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Project Sylpheed Review
Space shooters are beyond a dying breed. They're dead. When a member of this now-rarefied genre comes lurching at you from the darkness, it's always a good idea to be wary. And a shooter with an anime flavour, evoking the memory of the Macross and Robotech series? It has to be bad, right? Yet, somehow, Square/Enix has delivered a thrill-ride of a space plane game; Ace Combat with blue hair. The frighteningly titled Project Sylpheed has a clunky menu system, an overly complicated HUD, mediocre voice acting, and an easily-skippable story. Thankfully, none of that matters. When you're in your fighter, it's so ... so good. Read on for my impressions of this quirkily appealing arcade-style shooter.
Thankfully, you won't miss them. The story is a semi-decent distraction. The forces of ADAN, allied former Terran colonies who broke away from the motherland, are striking hard against the Terran alliance. They're fighting to re-affirm their freedom after what appears to be the senseless slaughter of an entire planet by military forces. Your protagonist is an uber-talented rookie, friends with a cute fellow pilot and arch-foe of a former pilot who has now joined the ADAN military. The cutscenes are full of breathless exclamations of surprise and tight-fitting space suits. Just the same, the cutscenes have two things going for them: vague hints of something deeper to ADAN's story of planetary cleansing, and the ability to skip past anything you don't want to see.
While I enjoyed watching them, it's easy to understand wanting to get back to the game proper. Project Sylpheed is an all-out assault almost from the get-go. Enemy fighters come at you in waves, punctuated by larger frigates and carriers, with special named fighter units acting as boss battles in later stages. Before you start your bloody work there are usually dozens of enemies onscreen, providing you with a 'target-rich environment.' You're not alone, of course, fighting with support from your capital ship and three (mostly brain-dead) squadron-mates. Fights take place in a varied array of 'space locations', giving you a variety of pretty places to look at while you blow stuff up. Anyone not playing the game directly will be impressed by what's on the screen; if you know what you're doing the action is fast, frenetic, and beautiful.
Knowing what you're doing is the trick, of course. Your Delta Saber fighter has a dizzying array of weaponry and instruments. As such, the Xbox controller gets a stiff workout by your overwrought hands. I actually found the default setup cumbersome, and ended up remapping some things; every single control is customizable, thankfully. By default the shoulder buttons fire your weapons, while the triggers boost and brake your ship. I reversed these, as I found it awkward to hold down the RB for an extended period of time. Your mileage may vary.
The Delta Saber has three different weapon systems plus a nose cone popgun. This means that you have several choices of ordinance to bring to bear on every situation. Surprisingly, none are superfluous. There's an anti-aircraft missile system, which locks onto targets as they come within your field of fire. Dozens of missiles can be aimed at multiple targets just by sticking closeby. Upon releasing the fire button they soar away from your ship like deadly homing birds, creating a beautiful and ultimately fiery ballet. A larger set of missles is available for frigates, destroyers and the like, while a railgun acts as a catch-all choice that can be directed at either sized-target with deadly effect. It's simple to switch between weapon systems with the twitch of a thumb; the downside to this is that often pits you against a wave of fighters and their destroyer escort at the same time.
Those scenarios are always quite challenging, as you're forced to make some tough choices. Toughness is a watchword of this game, but not frustratingly so. Sylpheed is very much an arcade shooter, right down to the arbitrary clock on each mission. You're given a warning when there are only three minutes left on the clock; when it runs out the captain of your capital ship says that you are 'unable to fight any longer.' I'm not really sure I understand this, but it does make for tense level design. Even If you screw up, there's no real problem. You're encouraged to go back and re-try levels on which you do poorly.
A letter grade measures your success in each mission, based on the number of ships destroyed and the completion of some 'sub-objectives'; these sub-objectives are never really spelled out, but the game's Achievements often revolve around them. As such, when you do end up with a new medal (their in-game representation) you can rest assured that you did good. Points are awarded for your successes, which can in turn be spent on weapon upgrades for your ship. There are a wide variety of systems available for purchase on the Delta Saber, and collecting them all seems to be another happy aspect of the game's arcade element.
