Slashdot Mirror
In Space No One Can Hear You Sigh
- Title: Mechassault 2: Lone Wolf
- Developer: Day 1 Studios
- Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
- System: Xbox
- Reviewer: Zonk
- Score: 6/10
At kickoff, MechAssault 2 puts you in the role of a Mechwarrior as he and and his crew find themselves in a hostile situation. You're given the chance to run through a tutorial session while simultaneously repelling a hostile force. This puts you directly into the action, a nice choice. There's no need for plot or motivation before you start blowing things up. Players who have played through the previous title will start to glaze over during the tutorial, though, as the controls are almost exactly identical to those in the original game.
In fact, that statement is the basis of all of the issues with the MechAssault 2 experience. If you've played through the first MechAssault title, you've basically experienced everything that MechAssault 2 has to offer.
The big difference comes in the form of the the compact "Elemental" style power armor. The tiny mech handles just like the larger constructs, and has some impressive armament for its size, but the big draw of the tiny suit is the ability to "Neurohack" your way into full-sized mechs. Not only is this a potent combat ability, completely disabling a successfully targeted mech, but it allows you to enter and control the hacked mech if you choose. The game mechanic itself is easy to use, requiring you to hit a series of buttons on the controller within a certain period of time. Besides the new power armor, you're also given several opportunities to use more traditional vehicles such as tanks and a VTOL. And, of course, you still have access to the giant robotic walking tanks that typify the Mech genre.
The single-player campaign provides a decent framework both to develop piloting skills and to do some urban renewal with your mech. There's nothing spectacular in the background or composition of the plot, though, and only a few levels after the tutorial ends the gameplay will get repetitive. The Word of Blake opponents, the primary bad guys to the Mechassault 2 tale, eventually all blend into each other and every tank you stamp out of existence begins to look like the last. As in the first game, the backdrop to your rampages is entirely destructible, and even a single stray shot with the high-powered weaponry you utilize near the end of the game can take out a city block or two. The game's musical background consists of licensed songs from bands like Korn. Maybe it's the pen-and-paper purist in me, but I had a hard time associating Korn with Battletech. The rock soundtrack does add to the atmosphere, but recognizable bands seemed to detract from rather than enhance the experience. The story is simply Mechassault 1 with a new coat of paint, and singularly familiar gameplay ensures there are few new experiences to be had for the veteran Mech gamer.
As with Halo, the real reason to play the first MechAssault was the multiplayer capability. MechAssault 2 upholds the original game's tradition of Xbox Live enabled multiplayer carnage. There are several different modes available, with all the types you'd expect, like capture the flag, deathmatch, etc. The designers gave the online game a new twist, though, by incorporating a "conquest" mode: In conquest mode you hook up with one of the houses, the clans of the Inner Sphere, and go on the warpath for your chosen allies, attempting to gain as much territory as possible with the aid of other house members and opposed by other house factions. Unfortunately, the number of players online is rarely sufficient for this kind of play. Satisfied that they'd already played this before, many gamers have long since chewed through this game and resold it to Gamestop for another title.
Mechassault 2 is a competent, but overall unnecessary sequel to the original title. The first game was a completely valid expression of the shoot-em-up mech genre. While the urge to create a sequel to a successful franchise is a logical one, it's hard to see the real need for this game. The action mech genre is a fairly well-developed one, and while the neurohacking gimmick provides some differentiation from other titles, this straightforward license vehicle could have been so much more. I recommend this game to fans of the original title who are looking for more maps to play on, or an action gaming fan who's looking for familiar territory, but unless you go to sleep at night wearing a Mech King crown made of cardboard you can afford to pass on this sequel.
Screenshots are from Microsoft's official MechAssault 2 site, (c)2005 Microsoft Game Studios.
Nexus: The Jupiter Incident is a dramatic name for a game that manages to be a thorough disappointment. That's a real shame, too, because Nexus has a lot of elements that make you want the game to succeed. Visuals and voicework ingratiate the world to you, but the lackluster gameplay makes you wish you hadn't uninstalled Homeworld.
- Title: Nexus: The Jupiter Incident
- Developer: Mithis/HD Interactive
- Publisher: HD Interactive
- System: PC
- Reviewer: Zonk
- Score: 4/10
The shooting at least, looks good. Majestic 3D expanses are your playgrounds, with really nice looking ship designs and a slick interface makes play ve. In particular, I appreciated the swept-back designs and utilitarian choices made by the ship designers. I'm getting pretty tired of Star Trek pretty and Star Wars uglytech. The problem comes when you consider the pace and method of the shooting. Nexus has you issuing orders to your forces, which can range from a single vessel to a large fleet. Like many RTS games, you don't control your units directly; You simply give them an instruction and let them go do their thing. Combat breaks down to two choices: Either you instruct your minions to attack the hull of an opposing ship, in the hopes that the crew will flee and the ship will eventually be destroyed, or you order them to attack specific subsystems of the ship. This provides an element of the strategy sometimes missing from so-called RTS titles. What I found most effective was to have ships target the weapon systems of opposing vessels, as they seemed to be some of the most vulnerable components.
