Star Controller

“Give fans things they had never seen or experienced before. Space combat is one of those things.”
- Lars Bakken, Multiplayer Design Lead at Bungie

Halo: Reach will be Bungie’s last game with Microsoft before they join Activision on a 10-year contract.  Although this is Bungie’s last Halo game, this is not necessarily the last Halo game in the series.  Any future Halo games will be made by an internal team at Microsoft called 343 Industries.

Lars Bakken from Bungie plays through the single-player campaign and reveals the one and only space combat mission that will be in the final game.  Lars has stated that space combat has been considered in previous Halo games.  In addition, there will be other surprises that haven’t been done in previous games.  Needless to say, they want to end with a bang.

The saber ship has energy shields, machine guns and missiles.  It also has afterburners and capable of performing barrel rolls.

Not only did it remind me of Star Control, it also reminded me of Nintendo’s Star Fox series.  Nintendo will be recreating Star Fox 64 for their new handheld console, dubbed the “3DS”.

From what I’ve seen in the above video, it feels like an entirely different game.  My prediction is that this mission will be well-received.  They haven’t stated whether or not multiplayer space combat will be included in the final release.  I’m sure there will be split-screen local multiplayer.

I highly doubt it will feel close to what we have experienced from Star Control.  For example, if the player dies, I highly doubt that he or she will be able to choose another ship with different strengths and weaknesses and try another strategy.  Star Control also contains more races, not all of them wanting to wage war.  This part of the game will at least show that space combat is something that is worth exploring, even for big-budget titles that haven’t done it before.

I hope that players and reviewers enjoy the space combat mission in Halo: Reach and show desire for more diverse ships and deeper combat in future games.  It can become a positive point towards future space combat games and even become leverage for the creation of a new Star Control game.

Tags: Videos by Anthony Suarez
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Playing the first level in the Light campaign.

It’s that time again.  E3 is coming up in less than a week and all of the sources of video game news and media will be there to see what developers and publishers have planned in the future.  Some websites have early access to E3 and are already uploading E3 videos.

I haven’t seen every single E3 video out there.  So far, the only E3 video that reminded me about Star Control is a game called Jumpgate Evolution which is a sequel to their first game, Jumpgate.  It is being developed by NetDevil.  The have plenty of experience with MMOs prior to Jumpgate Evolution.  I looked at some older gameplay footage, which showed a player controlling a ship directly in 3D space and firing lasers at various targets.  The E3 trailers also reminded me of EVE Online.

I e-mailed Alex asking if there were any plans for Toys for Bob to attend E3.  He replied that they “probably won’t be attending E3 or showing anything.  Probably next year’s E3 though.”  Darn!  I was hoping that we could see a glimpse of what the are working on.  We’ll just have to wait a little bit longer.

I started to wonder.  Are there any developers who will be at E3 that have some kind of connection to TFB?  After skimming my Google Reader I realized that React! Games will be attending E3.

We’re getting ready for E3 now…we’ll be going and showing our latest version of the game to press and portals…so hopefully we’ll have many more sites that will distribute our little game.
- React! Games DEVblog

They have finished Archon Classic for the PC a long time ago.  I’ve been meaning to write about it for some time and I’ve just been occupied with other stuff.  I recorded myself playing the first level in the campaign.  I used  a keyboard and mouse to play and it is also compatible with the Xbox 360 controller.  They have recently added their game to Impulse, a digital distribution service made by Stardock.

I still notice the same trend many of us have been talking about for years: old games are coming back in a new shape or form.  2K Games is working on a FPS version of XCOM and it interests me.  I’m curious to see how they will translate the turn-based strategy to a first-person perspective.  They previously worked on both BioShock games and I have faith that they can pull it off.  3D Realms has announced that Duke Nukem Manhattan Project will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade.  A new 2D Sonic the Hedgehog game is also being made.  Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge will have a high-definition remake.  With this growing trend, it should be easy to add Star Control to the list of HD remakes.

In summary, there is a very incredible amount of trailers and articles available for an event that is officially starting in a few days.  Even though TFB is not on the list, we may see something that may have a striking similarity to Star Control or anything else related to TFB.  React! Games will be there to show off their new Archon game and I hope they get a fair share of the spotlight.  With Microsoft and Sony showing off their new motion controls, the video game industry is starting to change in many ways.

Links
Jumpgate Evolution – PAX 2008 Gameplay
Archon Classic – Finally on Impulse
List of Exhibitors in E3

Tags: Thoughts, Videos by Anthony Suarez
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