First off I would like to thank Thrax for letting me play the game at the DirectX booth for an extended period of time, and for answering my 10000 questions. The same goes to the Lead Programmer, whose name I forget, but who was also extremely helpful and responsive to my many questions.
so here goes. these impressions are from a first-time T:V player who has been following T:V, but not as intensly as some.
1) Visuals
As noted in the Homelan review, the game already looks great. Of note are really slick jet effects; Julia's jets come from her feet/calves, while the medium I used in MP had crazy jet-wings...in both cases they looked great. Another note was the *great* looking skies. Looks like the Irrational team might have taken a page outta Sarca's book, cause the skies looked amazing. Vehicles looked great, and so did many other aspects of the game. For such an early build, the game looks surprisingly polished.
2) Sound
Well, since the GDC Expo floor is really loud, I didn't get to hear very much of the game. One noteworthy piece of sound occurs when you hit a "sweet spot" while skiing...you hear a nice, clear "swoosh" when you ski perfectly, and a "thud" when you dont.
3) Gameplay
This was my first chance to play a build of T:V, and there is a lot for me to write about...so here it is in point form:
- Skiing takes skill...even after a bit of skiing around the same map for a while, i was still rarely hitting sweet-spots. I am really happy i couldn't just pick it up and ski like i was playing t1 with better graphics
- i was able to get going quite fast. the few times i actually picked out good routes, i got a good head of steam going. It doesn't feel soupy, but it doesn't feel like T1....it is different, but not at all in a negative way.
- I wasn't allowed to enter inv. stations (damn you thrax) so i was stuck playing a Med. with no pack. However, a naked med. was still able to jet around fine...read further for more info about this aspect
- vehicles are fun, but not too sure how useful. the rover/buggy had great suspension phsyics, looked awesome, drove great (when i wasn't flipping it over in 10 secs.)...but i am not too sure how usefull it will be in competitive gameplay. The rocket-suit-dealy also looked amazing, and had great driving physics/gameplay. this vehicle would be more useful, as flying it kinda reminded me of trying to play scout d.
- turrets are also fun. there was a burner/burninator turret really close to a base on the lush MP map which could be used for some seriously lame spam...however thrax mentionned it was going to be moved. The turret itself was a little tough to get into (i could jet into it, rather, i had to land then enter), but i am sure this will be tweaked. the actual weapons animation looked wierd and unpolished, which normally would be expected, but the rest of the game was so clean that it really stuck out for me.
- Grabbing the flag causes you to leave behind a long blue or red trail...which also appears in your screen. It looked kind of strange, and rather distracting.
- There are jump-pads which, if timed correctly, can give you a hell of a nice boost. On the ruined-city map, there are numerous routes that can be taken from jump-pad to jump-pad, and the few times i worked it right, i was able to get some good speed. this was esp. useful cause this map is not very ski-friendly as compared to the other lush map.
- rag-doll animations were funny, but looked a little much for me. however, they did look great when i saw Thrax ma a heavy in the SP map.
- SP had lots of things you could push around...in fact, Thrax spent most of the time i saw him playing pushing barrels around the SP map.
Things I Found Interesting:
- On the topic of Disc Jumps, Thrax revealed numerous tidbits; firstly, a disc jump would next-to kill a light. Due to the re-balancing of the armors, which Thrax explained as "If a T1 light was a 1 and med. a 2, the T:V med is around a 1.2, and a light much much lower" [edit insert] Basically, the way i understood it, a Disc Jump by a light would come very close to killing him...this has HUGE ramifications in terms of chasing in Light, cause even 1 escort with half a CG could eliminate a few chasers quickly. Also, it means that if you cap in light, you better not dj.
- Thrax revealed that Rep Kits "might not be in the game". The way this was said to me, it sounded like it might have already been decided. Thrax said KP was still considering it, but to me it sounded like they were gone. they were not in the build i played either.
- A disc-jump/boost combo will get you going "really quick" according to Thrax, but "is no substitute for good skiing". Thrax also noted that the boost is presently WAY too strong, and needed some rebalancing. He also did not laugh when i called it the "renegaydes feature".
- You can alter your direction in mid-flight without jetting; what i mean is, if you jet up, let go of jet, and hold right, you will fall to the right.
- burner/burninator turrets, according to Thrax, would "tear up a light" if you hit one directly
- mortars have green trails still.
- Invisible, elastic OOB a la TR2 give you a heck of a boost
All in all the game was really fun, and in amazing shape considering the build. Thrax & [Insert name of Lead Programmer] were really cool about letting me (and others) play, so long as we DIDN'T ENTER THE INVS!!1!!