At issue here is the pace of combat and the intelligence of your units. Despite ordering my flagship to target a subsystem of a specific enemy vessel, I would often return to my combat unit after handing out some additional orders to find it either hanging dead in space or chasing after another ship entirely. Reaffirming my target of choice seemed to be seemed to be the only way to ensure the battle would go how I intended. Additionally, combat in space, apparently, is deadly. Deadly dull. The weapon systems look nice, and seem to be firing at an acceptable rate, but the armor plating of even the most insignificant weapon system is apparently very tough. It will take over a minute of a concentrated barrage to take out even a single subsystem. Actually destroying a ship, causing its crew to abandon the vessel and the hull to crumple, can take upwards of three minutes. This turns what should be tense and quick encounters into adventures in frustration as you are forced to concentrate your fire on one ship as the only viable strategy. Despite combat appearing to be a situation with tactical possibilities, you are reduced to ganging up in order to have any chance of victory. Missions with large numbers of enemies are particularly annoying, as the AI and combat pace combine to ensure that -- unless you are very on top of things -- you'll do barely any damage to the opposing force. You can order your entire fleet to focus on one ship in a blizzard of twenty or more, but the wandering AI ensures that their focus will quickly be elsewhere. Fifteen minutes into a mission and you'll find yourself with a swarm of 10% damaged enemy ships crawling all over your very spread out fleet.
All of this is a real shame, because Nexus has some very charming aspects: There is a ship modification element to the game, mostly straightforward and nowhere near as well developed as a Pax Imperia or Galactic Civilizations, but there nonetheless. The voicework for the characters is fairly well done, despite some occasional poor dialogue and endless exposition. And did I mention the ship designs?
I spent most of my time playing Nexus: The Jupiter Incident leaning far back in my chair in a passive state. The style of the game seems to be aiming for a combat-rich deep-space adventure, but the pace is that of a more leisurely strategy simulation. This confusing mishmash turns what could have been a worthy addition to the genre that is almost defined by the Homeworld games into simply a poor substitute. I lament the game that's resulted from the ideas visible in this game, as there really seems to be something worthwhile here below the surface. As it stands, though, Nexus: The Jupiter Incident is a game that you can take a pass on unless you simply need an excuse to get back out into the big black.
Screenshots are from HD Interactive's official Nexus: The Jupiter Incident site, (c)2005 HD Interactive.
Wing Commander Privateer. You could buy ships, weapons, join guilds, fly to other planets, it had it all! I wish games these days would start with the basics first instead of trying to add convaluded awkward features.
If the dollar is an "I owe you nothing", then the Euro is a "Who owes you nothing." - Doug Casey
*SIGH*
Borint non front page material!
What's next? Movie reviews?
This is why I gave up on most games.
I still play Nethack on the PC and Rogue on my Palm (Since a working Nethack port has never been done for the Palm due to the piss poor hardware and API)
Endless gameplay.
Those Nethack guys have thought of EVERYTHING!
I'm so damn close to getting a free ipod, which I'll fill entirely with CC licensed podcasts and rips of CDS I own.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
Am I wrong, or is this a fresh new /. bodytext length record?
Tha-tha-tha-tha-that's all folks!
http://www.abandonia.com/games/144/Star_Control_2/ StarControl2.htm
(You also need DosBox to run it on most PCs these days.)
Take off every... oh never mind. Wrong Wing game. You must mean the one that has the movie with the wet cats.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I paid for gamespot complete for nothing :(
Michalangelo Progr
I spent most of my time reading Slashdot: The Zonk analysis leaning far back in my chair in a passive state. The style of the analysis seems to be aiming for a insight-rich deep-thought article, but the pace is that of a more leisurely pointless story. This confusing mishmash turns what could have been a worthy addition to the genre that is almost defined by the good gaming sites into simply a poor substitute. I lament the site that's resulted from the ideas visible in this article, as there really seems to be nothing wortwhile here below the surface. As it stands, though, Slashdot: The Zonk analysis is an article that you can take a pass on unless you simply need an excuse to get back out into the big black.
In Space No One Can Hear You
concuring opinion
Just wait! Dungeon Crawl #458 is a HUGE improvement!
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
In space, no one can smell you farting!
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
Maybe it's just me, but I thought the whole slew of Mechwarrior games peaked around Mechwarrior 2: Mecenaries. That game ruled. I had more than one quest path to choose from, I got to buy/sell mechs and hire/fire pilots. And I still got to completely customize all my mechs on top of that.
Yeah, too bad MechAssault 2 gave me none of that. Boring linear missions, no choice in what mechs I got to pilot, and no customization. Whee.
ce n'est pas un Sig.
http://www.eve-online.com
great space game. had some bugs in beta, but has become really solid and fun. I've been active since late 2002 or something. Check out the features and the give it a try, free month trial.
...continuity.
I don't mean errors in it, more that most games are; mission, pointless 2D video clip, mission, pointless clip, ad inifinitum.
What I really want is more games like UFO: Enemy Unknown (I think it had a different name in the US). You are always in the game and things are always relevant and exciting. Even the research stages had you watching the globe, just to see if a UFO had appeared within your current fighter range and could be taken down.
Most modern games take you from one scenario to another totally unlinked scenario via aforementioned dull and boring 2D scene setters. I want (I suppose Elite sort of had this too) to stay in the game world all the time and feel like I'm part of it, not like I'm just playing through some 3D level designer's wet dream of the moment with Gourad, anti-aliased, full textured, B-spline, bump-mapped, mip-mapped eye-cheese.
