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Shadowrun for the 360
TeamXbox has the news that (squee) there may be a new Shadowrun videogame coming to market with the Xbox 360. From the article: "I have worked on many projects, ranging from PC games to console, FPS to role-playing. Right now, I am animating for an Xbox 2 project called Shadowrun. It's a first-person shooter based on an old paper RPG of the same name from a couple decades ago." Sounds like fun....but an FPS? Where's my SR MMOG?
The RPG on the Genesis was so good (honestly, I'm surprised there wasn't a sequel sooner), why change a winning formula?
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
Oh wait, they called it Hunter for the PS2...
I have almost no interest in playing a Shadowrun FPS, but I'd rather see Shadowrun licensed as a MMO or RPG more than any other license. Maybe if we are lucky they will do something like Neocron, only with much higher production values.
world in which elves, dwarfs, orcs, trolls, and vampires melt with modern weapons and Matrix-like technology for a man meets magic and machine experience.
Upon further review, I don't think i'll be keeping an eye on this gem.
*cringes*
I think Shadowrun is just too much stuff to fit into one box.
Think about it: what makes Shadowrun cool? The computer aspect, the cybernetic aspect, the "awakened" races, the futuristic setting, the megacorp environment, the sprawl and its attendant squalor, the magic... the list just doesn't stop. You simply couldn't make a Shadowrun game that really lived up to the title. Most of the cool stuff won't fit, so you have to pick one or two things to focus your game, and then you just handwave the rest.
Unfortunately, this guarantees that most of the people who see "Shadowrun" on the box and buy the game will feel like their favorite parts got handwaved -- they'll appreciate what they get for a week, and then they'll clue into the fact that there's an awful lot they *didn't* get.
Shadowrun is also eminently twinkable, so I don't really see a MMOG in its future. It just doesn't translate well. At the gaming table, you have real bonds with real people that make a difference in how you behave, but online -- it's all just pixels, and there's no GM to bring the wrath of the heavens down on you when you're being a dick.
Microsoft cheerleader, blue flag waving, you got a problem with that?
I played Neocron with the huge expectation that it would be like Shadowrun. Boy was I wrong. It looked like someones Computer Science project. It was all right, but nothing like I hoped it would be.
A real Shadowrun MMORPG would be the best thing to happen in a long time. It will only work if they add in every aspect of the RPG. I miss that game since I don't play tabletop anymore. To me, it was one of the most intriguing RPGs of all time, and that includes D&D.
/. ++
This was announced and canned like 5 years ago. Microsoft had the rights to Shadowrun and had announced a game called Shadowrun: Assassins.
The game was *gasp* an FPS.
About a year and a half into production, Microsoft canned it. The game starred a scantily clad heroine, and basically looked nothing like Shadowrun. This is probably that game.
Netjak.com independent reviews of domestic & import video ga
Me and a couple of others guys tried to make a mod for quake3 a while ago and asked for microsoft blessings (cause we knew they had bought all FASA rights) and they told us they did not want to cause they were working on a tentative title, that was in 2000. Since then i have waited.... maybe they stole every idea we exposed on our web site at the time, we will see...
The shadowrun RPG was so much fun. It had an interesting story and some challenging puzzles. I thought...wow, maybe I need to get a 360. But a FPS...thanks, I'll pass. I still feel FPS are much better suited for computers. Even with a keyboard and mouse on console...it's not really set up for that. Consoles are for leaning back on my recliner and using a controller.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
Not meant to be cheap stab at MS. By golly. Another FPS. On the Xbox. Inconceivable.
I don't think there is anything inherently difficult to implement about Shadowrun. It's just a lot of stuff.
The question is really if a game company wants to take this on knowing that to do it correctly, it will be a minimum of 3-5 years of development before they see a dime from it. The alternative is to market the Shadowrun name and turn out a steaming pile of crap that tarnishes the game for everyone. I can see the FPS idea going down that path. Great, I get to be a half-orc with a huge gun. What's the point? I don't want Quake: Shadowrun Edition. I want the real thing.
/. ++
You keep using that word. I do no think it means what you think it means.
Personally I would be *much* more interested in a Cyberpunk MMORPG. Shadowrun always had too much going on, I don't really feel the need to play fantasy and science-fiction simultaneously. Plus there aren't supposed to be that many shadowrunners in the world, but there are a lot of punks in Night City. Maybe APB will fulfill my desires in that direction, but without the cyberwear.
