Monthly Archives: July 2005

God of War, and design

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I join the discussion late since I got this masterpiece only today. After the hype about Prey I find myself looking more and more outside the mmorpg genre and the reason is again because I feel rather bored and frustrated about the potential wasted. While there’s always a lot to discuss, many of the topics are recurring (which is good since it means a progression is needed and possible) and I have already my own opinions. I know that now I’d like the possibility to experiment them concretely because you can only go that far by just thinking and analyzing them over and over and over.

Instead outside this genre the creativity is flourishing in all its forms, from interesting design to inspired graphic. I believe it’s useful to put mmorpgs aside for a moment and observe what is happening outside because it helps to think outside the box, outside the boundaries and the “shapes” of gameplay we all know and that after so much time seem everything a game can ultimately offer. It’s like if the more you focus on something and grasp it, the more you get blind to what is around and to those possibilities that are still not strictly codified and overused. You are only able to think to what is already under your eyes, unable to see or grasp something even slightly different.

It can happen to me as a player or to a dev that has to deal with the same stuff for many hours a day without the possibility to “relax” and let the imagination enlighten those corners that became completely dark and invisible with the time. This is an old comment from J.:

The more experienced players are in existing MMOGs, the more they can’t help but think about the whole genre in terms of what they already know.

I really cannot help the fact that even when I play a totally different game I keep analyzing it and trying to reduce it to the essential patterns followed by the design. It’s like a natural tendence to a form of reverse engineering, just applied to the design. While “God of War” belongs to a genre that hasn’t much to share with the average mmorpg I think it still offers interesting ideas. It can be useful to understand what exactly makes this game shine and, even more, understand how the developers were able to isolate those important elements. So that it could be possible not only understand the success of this game, but also understand the process that brought to discover those qualities in the first place.

I believe that games, as every other cultural form, have strongly evolved over time and not just because of the technical possibilities. These represent just the evidence at a superficial glance but the essential is elsewhere. “God of War” isn’t that different from Pac-Man, this is the crucial point. I’m not sure if a player that was proficent at playing it would be able to relate today to a complex game like “God of War”. The complexity of the form of the expression has risen exponentially and it’s definitely true that we develop more and more new competencies as the time passes. The games we play today are infinitely more complex than games we played ten years ago, but at the same time some of the basic structures are still there. The roots are there, just evolved toward more complex and intricate patterns.

In Pac-Man there’s a symbolic representation of a 2D space. The space is strictly codified since the movement is enforced in precise directions and paths. The gameplay is basically the essential concept of a “game”. Recognize and compare patterns to make choices and progressively optimize the outcome. Till a progression. In “God of War” the basic pattern is similar. We drive an avatar within a space with precise boundaries. There are monsters that move toward you and the gameplay is about playing with the space. The relative position of your avatar compared to the position of the monsters. We are still within the same scheme but in a freeform environment that allows the player to be more “creative” in the interaction and approach. This means that each player can interpret the perception of the space personally and tryout specific personal patterns. The experience gets personalized, the player invents his own solutions to a problem instead of just trying to figure out (“trial-and-error”) what was planned ahead by the developer himself. It’s again the problem of OOC design. The player and the game/environment. In this case without an interface or interpolated stages. As opposed to a player that needs to figure out what a dev was thinking instead of just what the situation is presenting.

To understand the essential I think it’s important to read the opinions of the players and see if there’s something recursive or in common (I plan to post tomorrow a compilation of comments I found interesting). From the comments I’ve read (and confirmed by my direct experience) the best qualities of the game are about a combat system felt “fluid and visceral”. Fluid and visceral are two important points of view and I think they should get splitted and considered separately since I believe they have two different origins.