+5 insightful.
Called Moo2, Starcontrol 2, the original mechwarrior. Tachyon the frindge is a good one too for a space action game, but all of those games (especially the first 2) hands down beats every space related game out there ever made.
blah blah blah ghey xbox blah blah no starwars chars blah blah blah just turn the sound off if you want realism though frankly its a game and arguing symantics like that in what is a fictional setup is like asking smellovision whilst playing Resident Evil, just pointless winging. This post is sponsered by the fact that some ghey mod will waste 1 mod point on it, horaaaah :D
Okay, who ratted me out, which one of you? Step forward and there will be no trouble...
What we really need is a science fiction expansion pack for Progress Quest!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Your mileage may very on my second reccomendation, Space Rangers. It's made by a Russian game company but I do hear this month a British based publisher will be released Space Rangers AND Space Rangers 2, to the rest of Europe and America. I played Space Rangers and it reminds me of a turn-based top style privateer. You buy and sell materials, can attack and raid ships, buy new ships..equipment, etc.
I reccomend you google up each respective game creators site and check em out. It's a shame there hasn't been that many really good space games out, as those are my favorites. Ever since Origin Systems was bought out by EA and decimated by them, things have sucked.
Before we had the capability to render scenes with millions of polygons with a striking degree of realism, game designers had to rely on a fading concept called.... fun.
I think people are finally beginning to get over the enfatuation surrounding titles that boast of their use of the lastest and greatest FPS engine, slowly turning their attention to game mechanics that are actually enjoyable.
Good graphics on a bad game results only in a bad game with good graphics. I think indie developers are beginning to demonstrate the fact that the opposite is also true to a large extent. I think we're beginning to see somewhat of a revival of 2D games that focus more on originality and fun game mechanics. Along with the rather large influx of these smaller developers, however, comes also many games that just plain suck in both categories. There's always the risk that the 80s could come back to haunt us, but perhaps this is simply a cycle that the industry must go through every couple of decades.
But God demonstrates his love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us - (Romans 5:8)
It's not like any of these titles were widely anticipated. "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters." Little page-let reviews of crappy, barely-worth-remembering games surely don't qualify as "Stuff that matters."
Nothing to see here, move along.
------- "From bored to fanboy in 3.8 asian girls" ----------
Ahem... not that this is Slashdot or anything, but can we be a tad more specific here than "System:PC"? I presume this is a Windows-only game, but since I don't know that, and there are actually some fine Linux/Windows hybrid games out there (I play NWN under Linux for example), it would be nice if you could cite hardware platform AND OS supported in a review.
I like the game, It's probably one of the best space-based games *since* Homeworld. Although I did find that you can't move to specific locations, it's all based on moving to nav points/markers/ships/stations/etc so you can't really specificaly place your ships. Overall though it's a really good game.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
In space, no one can hear you sigh.
What?! Yes then can. Watch:
Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh *POP*
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
Technically brillant games and I haven't played their equal since they were released. I still have the original Star Flight game with its 2 5.25 disks. Amazing what they could do with two 360k disks.
Star Flight 2 while not as good as the first was just as much ahead of other games that I would love to find a machine I could play either on (they unfortunately are clock dependant for combat)
I don't think they lost any of their luster until the Wing Commander Series arrived. Originality has a lot to do with the games we all think are best. Hell I still think Empire is a better challenge than any RTS.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Nexus actually sounds like a cool game. It's missing the one thing that pisses me off about most RTS games: breakneck speed in combat.
Computers do one thing very well that most human beings can't -- they track buttloads of stuff and never forget any of it. Even with grouping, I always seem to end up having trouble when I want to order my troops around in RTS games. A slower-paced battle would suit me just fine.
Not to slam the reviewer or anything, but it sounds like maybe he's just not really in the game's target audience.
Microsoft cheerleader, blue flag waving, you got a problem with that?
Nexus is a very good game. The problem with it is that it is not an EASY game. Once you get the hang of what you are doing, you can fight multiple ships at once without necessarrilly having to gang up on vessels.
The problem with most players is that they go right for the "bang weapons against shields and armour!!!!" strategy, which generally does not work to well in nexus.
even though it has default fire settings, those are "AI" fire settings, and the ships try to determine what the best course of action for their weapons are based on that generalized AI setting you put it on. If you tell it to attack a HULL of one ship, if it sees a good opportunity to use its weapons against a nearby ship, it may ignore the original ship.
In Nexus you should handle everything in a little but more micromanaged way, and you can start getting kills rather fast.
The main flaw is the lack of emphasis in training on using the manual controls for the ships, and it can make the single player frustrating as battleships tend to be completely and utterally unable to kill ships bigger than a cruiser without help. But, if you use the specialized disabling weapons, all the sudden large ships can actually beat each other to death, but it wont likely be using the AI modes the game comes with.
NExus is probably the best space fighting game I have played in a tactical sense. Wherease homeworld1/2 comes out better in the movement and intuitive sense.
