[Brimstone]

Team Xbox has an article up talking about the Dwarf race in Shadowrun.

http://interviews.teamxbox.com/xbox/...un-Dwarves/p1/

[rusty]

I can't believe just how far this game has come since its first showing...


It's actually looking pretty good now in my opinion, I like the art style as well (for the most part!).

[aselto]

Beta video:
http://www.1pstart.com/10-minutes-of...un-beta-video/
http://useruploads.mythica.org/view/Shadowrun.wmv

[StefanS]

Originally Posted by rusty

I can't believe just how far this game has come since its first showing...


It's actually looking pretty good now in my opinion, I like the art style as well (for the most part!).

Seconded. It looks much better. Lots of improvements.

[Inane_Dork]

How many Xboxen will play as dwarfs so they can make Mini Me jokes?

Anyway, the lighting has really come together and they've added so much detail to the levels in comparison to the first showing. This might be a good CS-like game.

[Brimstone]

I found it intresting to compare the Dwarf model from Project Offset to the Shadowrun one.

The Project Offset Dwarf has "sub surface scattering".

[TurnDragoZeroV2G]

From now until some point in the future, FASA is going to be sending out 1000 invites every Thursday, according to one of the devs.

It's unfortunate I don't have the proper capture equipment to make a good video. With sound. Heh.

[Brimstone]

Screenshot from the beta.




Team Xbox movies from the Shadowrun Beta @ 640 x 360 resolution "right click save as"

Raid: Power Station 1

http://movies.teamxbox.com/xbox360/s...hadow_3225.wmv

Raid: Power Station 2

http://movies.teamxbox.com/xbox360/s...hadow_3226.wmv

Raid: Power Station 3

http://movies.teamxbox.com/xbox360/s...hadow_3227.wmv



Extraction: Lobby 1

http://movies.teamxbox.com/xbox360/s...hadow_3221.wmv

Extraction: Lobby 2

http://movies.teamxbox.com/xbox360/s...hadow_3222.wmv

Extraction: Lobby 3

http://movies.teamxbox.com/xbox360/s...hadow_3223.wmv

Extraction: Lobby 4

http://movies.teamxbox.com/xbox360/s...hadow_3224.wmv


Same Team Xbox movies @ HD resolution 1280 x 720


Raid: Power Station 1

http://movies.teamxbox.com/xbox360/s...dow_3225hd.wmv

Raid: Power Station 2

http://movies.teamxbox.com/xbox360/s...dow_3226hd.wmv

Raid: Power Station 3

http://movies.teamxbox.com/xbox360/s...dow_3227hd.wmv


Extraction: Lobby 1

http://movies.teamxbox.com/xbox360/s...dow_3221hd.wmv

Extraction: Lobby 2

http://movies.teamxbox.com/xbox360/s...dow_3222hd.wmv

Extraction: Lobby 3

http://movies.teamxbox.com/xbox360/s...dow_3223hd.wmv

Extraction: Lobby 4

http://movies.teamxbox.com/xbox360/s...dow_3224hd.wmv

[TheChefO]

Originally Posted by Brimstone

I found it intresting to compare the Dwarf model from Project Offset to the Shadowrun one.

The Dwarf Rocks!

I have to say this game has really come a long way but I'm still not sold. If I do pick it up, I will be rockin the dwarf though.

[LunchBox]

LOL
I love the pun you used.
It's looking better and better everytime theres an update fo this game.

[scooby_dooby]

I'll buy this game......for $29.99

[inefficient]

They have a lot of footage of this game and 3 of them sit around and discuss it on this week's 1UP show which I just saw.
http://zdmedia.vo.llnwd.net/o1/1UP/1...08_640x360.zip

I'm afraid this project has some distressing problems. The art direction is kind of all over the place. Graphics and animations reminded me of PDZ for some reason. Feature wise it seems they tried to implement too many disparate features all into the same game. They ended up with this huge array of features, but individually none of them really stand out. The core game play by itself seems really out of date. It's ends up relying on all these additional features to make the game fun. But since none of those features alone are specifically well done, it all comes across a bit janky to me. I guess my curent impression is that it looks like a mod of a vanilla FPS game with a bunch of crazy mutators tacked on to it.