Not all is perfect in space, of course; aside from the aforementioned throwaway plot and some ... interesting choices in voice acting, some design and system issues tear at the edges of this otherwise pretty picture. As in many games, the other pilots are of almost no help whatsoever. That's to be expected, but they also have a nasty habit of flying directly between you and your target. This results in annoying cries of "watch where you're shooting". The D-pad acts as command center for your squadron, and they'll follow your orders to the best of their ability. The problem is that friendly fire significantly takes away from your points earned for a given mission. This gets really old, really fast.
The other major problem is an occasional noticeable graphical slowdown. I have my 360 fairly well ventilated, but despite that there were several battles where a wall of oncoming enemies caused some sluggish turning. In a game where being able to execute snap turns and dodge oncoming laser fire are essential skills, that can lead to some frustrating trips back to the briefing room. All the other issues I had with the game were fairly minor. The title did little to explain what exactly you were buying, for example, despite some basic letter grades attached to weaponry range and damage. Likewise, the tutorial at the game's start seemed woefully unhelpful once I was actually in the thick of things.
Thankfully, everything about this game is easy to pick up. Project Sylpheed is a brainlessly fun, easy-to-like title for your next-gen console. A complete lack of multiplayer condemns this to a few months of enjoyment , or even a rental, but don't let that stop you from trying it out. If you miss this under-appreciated genre, Sylpheed is going to hit every synapse just right. Barrel-rolling through a flight of dozens of enemy starships, all while locking-on and firing-off volleys of missiles, is a blast any space shooter fan shouldn't pass up. My biggest complaint about the whole game is that, once again, I find myself really wanting a next generation version of Tie Fighter.
- Title: Project Sylpheed
- Developer/Publisher: Game Arts, Microsoft Game Studios
- System: 360
- Genre: Arcade-Style Space Shooter
- Score: 3/5 - This game is flawed, but will appeal to genre fans. Any gamer might enjoy renting it, but this won't ever be a classic.
Thankfully, you won't miss them. The story is a semi-decent distraction. The forces of ADAN, allied former Terran colonies who broke away from the motherland, are striking hard against the Terran alliance. They're fighting to re-affirm their freedom after what appears to be the senseless slaughter of an entire planet by military forces. Your protagonist is an uber-talented rookie, friends with a cute fellow pilot and arch-foe of a former pilot who has now joined the ADAN military. The cutscenes are full of breathless exclamations of surprise and tight-fitting space suits. Just the same, the cutscenes have two things going for them: vague hints of something deeper to ADAN's story of planetary cleansing, and the ability to skip past anything you don't want to see.
While I enjoyed watching them, it's easy to understand wanting to get back to the game proper. Project Sylpheed is an all-out assault almost from the get-go. Enemy fighters come at you in waves, punctuated by larger frigates and carriers, with special named fighter units acting as boss battles in later stages. Before you start your bloody work there are usually dozens of enemies onscreen, providing you with a 'target-rich environment.' You're not alone, of course, fighting with support from your capital ship and three (mostly brain-dead) squadron-mates. Fights take place in a varied array of 'space locations', giving you a variety of pretty places to look at while you blow stuff up. Anyone not playing the game directly will be impressed by what's on the screen; if you know what you're doing the action is fast, frenetic, and beautiful.
Knowing what you're doing is the trick, of course. Your Delta Saber fighter has a dizzying array of weaponry and instruments. As such, the Xbox controller gets a stiff workout by your overwrought hands. I actually found the default setup cumbersome, and ended up remapping some things; every single control is customizable, thankfully. By default the shoulder buttons fire your weapons, while the triggers boost and brake your ship. I reversed these, as I found it awkward to hold down the RB for an extended period of time. Your mileage may vary.
