Gaming Hedone Preview

There's a big difference between theory and practice, and Hedone sums up that perfectly.

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/2011/08/03/hedone-preview/1

 

I used to think that all the best game concepts were already out there - driving games since Revs (yes, I am that old) just have better graphics, FPS games since Doom, better graphics... But along comes Frozen Synapse, not totally new I grant you, but fresh...

So from what I read, they tried to be fresh, but fell back on old...

 

Sounds also like they wanted to go for a bit of a TF2 model. In it's current stage it's clearly never going to be able to compete.

Is the market saturated for shooters now? Is it possible no new franchises can get a lasting hand-hold on the fanbase? I'm starting to think that unfortunately that might just be.

 

next up: solitaire DEATHMATCH

 

Free-to-play games need to be a bit more imaginative with what the money offers them. i would much rather pay for something additional e.g. access to pay only maps or game modes than pay for my character on screen to have a hat! you could still sel hats if you so wish though, but at least offer something a bit more interesting as well. i know what i am saying is that you would have basically a paid for version and a free-to-play version of the same game but i don't see whats wrong with that. Companies would still make the free-to-play game good to keep people playing but they would also be forced to make the paid for game amazing to entice people over.

maybe that's what demo's are for though. All i know is that i wouldn't buy a hat!

 

Wouldn't touch the game with a shallow-draft unmanned vessel poking device, immensely enjoyed the review!

Keep at it guys

 

To be honest they lost my interest right about there. "YouTube generation" - give me a break! I hate these vacuous, made-up labels people come out with to try and sound cool and prove they 'have their finger on the pulse'. Utter cobblers, it really irritates me. The whole premise is old anyway.

'The Running man' - where people are killed in a game-show for public entertainment:
- Film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1987.
- Book by Stephen King, 1982.
I suppose they were for the 'MTV generation'.

'Death Race 2000' - where people are killed in a televised race for public entertainment:
- Film starring Sylvester Stallone & David Carradine, 1975.
Who was that for, the 'Seven-inch generation'?

There are probably loads more examples going back far further, but those are the ones that immediately sprang to mind. Hardly a pointed indictment of modern society if the idea is at least 36 years old...

 

There is also another movie example which is much similar. That is Gamer. A uber rich dude who created a deathmatch of convicts controlled by real people.

 

Convicts aren't real people?

 

Unreal Tournament comes to mind. But that was a great game with no ********.

 

Just give me more of the first Crackdown game, pure brilliance.

 

cobbler.. hmm I got a new word I can use

 

Thanks for the review. I'm glad you liked the concept even if the game itself wasn't what you were expecting. Let me talk a little bit about what we are trying to do here. We're an FPS studio staffed by people who like FPS games making an FPS game for FPS fans. Much as we (and you apparently) like the setting that we've devised, we're very aware that the vast majority of our players simply won't care about the backstory and that the gameplay will be the entirety of their interest in our title. We're making a game that those people can enjoy as well.

Most games in the free to play FPS space (and in the AAA FPS space for that matter) have military themes and we've deliberately chosen to set ourselves apart from those with our style and concept. While we do have a well-fleshed out backstory with philosophical bookends, the important bit for us isn't 'Clockwork Orange: The FPS' but 'Definitively Not a Military Shooter: The FPS'.

We do have a lot of work still to do on the game as we ramp up for beta and the commercial release and we hope that you'll take a look again at the game at those times.

Iain Compton, Game Designer - Acony

 

brutal violence for entertainment is old, romans loved t and im sure they wherent the first

 

erm it, even
roman ampitherter level might be cool

 

We certainly will, thanks Iain!

 

Now that I would definitely play!

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Unreal Tournament had exactly the same back-story.

An evil corporation creates unending clones to compete in deathmatches for the enjoyment of TV spectators, and it didn't seem that fresh even then.

I always preffered the Quake 3 story: 'the greatest warriors of all time fight for the amusement of a race called the Vadrigar in the Arena Eternal.' It's just pointlessly nutty.

 

What I want to know is, were the core shooting mechanics good? Forget about whether it brought anything new to the table, looking back at Parabellum and the reason they canned it (they threw in the towel and decided to start anew because it was too generic), I'm quite confident they have some interesting little twists up their sleeves with Hedone.

I would consider myself quite a hardcore FPS gamer, and I actually have quite high hopes for this game. I'm confident there's still more to find out about Hedone yet.