If you don't vote, you don't matter, so don't waste your time telling me your opinion
It's deadly dull. Go into skirmish mode, buy a fleet, and pow, right into battle you go. And I mean RIGHT in. You start off right next to the enemy AI. Which is fine if you're playing a short-ranged incapacitate/destruction strategy. But what if you want to stand off and use long range weapons? Have to run away first I guess.
And killing an enemy ship? A freaking epic achievement. But the good news is, your ships never die either. Woo. Hoo.
All in all, I bought, installed, and played this one for about 5 hours. The last 3 hours were spent mainly looking for a reason to keep playing. And not finding it.
Windowdressing: 9/10
Gameplay: 2/10
Looking for a Rails developer in Chapel Hill?
The Mechwarrior Series has been downhill since mech 2.(When M$ took it over from microprose, IIRC). It has steadily been devolving from a unique game to just another graphics-rich FPS with a "mech" gimic. Every new release of the game has brought more simplified game play, and less control over your mech.
Not to mention, how in the world is this front page material? This is slashdot, not 1up.com. (Right?)
I routinely give Zonk a lot of shit about his dupes or poor editing*, but I actually found this to be a well written and informative review. Maybe I'm just going soft (in the head).
*I consider Zonk bashing to be a hobby, but I'd turn pro if I could get a lucrative sponsorship deal.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
... Star Control 2. THE best story and gameplay. There is an open source Windows remake, btw: http://sc2.sourceforge.net/
1. Use 2-d movement (X and Y only)
2. Or movement in space is handle like an airplane on Earth (Slowing down because of wind(?) sheer)
I would prefer a space game with great physics over a "pretty" GUI.
I'm not a doctor, but I play one in bed.
Hey, look! Someone posted an article on Slashdot about video games. I should chime in with a list of all my favorite games and why I like them. Then I can flame people who like other games, or who don't like the ones I like. I can even recommend games no one's ever heard of so I can be a pretentious snob. This will be fun.
My favorite games are blah blah blah blah because they're awesome d00d. That game you like sucks becase blah blah blah blah.
Do you think any of the rest of us give a tin s*it what some random guy thinks about a video game? If I want someone else's opinion, I'll read Penny Arcade--at least they're, y'know, well written.
Why can't we mod the original post down? Off the top of my head, this one qualifies for both Offtopic and Troll.
I actually *liked* Dungeon Crawl 457... I thought it had a really good plot, and excellent pacing. The bit with the drow elves and the itching powder was brilliant! Or was that 458...?
Why can't we just mess around in space! We're quick getting to the day when the average Joe will have the chance to experience space flight. We have companies looking to build space hotels.
What are inhabitants of these hotels going to do while they're there? They're sure as hell not all going to want to do scientific research. How about moon-rover racing? Low Gravity Sky Diving? Moon Crater Exploring?
What I'm waiting for is a really cool MMORPG that lets people inhabit the moon and learn what life is all about up there will be for the average person, with a great physics engine to let you really get a feel for it.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
I still pray to Superman every night that Freespace 3 will be coming out soon...
A quick Perl script can do that for you.
Have the script do the following:
Download the front page of wwww.nethack.org
Generate a Checksum.
Compare the Checksum to the saved Checksum.
If no saved checksum exists, save the checksum to file. (First run condition)
If a saved checksum exists, and it matches the checksum for today's page, exit without a word.
If the checksums don't match, e-mail $user telling them the site has been updated.
Create a scheduled task to run the script daily.
Never have to manually check the site again.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
Space Taxi!
Privateer Remake
These guys have updated Privateer to be playable on modern PCs.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
While the Star Control series was (is) great, my pick for best space game (and probably one of the most influencial) is Starflight by Binary Systems.
It had great music (as far as 1986 PCs were concerned) a deep plotline, and a HUGE universe. It had worm holes, mining missions, new races, randomly generated weather environment, a crazy AI system, doomsday plot and time limit (you could continue to play even after the game was "unbeatable" due to the destruction of your "home" solar system).
Ship upgrades, weapons, had to pick your crew of different alien races (which had different strengths and weaknesses and affinities/dislikes for other races). I could rant about this game for a long time, it changed my life (I played it when I was six, when it came out, my grandfather was nuts about it and marveled at their fractal world generation and "3d" rendering when you landed on a planet).
Starflight is probably the best space game ever, you can find VGA fan-made ports of it around, you need to slow your frequency way down if playing on modern hardware.
A fan-made updated version Starflight III is in the works, with slow progress. Drop a line if you remember this game, they would (probably) love to get some support. I think they are taking applications for help (no, I am not affiliated/contributing).
I still have the original box (its like a three fold record (vinyl) album) with the galaxy map (which I traced so I could draw worm holes and hostile territories without hurting the original). The game also had a cool code wheel copy protection thing that was a hoot. The team from Binary Systems is awesome, browse around for some pictures from the box, wild stuff. They were truely dedicated to this game.
I can hear the theme music in my head now...da da da da da da da da daaa daaa daaaaaaa da da da da da da da daanaaaaaah!
|plastic....or gasoline?|
Dear (USER):
We of the Interweb apologize that you were not sufficiently entertained, amused, and/or informed by (TITLE). As seems to be our habit, we forgot to ask your expert opinion on the (NARROWLY DEFINED DEFINITION) of (SUBJECT 1) and (SUBJECT 2) before publishing (TITLE), resulting in the boring mess you see before you.