The Delta Saber has three different weapon systems plus a nose cone popgun. This means that you have several choices of ordinance to bring to bear on every situation. Surprisingly, none are superfluous. There's an anti-aircraft missile system, which locks onto targets as they come within your field of fire. Dozens of missiles can be aimed at multiple targets just by sticking closeby. Upon releasing the fire button they soar away from your ship like deadly homing birds, creating a beautiful and ultimately fiery ballet. A larger set of missles is available for frigates, destroyers and the like, while a railgun acts as a catch-all choice that can be directed at either sized-target with deadly effect. It's simple to switch between weapon systems with the twitch of a thumb; the downside to this is that often pits you against a wave of fighters and their destroyer escort at the same time.
Those scenarios are always quite challenging, as you're forced to make some tough choices. Toughness is a watchword of this game, but not frustratingly so. Sylpheed is very much an arcade shooter, right down to the arbitrary clock on each mission. You're given a warning when there are only three minutes left on the clock; when it runs out the captain of your capital ship says that you are 'unable to fight any longer.' I'm not really sure I understand this, but it does make for tense level design. Even If you screw up, there's no real problem. You're encouraged to go back and re-try levels on which you do poorly.
A letter grade measures your success in each mission, based on the number of ships destroyed and the completion of some 'sub-objectives'; these sub-objectives are never really spelled out, but the game's Achievements often revolve around them. As such, when you do end up with a new medal (their in-game representation) you can rest assured that you did good. Points are awarded for your successes, which can in turn be spent on weapon upgrades for your ship. There are a wide variety of systems available for purchase on the Delta Saber, and collecting them all seems to be another happy aspect of the game's arcade element.
Not all is perfect in space, of course; aside from the aforementioned throwaway plot and some ... interesting choices in voice acting, some design and system issues tear at the edges of this otherwise pretty picture. As in many games, the other pilots are of almost no help whatsoever. That's to be expected, but they also have a nasty habit of flying directly between you and your target. This results in annoying cries of "watch where you're shooting". The D-pad acts as command center for your squadron, and they'll follow your orders to the best of their ability. The problem is that friendly fire significantly takes away from your points earned for a given mission. This gets really old, really fast.
The other major problem is an occasional noticeable graphical slowdown. I have my 360 fairly well ventilated, but despite that there were several battles where a wall of oncoming enemies caused some sluggish turning. In a game where being able to execute snap turns and dodge oncoming laser fire are essential skills, that can lead to some frustrating trips back to the briefing room. All the other issues I had with the game were fairly minor. The title did little to explain what exactly you were buying, for example, despite some basic letter grades attached to weaponry range and damage. Likewise, the tutorial at the game's start seemed woefully unhelpful once I was actually in the thick of things.
Thankfully, everything about this game is easy to pick up. Project Sylpheed is a brainlessly fun, easy-to-like title for your next-gen console. A complete lack of multiplayer condemns this to a few months of enjoyment , or even a rental, but don't let that stop you from trying it out. If you miss this under-appreciated genre, Sylpheed is going to hit every synapse just right. Barrel-rolling through a flight of dozens of enemy starships, all while locking-on and firing-off volleys of missiles, is a blast any space shooter fan shouldn't pass up. My biggest complaint about the whole game is that, once again, I find myself really wanting a next generation version of Tie Fighter.
This game was absolutely horrible. I tried the demo on XBL and I could honestly not play it for more than a minute. The controls are shitty, the graphics are shitty, and the gameplay is shitty. To compare it to something like Ace Combat is a fucking travesty. Don't just take my word for it though, download the demo on XBL and try it for yourself, I guarantee you'll delete it within minutes.
who thought this post was going to be about the Sylpheed email client? --jrd
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
So....any funny "engris?" It's what makes some of these games so enjoyable.
Call me when they make "Einhander 2".
And to think the summary got me all excited.
