Haze Comments by Rob Fahey

Feign death has another problem, even if they do add the weapon dropping thing: kill messages. This being multiplayer, players will expect a "you have killed xyz"-message when someone they shoot at falls over. No message = feign death. You could have the message pop up but not be counted, but this would invite all sorts of weirdness.

I feel really sorry for the developers because this just screams 7/10 :/

Corpses fade within a couple of seconds?? Because of the drugs?? The 1990s phoned, they want their garbage collection routines back.

Ooh, time for me to write a game.

You can't see anything .. because of the drugs
You can't hear anything .. because of the drugs
The enemies don't exihibit realistic behaviour .. because of the drugs
You can't control your actions .. because of the drugs

39.99 please. Any takers?

@bitesize

You'd be surprised how easily professional game designers can miss obvious problems when they're concentrating on getting their 1000 pages of dialogue into the game.

or that Qa have picked it up but design / etc are n't listening

Oh fuck off cunt.
The feign death is getting bashed 'cos it's shite.

@ evilfoxhound

You can bet your ass I still would. Platform means bugger all to me - except when it comes to issues like controllers (I just plain think the 360 pad is better than the PS3 one simply because I have larger hands that cramp up with Sony's).

But I see your point - there is a slight whiff of platform-favouritism that accompanies many a game thread. Would Halo 3 have been bashed so mercilessly if it was also out on PS3? Hard to say, but the initial gut reaction is "Of course it wouldn't". Fanboy-esque insecurities guarantee an element of 'X-franchise is crap because it's not on Y format'.

If this was an Xbox exclusive I'd love the feign death feauture.

Blurry Metal Gear Online gameplay for comparison:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/userm...

lol! I was going to "RAGH!" KILLA there but the 2nd comment is just pure joy! :D

So far, two previews and two first impressions... So what are you spending the 'donation' from Ubisoft on, EG?

Tea and Scrumpets.

You'd be surprised how easily professional game designers can miss obvious problems when they're concentrating on getting their 1000 pages of dialogue into the game.

dialogue's got nothing to do with game design - especially when FRD have a proper writer on staff who handles all the dialogue. plus the article says they've spent that last few months since the game got delayed balancing the multiplayer - i reckon something so obvious that breaks the whole game might have cropped up quite early...

OK, check this out: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/28207.html

At about 3:30 he talks about the play dead ability. You can only play dead if you are nearly dead anyway.

There, discussion over.

I'm more worried about the game spoilers (teenage americans mainly), who will engage in a spot of team killing 'for a laugh' and then blame it on going berserk due to Nectar.

dialogue's got nothing to do with game design - especially when FRD have a proper writer on staff who handles all the dialogue. plus the article says they've spent that last few months since the game got delayed balancing the multiplayer - i reckon something so obvious that breaks the whole game might have cropped up quite early...

Dialogue doesn't get magically written directly into the game you know. It requires implementation by designers. Cutscenes need to be manually created etc. Otherwise the dialogue would only exist in microsoft word. I imagine 1000 pages of dialogue would take quite some time to implement into the game. Especially if you have shit tools.

And games don't get delayed for balancing. They get delayed because you fucked up and didn't deliver the features you promised to the publisher on time. You tell the press that the time was spent "balancing and tweaking" the gameplay because saying "We fucked up and can't make next gen games on time" would be commercial suicide.

@evilfoxhound:
They're bashing games based on the comments of someone else, who has played. Also, they're bashing an aspect of this game that they're finding baffling. You don't need to play it, to find the idea as it is explained, a bit awkward. Or to point out possible flaws.

This is the closest to evidence that most of us have to base discussion on. It seems valid enough a concern (not nitpicking), and one which for all we know may well in fact have been addressed...We'll find out whether that's the case or not though, only when the review is published.

@Triggerhappytel:
Like some other outlets, EG split the latest preview coverage into separate single and multiplayer stories. The game has also had several release date postponements. I don't find it that unusual that EG would have checked in fairly regularly on the work of a leading local developer.

@BiscuitBase: generally either the cutscene people or the sound designer triggers dialogue in game. it's got nowt to do with the game designers. i'm a sound designer for a living - i know how the dialogue gets into cutscenes cos it's often my job to do it!

as for games not getting delayed for balancing - did you read the article? it specifically states they've used the delay time for balancing the multiplayer. it didn't get delayed for that reason (as you say, the main game probably needed some attention), but the multiplayer team have used the extra time for balancing...

@bitesize

Well that's interesting. I'm a game designer for a living and I'm pretty sure I remember spending months putting dialogue into cutscenes. Glad your company can afford a dedicated sound team!

@WiseNail:

That shouldn't be too much of a concern. Mantel helmets glow red when they OD. If it stays yellow, there's your griefer.

@BiscuitBase: heh, bad luck man. yeah we have a proper audio dept and i usually get lumbered with implementing all the cutscene dialogue... it's not a fun task.

the game is more of a traditional FPS where enemies must be worn down with multiple shots to kill them

Thats enought to make me totally lose interest.

Oh Wel,l Demo in May I guess.

I dunno, I mean you had to wear down shields in Halo 2 and I didn't have a problem with that. Although it was a horrific shock when I migrated to CS:S/DOD:S and it was literally a well placed hit or two and you were dead!

Sounds pretty lame compared to TF2 and CoD 4.

Is that a picture of Carpenter's mush on the front page? Shaved head... stubble... is this becoming the new short brown hair?

"it might even help to drive people to actually pick up Bluetooth headsets for the console."
God, please no. Any time you get into a game of WarHawk with people on mics, you either get the griefers yelling abuse, mouth breathers taking it waaay to seriously spouting lines from their favourite 80s movie without the faintest shred of irony, or the freaks singing or chanting some nonsense. Best bit about the new APC - creates teamwork without voicechat.

Silence is golden.

"Silence is golden."

Amen to that. Finally had enough with the little darlings of HIcksville and succumbed to the lure of the 'Mute everyone not on friends list' option.

Much more enjoyable experience.

@BiscuitBase

"You'd be surprised how easily professional game designers can miss obvious problems when they're concentrating on getting their 1000 pages of dialogue into the game."

/rolls eyes at armchair critic

I haven't heard any such stuff on Warhawk! Although I do appreciate if there is someone out there dictating if map points are getting taken over because its such a pain being a loner on a map being the only person taking over spawn points. Especially on Battle For Eucadia where the result is you get hammered into your own base.

I do internally lol at shouts of "GIVE ME AIR SUPPORT" though.

@BiscuitBase

Just read your other comments, so I take back the accusation of armchair critic. However, talk of spending months adding dialogue to cutscenes does suggest (from the limited view I have of the situation) that something in that particular pipeline needs a bit of sorting out. Adding audio should not be that time consuming, and to be honest its not a job a designer should be spending time on.

I can already see the obvious ambush of having one rebel run into mantel territory, feigning death quite obviously, the mantel soldiers know this and wait for him to get up, but leave themselves as sitting ducks for other rebel soldiers.

Rinse & Repeat.

again, lets see how they implement this, because if they've spent any time at all doing the MP, these things would highlight in the mix

All I want to know is, is it both split screen and online at the same time, and is there any annoying lag like in UT3?
Answer those questions correctly and I'll definitely buy this.