Thank goodness there are people like you, (USER), to point out the shortcomings of (WEBSITE) and other online entities. Where would the rest of the Interweb be without you? We can only apologize your busy day was interrupted by the necessity of pointing out the awful pile of steaming crap that is (TITLE).
And now, (USER), back to your busy day with (PRETEND JOB) working on (PRETEND WORK). God be with you in your never-ceasing quest to keep the Interweb safe and sane. And God bless America.
Sincerely,
The Interweb
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
http://www.abandonia.com/games/284/Inca/Inca.htm
The important thing to understand about Nexus is that it is a tactical strategy game with capital ships. Howeworld1/2 have more a focus on fighters. In Nexus fighters are for the most part are not too relavent. If you look at capital ship battles in WWII or the high sea faring days, they take hours. Massive ships doing massive damage over relatively long periods of time. Nexus does this and does it in spades. Put it this way, in Nexus you are in charge of Star Destroyers not the X-wing or TIE fighters.
The slowness of the game (1-2 hours per battle) is in a sense its strength. Instead following the typical RTS formula, harvest, and hoard until you can build your best units Nexus starts you out with your best units and requires actual strategic thinking in how to beat the enemy rather than flood them with your strongest units. In fairness the interface is a little steep but once you get by it, Nexus is a gem of a game. The best analog to Nexus I can think of is Destroyer Command from Ubisoft. If you want to play as fighter, stick to wingcommander, or freespace. If you want space based RTS, HW1 and 2 are your cup of tea. If you want engaging tactical capital ship battles try Nexus out.
If you fart in yoru space suite you will !
mechassault is crap. crap crap. totally. completely. 110%
M$ took a good game and made it a bitch for the xbox.
The entire concept of mechassault is a dumbed down version of mechwarrior for the masses. Who like bright moving colors and have no clue in their head. The perfect Micro$oft customers.
And its because of mechassault and the mindless xbox drones that M$ will NEVER give the rest of us mechwarrior 5. Why build something good when you can sell garbage and the xbox sheep will buy it anyway!
Its all good tho. The mod community has all but taken over making mechwarrior itself. And its all free.
And as for jupiter. It was an ok game. Actually worth paying for. And damm few people have even heard of it.
Who the hell is this zonk fool anyways. Another reviewer who wants to get paid to say nice things about crappy games? (that should get me modded right down)
Aha! Now I know who stole my Mech King crown....
OK, the graphics is better and now we can get force feedback, but it's still only polish on the same idea of first person shooters. (OK, there are other games too, but nothing that is "reeeeally new".)
Games that requires more brain and less reaction time are not too common. Some board games are available, but I'm looking for something that is more. The step of Civilization from II to III was no great leap compared to the change from Civ I to Civ II.
It looks to me that what happens today is that a lot of game companies throws in a lot of energy to polish up some old idea with better graphics because it's a safe ground. It's just so booooring...
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
"Advice: If you have a weird idea that's so outside of the box, don't forget it. You should go back and revisit your weird ideas later, because you can never know where they might lead to." -Will Wright
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
Am I the only one who played, and loved Sentinel Worlds I? Next to Starflight this was one of the games which turned me forever in to a computer gaming freak. It had a rather good story, and the gameplay was very enjoyable. Also, the way it was handled visually was great.
The biggest tragedy was that no sequel was ever made. At the end of the game, you can save you characters for use in Sentinel Worlds II. A game which never made it. I actually kept my characters for quite some time hoping that it would release, but it was never to be. A sort of followup "Hard Nova" was created, but it was sort of a lackluster nod to the fans of the original game.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.
This sounds familiar, but I can't quite place it. Is there a reference, or am I making up my familiarity with it? Nicely landed jab as well;-)
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
from the another-game-another-dissapointment dept.
Most of my disappointment on Slashdot comes from cringing at the numerous spelling and grammar errors.
"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it." - G.B. Shaw
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
Part of Rutger Hauer's speech at the end of Blade Runner.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
That was the best. Attack sector 1! ASCII BBS Multiplayer games were the best. My brother and I actually destroyed sector 1 once. I can't remember what that meant, but I think it was an important day....
Nothing like building up a full head of steam, pointing sideways and strafing all the way up the side of a capital ship. Soooo much fun. You had the option of using retro rockets to simulate more planelike flying but also the in flight option to turn them off and experience full on inertia. That and it was very 3-D not to mention having a very cool opening video.
What of the Independence War series? Realistic physics and very realsitic ship designs were its hallmark. The original was more of a space ship simulation than a space game. The sequal, Edge of Chaos, was a beautiful and very under appreciated game. A true underdog if there ever was one. Heck, people are still modding it, nearly 5 years after it came out! There are two major mods coming out for it, one a Star Wars TC and the other a kindof Elite salute, with trading etc.
f orumid=137
Check out the still thriving communities at:
http://www.i-war2.com/
and
http://ina-community.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?
Awesome! Time to rewatch Bladrunner;-)
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Homeworld was a beautiful game, but for some reason when you changed perspective it always made me nauseous. I have no idea why since I rarely get motion sick. But everytime I had to rotate or zoom the viewpoint, my stomach would flip over. Kept me from ever playing more than 5-15 mins. Every few weeks I'd go back and try it again only to wind up running to the bathroom if I played it for very long. Too bad, because it looked like a great game.
is Battle tech the cresent hawks' inception.