I guess this is a remake of the Sega CD game Silpheed. Man was that a bad game. Utterly repetetive, the only way to play it is to memorize all the levels and twitch. I love my Sega CD and all but, damn. I'd rather use Sylpheed than play Silpheed.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Oh man, I played the heck out of Silpheed on the Apple IIgs back in the late '80s.
Since this new version of the game is a 3d space fighter, I feel obligated to point out that Freespace was released as open source some years ago, and people have been working on it ever since. The homepage for the source code project is here:
http://scp.indiegames.us/news.php
Here's a youtube video that shows some gameplay on the OSS version
An old open source project called Parsec.
It was Quake in space with fighters. and absolutely rocked at a lanparty. Problem is that the core guys graduated from college and abandoned it and nobody else is willing to wade through tens of thousands of really "stylized" code to figure it out and get in the right frame of mind.
Granted, a FPS in spaceships is not anything like slypheed, but it reminded me of it and how sad that it lies dormant on sourceforge untouched.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
"this game will make you perfectly at home if you have ever had the fortune to hear Minmei sing"
We're not ALL peace-loving pansies who feel funny every time some miniature Asian girl sings, you insensitive clod!
Sincerely,
Khyron
I like basketball!!1!
Yeah, I've gone to great lengths to try to get an old copy of X-Wing and Tie Fighter to work on my current XP setup... to no avail. What's the closest thing to Tie Fighter that's available now for my PC? I've tried to find some kind of decent space shooter, but no luck. Any advice for this poor, helpless Tie Fighter fan???
I'm remembering this correctly, right? A Sierra On-Line import, right? I'm getting a bit burnt out on everything being 3D. Yeah, I know when the PSX came out Sony ordered all games to be made 3D so they'd look different and more modern than the last generation. And yes, there are many games and genres that kick tremendous ass in 3D. But there are some that just don't cut it. 3D sonic was a great example of a huge mistake. That little blue blur was hard enough to control in two dimensions, three just ruined the feel of the game. With today's technology, some bloody impressive side-scrollers could be made. Unfortunately, it's a rare project where gamers are given enough money and their own head to do what they want. When something like that pops up, it's the breath of fresh air that gets cloned and copied until those ideas now smell like the final breath of a toothless bum whose last meal was dingleberries and halitosis.
You know what hasn't been done in a while? A serious bloody side-scroller beat'em-up, the kind that had our jaws dropping at the arcades in the early 90's. Remember the TMNT arcade game? The Simpsons one? Marvel and DC comic-based ones? These modern consoles have four controller ports. I want to see four player side scrolling beat'em-up joy. We're no longer limited by limited sprite animations, these games could go all out. With the gorgeous wide-format TV's out these days, a modern console could stomp the snot out of the classic arcade experience.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
I wish that the Thief series would get picked up and modernized, as well, but that seems to be quite a pipe dream too.
+that's funny...I don't FEEL tardy.+
It scrolled top down, like 1942 or 1943. It was a Sierra-Online import though, yes.
-Richard
Holy crap. How is it possible I've never seen this before?
I know that probably no one else in the world shares this view, but IMO, Freespace 2 was the best damn PC game ever made. Ever. Any genre. Even the voice acting was great. And it managed to create the feelings of fear and foreboding in a video game without even letting the protagonist leave the cockpit.
Many thanks for posting this link.
Who cares if these young whippersnappers spelled the name of the game wrong?
...have contended for a few years now that if Lucas Arts got off their Ass and re-released these games with updated Graphics for modern computer systems (Hell Make a patch that enables the old versions to work on modern systems and upgrades the Graphics, I'd pay for it) they could make a killing. Bring the look and feel up to day with modern Nvidia and ATI cards they could probably come close to Movie quality visuals. Toss in a few new missions would be nice but not required.
Heck just come out with some new games that leverage the 1,2,3 trilogy. Those Jedi Star Fighters would probably be a blast to fly aorund in.