This game doesn’t really “innovate”. There aren’t outstanding new elements or new approaches. Instead it’s a game that refines a process and isolates what was fun in other games to consolidate and focus on them. From my point of view the “smoothness” of the combat isn’t the result of a design lesson to learn but just a matter of practice. It’s about devs mastering their skills. Smooth camera movements, precise controls, polish, timed animations and so on. These are all parts that aren’t about sudden innovative solutions never realized before but about a process of refinement and skills that develop with the time. At the basic level the combat and the controls of the game aren’t different from those in games like “Medievil”. There’s just a slow and progressive process of refinement behind. The fact that the avatar can jump and perform actions while on the air helps to add a new layer to the complex representation of the space. It’s a way for the player to go through a “backdoor” and jump out of a context. It’s a creative solution to a paradox (something similar will happen on Prey through the “spirit walk”, breaking the reality to open up a creative solution). The paradox puts you in a situation that you cannot escape, because maybe you are surrounded. But then the game allows you to jump and break the paradox by putting on it a creative solution. A new perspective. So we are still dealing with representation of spaces like in Pac-Man, but then we have different layers we can “break”, adding a complexity. A pattern has never one solution and never punishes you for a single mistake (in general, the game has also “Dragon’s Lair” parts). Instead it puts you in a context and gives you a good number of tools to allow you to alter and use the space.

The insane amount of different attacks and combos goes along those lines. The game is ultimately fun because it doesn’t enforce a single pattern. In the case you fail you feel already the motivation to go back and try a completely different strategy. There are so many tools to make the game open to the experimentation and keep away the frustration of feeling captured in a corner you cannot escape. I already discussed in the past how combat systems that progressively open up possibilities can be more fun than codified patterns you cannot escape or reinterpret personally. In “God of War” there is space for creative solutions because the game offers many different tools that may even generate a specific play style that is unique to a specific player. This happens only in the best games, when the players discover and master completely different approaches to the same situation, developing their own preferred tactics. Of course I’m stretching now the concept to the extreme but this is the direction where it goes, this is why it’s felt fun. It even bring the discussion to the concept of “skill”, which is becoming increasingly popular in mmorpgs. It’s about offering the possibility to reinterpret creatively your character and its codified skills. It’s the possibility to play with those tools to develop an unique, personal strategy.

This is important from the perspective of a mmorpg because we know these creative patterns in just one form: exploits. We punish directly and cannot afford to design a game that is open to a creative gameplay. We fear this because in a mmorpg nothing can be “out of control”. But it should be also evident how this damages the potential of a game and makes directly the gameplay dull and repetitive. It’s again about a “fear” that is just leading to wrong solutions that ruin directly the gameplay. It gets progressively simplified, codified and diluted. Compared to the “rich” offering of a combat system like the one in “God of War”.

This was about the “smoothness” part of the combat. Then there’s the “visceral” part. This brings the discussion back to the OOC design. “Visceral” is a cultural value and not the result of a formal system. This is again what I criticize in Raph’s ideas. A formal system will never get defined as “visceral” because it misses the cultural myth that is unique. The culture is never formal, it is never about numbers. It is about shared myths. Some interesting comments are:

I had to stop playing at 1:30am. My yelling “you cheap motherfuckers!!” at the Gorgons was keeping people awake.

As an aside, prior to GoW, it’s been forever since I’ve played a game with so many “how the hell am I going to deal with THAT thing….oh wait, I’m insanely badass, bring it on!” type moments.

Every single time I’m force-feeding the Blades of Chaos to some scumfuck minotaur, I’m all like, “TAKE IT! TAKE IT YOU FUCK!”

Mashing the circle button has never been more satisfying.

Remember that part where Kratos has the attitude-off with the giant minotaur guarding Pandora’s Temple? Dude, I was like totally cheering at the TV at that point, shaking my PS2 controller at the big bad wolf (bull, whatever) and telling him that if that was all he’s got, I was going to totally kick his ass. And I did! And it was great!

Please, Kratos makes Dante look like Don Knots. In the first level of Devil May Cry, Dante uses guns to shoot across the room at puppets. In the first level of God of War, Kratos rips undead pirates in half with his bare hands, then impales a humongous hydra on the crow’s nest of their ship, then fucks two hot chicks. At the same time. Advantage: Kratos.