I think I won't have to buy an Xbox 360 for a long time. Seriously, they finally do a sequel to Shadowrun, and it's gonna be a freaking FPS. As if there was a lack of these on the Xbox. And as if they were actually enjoyable using dual analog sticks.
I'm glad Nintendo has its own console. If they were making Xbox games, we'd probably have a Mario FPS and Project Gotham Mario Kart.
I wonder how erked some execs where when they found out they were selling a piece of software that suggested technology made you less human. O_o
- I voted for Nintendo and against Bush
Well, techincally I would call Deus Ex a FSP, but it contained elements of RPG. If they go along those lines, and give you choice of starting as different characters then it'll be pretty close to an RPG anyway, just from a first person point of view right?
I have been running the shadowrun pen and paper game for years it seems like now (8 years actually), I actually just ended a recent session a couple of weeks ago.
I remember playing the RPG for Snes and remembering how fun it was, I actually played that first before I went to the pen and paper game.
In contrast the Snes game was watered down and had a fixed story line (which was once rumored to be the storyline of an old gaming session one of the developers had, but I could be wrong on that)and wasn't as rich as the pen and paper game, but lets face it there wasn't any way u could keep the interest of most people if you made it like that, so for what it was worth, it was a good game.
The only way a new game could work as a FPS is if they made it like (hold your breath) morrowind. It would be the only way you could do true justice to Shadowrun.
With game technology as it is, you could make the game one big open ended adventure, I could even see it as an MMORPG (not likely gonna happen).
Course then their is the plight of the casual gamer who gets turned off by a game world that big, it happened with morrowind and it would proly happen with Shadowrun if they did it in that manner.
It's about time we get another First Person Shooter game! This one's automatically on my "to buy" list!
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
> I don't think there is anything inherently
> difficult to implement about Shadowrun.
Oh, I'm not saying "you can't build a decking simulation". People have done that. I'm not saying "you can't build a cybernetics system". People have done that, too.
What I *am* saying is that it's effectively impossible to get all of this stuff under one roof and effectively balanced. Pen and paper RPGs rely on a sense of fair play, which computers cannot enforce the way social groups can.
Microsoft cheerleader, blue flag waving, you got a problem with that?
I always thought that Deus Ex did a very good job of capturing some of the feel of Shadowrun,and would make a good basis, as far as how they did storytelling and skills and all that, for a Shadowrun game. Not to mention that anotech upgrades and such really were a fun analog to cyberware.
... But honestly, I could not really PLAY morrowind much because it was _so_ open ended. =/ I'd settle for a Deus Ex -like game ("levels" that were largely open-ended, and a pretty linear plot) if it were Fun and Well Written. I suspect that a game like that would be more feasible to be written by a game company (though goodness knows, I'd LOVE for Bethesda to try it. ;)).
... heh ...yeah, I guess that's really why Morrowind and Deus Ex wouldbe good though-food for a Shadowrun game.
... *sigh* ... actually I suspect I answered my own question, since that's pretty much the largest set of SR games/etc that are play-by-forum. (Now if I could only find live ones them near ME...)
Yes, Morrowind is HUGE -- and it would be awesome to have a Seattle Metroplex that was as accessible as the continent in Morrowind
Fun and well written
On a side note -- does anyone know of any good online SR games? I'm tempted to go back to the Dumpshock Forums, but
I totally forgot about Deus EX!
:-)
That would be totally cool if they did something like that, I could settle for a shadowrun game in the scale of Deaus EX if they didnt do on a scale like morrwind like game
The big problem with morrowind is u made your charecter and they dump u in this world and say "do whatever" What they needed was a better way to get you into the mian storyline and better way to get you to play all the side stuff they put in it, I have owned morrwind and the expansions for years and i have to beat the main storyline.
and i tried dumpshock also and got nothing, you could try searching for a good Multi User Dungeon (or MUD). Might get better results.
*grins*...
:D
:D The good ones, at least.
I tried an SR MUD once, didn't really like it. I prefer the pen and paper style play (whether live or over forums/IRC), since then I can say "I duck behind that steel desk, putting my machine pistol over the top and laying suppressive fire so my chummers can get across the lobby to the elevator."
I had forgotten, but I actually liked the dumpshock forums. Their game forums are widespread, and can even make really good reading.
I'll have to rent it first, because even though I loved SR to death in Pen&Paper and in the games, I have my doubts with Microsoft.
