[green.pixel]

Haven't seen this posted yet.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011...e-games-maybe/





Btw, first of the first three games is a tower defense one, Unstoppable Gorg - http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011...toppable-gorg/

[swaaye]

The shot of the carriers in space was the best part of 3DMark Vantage. I thought.

[Grall]

Hurm, I always wanted them to do a corridor shooter a la the invasion shown in the more recent 3DMarks. Not so keen on fighter dogfighting in space. It can get really confusing when there's no ground as reference to where the f*k you are or which direction you're pointing... (Or at least for me. )

[Davros]

@grall have you played chaser

[homerdog]

Space dogfighting makes for good fun, but the concept of space fighter planes flying around shooting at each other is so ridiculous I have a hard time taking it seriously. Not to mention the scale of the battles, which is usually smaller than what a modern naval engagement would be. 2 capships flying a a few hundred meters from each other exchanging fire WW2 style? Yeah right.

The ship designs are equally as ridiculous. Windows on a warship?

[swaaye]

Yup it's all ridiculous along with its presentation in scifi TV and movies. Oh well. Try Independence War 2. It's a wee bit different.

[Chalnoth]

I have a really hard time believing that a game made by a benchmark developer would be the kind of game I'd be interested in.

Then again, it's been a long, long time since I played a good space combat sim. Last one I got into was Freespace 2 (which was all kinds of awesome).

[Grall]

Chal,

This looks like anything BUT a sim. Not saying it'd neccessarily be BAD though - we haven't had a decent sim of the space fights shown in Return of the Jedi or...wrath of Khan/Sith, or whatever the disaster of the third/sixth/whatever movie was called. (Seriously, I can't even remember the title of it right now. )

Anyway, if we can get some multiple capships and dogfighting inbetween them - regardless how ridiculous - that could be real sweet. Maybe I'd finally even get a use for the joystick I bought millions of years ago.

[swaaye]

BSG had some top notch space battles.

[Grall]

How can you mention BSG when there was Babylon 5 over a decade before BSG was even a twitch in its daddy's pants?

(I assume you mean the new BSG TV show btw... The original series of BSG's dogfights used so many canned stock FX shots they all looked basically the same.)

[swaaye]

Yup I'm talking nuBSG. B5 is cool too. I've watched everything. I want B5 with nuBSG effects. Actually, I'd settle for Crusade having gotten 5-7 seasons cuz it looked excellent for the time and I really wanted to see where that was going to go.

[homerdog]

Originally Posted by swaaye

BSG had some top notch space battles.

Visually impressive but ridiculous nonetheless.

[Silent_Buddha]

Originally Posted by homerdog

The ship designs are equally as ridiculous. Windows on a warship?

Hell, if we're going to bring practicality into the whole thing. The most efficient warship design would be a cube with perhaps a couple of engine pods. But that isn't exactly all that sexy when trying to push a game and/or TV series. Well unless you're the Borg, but they were more scary than sexy.

Regards,
SB

[Grall]

Originally Posted by Silent_Buddha

Well unless you're the Borg, but they were more scary than sexy.

Really now?

[Lightman]

Originally Posted by Grall

Really now?

Thanks for that!
God, she's fit (and my type - analytical and logical - she could assimilate me any time )

[swaaye]

Originally Posted by homerdog

Visually impressive but ridiculous nonetheless.

I did like the nods to Newtonian motion and their near muting of space sound though. I can't remember if another show did space silence before.

[homerdog]

Firefly.

[swaaye]

ah that's right.

[Grall]

2001 did it of course...although that was a movie and not a TV show.

Anyway, windows on spacecraft and banking turns and whatnot are all nods to common cliches that people are used to and expect, because most people would simply feel something was wrong if they're NOT there. It's like criticizing sci-fi shows for having aliens that all look like human beings; no shit, the actors are human beings!

Our buildings have windows, airplanes bank when they turn. It's the same thing. It's only natural they appear on space craft as well.

It's like Star Trek, at least up until the Next Generation show, where the Enterprise wasn't so much a space ship to explore the galaxy, but rather a vessel to explore the human psyche. We need familiar settings and familiar people in order to identify with what we see.

While some of us may be more flexible, and able to emote fully even with gelatinous blobs, when so many of us can't even get past other peoples' skin color or sexuality you realize that even space shows need to be grounded in current reality on at least a fundamental level in order to be successful.

[Davros]

Originally Posted by Grall

It's like criticizing sci-fi shows for having aliens that all look like human beings; no shit, the actors are human beings!

the best was space precinct all the alien police had irish accents

[swaaye]

Almost all scifi is that reflection of contemporaneous human society with the various topics turned into one sided alien-ish races for the heroes to deal with. That is the appeal for most scifi fans though I think, whether they realize it or not. It's really a sort of comfort food for them as they watch negative concepts personified and defeated.

[Chalnoth]

Originally Posted by Grall

2001 did it of course...although that was a movie and not a TV show.

Anyway, windows on spacecraft and banking turns and whatnot are all nods to common cliches that people are used to and expect, because most people would simply feel something was wrong if they're NOT there. It's like criticizing sci-fi shows for having aliens that all look like human beings; no shit, the actors are human beings!

Why do you think there shouldn't be windows on spacecraft? Our spacecraft have windows...small windows, but windows nonetheless.

[swaaye]

Homerdog said it was dumb to have windows on warships. Which probably makes sense I guess.

On Trek those windows were supposed to be transparent alumin(i)um but magically became shattering glass later on. Most notably in the somewhat awful TNG movies.

[Chalnoth]

Originally Posted by swaaye

Homerdog said it was dumb to have windows on warships. Which probably makes sense I guess.

On Trek those windows were supposed to be transparent alumin(i)um but magically became shattering glass later on. Most notably in the somewhat awful TNG movies.

Well, if you've got shields and those windows aren't in critical areas it doesn't seem so crazy.

This, to me, really isn't one of the things that stands out as being particularly unrealistic. Aliens that are basically humans with different faces, now that is incredibly unrealistic. Aliens that can mate with us are positively ridiculous.

[Grall]

Originally Posted by Chalnoth

Why do you think there shouldn't be windows on spacecraft?

I never said I don't think there should be windows, I said windows are there in TV shows because otherwise it would look weird. Sets would be visually uninteresting, claustrophobia-inducing-looking, and a window is a natural way to help move along certain plot elements; the camera can visually help explain the story by showing what the actors see through those windows.

At the same time though, a window is a weak spot in the hull, and carries with it a large weight penalty - neither a concern in TV shows, but are in real life. Also, if you have space battles and stuff with thermonuclear weapons going off at very close range, you probably don't want windows on your war cruiser because people in the rooms inside could easily go blind by bright flashes of light. That'd be one hell of a bummer in the middle of a battle.

Our spacecraft have windows...small windows, but windows nonetheless.

Yes... Out of necessity mostly. If we had technology to reliably replace them I'm sure they would be.

I know there's an observation dome of sorts installed on the ISS though, but since that's a science installation and not really a space craft as such, that would make a lot of sense. But with Apollo for example, the commander of the lunar lander had to have a window to look out of so he could make sure he didn't put the lander down on top of a huge boulder for example. If CCTV tech had been sufficently advanced back then, there probably wouldn't have been a window though...