I will update this post as i remember other things, cause i am tired and back at work for the first time after a week at the GDC, which everyone knows stands for "Getting Drunk Constantly".
edit: oops, forgot to say BIGUPS to Unamed and the other CR guys. great meeting you, hanging with you, and running into you pretty much every 10 steps. much <3
so here goes. these impressions are from a first-time T:V player who has been following T:V, but not as intensly as some.
1) Visuals
As noted in the Homelan review, the game already looks great. Of note are really slick jet effects; Julia's jets come from her feet/calves, while the medium I used in MP had crazy jet-wings...in both cases they looked great. Another note was the *great* looking skies. Looks like the Irrational team might have taken a page outta Sarca's book, cause the skies looked amazing. Vehicles looked great, and so did many other aspects of the game. For such an early build, the game looks surprisingly polished.
2) Sound
Well, since the GDC Expo floor is really loud, I didn't get to hear very much of the game. One noteworthy piece of sound occurs when you hit a "sweet spot" while skiing...you hear a nice, clear "swoosh" when you ski perfectly, and a "thud" when you dont.
3) Gameplay
This was my first chance to play a build of T:V, and there is a lot for me to write about...so here it is in point form:
- Skiing takes skill...even after a bit of skiing around the same map for a while, i was still rarely hitting sweet-spots. I am really happy i couldn't just pick it up and ski like i was playing t1 with better graphics
- i was able to get going quite fast. the few times i actually picked out good routes, i got a good head of steam going. It doesn't feel soupy, but it doesn't feel like T1....it is different, but not at all in a negative way.
- I wasn't allowed to enter inv. stations (damn you thrax) so i was stuck playing a Med. with no pack. However, a naked med. was still able to jet around fine...read further for more info about this aspect
- vehicles are fun, but not too sure how useful. the rover/buggy had great suspension phsyics, looked awesome, drove great (when i wasn't flipping it over in 10 secs.)...but i am not too sure how usefull it will be in competitive gameplay. The rocket-suit-dealy also looked amazing, and had great driving physics/gameplay. this vehicle would be more useful, as flying it kinda reminded me of trying to play scout d.
- turrets are also fun. there was a burner/burninator turret really close to a base on the lush MP map which could be used for some seriously lame spam...however thrax mentionned it was going to be moved. The turret itself was a little tough to get into (i could jet into it, rather, i had to land then enter), but i am sure this will be tweaked. the actual weapons animation looked wierd and unpolished, which normally would be expected, but the rest of the game was so clean that it really stuck out for me.
- Grabbing the flag causes you to leave behind a long blue or red trail...which also appears in your screen. It looked kind of strange, and rather distracting.
- There are jump-pads which, if timed correctly, can give you a hell of a nice boost. On the ruined-city map, there are numerous routes that can be taken from jump-pad to jump-pad, and the few times i worked it right, i was able to get some good speed. this was esp. useful cause this map is not very ski-friendly as compared to the other lush map.
- rag-doll animations were funny, but looked a little much for me. however, they did look great when i saw Thrax ma a heavy in the SP map.
- SP had lots of things you could push around...in fact, Thrax spent most of the time i saw him playing pushing barrels around the SP map.
Things I Found Interesting:
- On the topic of Disc Jumps, Thrax revealed numerous tidbits; firstly, a disc jump would next-to kill a light. Due to the re-balancing of the armors, which Thrax explained as "If a T1 light was a 1 and med. a 2, the T:V med is around a 1.2, and a light much much lower" [edit insert] Basically, the way i understood it, a Disc Jump by a light would come very close to killing him...this has HUGE ramifications in terms of chasing in Light, cause even 1 escort with half a CG could eliminate a few chasers quickly. Also, it means that if you cap in light, you better not dj.
- Thrax revealed that Rep Kits "might not be in the game". The way this was said to me, it sounded like it might have already been decided. Thrax said KP was still considering it, but to me it sounded like they were gone. they were not in the build i played either.
- A disc-jump/boost combo will get you going "really quick" according to Thrax, but "is no substitute for good skiing". Thrax also noted that the boost is presently WAY too strong, and needed some rebalancing. He also did not laugh when i called it the "renegaydes feature".
- You can alter your direction in mid-flight without jetting; what i mean is, if you jet up, let go of jet, and hold right, you will fall to the right.
- burner/burninator turrets, according to Thrax, would "tear up a light" if you hit one directly
- mortars have green trails still.
- Invisible, elastic OOB a la TR2 give you a heck of a boost
All in all the game was really fun, and in amazing shape considering the build. Thrax & [Insert name of Lead Programmer] were really cool about letting me (and others) play, so long as we DIDN'T ENTER THE INVS!!1!!
I will update this post as i remember other things, cause i am tired and back at work for the first time after a week at the GDC, which everyone knows stands for "Getting Drunk Constantly".
edit: oops, forgot to say BIGUPS to Unamed and the other CR guys. great meeting you, hanging with you, and running into you pretty much every 10 steps. much <3
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