Freespace 2-like game, Sol Exodus

Posted on 27 January 2012 by FoxTwo

First off, yes I know I haven’t been writing much … I have been stuck in various games since about July 2010 – Grand Theft Auto 4, X3 Terran Conflict, and Skyrim (yeah no posts on those).

I have always been a sci-fi fan, what with me being a Trekkie and all. I know SWTOR was released, but I’m not as much of a Star Wars fan as I am a Star Trek fan. Star Trek Online has released a new expansion-cum-makeover called “Season 5 – Call to Arms” where the skilltrees have been revamped and crafting practically overhauled. Mission progression from Ensign to Vice Admiral has been streamlined. All these are done to prepare for the Free-To-Play launch on 17 Jan 2012.

But, this post is not about those. This post about a new little game I discovered on Steam. It’s called SOL:Exodus. It’s made by a small independent company, hence it is labelled an “Indie game”. Indie games doesn’t necessarily mean “sucky games”.

As I mentioned before, I have always been a sci-fi and space combat fan. X3 is an open-ended game where I will NEVER be “finished with it”, hence my savegames are still there waiting to be reloaded and continued. However, Sol Exodus is a linear game, much like Wing Commander (anyone still remember that?) series or the Freespace series.

In the game you are a combat pilot, and the missions are linear – you finish one, the story brings you to the next encounter immediately. There is no trading, exploring, flying around aimlessly like you can do with open-ended games like X3 or Freelancer. Controls are pretty much intuitive for the most part. However I did have to get used to not having a “strafe” mode… in its place, there is a “slide” mode where you disengage all your X and Y axis and rotate to face a direction while going in another. This allows you to, for example, fly AWAY from enemies, while looking back and firing on them, all the while flying AWAY from them.

The graphics are pretty, and they use the Unreal 3 engine (usually used for FPS games like the Tom Clancy Splinter Cell series). Hence you can be sure of some pretty eye candy. However most of the time your attention will be on trying to stay alive and killing the bad guys, the “Children Of Dawn”.

Voice acting in the game is decent, and doesn’t sound stiff. Pretty good for an indie game actually. The in-game computer persona that is part of your ship is called “Cassi”. I would even go as far as to say, if you have played Mass Effect 2 before, she sounds a little like EDI there.

Anyway let me just show you a video clip of the actual gameplay. No it’s not a video capture from me – I found this on Youtube.

It just got released today actually, 25 Jan 2012. Well in US it is 25 Jan 2012, but over here it’s 26 Jan 2012.

It’s only US$9.99 on Steam, and it is worth it! I haven’t had such a mindless blast-everything-that-moves space combat game since Freespace 2. Hmm I may even reinstall Freespace 2 again one of these days and re-play the whole game… I kinda miss it..

 

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Battlefield 3 Singapore style

Posted on 29 October 2011 by FoxTwo

Ok this is going to be just a short one.

Like everyone else, currently I’m gripped by the Battlefield 3 fever. Like everyone else, I tried playing the single-player campaign then abandoned it and went online to multiplayer.

What I can say is – it’s bloody fun!

Oh yes I get shot up more times than I kill someone, but it’s still FUN!

The majority of the players online in those servers I managed to get online to, seem to be just casual players, kinda like me. It’s ok to lose a round. It’s ok to be dead. The important thing is we just run around and shoot people. It should make you feel sad though, because Singapore males are SUPPOSED to have served in the army (SAF), or are currently serving. The way they play and rush forward is…. reckless. People just run into a hail of bullets. People just hop into a tank and take off, without waiting for a gunner to climb on board. People just hop into an F18 and take off and shoot everything that is marked “enemy”.

Definitely not how a real army works.

But, it’s still fun as heck!

Of course there are some who attempt to rally and organise the attacking or defending force… but more often than not these guys are either ignored, or they get snotty remarks like “Chill, it’s only a game”. Kinda makes you disheartened when you see remarks like that when someone tries to organise and rally an attack.

Anyway before I leave, here’s a video of the Single Player campaign mission – the first one. All settings are maxxed out (ie ULTRA).

See you online!

 

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Star Trek Online Season 4 Crossfire Released

Posted on 9 July 2011 by FoxTwo

The MMO of my dreams, Star Trek Online, has released a new expansion pack called Season 4 Crossfire.

Yeah in Star Trek Online, every mission is called an “episode” and every expansion is called a “Season”, just like the TV series.

Anyway the major update in Season 4 is the ground combat. It underwent a revamp and now features an over-the-shoulder shooter mode (very much like Mass Effect) as well as the more traditional mode, dubbed “RPG mode”. There were many limitations in the original “RPG mode”, such as you can’t throw grenades in between enemies to take them all out. You must have 1 enemy targetted before you can throw, and that enemy may not be in the optimal position to affect as many enemies as you’d like.

There are a bunch of other fixes and game re-balancing too (otherwise known as “nerfing“) but on the whole, this expansion made the game much better. Many redundant skills  have been renamed or re-powered. Weapons now sport their own unique firing sounds, and no longer shares the sound with other weapons. For example in the past, by listening to the sound, you couldn’t tell if it was a Tetryon rifle being fired or a Disruptor Rifle. Now you can. They both sound different.

Graphics underwent a change too. Many effects have been “refined”, such as the plasma fire from a grenade. If you’re on plasma fire, now the Breen weapon can put you out too (part of the changes). This is pretty cool.

Without wasting too much time, here’s a video clip of me playing a ground missions to demonstrate the new Mass Effect-shooter mode.

See you in the game!

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