The 1UP editors in the video were not crazy about it either. Luke's thinks it is "stupidly complicated" and that it will alienate the core xbox gamers. Shawn as a PC gamer didn't feel it was too complicated, but he didn't feel the core game play was that satisfying. Kathleen just seemed confused.

[DieH@rd]

Originally Posted by Brimstone

This looks awesome. Too bad its not an RPG.

[Brimstone]

Originally Posted by inefficient

The 1UP editors in the video were not crazy about it either. Luke's thinks it is "stupidly complicated" and that it will alienate the core xbox gamers. Shawn as a PC gamer didn't feel it was too complicated, but he didn't feel the core game play was that satisfying. Kathleen just seemed confused.

Luke said "it (Shadowrun) is a lot of fun" on the 1up podcast at the 23.10 minute mark.

http://zdmedia.vo.llnwd.net/o1/Podcasts/032307.mp3


The game has a challenging learning curve. Just because people are familar with playing a FPS doesn't mean they're going to hit the ground running. They have to learn how to effectivly cast magic spells and upgrade with cyber technology.

FASA made a game that doesn't insult the intelligence of gamers. This is a positive thing. In paticular for console gamers that tend to get watered down gameplay compared to PC games.

[NRP]

Originally Posted by Brimstone

FASA made a game that doesn't insult the intelligence of gamers. This is a positive thing. In paticular for console gamers that tend to get watered down gameplay compared to PC games.

That's an interesting point. Personally, I have always felt that in general console games were less sophisticated than PC games. I'm not overly enthusiastic about this game's concept, but I will certainly keep an eye on it.

[TurnDragoZeroV2G]

Originally Posted by Brimstone

FASA made a game that doesn't insult the intelligence of gamers. This is a positive thing. In paticular for console gamers that tend to get watered down gameplay compared to PC games.

This is NOT a positive thing. I think the steep learning curve (and it is steep) really is going to scare a ton of gamers away from this title.

From the standpoint of game complexity, it's great, and it'll really reward those who put time into the game. But the guy who picked the game up because he heard it was good will have to have the patience to sit through and suffer for hours until he gets a real good grasp on the game.

And the tutorials at this point are nothing but glorified instruction manual descriptions, IMHO. Those are desperately asking for some fleshing out. When a rocket launcher costs $5000 with two rockets and ammo is $1000 after that, and you can lose the weapon by dying, it gets hard to practice real use of it. Just for example.

And that's only going to be worse when it ships with 9 maps and no single player of any kind, for 59.99. If all three of those things are true when this title ships, combined with the amount of time you have to invest just to start making the game fun and exciting (i.e., where you don't suck so completely)... and at the time this title will ship... I'm not so sure I see this game selling very well. I have to question whether it could possibly even break even, for that matter. Limited options even for custom games, no splitscreen for release (if ever), and so on... the gameplay has some incredible depth to it, and it's tons of fun, but it completely bypasses the "easy to pick up, hard to master" mantra and goes straight for hard to play effectively in the first place.

Really, thinking about how long the game has been in development (3 years give or take), relative to the actual amount of content that's been produced... it's hard to believe, really. You'd think they would pop this sucker out with a single player campaign going by how few MP maps they're releasing. But we'll see what happens....

[AlStrong]

Indeed....

Is this a Vista-only title too? That would certainly make it even worse for sales.

[Brimstone]

Originally Posted by TurnDragoZeroV2G

Really, thinking about how long the game has been in development (3 years give or take), relative to the actual amount of content that's been produced... it's hard to believe, really. You'd think they would pop this sucker out with a single player campaign going by how few MP maps they're releasing. But we'll see what happens....

Shadowrun is a "sandbox" style FPS shooter. The creativity and freshness is going to come from the wild combo's people come up with as they equip with magic and cyber-technology. The little details are often overlooked how the game innovates upon Counter-Strike. Besides a much improved money scoring system, you can loan teammates money. And of course the magical ability to bring a person back to life with "Ressurect". Even the scoring with "Ressurect" is cool, the person that revived the dead teammate gets a cut of all the money reward that re-animated player earns when he comes back.

The individual maps should be way deeper in replayability because of all the degree's of movement possible with "Teleport" & "Glider Wings" and how you can alter the enviroment with spells like "Strangle Vines".