Two that might be of interest for those looking for TBS empire-management games instead of mission-driven games are Anacreon and the Space Empires series.
/bad/ withdrawal consequences... It's not for the obsessive micromanager, and puts you more in the shoes of a grand strategist rather than tactician or city planner. Focus on the role for each planet, and amass fleets for use however you choose.
The former is very high-level oriented: quasi-linear research tree, ship classes instead of ship design, assignment of priorities (e.g. "raw material world" for focusing on mining, "jumpship base" for producing jumpdrive ships, etc) and import/export policies (so you can demand that worlds try to be self-sufficient, or permit them to base their economy on imports brought in through transports on repeating-orders). Efficiencies matter in that specialized worlds are a LOT more efficient at what they do, but the required export/import system leaves you vulnerable to interdiction. Manage your worlds, produce minefields if you'd like, build massive industrial complexes that build ships with resources from adjacent worlds, put whole worlds on an addictive drug that removes the need for sleep but has
The latter is more suited for those desiring traditional tactical combat and ship design. It's also incredibly moddable (not just cosmetically; replace the entire tech tree(s) if you'd like, for instance, subject to limits about what abilities have been implemented of course. Want to produce a mod in which the only mining allowed is strip mining that eventually makes the mined worlds essentially worthless and uninhabitable? Want to make suns explode with a far higher probability? Want an optional facility that gives you greatly reduced, perhaps even negative, population growth in exchange for research? You could). You can (and must!) manage facility production on individual worlds, choose which research paths to focus on first, design your ship classes for a myriad of reasons, turn planets into asteroid fields or vice versa... and turn somebody's star into a black hole, obliterating everything in the system, if you want to send an obvious declaration of war.
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
Amen. Freespace 2 stands up well even now. A good storyline that manages to get "drama" without the "melo," great voice acting, and a truly awesome sense of scale.
Plus, great graphics, back in the day.
"The tiny mech handles just like the larger constructs, and has some impressive armament for its size, but the big draw of the tiny suit is the ability to "Neurohack" your way into full-sized mechs."
First off, Elemental class battle armor are nothing new, even to the electronic games. I seem to recall being able to play as an Elemental in MW2:Mercs. This has always confused me because battle armor is not a 'mech; it's Starship Troopers rather than Gundam.
But Elementals are infantry and the ground-pounder doesn't know jack about using a battlemech's weapons, let alone keeping it on its feet! Even in the pen-and-paper RPG, Gunnery/Battle Armor and Gunnery/BattleMech are two very different skill sets (after all, the former involves moving your body, the latter involves moving a joystick). What they do know is how to disable 'mechs when given the opportunity, from knee-capping them to ripping open the hatch, but... come on! This screams "munchkin!"
And beyond that, Elementals may be battle-armored, but they're still infantry and still very soft and squishy in the world of BattleTech; there are reasons why they're deployed in squads of 4-5. Unless they're given the opportunity to behave like infantry (say, ducking into buildings and using them for cover), they will die in mean and nasty ways. With four whole missiles and a point-defense pea-shooter combined with a top speed of a little over 32.4 km/h (yes, I did that in my head, I'm a geek), they can't catch what they can kill and can't kill what they can catch.
From the sounds of things, everybody would have been better off if MSFT introduced ProtoMechs instead of battle armor.
In FASA's waning days, before WizKids/FanPro got the license, it was a very, very, very bad idea for FASA to sell all the electronic BattleTech rights to MSFT. FASA Interactive should have just stuck with using them solely as a publisher, but this... Imagine if Valve sold the Half-Life name to Vivendi. Thanks to foolishness like this, the makers of Heavy Metal Pro, a series of record-sheet generators not only endorsed but used by FanPro, had to get written permission from Microsoft before getting the rights to sell BattleTech-related software.
Arrrgggghhhh!!!
Believe it or not, we already know that games are just games, and movies are just movies. We all are very much aware that it's just entertainment, and, yes, "consumer circus." And yes, believe it or not, we already know about books and some of us have that too among our many hobbies. No, really, you can stop pretending you're the greatest genius for saying what everyone else already knew.
No, we don't really expect them to be some deep philosophical intellectual exercise. We just expect "entertainment" to actually be, you know, "entertaining." I know, it's a hard to grasp concept. Turn the words "entertainment" and "entertaining" in your head a bit, and I'm sure even you can eventually grasp the connection.
We're not expecting to end up 10 IQ points higher after a game or a movie, nor supremely enlightened. We just expect to not be bored by it. Nothing more.
When we play a game we expect some degree of work to have went into the gameplay. Again, if you'll roll the words around in your head a bit, I'm sure the subtle connection will eventually reveal itself to you.
And the point is that a helluva lot of games forget that. They get so caught up in having a higher polygon count, that they end up with crap controls and crap gameflow. If they even make a half-arsed attempt at catching our attention by means of a story or plot, they either (A) make a quick and uninteresting job of dumping a half-arsed text between missions, or (B) just take some recipe and apply it badly. Etc.