Unless they make a ShadowRun FPS that is like Marrowind Elder Scrolls (which IMO was one the better RPGs of the decade) then it most likely just be Unreal Tourney with "futuristic skins".
Although if they made SR360 like System Shock2...
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
When I saw this headline on the main page I was quite excited thinking it was going to lead to an announcement of a Shadowrun MMO finally.
I really wish one would come around. I loved the pen & paper game. I ran a campaign for years and years, but sadly that ended several years ago and I haven't been able to find or start a new campaign as I live far from my players now.
I don't know if an MMO would completely slack my thirst to play Shadowrun again. Probably now, as the MMO's I've played while fun weren't the same as a good pen and paper game. Still, it would be very, very nice.
I don't think I'd be that into a Shadowrun FPS. While it might be a bit of fun it will be missing so much of the game...Not to mention completely lacking in any social factor.
Hopefully some day a Shadowrun MMO will be made.
Was you pistol an aries? HAHA
I would like to get back into dumpshock and see if there is anything good going on, I only have 4 people where i live that play my SR games, I have been known to do epic storylines that last awhile.
I bought (and lost, sadly) copies of both SR2 and SR3 core rules. I thought the game rocked, but I knew of very few people who played it. I found myself thinking a while ago that a TV series based on it would have been particularly cool.
It has aged though...primarily because the geopolitical events which created the fictional scenario were supposed to have started in 1989/91...so it really was a game of the 80s.
Still, the magic system was awesome...the Matrix mechanics weren't so good, gameplay wise, and it was a bit limited from only using six-sided dice. To me the storyline cried out to be explored via other mediums, mainly because the game mechanics were a bit shaky in places.
If it is done intelligently, this game could be really good.
Dual Colt Manhunters actually
(Never actually used a machine pistol in-game...)
</SR geek>
You might like Anarchy Online however their Shadowlands expansion strayed heavily from the sci-fi into the fantasy realm and the entire game suffered, in my opinion. I played the game off and on for years but could never truly get into it after being forced to go through the content in that expansion.
To hit level 220 you pretty much were forced to xp in the Shadowlands zones, although they did add shadowknowledge (SK) gain from killing aliens for the latest expansion Alien Invasion. That was a more recent patch and I'm not sure how it has effected the game as I've been away from it for months.
However the base game has a cyberpunk feel, with "the grid" which is your travel option, actual flight in game with personal planes, war-torn futuristic looking cities, etc. You also install implants which boost your skills and statistics along with the normal armor/weapon loot. The classes are more sci-fi in title but do similar RPG things (doctor = healer, enforcer = tank, etc).
The base game (with no expansions) is entirely free for new accounts so it's worth checking out here . Plus they use bittorrent for downloading!
Sacré-bleu! Where is me mama?
I can't believe all the comments on this story that have already written this game off because it's an FPS instead of an RPG, as though there has never been a decent FPS made.
Aside from the SNES and Genesis Shadowrun games, the games most closely resembling Shadowrun's cyberpunk world have been Deus Ex and System Shock. Suprise surprise... they were first and foremost First Person Shooters.
Don't be so quick to pigeonhole this as another Halo clone (as opposed to a KOTOR clone). Wait and see if it turns out to be a decent game for once.
It's a first-person shooter based on an old paper RPG of the same name from a couple decades ago.
A couple decades ago? Ahh, I guess that explains this.
Lord knows they never turned a beloved 2d franchise into a FPS.
Upon further review, I don't think i'll be keeping an eye on this gem.
*cringes*
At first glance it may sound lame, but it's actually very tastefully done in the Shadowrun universe. I'm usually one of those "no fantasy in my science-fiction, and no science-fiction in my fantasy thankyou" types, but shadowrun is the exception.
The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky
Actually, Metroid isn't an FPS. It's more of a First Person Adventure, and it's very true to the original (claustrophobic, lonely) Metroid games - more so than, say, Metroid Fusion, even though Fusion is 2D.
to bother getting the point, I see.
The point was, that it's likely that this was a continuation of the game Microsoft started and canned years ago.
It's kind of hard to find a link seeing as how Shadowrun the pen & paper RPG, Shadowrun the SNES game and Shadowrun the Genesis game all have more active fan communities and such, and therefore come up first. The fact that the game has assassins in it doesn't help my cause either. Overrated, Troll, whatever, it's all wrong. That's not misinformation and it's not trolling.
