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Star Wars Battlefield

Now that EA has exclusive rights to publish Star Wars games, I hope they take full advantage of the license.  Not that I expect a whole lot from EA with an infamous track record like theirs, but I still believe they have tech, talent, and precedence to leverage in favor of some really good Star Wars games.  The one I’m waiting for is Star Wars Battlefront in the Frostbite 3 engine.  I want to see Star Wars Battlefield.

star wars battlefield

Imagine the Frostbite 3 engine with destructible environments. Imagine being able to fly an X-Wing out of a hangar aboard a Mon Calamari Cruiser, dog fight with a TIE Figher, then nose dive through the atmosphere of a planet to join a war being waged on the ground with AT-ATs laying siege to a Rebel base. Maps could take place throughout the Star Wars timeline, with vehicles, weapons, tech, and ‘classes’ providing an enormous breadth of choices and possibilities.

Battlefront was always an amazing idea with underwhelming execution.  Battlefield is always an average idea with incremental execution.  Combine the two and you’ll have an amazing idea with an incremental execution which may just revive and perfect both franchises with one stone.

Anyone else have any cool ideas you wish EA would explore now that they have a force-grip hold on one of the most amazing licenses in the galaxy?

Update: Apparently it has been said already (like a day or two ago) that there’s a good chance this will happen.

“The opportunity to do a new Battlefront, for example, which is one of the very popular Star Wars games, or some of the other traditional games that were made, is very exciting.”

And here’s a video of what they DIDN’T do with Battlefront 3…

Remake Command & Conquer Renegade!

command and conquer renegadeRaise your hand if you’re cool enough to remember Command & Conquer Renegade.  If you were one of the lucky few to play this game, don’t you wish they’d remake it?!  I was talking with my roommate (who is a modest gamer) and we somehow got on the topic of games we want to see remade.  On the top of my list, and oddly enough my roommate’s, is C&C Renegade.  Imagine taking a game of Command & Conquer, and playing it as a FPS.  Remove most of the RTS elements, focus on destroying bases, and you have C&C Regenade.

I don’t even remember what the single-player was about because Renegade was all about the multiplayer.  There were, of coarse, two teams: GDI and Nod.  Each team started with a base, and the goal was the other have the most points when the time ran out, or destroy the enemy’s base.  There was also an element of resource gathering.  Yep, those awesome Tiberium harvesters would go out and gather Tiberium which would then allow players to buy vehicles and equipment.  Part of what made Renegade so cool was that every building in the base had a function.  There was a refinery to process Tiberium, infantry upgrades, vehicle production, repairs, etc.  I’m suddenly being flooded with memories of the tactics we would use.  I remember everyone on my team sprinting immediately to a particular building, planting some sort of charge, and actually detonating some kind of nuke.  All I can remember is how awesome it was to devise rush tactics strategies to disable your opponent before they knew what was going on.

A tank and an orca head into battle against a NOD base.

A tank and an orca head into battle against a NOD base.

Renegade had everything: Air vehicles ground vehicles, upgradable infantry kits, big outdoor maps, destructible buildings, and objective based gameplay. Oh, and the vehicles were just basic tanks either.  I’m talkin’ stealth tanks, flame thrower tanks, MRLS, and even the infamous Mammoth Tanks!  Maybe what I loved the most about Renegade was that it captured a lot of C&C feel, but in a different and memorable way.

The converging gameplay mechanics, the depth of gameplay rivaling Starsiege Tribes, and the intense action prove Renegade was before its time.  It began bridging RTS and FPS genres well before anyone else even made an attempt.  It deserves to be made in a time when these things can be fully realized.

While writing this quick post up and searching for some decent screenshots of Renegade, I did some research and came across a mod called Renegade X.  Apparently it’s been running for 11 years and still going strong, because yesterday they announced beta applications for the upcoming multiplayer would start soon.  I think this is entirely indie, but check it out and let me know what you find.  Looking at the screenshots, it looks like they’re bringing back some of my favorite maps.  Maybe a remake isn’t so far off?

RenegadeX Islands

 

Update: Oh shut the front door… there’s a video with commentary! No, I’m not crying; Something’s in my eye, okay?   Video embedded after the jump. Continue reading “Remake Command & Conquer Renegade!” »

Dead Space 3 Review

A little while back I gave my impressions of the Dead Space 3 demo, which I think gave some cautious optimism. Just recently, yesterday actually, I finished up my first playthrough of the game and I have to say that my experience was better than I expected.  The games setting is majorly split between 2 locales. For about the first 40% of the game you will be in space among the various ships in the flotilla above Tau Volantis (I think that’s the name of the planet. I really need a fact checker.) The cool thing is how you can actually maneuver around outside the ships in zero-g with your space thrusters. Trying to find secrets while making sure you don’t run out of oxygen or get shot by dog necromorphs is exhilarating. To get between the different ships you take a small shuttle, which looks neat but is essentially a loading screen. There are 4 ships in the flotilla, but one is only accessible if you are playing co-op. When I think about it, I actually wouldn’t mind if the entire game took place in space among the derelict ships. It would have kept the vibe of the original games and just been really awesome. It kind of feels like a missed opportunity.