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
I'm in the same boat. It's funny too, because just yesterday I was bemoaning the death of the space sim to some colleagues here at work.
It's particularly sad because they were really just coming into their own when they died out. X-Wing: Alliance was pure joy and hinted strongly at a sequel or expansion. Wing Commander -- after a couple of bad games -- seemed to have found it's balance & fun again in WC:7 (or 6? I can't remember). Then -- BOOM -- no more Origin! Even more galling was that meant the end of hope for a Privateer sequel (a true one, not that one that got published though it wasn't bad).
Though of all of them the one I enjoyed most was Descent: Freespace (I believe it was just Freespace 2 for the sequel). Those were -- to my great surprise -- great games with good stories. I was heartbroken when the developer (whose name escapes me now) went under.
Freelance was a lot of fun, but again -- no follow-up. I always thought that Lucasarts was crazy not to offer up an X-Wing: Smuggler, or some such that lifted the incredibly fun Privateer style and plopped it down in the Star Wars universe -- I'd have paid through the nose for that.
I guess there just aren't enough fans out there to warrant the big production costs anymore, though that makes me pretty sad.
Wood Shavings!
- Godai
Sylpheed's user interface has really changed in the last year. I thought with so many people switching to webmail, traditional mail clients wouldn't get much attention anymore. Glad to see I was wrong.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Or the updated Sega CD version that came out a few years after (YES I STILL OWN THIS VERSION OF THE GAME!)
= 8585&fromint=1
http://www.stageselect.com/games/game.aspx?gameid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thexder
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
AAARGH! Shut up! You're both murdering the memory of this incredible game!
The original Sierra/Game Arts version was neither 2D, nor was it quite a top-scroller. It was 3D, with a steep camera angle. Almost top-down, but with real 3D perspective. The starfield, and the enemies came at you from the top of the screen, getting larger as they approached the bottom. If you flew your ship to the left side of the screen, you could see the right side of the ship, and vice versa. The intro was a full 3D space, with sweeping camera moves and all, rendered in wireframe. The game used filled polygons, and ran speedily on my 7.16MHz 8088. I remember it as one of the earliest 3D games.
Volition. Their name was Volition, and the world mourns their passing.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
I have always dreamed of a "complete" Star Wars sim. Imagine flying the Millenium Falcon. Then, your shields fail, so you have to get out of the cockpit (let Chewie drive), and go into FPS mode to go back and fix the engines (move some blocks or something).
Later missions would include space battles, and then landing on planets and going back into FPS mode for a prison-break or theft or something else with lots of shooting. Then back to the cockpit for the escape. Maybe even a Sabbac came thrown in for fun.
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
The original version (developed by Game Arts, sweet soundtrack by Mecano Associates, and published by Sierra Online) was probably the first 3D game I ever played. Check it out. It was 3D, with a 3/4 camera angle. That game blew me away as a kid.
I'm in the same boat. It's funny too, because just yesterday I was bemoaning the death of the space sim to some colleagues here at work.
You know the best space flight sim ever is free and even works with WINE? Try it!
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I keep it for the exclusive use of playing old space simulator games like tie fighter and X-wing. I gave up trying to make it all work in XP/vista.
Gawd those were great games.
If you're a big wing commander fan like I am, you will probably enjoy this game -- X3: The Reunion
:)
Ive been playing this game for literally a year now, its alot like Privateer in how open it is and the way the game progresses. Great space combat and collision detection, decent story (but very short), but the open ending is well worth the purchase on Steam. 19.99 i think it is? Any decent rig will run it, but you need a decent box when you have 15 wingmen with you, a carrier and a destroyer attacking the xenon in one of their sectors... has a working economy.. only downside is its only single player.
Be forewarned.. its almost as addictive as an mmorpg
Definitely worth a try if you're into space sims.