But here you go, ye of little faith and memory:
Netjak.com independent reviews of domestic & import video ga
I've seen an astounding number of people say "claustrophobic and lonely" to describe Metroid in the last couple of weeks.
I assume someone mentioned it on a gaming site somewhere and has been parroted from message board to message board.
Metroid was no more "claustrophobic and lonely" than any one of the other platform/shooters that came out around the same time. It just seemed cooler because you had a sweet powersuit and could roll into a ball that shot bombs. Compare/contrast to Kid Icarus where you were a stupid flying loser who died all the time.
I'm usually one of those "no fantasy in my science-fiction, and no science-fiction in my fantasy thankyou" types, but shadowrun is the exception.
I felt the same way when I first read about Shadowrun, way back. It sounded ridiculous to me. But once I checked it out, read a few books and stuff, I realized how well they really pulled it off. It's great setting for a game.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
Uhm. That's because Metroid is claustrophobic and lonely. I haven't read any articles about Metroid in the last month, so I have no idea who else classified it in that way, but if anyone did, it's because it's the truth.
It's simply not true that other platform shooters from that time were similar. Games like Contra, Turrican or Mega Man were very different. Metroid was dark, you played it underground, most of the time in small caves. The music was haunting, and there were not many enemies. Those that were there were mostly slow and silent. Gameplay was rather slow, too, compared to frantic games like Contra.
It's very different from the other platform shooters from that time.
(By the way, I was curious about your remarkt. Google shows one page which calls Metroid "claustrobhobic and lonely", and it's a post from the gamefaqs forum. Haven't read that.)
Results 1 - 10 of about 433 for metroid claustrophobic
Results 1 - 10 of about 22,000 for metroid lonely.
Results 1 - 10 of about 80 for metroid lonely claustrophobic
Metroid was dark, you played it underground, most of the time in small caves. The music was haunting, and there were not many enemies. Those that were there were mostly slow and silent. Gameplay was rather slow, too, compared to frantic games like Contra.
You've just described world 1-2 from Super Mario Bros. Was that claustrophobic and lonely?
Basically being underground means you have a black background and gray floor instead of a blue background and green floor.
Compare:
Metroid
SMB
Lonely, Claustrophobic!
Please don't get me wrong, I enjoy playing Metroid and Super Metroid, but if Samus hadn't turned out to be a half-nekkid lady at the end of the first one, I don't think it would be a huge franchise today. Mario launched the NES. Half-nekked man-Samus would have doomed Metroid to this fate.
My opinion only, of course.
If all of SMB were like that, then yes, SMB would be claustrophobic and lonely.
And your google results prove that I'm not the only one thinking that Metroid is lonely and claustrophobic, even though I obviously didn't just copy that phrase from somewhere, because even your search found only 80 pages containing both claustrophobic and lonely.
The point on Samus being female has got nothing to do with the game's ambiance. The discussion whether Metroid would have been successfull without Samus being female is an entirely different discussion. Personally, I think it would have been successfull. It was an awesome game for its time, and as Zero Mission shows, it's holdung up even today.
If all of SMB were like that, then yes, SMB would be claustrophobic and lonely.
It's exactly the same as all the other Mario levels except the background is black and the floor is gray! The creatures are the same. The music is nearly the same. The bricks are the same. The powerups are the same. Why is it lonely and claustrophobic?
Metroid had pretty much the same mechanics and graphical cliches as a boatload of other games from the same time period that nobody gets misty eyed for.
Anyway, you have your opinion. I remain convinced that nostalgia is coloring it. This doesn't detract from the fact that it, and it's sequels, were fun games with excellent level design. I think that "claustrophobic and lonely" is stretching it a bit (or a lot).
No worries! I haven't played Zero Mission yet.
If you can't see the difference between Super Mario Bros and Metroid, well, then there's nothing I can do for you :-)
And get Zero Mission! It's great, although way too short.
It just occured to me that this can't be it. I didn't own a NES/Famcom until about three years ago, and the first time I played the original Metroid was when I unlocked it in Prime.
I did play Metroid 2 on the GameBoy, though, which was the first Metroid I did play. I guess that game had a huge influence on my opinion of Metroid, and it's very claustrophobic.
Ok the orginal Shadowrun on the Genisis was AWSOME!!! But a FPS....NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! It can't be!!! Why must they take great games and make them suck!!! XBox 360 has just lost my cash.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. -Albert Einstein