See, for example, CRPGs which just take the hero's journey recipe from Hollywood, make a crap story to fit it, and stretch it linearly all over a game. Except a movie is 1.5 hours, while a game might be 30 hours. What was a brief 10 minutes showing that the hero was an ordinary guy like you and me in the movie, becomes a solid 3.5 hours of pointless boring stuff in the game. Where in the movie you might be guessing the next plot device 10 minutes before it happened, but it still kept you hooked enough, in the game becomes a whole CD worth of the heroes seeming blind and not seeing the obvious. Because they're not yet at the point in the recipe where the hero should find it out, and by jove, they'll stick to that recipe at all cost. Etc.
And it would be nice if more game companies started worrying about these things, than about polygon count.
And in the meantime, we rely on such reviews to weed out the games that make those mistakes, from those who still are any good. Or, yes, go read a book, program something, go out, or whatever hobbies fit. Thank you, Captain Obvious. How would we have ever figured _that_ out without you?
No really, next time you feel like acting like a snotty "I'm superior because my hobby is better than yours" kinda idiot, feel free to leave that attitude at the door. Or put down the crack pipe. Join a 12 step program. Whatever gets you back in contact with reality, really.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
For starters there are three major attack types - Hull Destroyers, Shield Breakers and Sub-system attacks. Unsurprisingly shields prevent hull weapons from having major effect and drasticly slow down sub-system attacks which is where knocking down shields becomes a priority.
Initially, for the first half of the game, it is beneficial to pack four odd shield breaker weapons of the light variety (Energy Shell and Bubble Energy Shell when you get them) to quickly knock shields down and let your hull destroyers do their job. A useful trick is to remember that only one ship in your fleet needs a datascanner for any given mission. Removing it from the Angelwing lets you pack five light weapons rather than just four. Later on you get access to Energy Bombs which will, with a two shot volley, knock down the shields of any cruiser or smaller craft and severely dent the shields of a battleship. They have good range too capable of firing further than most other weapons. Better yet they are area of effect weapons that when used correctly allow you to knock down a flottila's shields and swoop your hull breaker equipped craft in to great effect. (It is worth noting Energy Bombs do not discriminate friend from foe and will knock down friendly craft's shields too, so must be used judiciously.)
This applies in the comments on the AI. Leave the AI in aggressive mode and yes your ships will attack targets of opportunity while working their way towards the designated target. To prevent that you can always use Focused mode which makes the AI concentrate on doing only what you tell it. This is clearly marked out in the manual. Alternatively if you want total control there is also manual mode which allows you to specificly control which targets weapons fire at, what subsystems are on and where the ship is headed.
It is also worth noting that the reviewer seems to have missed that the main character, Marcus Cromwell, is the son talked about in the opening introductory movie. His father flew the ill-fated Noah mission which is what kick started the whole mess the story is based on.
Nexus certainly has it's faults. The mission briefings frequently don't tell you the right kind of detail to let you properly plan your strategy via weapon loadouts so often missions require multiple-play throughs with the first being recon gathering on what you actually need to do. The engine is also a little quirky sometimes seemingly kicking into a high level of difficulty that makes the odd mission harder than it should be. The way they reveal backstory is a little off too with often allies or enemies being encountered in a mission with little to no warning.
But the review given says more about the reviewer not taking the time to read the manual and learn how to drive the game than it does the game. It is no great surprise that you are taking hours to pound craft to death when you fail to equip the weapons needed to strip an enemy of their shields - this is akin to fighting with two arms tied behind your back and trying to bite your opponent into submission. Sure it is possible, but there are easier ways.
It also is worth noting that the reviewer hasn't touched on the utility of ECM/ECCM systems and delicate balance you play managing the energy consumption of your ships to keep it at maximum effect. Or the utility of bombers/commandos for subsytem attacks and the screening ability of fighters to knock down incoming missiles, bombers, commando shuttles or other fighters. Knocking down a battleship's shields, destroying her screening fighters & flak systems and then sneaking across a commando shuttle to knock out her primary & secondary weapon power generators can be a surprisingly effective and fast way to reduce an enemy leviathan into so much powered space junk. Much faster than neccesarily pounding her to dust.
Nexus isn't for everyone's tastes certainly. But failing to pay attention to what is a moderately complicate tactical simulator and then decrying for it's complexity and refusal to fall to the simple 'more guns is better' maxim is a poor review in my opinion.
No review starts good when the reviewer gets a basic fact totally wrong. The cutscenes in Nexus are skippable. Even the talking during games to "advance" the story can be clicked away ending the speech and making it all happen a bit faster. So basically either the reviewer was to dumb to figure out how to skip cutscenes and break off conversations OR he is lying and never played the game. Don't believe me? Download the demo.
Now it must be said that the background story is incredibly dumb. Basically you just don't give a shit. It is all to generic. A bad captain Kirk as the captain, a sexy japanese computer, a spunky rebellious cloaky type girl, an obnoxious incompetent superiour, weak silly aliens. Jada jada jada. It is so mediocre and un-original it is unbelievable.
The missions briefings before the missions proper are indeed baffling. They seem more story devices then informing you of mission objectives. Wich can be troublesome as you then need to choice your weapon configuration. Would be nice if you learned you need to pack a squad of marines BEFORE you start the mission. Once inside the mission things however are pretty clear. So this is a negative point but lets face it, proper mission briefing has been missing in action in games for so long I am no longer bothered by it.
