Time Crisis 4

cthellis42

Hoopy Frood
Legend
Looks like it's making its' way to consoles as well. :D I think only the PS3 version has been announced so far.

- Bandai Namco will release a PS3 port of the arcade gun shooting game Time Crisis 4 in Japan in Q4 2007, a new GunCon3 controller will be released simultaneously.
(From the-magicbox.com)

Made me look up the Guncon 3 as well, which is rather nifty. ^_^

One wonders if they'll make the Guncon 3 compatible with more than the PS3, but I suppose that depends if the initial version is USB-only, or Bluetooth-only or by some other/combined means. One also wonders if they'll eventually port TC4 to the Wii, as it'd certainly make sense for them to. The Wiimote may be uncomfortable to hold for a game like that, but it's still there by default, and they can otherwise work things out. (Uncluding bundling a gun shell or selling a Guncon that way, too.)
 
I wonder how they'll make the gun work with non-CRT displays. A setup like the Wiimote w/ bar is cumbersome and not nearly as accurate. Maybe they'll do a CCD-based gun and flash a position-encoded pattern on the screen when you shoot.

Edit: Should have read the Guncon 3 link first. I don't have high hopes for its accuracy.
 
From the Guncon 3 article I linked:
...Japan's Game Watch website appears to have scored the details, although they've since disappeared from the site. Wired's Game Life managed to preserve the key bits, however, which reveal that the controller functions much like a Wiimote, relying on a pair of markers placed on top of the TV that are detected by a camera in the muzzle of the gun.
 
Yes, after watching the interview on gametrailers I realise that there are some interesting things about this new GunCon 3 and Time Crisis 4 that are not immediately apparent. First of all, the GunCon3 itself is merged with practically a full PS3 controller, which is interesting, because not only does it include 2 analog sticks, but they are also supported with a special free-form version of the game.

Now as Time Crisis veterans (and most other people) will know, the game normally is a strictly 'on-rails' affair. However, the two analog sticks add the option to walk around, strafe and turn, while at the same time preserving the option to shoot stuff with the guncon.

This is a development that I find extremely interesting, because it fulfills an old wish of mine (and probably a few others who dare to think beyond mouse-and-keyboard) - namely controlling the shooting in an fps with a GunCon style apparatus (the other would be using the motion controls, which is apparently something Unreal is going to try out).

If this works, it definitely could be something really big.

Time Crisis 4 itself looks terribly bland, but I'm more than willing to suspend my judgment there considering how much I loved the first three games!

Anyway, this time it really is all about the GunCon3 though! This could be very, very interesting.
 
Now as Time Crisis veterans (and most other people) will know, the game normally is a strictly 'on-rails' affair. However, the two analog sticks add the option to walk around, strafe and turn, while at the same time preserving the option to shoot stuff with the guncon.
I don't really see Time Crisis 4 itself changing, though. The GunCon 2 had a D-pad where your thumb could use it, but it's not like TC2 or 3 could use it; it just broadened the light gun's possibilities for games like Dead Aim.
 
Ah, good. At first I was worried that they were pulling it off rails completely to go FPS, which would be weird, but that's just an extra mode, so it spices things up instead. ^_^

I wonder if they'll have "analog center-screen aiming" or "within a bounding box" for the FPS mode as options as well, because the current take looks a bit stodgy. But I'm guessing probably not, since they want you to use the lightgun to full effect, which means rapid aiming anywhere on the visible screen. (And "edge of screen" turning blows. 8-P )
 
But is the guncon3 compatible with backwards compatible ps2 games like the older TC games, or perhaps some D/L off the PSN??
 
Some more details on the guncon, with some interesting and (at least for me) new details:

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2007/11/12/time-crisis-4-creating-the-guncon-3-part-2/#more-278

Finally, I noticed a lot of questions about the shooting accuracy with our new setup, which uses two sensors and allows users to play on any type of television. The Guncon 3 is extremely accurate as a function of both our hardware and software. On the hardware side, the lens of the gun was designed by a company that makes precision lenses used in cameras and scanners that can minimize distortion at the 90mm level. In the Guncon 3 itself, there are chips dedicated to computing the location of the sensors, which can detect their position within 1/60th of a second and transmit the data to the PS3. These chips also contain the functionality to detect movement and tilt, just like a standard SIXAXIS controller.
 
I pray, pray, pray that they enable support for this controller for other fps games!
 
Reasonably on topic question.

Does anyone know if you can ship the reasonably realistic looking black Asian Guncon 3 into Australia (or other countries with strict-ish customs laws)? A friend is thinking of buying it since it looks so damn cool for a light-gun. It would be horrible to have this return-to-sendered because of the usual nonsense legislation.

If anyone has any experience/word of mouth stories please let me know.

Cheers.
 
Some more details on the guncon, with some interesting and (at least for me) new details:

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2007/11/12/time-crisis-4-creating-the-guncon-3-part-2/#more-278

i was wondering if it'd have motion sensing aswell as pointing. makes it the equivalent in functionality to the wii remote. i doubt surport will ever be as good tho. and yes i hope that the input can be switched to legacy types for guncon and guncon 2 games. isn't that what the ps3 does with the sixaxis already for ps2 and ps1 games, hense why you have to press the ps button.
 
From the directors playstation.com blog ... (bottom of the comments)

Hi everyone, Takashi Satsukawa here. I’d like to take a moment to answer some of the questions I seen on this most recent post.

...

We also had some questions about the Guncon3 – specifically why the device isn’t wireless. The Time Crisis series has always had a really broad following with all types of players. We investigated different types of technology and the costs associated with each, and found that a wired Guncon3 made the most sense for us. Time Crisis 4 sells for $89.99, and includes the game itself, the Guncon3 and our sensor system. We want to stick with the Guncon3 for a good while, so you are getting a good value for any future games that use it. Unfortunately the wireless solutions we looked into would have made the total cost of the bundle prohibitively high, so we decided not to take this route.

Finally, there have been a lot of people asking about whether the Guncon3 will work with the PS2 Time Crisis games. Unfortunately, you can’t. The Guncon3 uses a different system to detect the pointer location using sensors, while the previous Guncons were using the actual TV scan lines. Since the old games were programmed to function with this old technology, they can’t be used with the Guncon3. It’s like trying to play a VHS tape with a DVD player – they are two different generations of technology.
 
This game is mine ... I've been so long wanting a guncon that works with modern tvs since I got my previous tv (100hz, non progressive-scan from 2001), and I'm so hoping that this game will be even remotely good. I'm worried about Time Crisis 4's main game, but the rest of the stuff is hopefully good, and the other games have potential. Also, I'm really hoping they do some downloadable stuff, because that would be a great fit for this (point blank style stuff, for instance, or some other kind of shooting gallery, or maybe some bits out of the Gun game ... :D or the next Gun (western game) with GunCon support .. )

Now with modern flatscreen TVs, this is going to be awesome! Online support wouldn't be bad either at some point. ;)
 
Back
Top