Dead Space 3

Use thrusters to fly around space

The other 60% of the game takes place down on the ice planet, which is pretty cool at first when you are thrust into a white-out snow storm, but soon you forget as you spend most of your time in old abandoned facilities and ruins. The change of atmosphere isn’t necessarily bad, and a lot of players seem to like it, but I prefer the bleakness of space.  Most people’s concerns with the game seem to center around its shift into more of an action game rather than survival horror. This is true in some respects, but it really isn’t that big of a transition. Sure you do fight some regular soldiers aside from the necromorphs, but it really isn’t that often at all. There seems to be only a handful of encounters with humans, the rest of your fights being against the various forms of necromorph.  Really my only complaint is the lack of necro variety.   It seems like in past games you would face several more types and more often.

The gun play feels the same as it did in DS2, at least as far as I can remember. Things do seem a bit faster paced, however. I seem to remember the necromorphs lumbering towards you, whereas here they straight up run you down. At least on the highest difficulty, which I played on because that’s just how I roll.  As for the guns themselves they are both similar, yet quite different. Rather than just finding or purchasing specific weapons you get to make your own. First you pick a base component, either large or compact, and then you add up to 2 different gun components such as military, plasma, rivet, tesla, etc. I might have gotten some of the names wrong, but you get the idea. A basic military attachment gives you something like an assault rifle, but if you add a tip onto it you can turn it into a better assault rifle, or shotgun, or sniper rifle. This gives most all of the weapon components a good deal of variety. The combinations are almost limitless, especially when you factor the additional side add-ons you can use like scopes, co-op boosting items, fire/acid/electric bullet coatings, auto-reloaders, etc. I heavily favored a sniper rifle/rocket launcher with fire bullets and a shotgun with a force gun attachment. The latter being almost a requirement for keeping necros out of your face.

Dead Space 3

The icy planet provides a new setting for Dead Space, although you spend most of your time inside.

There is co-op in the game, but I have so far only played through by myself. Supposedly in co-op it actually integrates the other player into the narrative pretty well, so I’m excited to see that. Also throughout the game you will come across special co-op only side missions. Still, I’m glad they made the game fully playable by yourself. It would have been unfortunate to lose the lone, isolated feeling from the past games.  As far as extras go, there seem to be quite a bit. Not only are there several difficulties but a new game + as well. Also several additional modes like classic, where it’s singleplayer only and you can only find and buy the classic guns. Pure survival mode really cuts back on the resources, making surviving harder. Hardcore mode makes a return, but you can save and exit this time around rather than only getting 3 saves. However you still go back to the beginning if you die even once. Each of these modes also provides a special unlock upon completion.

So if you are a fan of the series then I really don’t think you will be disappointed. If you haven’t played any then you probably won’t have any idea what the hell is going on, but you should still have fun.  If you haven’t played 1 and 2 you really should. They are probably pretty cheap now. As far as the story goes it advances some things, explains others, but in the end leaves more questions than gives answers. If the additional story DLC doesn’t wrap things up then you will see me back here for Dead Space 4.

Dead Space 3 Demo

I’m a big fan of the Dead Space games, going all the way back to when I first got a glimpse at E3. I cant remember exactly how long ago it was; whatever year it was when they tried to go professional and press only. Apparently that didn’t work out so well. Anyway, Keen was glued to the Warhammer Online section of EA’s room but I kept sneaking peeks over at the Dead Space guys. The game looked awesome and I really wanted to know more, but I got dragged out of the room before I got through half of their presentation.

Why am I telling you all this? My computer is borked and I have nothing better to do. Even if it means poking this post out on the Wii U gamepad, which is taking at least 5x longer than it normally would. It was this boredom that lead me to browse the LIVE marketplace where I found the Dead Space 3 demo had been put up.

Over time I’ve heard some news about DS3 that gave me pause. Co-op was being added, along with non-necromorph bad guys. Additionally video and screens surfaced showing snowy areas and some brighter areas. My first thoughts were of how much this looked like Lost Planet, at least aesthetically. I mean, creepy gangly alien monsters with glowing orange weak-spots and in a snowy setting? It’s not a stretch by any means.

Regardless of my misgivings I still was looking forward to the game and pounced on the demo as soon as I saw it. The first part I actually tried out was the weapon crafting. In past games you got specific weapons and could upgrade them with different nodules, however now you can assemble anything you want. Get a machine gun and slap on an electric secondary fire. Change the gun tips and now its a sniper rifle and the electric part shoots bouncing bolas. Want acid damage? Why the hell not. Or how about a rocket launcher with a shotgun attachment? This shit cant be legal.

I ended up spending quite a while just looking through all the different weapon combinations there were before I eventually got to the campaign demo. It was there that I learned that the co-op was more of a drop-in/drop-out kind of deal and that there are even dialogue differences depending on whether you play solo or with a bud. That’s actually pretty cool and offers some replayability for when I want to play through with Keen after going through alone to get that creepy, lone, isolation experience.

As far as I can tell the game plays exactly like past games with only a few exceptions. Now you can crouch, for whatever reason, and there is a kind of auto cover system for when you go up against humans that fire back, which isn’t as bad and out of place as I thought it would be.

The atmosphere wasn’t so creepy at first. The demo portion has you play through a snow section in the day time, though it reaches white-out conditions at some points. This rapidly gets more tense as necromorphs pop out of the snow or run up on you when visibility is at its worst. It’s still just as scary/tense as Dead Space 1&2, but just with a different presentation. Like instead of Event Horizon scary you get The Thing. I say that like I actually know what I’m talking about, but my Mom never let me watch scary movies back then so take that for all its worth.

So after experiencing the demo I have officially upped my status on Dead Space 3 from ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ straight to ‘Excited.’ I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the final product so I can share my impressions.