You know it’s good when it makes you feel like all other great action games will be downright lethargic now. I mean, are you kidding, right off the bat (well, the 2nd battle) you’re fighting this monster that would typically be a boss in other games. And you don’t just stab them with your sword or poke them with a staff. Hell no, that’s not the Kratos way. You pick that mofo on up and tear him in two.

See? All these comments are about a rare magic: “immersion”. The game is considered visceral because it is directly immersive. There isn’t a complex interface between the player and the representation of the action, there aren’t complex statistics and rules as filters. It’s all downright to feeling there, within the situation and as a badass character that is utterly satisfying to play. The combat is “visceral” because it isn’t parsed, iconified or re-represented. It’s direct in both the gameplay and the visual representation.

All these elements aren’t formal patterns, they do not matter in the gameplay and they do not belong to the mechanics of the game. They are completely irrelevant from the perspective of the formal system. Still, they are essential for the success of this game. The combat is visceral because it has a tribal nature. It comes from a cultural and natural background that we all share. It allows the player to express that aggressiveness and recall the feeling of the blood and flesh. It is visceral because it comes from cultural patterns we all have in common and that we feel strongly. This help us to make ties between the representation we see on the screen and the imagination in our heads. The result is an “immersive” game because we can relate to it. Because we understand and feel directly those values it evocates, because it comes from a background we know already.

Those are “shared myths” and they are as important as the formal system (the gameplay) itself. This game is successful because it “gets” both parts. The fun gameplay and the strong, visceral myths that we will carry along even when the game is over.

There are even other elements that build the success of the game but that aren’t essential to what I wanted to underline here. For example the game is kept always varied and dynamic, a strategy used in “Metal Gear Solid” and other games. There aren’t repetitive scenes and the players is continuously put in new conditions that can even onsidered as mini-games on their own. This allows to keep the game always fun, always offering something new to discover and master, avoiding to just throw at the player mindlessly droves of monsters over and over and over. Ultimately it’s all about the balance of the parts. This is again a matter of “practice” and not a design lesson that can be isolated and then reapplied. There isn’t any magical recipe to point out the correct balance since it’s mostly a matter of points of view. Some players could like more some parts and dislike others, there isn’t a single solution perfect for everyone and this is where the game, even when flawlessly designed, will always be exposed to criticism.

I believe there are interesting points to consider even for the mmorpg genre. The combat system is definitely not useable since it has a strong physical impact. This isn’t possible with the current technological limits of the mmorpgs. We cannot support fast and furious combat systems where the character can throw monsters in the air, jump around and perform air-attacks. We can dream about this but it’s not where the strength of the genre is.

This is why I believe that the mmorpgs have their own path to follow but at the same time it’s always useful to keep an eye open to other genres that are way more dynamic and innovative at the moment and can still offer interesting points of view on what could be done in the near and far future.

Momentary problem

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There were some problems with the database today producing errors while using the search function and other actions. They should be solved now.

The search function is also not reliable anyway since it misses to check many entries. I’ll need to rebuild the index. Someday in a distant future.

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PvP endgame – Better models are possible, always

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Written on QT3 forums as result of this discussion about the PvP endgame between WoW, DAoC and other games.

Also consequence of this old discussion.

—
We gave a glance to the advantage/disadvantages of them. I said that better models are possible and this thread is to suggest a solution to explain my point of view and demonstrate concretely what I consider a “better model”. So you can see directly what I mean and agree/disagree.

To build it I borrowed the best parts of WoW, DAoC and Planetside. Adding my own ideas to the general shape.

—
The idea I suggested a year ago was built on this principle:
“Designing a game which allows players not to HAVE to play regularly”.

– At the base the system works like DAoC. You gain points and progressively unblock ranks. The relevant difference is that these points are only gained by achieving PvP goals and never by killing players directly. The enemies are considered simply as “obstacles” that step in your way and that you need to get rid of in order to reach your goal.