That sort of game is usually called "2.5D". It was a game with 3D graphics that gave the impression of a 3D playing field but only allowed 2 dimensional movement.It was a pretty fucking good game, though, and it's one of the reasons I keep my Sega CD kicking around.
This poo is cold.
space shooters ain't dead...
"Just Smile and Nod." --Huck
The Slipheed that *I* remember was the Sega CD version, from the 1990s.
:D
Great intro and a total blast.
Time to break out the CD and emulator.
III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIII
...not a space shooter.
Go here and play it in your Web browser. ;)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
This seems like a game belonging in the era of the System 360 as stated in the review.
Ordo Militum Unix.
Odin Sphere
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
It reads like a Penny-arcade Tycho wanna-be. Sheesh.
Shooters have faded, but they will come back. Like always.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
> I can only hope for a PC or a Wii version.
I have a cousin that got Sylpheed on his Wii in San Fransisco
1) Your analysis is based on bad assumptions so your result is way off. 2) You're a sick bastard for fucking a horse.
read it as "Project Syphilis Review"
On the other side of the aisle, if you have a PS3, you might enjoy Super Stardust HD. Features great old-school shooter action. You have 4 basic weapons: Rock Crusher, Gold Melter, Ice Breaker, and Bombs. Each of these start off really weak, and you build them up to 100% (or 200% for a short time) by collecting powerups. Your playing field is the orbit around a planet; you face everything from asteroids (which break up when you shoot them, of course) to things like green space centipedes, floating mines, intelligent balls of ice, and more.
Gameplay is simple: left stick moves your ship, right stick fires your weapon. L2 gives you a short speed "nitro" boost in a direction (during which you're invincible), R2 drops a screen-killing bomb. Simple, effective. Story? Characters? Besides the gorgeous HD graphics, this game is oldschool: it doesn't bother you with needless details. Your goal is to shoot lots and lots of things while listening to electronic music tracks and trying to get as high a score as you can. Survive longer, get a higher score multiplier, beat your friends' score on the global scoreboard. That's it. And it's great. And it's $10.
This game gets a score of "Electrum Monkey," which is about 4 out of 5 for those of you who need numbers.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
There are also a HUGE number of fan made mods and scripts avaliable on their forums. They add a lot of cool things to the game, like new ships, missions, sectors, commands, etc.
It can have a bit of a learning curve, but it's well worth it. Pretty, too.
Victory or awesome!
You may be in luck... have you heard of the Freespace 2 Source Code Project? Basically, FS2 is now open source; not only can you play FS2 in full for free, you can also modify it. Gamers are having a field day with it. I'm pretty sure there's work being done on an X-Wing game, though my sights are fixed more closely on a total conversion based on the new Battlestar Galactica series.
What's wrong with R-Type, Gradius, Xevious, Darius, Exed Exes, Life Force, Last Hope, Parsec(haha), Raiden(my favorite) or Ibara (although not really a "space" shooter).
Why bother playing this new shooter when there are so many old shooters with tight controls and frantic gameplay?
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I don't even know what to say. How much computational power is it going to take to make frame-dropping a thing of the past?
(This is both rhetorical and sarcastic. I understand the situation both technical and economic. But still, I wish developers would stop assuming frame dropping is OK. It stopped being acceptable after the Nintendo era, IMHO.)
If there is anything that we learned from the original Star Wars trilogy, it's that this game you speak of would be completely about moving blocks. And we have enough puzzle games as it is, so stop giving Lucas Arts more ideas!
Seriously, though. Just go back and play Shadows of the Empire for the N64. It really was a VERY thorough game when it came to diversity of situations in the Star Wars universe.
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
I certainly mourn the passing of the Freespace franchise, but Volition, Inc. is still alive and kicking. Just last year they put out Saints Row, and according to Wikipedia, they're working on a sequel as we speak.
