Vivian on 7/1/2014 at 21:38
Lolion, I used to have a signed copy of lords of misrule, I've read pretty much all of abnetts 2000AD stuff (well, not the latest I admit, but I've not heard any reason to suspect its much better). Im from banbury. I know the dudes ex wife. I've got some idea of what his stuff is like, yes. Its bad whedon, for the most part. And I hate whedon anyway. So the wh40k stuff is excellent? Compared to what, exactly? What other books have you read that you consider well written?
Like I said, this looks really promising, but with abnett in charge just expect ripley-ette to display unconvincing sass in lieu of actual strength.
Neb on 7/1/2014 at 23:43
I've been waiting for this game since before Amnesia, before Penumbra, before every iteration of colonial marines exploring Hadley's Hope. It always needed to happen, and so much the better that it eventually took a high budget critical flop to change direction.
Muzman on 8/1/2014 at 00:00
The trailer gave me less of an Amnesia vibe and more of scripting and mechanical heaviness like Outlast.
Which can be ok I guess, but can wear out its welcome if overdone.
Neb on 8/1/2014 at 00:56
A bit of footage:
[video=youtube;VXFBsvg61f0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXFBsvg61f0[/video]
SubJeff on 8/1/2014 at 01:09
Why not just remake Alien? You, 5 randomly generated AI, one of whom is an android (randomised every time) working together to fix the ship/escape before it gets you all. Like an Alien for the Spectrum update.
Don't forget the cat.
Muzman on 8/1/2014 at 01:55
Something like an Alien based "betrayal" card game principle would be pretty cool. That sort of free wheeling concept was always a hard sell though. People don't want to rewrite canon, they just want to live the fanfic, or so the theory goes I guess.
They talk about the need for a heavy character dynamic in that clip and it's very true. There was that RPGish thing that was being developed either concurrently with Colonial Marines, or got canned in favour of Colonial Marines (because it was the obvious winner. lolerskates). It looked a bit shoddy but seemed like it got the human part of the concept at least.
catbarf on 8/1/2014 at 06:19
Quote Posted by Vivian
Oh god not Dan fucking Abnett, the Joss Whedon of Banbury. Dudes a hack. When will people hiring game writers fucking look beyond 'has written a book' when it comes to quality control? David Giler and Walter Hill are two of hollywoods finest scriptwriters. Dan Abnett writes WH40K tie-in novels.
I used to read those shitty tie-in novels, and the Eisenhorn/Ravenor books Abnett wrote were probably the only ones that I'd say were decent pieces of fiction. Maybe he just hit it lucky with that series, I don't know, but I can think of far worse choices to pen the script for a game that looks to be dead-set on aping the movie. Besides, I don't think the writing is what's going to make or break this game.
I wish the guys in that video could shut up for two seconds so I could get a feel for the atmosphere, though the visuals seem dead-on. But I think what it's going to come down to is how well the alien is handled. In the videogame adaptation of The Thing, the problem (okay, the
biggest problem) was that the way it handled trust and infection was really poor and arbitrary. Characters would be scripted to turn at specific points even if you'd already confirmed them clean, and then when people turned into Things they basically just sprouted teeth from their hands and started running in circles. There was no tension or fear, just an annoying and exploitable game mechanic. They took a scary monster and ruined it with poor game design.
So in this game, if they can make the alien behave intelligently, and with some degree of randomness, and take advantage of the visual design, this could be pretty awesome. If the alien is predictable, attacks in scripted sequences or at purely scripted times, runs around like the imbeciles in Colonial Marines, or devolves into an occasional PRESS X TO NOT DIE minigame every once in a while, it's going to suck. It's a pretty fine line there.
Yakoob on 8/1/2014 at 06:57
Some of the stuff sounds awesome like:
Quote:
The alien hunts you using complicated AI routines, looking and listening for you - and learning from your behaviour - as you attempt to evade it. I spent a lot of time hiding in lockers, but after a while it started to figure out what I was doing. On multiple occasions I had to hold down a button to hold my breath as it attempted to figure out which locker I was in;
it's hard to say how "organic" it will really be. Will it just follow Amnesia's pre-defined corridor with deliberately placed lockers / tools / weapons you're
supposed to use in a given spot, or recreate a full ship you can roam around freely as the alien arbitrarily tries to hunt you down, kind of like what NuEffect said:
Quote Posted by NuEffect
Why not just remake Alien? You, 5 randomly generated AI, one of whom is an android (randomised every time) working together to fix the ship/escape before it gets you all. Like an Alien for the Spectrum update.
Don't forget the cat.
While I'd personally love it, I can see a more arbitrary/free roaming horror quickly messing up and turning more frustrating than engaging, or the really cool factors end up being missed by the player (or worse yet, percieved as bugs).
It's a serious concern and a sad, but understandable (imho) reason why so many game devs opt for more scripted or handoldy designs.
Volitions Advocate on 8/1/2014 at 07:37
Not too worried about any flaws that will come, I've never played a perfect video game. Day one buy. Just watching the sequences in that hands-on preview had my heart pounding even with those two guys jabbering.
I'll tear it apart afterwards, I always do when it comes to Alien, and nitpick everything. But I'm going to buy this thing, play it in the dark in my basement at night with my studio reference monitors and live with the heart palpitations.
SubJeff on 8/1/2014 at 07:43
What do you think of the Alien growth rate in the first film VA?