The combat. This is actually takes a while to get intresting as like every game they make the tutorial part of the game meaning the first few missions are wasted on teaching you the basics. I hate it as I can read and understand a manual and want my game to be challenging from the start but sadly most of the human race needs its hand hold.
Combat is simple enough. You got three kind of weapons, anti-shield, anti-hull and anti-system. You can't hit a hull when shields are up and anti-system damage is reduced with shields up. Simplest setup is to balance between shield busters and hull busters. Going anti-device is an option for the more tactical minded as knocking out say the anti-fighter defences gives you fighters/bombers free play and they can knock devices out even faster. Who cares about their hull and engines when they can't hit you? Knock out their anti-shield weapnons and as long as you don't power down yours their anti-hull weapons are useless.
Combat is okay but once you sussed it out it can be a bit simple. Even in big battles there is really only one strategy. Concentrate all your fire on the ship doing to most damage and then work your way down to the last vessel. It soon evolves into your ships circling one enemy vessel while blasting it to bits and you occasionally saving one of your vessel if it is taking to much damage. Basically it is nice until you figured it out.
Now the reviewer complains about ships not following order. This means that either he is dumb or simply didn't understand the interface. You can set your ships to various modes of behaviour and one of them they basically follow their own logic wich isn't bad but can be confusing if you are not expecting it. For instance if you have them on agressive then they will happily go after the ship you told them to but on the way they will fire at any ship that gets in their way. If you target a ship with shields up it will continue to fire its hull busters at a ship with down shields. If you want total control it is there. You just got to set the right mode. Another point of for this reviewer.
He then goes on to complain that it can take up to a full minute to take out a weapon system (with your anti-system weapons) and no less then three minutes to take out a ship completly. Read this part of his review carefully and then ask yourselve what on earth was this guy thinking when he picked up a strategy game? This is a strategy game of battleships. What does he want? Knock out your enemies weapons in 2-3 seconds? In the larger battles a minute to destroy a main armanent is nothing. This is not a scroll down shooter where you got hundreds of enemies. A dozen is a lot. Co
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
There's only one 'n' in Tanhauser. It's a reference to Wagner.
I am no longer wasting my time with slashdot
There's only one 'n' in Tanhauser. It's a reference to Wagner.
/. would eat it or not. :)
It's Tannhauser in the Columbia Encyclopedia and Wikipedia. There's an umlaut too, but I can't remember the html entity for it and whether
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
I didn't like the way you started each level with the same fleet you finished the last level with. I ended up redoing levels I successfully completed just so I would have more ships in the next level. This may be more realistic but it makes for repetitious game play. Starting each level with a predetermined fleet means you just have to worry about finishing the level you're on.
Elite.
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PGP Key ID 0xCB8FF658
I see a lot of you are more interested in content than the eye-candy-of-the-month status quo. You should give http://forums.jossh.com/ a look.
and if you like to run around first person and wreck stuff then this is another one. Maybe my old age is jading me a little, but, run round the corner, shoot, squat, strafe left, die, DAMN, quickload, run round the corner, shoot, squat, jump left, squat, strafe right, die, SHIT, VOW TO SAVE IT, quickload, run round the corner, shoot, squat, jump left, squat, strafe right, QUICKSAVE, die, doesn't really appeal to me anymore. I have also very recently discovered that I can play in my head (I will have to look out for any copyright issues).
I had such high hopes for this game, but alas 'twas not to be. The UI was bad and after about 5 hours of playing the beta I woke up after I fell out of my chair. I uninstalled it and downloaded the firebalance mod for Freelancer. Get the Voyager and head out to the outer rim, making warp speed passes on battleships and pumping them full of torpedoes and phasors is a blast.
Maybe a littel off-topic... The Ur-Quan Masters, I think, is the best space faring game. Ever (Not that I've played any other...). The latest updates (must be installed manually) even include the PC version intro and ending.
Elite 1-3 are pretty much free to download now. Apparently Ian Bell and David Braben had some sort of dispute regarding free distribution of Elite.
I played a lot of Elite II on the amiga. I've tried many times to get into Elite 1 but the inteface and GUI is to cumbersome to me. Is it worth it? I also downloaded Elite 3 (First Encounters) and it was kind of nice with the planet terrain and all, but somehow it didn't appeal to me, maybe it was too bloated.
I would wish to see something more simple and cute, like Spore appears to be. I really like the old elite ships because of the simplicity in design.
Utopia II - K240 (Amiga) was really nice too, speaking of space RTS.
Now I'll pimp my space projects. First out SCII:
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/main.php?id=sce
Old and incomplete Elite clone, but I like the spaceship designs. Have more unscanned.
http://web.telia.com/~u48508900/temp/
The Chair Corp. comic(*00-12)
i can only say one thing to the potential eve player:
if you dont like grind, grind, grind, grind don't play this game.
only viable way to get money is mining. Drag rocks from ship to container around every 45s, staying ready to flee when a (player)pirate shows up.
Have fun
No clue whether this has been posted yet, but Privateer also has a remake based on the Open Source project Vegastrike.
http://priv.solsector.net/