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -- Groucho Marx
Volition is still around. Unfortunately Freespace II didn't sell well at all so Freespace III was never made. However if you want to replay some old space shooters Wing Commander IV, Freespace, Freespace II, Space Fury? (Whichever space shooter was made by the company that made space empires) are all on Gametap. In addition Gametap is getting some exclusive space shooter title in the near future.
a rena/screenindex.html
Theres also a wing commander title thats going to be showing up on the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/sim/wingcommander
This might be the year space shooters start making a comeback... We were due!!!
Huh.
Well, they're dead to me, anyway.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
what about the friendly folks at freeallegiance.org :D
mmo space shooter thats an rts where you are one of the units... no plot lines there either, but a lot more fun and its free. Granted the source code was released by Microsoft, but don't let that fool you, many hardworking coders continue to tweak it!
The HUD in the pics look remarkably similar to the one used in Allegiance as well....
Insert witty sig here.
If you like Privateer or Elite, there is an open source space shooter called Vega Strike. There's even a mod for Star Trek:Next Generation vessels.
Actually, I was enthralled with this game. It has more eye-candy than any other shooter, but the gameplay of a sim it seemed. I was constantly rolling around, dodging and targetting in dogfights, while dipping between giant battleships around me and avoiding their huge lasers as they exchanged fire with other large battleships far away.
The controls were very well done, the only exception being the tutorial that the demo has doesn't allow you to inverse your Y axis (the only travesty I can really think of, since it will probably scare quite a few folks off), but you can remedy that immediately after, or on the title screen options, and everything else just flows together.
I dont care about the story or acting, but the gameplay is great for a fan of the old XWing/TIE Fighter or Wingcommander games. I picked it up at the store the day it came out and I'm immensely happy with it. I really do recommend most people try it out, and if you come from the same PC Gaming background I do, be sure to invert your Y axis and set your camera to cockpit view before you play. The game is great fun, very intense, and has lots of sub-objectives per mission to add some fun replay value as well. Everyone should support this development team and project because not enough games like this are made today.
Dear Godai:
:-)]
Um... We're still alive.
Sincerely,
- Volition
[I'm a programmer at Volition
Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'.
Go tell THQ you want Freespace 3 :-)
Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'.
I probably shouldn't say this, but I still enjoy StarFox 64. In fact, despite having a GameCube, Xbox, and Xbox 360, I sometimes get a terrible craving for some 64-bit action and have to run through the Lylat system a time or two. :D
10 FILL MUG WITH COFFEE
20 DRINK COFFEE
30 GOTO 10
Starfox 64 is out on the VC on the Wii. A friend recommended it to me and i've been loving it...i've not been able to work out how to change the route you take? I think i need to read the manual properly to work it out.
I guess my recollections were in error -- though I have this vivid memory of going to some page that talked about bankruptcy or something. Maybe your parent company sold you or something? Or I'm just on crack, also possible.
:P
I'm glad to hear you're still out there though! That gives me hope that someday Freespace 3 might get made, though I suspect it'll require a few space sims to do well enough to warrant a business case
Wood Shavings!
- Godai
It depends on a few factors--a lot of them are simply how many hits you get in the level--over a certain number will take you to the "hard" route versus the "easy" one. Others depend on certain factors in the game, some of which are really tricky to figure out. I got almost all of them without the strategy guide I ended up stealing--er, borrowing from my brother. If you're really interested, we can talk about it, or I'm sure you can find it online somewhere (Google knows all!). Let me know! It's a lot of fun. :)
10 FILL MUG WITH COFFEE
20 DRINK COFFEE
30 GOTO 10
THQ bought out Volition a few years back, but it's never been sold outside of that. Perhaps you're thinking of Outrage/Parallax, which made the Descent series?
Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'.
Yeah, I went & read the Wiki on you guys & Freespace and I'm pretty sure that's what I'm mixing up. That must have been around the same time someone declared the Freespace franchise dead (at the time? hopefully? :) and I got the two combined in my head or something.
At any rate, like I said -- I'm glad I was wrong!
Wood Shavings!
- Godai