

    This is at least partially due to the better quality of German equipment. Do they have teams of 20 Russians playing against teams of 4 people to compensate for this?

    --
    -- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
  3. But you need crosshairs... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It's a flat, 2D area that you're trying to picture as 3D space. So unlike in the real world, you would have a lot of trouble trying to picture where your shot would land.

    This is why games that even lean towards realism (America's Army, Rainbow Six games) include it.

    Besides, they're saying crosshairs are unrealistic in a game where everyone knows how to drive a tank and there's a minimap showing your objective? /me shrugs

    1. Re:But you need crosshairs... by hollismb · · Score: 1

      Yeah, what's up with the no crosshairs. In real life, I get to line up a front and rear site with my eye, or use a scope that actually does have crosshairs. So, in a video game where I don't have the same sort of depth perception that I do in real life, they take away the only nearly equivalent thing. Not to mention that you can adequately judge a target in real life to be able to make a hip-shot, but it's nearly impossible to do in a game without cross-hairs. There's one way to view your surroundings in Time Crisis 2 that eliminates your crosshairs but allows a more free look, but good luck getting off an accurate shot that way.

    2. Re:But you need crosshairs... by Negative9 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not everyone can drive a tank, you have to pick a specific class in order to use one. Also the "iron sights" system they use for aiming works pretty well (you use the actual sights on the gun model to aim rather than floating crosshairs). Try playing the game instead of talking out of your ass...

    3. Re:But you need crosshairs... by raygundan · · Score: 1

      You get to use the actual sights on the gun model, rather than a crosshairs. It's not like you can't aim-- you just line up the two sights.

    4. Re:But you need crosshairs... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must be new here.

    5. Re:But you need crosshairs... by Dmala · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You use the sights on the actual gun model, which effectively become your crosshairs. When you click into "Iron Sights" mode, the gun is raised into a firing position and the front and rear sights line up. In "Iron Sights" mode, your mobility is somewhat limited, so you can't make dead accurate shots running full tilt. The edges of the screen also fade out a little, limiting your perhiperal vision while aiming. It's still much easier than in real life, but it's the most realistic I've seen in an FPS so far.

      You'd also be surprised how easy it is to shoot from the hip with reasonable accuracy. An experienced player can be deadly firing from the hip with an SMG.

  4. Re:I'm curious about game balance, has anyone play by OAB_X · · Score: 1

    If you had RTFA you would have noticed this:

    "The main inspiration in creation of Red Orchestra is realism, but realism without sacrificing gameplay."

  5. Proper URL for Red Orchestra by Lust · · Score: 2, Informative

    I think you want this Red Orchestra link, rather than the other one which ends at an ad for the hosting company (at least for me).

    == Lust

  6. Re:What is the Red Orchestra link in the article.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://www.redorchestra.clanservers.com/ should be the correct link

  7. Re:I'm curious about game balance, has anyone play by Quill_28 · · Score: 1

    But how Russians died from Russian hands?

  8. crosshairs... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    how about if you just stick a piece of tape in the middle of your monitor, and have that act as a crosshair?

  9. Re:I'm curious about game balance, has anyone play by Prien715 · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I did notice that. However, not taking into account the basic and huge fundamental imbalances in technology would be equally of a problem wrt realism. There's no reason why having uneven teams wouldn't work as a fun, realistic, and playable solution. It would also fundamentally change strategies for each teams in a brand new way.

    --
    -- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
  10. Another Interview by TychoCelchuuu · · Score: 2, Insightful

    As long as we're posting interviews of mod teams for no apparent reason, there's another one at Modfiles.org

    --
    Against stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain.
    1. Re:Another Interview by Dr.Opveter · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You did read the part where it says they just won the grand prize (A full Unreal engine license and $50,000) in the Make Something Unreal Contest. right?

      --
      Sample this!