People won't have to suffer online for two main reasons. You can play offline with bots and practice. Just set the A.I. to the lowest setting and increase it as you get better. Then when you play online the skill matchmaking system will kick in. A noob should end up getting matched up with the least skilled players online.



In the long term, I'm sure they're going to add more content to the game. The most obvious are some new maps. The really refreshing stuff will be a new race such as the Ork, additional technology and spells that will all of a sudden make those intial 9 maps brand spanking new again.

[scooby_dooby]

Originally Posted by Brimstone

In the long term, I'm sure they're going to add more content to the game. The most obvious are some new maps. The really refreshing stuff will be a new race such as the Ork, additional technology and spells that will all of a sudden make those intial 9 maps brand spanking new again.

Ya Im sure they'll try and rape us for some extra content down the road....I dunno, this game has the potential to be one of the worst examples of MS's skewed pricing schemes.

Maybe I should give them some more benefit of the doubt, but I'm seeing a scenario here where people will have to pay $60 for half a game, and then another $50/year to play the game as it's meant to be played, and then another $10-20 buying maps and 'extras' that should've been included in the first place.

Maybe they'll surprise me, release this for $30-40, include a free 3-6month gold trial, and offer some free content. Maybe...

[Falkster]

I can only hope that the dwarves (dwarfs?) don't have the same Oddjob effect as in goldeneye. I hated that little guy! Similarly, going back to inefficient's post, the huge array of feature will surely be a bitch to balance, I hope they can pull it off. Anyway, the game now has my interest, those videos looked fun as hell!

[22psi]

I sure hope this game is 39.99 or below, this game will not sell well at 59.99. It only has 9 maps/arenas and the learning curve is too steep for the ave consumer. I wish it well but don't see how the regular 360 shooter fan would get into it and do not see it doing well in the PC space as the game is designed with the console in mind.

[TurnDragoZeroV2G]

Not just limited to 9 maps, but also to 3 gametypes--with limited customization. And if you've read up on what's coming for a game like Halo 3, it's just pathetic. It's nothing more than two variants of single-flag CTF and one team deathmatch gametype with a slight "twist." You can't do anything interesting really. Other games are going to allow you to create your own gametypes, for all practical purposes, and enforce it with game rules instead of trying to get all the players to follow them.

Better be 39.99. And I don't know what's going to happen with DLC either. It seems MS isn't hot on FASA's lack of content either, considering 3-4 years of full-on development (which is completely understandable when you have teams like Bungie and Turn 10 making what they have with thus-far less dev time). Either FASA is largely staffed with contract artists and such, and naturally they'll be leaving, the studio is getting massively downsized (to just a core team), or the studio will disappear altogether. If the latter happens, who's going to be responsible for DLC?

[Brimstone]

People from MLG (Major League Gaming) are in the Beta testing the game. They seem to like Shadowrun a lot.

There are many people from MLG including myself playing the beta right now. We will of course test this game when the final version is shipped to see if it has any possibility of being added to the league. One thing I can say is that I am having more fun playing this beta than any game in a long time; however, I still think there are things that need to be adjusted.

Watch out for a new thread coming in the next day or so with MLG impressions on SR.

Thanks,
Ben

#2 is huge, I can't think of any game that is played on a competitive level that hasn't gone through atleast minor adjustment in rule settings on some level. On another note I honestly haven't had this much fun playing an FPS for a while.

Also, the gamertag glitch posted for Nexy isn't spelled correctly and Nexy by far isn't the best MLG beta tester. I'll try and get some footage of better players up next week.

My opinion on the game is that it has a larger individual skill cap than Halo 2 (which isn't saying much) and the team work skill cap is much higher as well. I have been impressed by bursts of genius here and there but there is definetly a long way to go before we really start seeing blow your mind off amazing plays in both categories.

Only because my name has been mentioned a few times:

1) My GT is "The MLG Nexy".
2) I'm the official MLG game tester.
3) I'm the best Shadowrun player in the galaxy.

Jokr plays an Elf, 'nuff said.
Rapture, Synide says your bad at Halo PC

Anyway, thanks Fasa for the beta! I've been having a blast playing your game.

http://forums.shadowrun.com/forums/1...howThread.aspx

Thats 3 people from MLG in the Beta that like Shadowrun a lot. To me the odds are Shadowrun will be quickly accepted into MLG. And these are impressions from gamers that are competitive about dueling against other people.