5 ms·

People often forget that this is a not a new situation for Chris Roberts, his last game had more or less the same story: after a great but relatively classic ga

by nolok 11y ago

People often forget that this is a not a new situation for Chris Roberts, his last game had more or less the same story: after a great but relatively classic game in Starlancer, he set out to make Freelancer, with grandiose claims and everything ever will be in it in a global universe. After years of development with no game in sight his studio ran out of money, was bought by Microsoft and the game was streamlined and released with a lot of features cut. As a (slightly obsessed) fan of the genre Freelancer has the aura of a "great" game, but in truth it was not top of its line, but good space game were already very rare back then and it touched a lot more people. > The game was initially announced by Chris Roberts in 1999, and following many production schedule mishaps and a buyout of Digital Anvil by Microsoft, it was eventually released in March 2003. > Originally, Roberts promised features such as automated flight maneuvers, dynamic economies, and a multiplayer mode that could host thousands of players, but diminished versions of these features were implemented in the final release. The game's initial technical demos impressed reviewers, but after the Microsoft buyout and Roberts' departure from Digital Anvil, critics had doubts about the game. Reviewers judged the final product technically good but failing to fulfill their initial expectations. Personally I hope SC will succeed, but I backed for the solo campaign (squadron 42) with lot of nostalgia for wing commander and Starlancer, and I have absolutely no hopes of the promises holding for the multiplayer, never had. In the meantime Elite 4 with all its own flaws scratched my itch for multiplayer (I would have loved for that one to be more solo like First Encounter). Note that the game draws extreme and usually critics are very aggressive, and defenders of the game as well, I merely wants to point out the parallel to the last time Roberts did this.

e12e 11y ago
> In the meantime Elite 4 with all its own flaws scratched my itch for multiplayer (I would have loved for that one to be more solo like First Encounter). Are you talking about "Elite: Dangerous"? Any particular grievances with the "solo play"? (My grievance is that it looks like they'll never "port" to the most recent versions of the oculus SDK/DK2 -- although I can understand why they'd want to settle for a (solid) proof of concept for now, and then wait with porting until APIs are finalized and consumer ready devices come out)
- nolok 11y ago
  Well, three things: 1. It needs a persistent connection. Now, I know it's just a little data here and there and whatever, but as someone who travels a lot in area where "internet connection" sometime means spotty 3G and walled garden wifi, it's a huge issue. 2. We're by design never going to get mods and player made missions/campaign and other goodies. 3. Overall even without clear things to point out, I can't help but feel like the game has been designed with that multiplayer system in sight and had to mold its balance / economy / gameplay around it, so a solo experience could be different (and possibly less "do your own experience with the other players, because the game doesn't have that much"). Still enjoy the game tremendously, but to be fair what I wanted was Elite 3 remastered more than multiplayer Elite.
- baldfat 11y ago
  Best Multiplayer game in that era was Allegiance from Microsoft of all people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegiance_%28video_game%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegiance_%28video_game%29 It was a multiplayer only game in 2000 with space ships and one commander who played the RTS side of the game. It was a MOBA/DOTA in space with a commander.
  - scrollaway 11y ago
    That's subjective :) I much prefer Independence War 2. It's superior to the old Chris Roberts classics imho: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_War_2:_Edge_of_Chaos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_War_2:_Edge_of_Ch... * https://www.gog.com/game/independence_war_2 https://www.gog.com/game/independence_war_2 * http://store.steampowered.com/app/359630/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/359630/
  - FranOntanaya 11y ago
    There are still servers running for Allegiance (search freeallegiance) and some development, since MS open sourced it and allowed the community to maintain it, but you have to check on weekends to get a game going. It was a pretty good teamwork exercise, it actually required players to think tactically and stay coordinated to overpower the other team.
thearn4 11y ago
> As a (slightly obsessed) fan of the genre Freelancer has the aura of a "great" game, but in truth it was not top of its line, but good space game were already very rare back then and it touched a lot more people. Spot on, I was definitely a huge fan of Freelancer when it came out, but always felt that it had a ton of missed potential.

by nolok 11y ago

e12e 11y ago

> In the meantime Elite 4 with all its own flaws scratched my itch for multiplayer (I would have loved for that one to be more solo like First Encounter). Are you talking about "Elite: Dangerous"? Any particular grievances with the "solo play"? (My grievance is that it looks like they'll never "port" to the most recent versions of the oculus SDK/DK2 -- although I can understand why they'd want to settle for a (solid) proof of concept for now, and then wait with porting until APIs are finalized and consumer ready devices come out)

nolok 11y ago
Well, three things: 1. It needs a persistent connection. Now, I know it's just a little data here and there and whatever, but as someone who travels a lot in area where "internet connection" sometime means spotty 3G and walled garden wifi, it's a huge issue. 2. We're by design never going to get mods and player made missions/campaign and other goodies. 3. Overall even without clear things to point out, I can't help but feel like the game has been designed with that multiplayer system in sight and had to mold its balance / economy / gameplay around it, so a solo experience could be different (and possibly less "do your own experience with the other players, because the game doesn't have that much"). Still enjoy the game tremendously, but to be fair what I wanted was Elite 3 remastered more than multiplayer Elite.
baldfat 11y ago
Best Multiplayer game in that era was Allegiance from Microsoft of all people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegiance_%28video_game%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegiance_%28video_game%29 It was a multiplayer only game in 2000 with space ships and one commander who played the RTS side of the game. It was a MOBA/DOTA in space with a commander.
- scrollaway 11y ago
  That's subjective :) I much prefer Independence War 2. It's superior to the old Chris Roberts classics imho: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_War_2:_Edge_of_Chaos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_War_2:_Edge_of_Ch... * https://www.gog.com/game/independence_war_2 https://www.gog.com/game/independence_war_2 * http://store.steampowered.com/app/359630/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/359630/
- FranOntanaya 11y ago
  There are still servers running for Allegiance (search freeallegiance) and some development, since MS open sourced it and allowed the community to maintain it, but you have to check on weekends to get a game going. It was a pretty good teamwork exercise, it actually required players to think tactically and stay coordinated to overpower the other team.

thearn4 11y ago

> As a (slightly obsessed) fan of the genre Freelancer has the aura of a "great" game, but in truth it was not top of its line, but good space game were already very rare back then and it touched a lot more people. Spot on, I was definitely a huge fan of Freelancer when it came out, but always felt that it had a ton of missed potential.