– As you gain points you unblock ranks in a similar way to what happens in both WoW and DAoC but as a “flat treadmill”.

– Ranks unblock new skills but you do not gain them automatically. You do not fill a rank as you unblock it. You unblock only the *possibility* to fill it.

– The skills and spells a rank offers aren’t cumulative. So you can use exclusively the skills/spells that are tied directly to the single rank you fill at that precise moment.

– Ranks get assigned to groups and raids through a voting system (also based on ranks). So, for example, every group of “normal players” will have just one commander assigned and each raid will have a finite number of officers and just one leader (to simplify, the actual system offers many different ranks/”roles”).

– These ranks will be assigned through the voting system and to the players that were able to unblock them by gaining the appropriate amount of points.

– When a character is within a specific rank he gets access to specific new skills that are tied to his particular role. These skills are for the most part area-based effects that affect his squadron, the enemies or the environment. So, generally, not just more powerful versions of the same skills/spells he uses normally. This to give each rank a different *role* in the battlefield and not just making the character directly more powerful. Ranks are meant to unblock specific purposes and possibilities, not to make the single player more powerful.

This system allows to appoint players that are considered “naturally” leaders by giving them a recognized role in the game and specific skills that are appropriate for the situation. It also differentiates the gameplay so that different ranks behave in different ways on the battlefield.

The system can then be extended to PvE to create more dynamic situations instead of the repetitive models in the endgame content in games like WoW.

Plus, the bigger goal, it brings together the casual players and the catasses. It allows them to join their forces and rely on each other. Since the ranks are unblocked and assigned in groups and raids, not everyone will just become more powerful. A group of five players will always have just one commander. Even if ALL the players in that group have the “commander” rank already unblocked, only one of them will fill that role after being voted by the group.

So if you want to be a leader you don’t just have to catass but also build your own *reputation* with the community so that after you unblocked a rank you are also voted to fill and use it.

The system is called “Flat Power Treadmill” since it doesn’t define direct advancement paths like in other games. You don’t gain directly more power between the ranks. Instead you gain a different roles, different goals and differemt responsibilities, making the gameplay more interactive and dynamic. At the same time you always need “normal players” in your group in order for someone to fill an higher rank, so you’ll NEVER see in the game a full group of commanders or higher ranks. It isn’t an endless race to be more “leet”. The higher ranks will always have to rely on the “casual players” to have access to their powers.

This offers an incentive to go on and unblock new interesting roles in the battlefield (for example in a game with vehicles only higher ranks could get access to them or some specific weaponry). So this is an incentive to play and enjoy the game in the long term (retention of subscriptions). At the same time it doesn’t creates GAPS between casual players and catasses that ultimately breaks the game when the groups progressively outdistance each other. Instead it helps them to play *together*. The catasses will help the casual players to get involved and understand the game and the casual players will help the catasses to gain access to what they want.

  • This is a model that works on the long term (because it provides always incentives to unblock *new* gameplay and not just more powerful version of “the same”).
  • It is always accessible for both the catasses and the casual players and throughout the whole life span of the game.
  • It adds dynamism to the battlefield by giving the players different roles and purposes.
  • It finally brings together catasses and casual players. Producing an heathly community that doesn’t shatter in pieces, progressively damaging the accessibility for new players as they join.

— UPDATED after the comment

To address even more the core concept:

Catassing a system is about progressing through it in order to play along with your friends. In other games you are forced to catass or you are excluded from the game. This because you have to keep up with your friends or you’ll lag out and become an outcast.

That’s what is wrong in the advancement systems we have in the games now. Not the advancement itself but the OBLIGATION TO KEEP UP AND MATCH THE RESULTS OF OTHER PLAYERS.

“Advancing” is always fun if it’s kept accessible and if you aren’t forced to maintain an exact pace set by someone else.

My system address this problem directly. New ranks do not make you more powerful but just give you access to different gameplay. A player can choose that a specific role is extremely fun and REFUSE to progress further because he has no interest in doing so. You can stop where you want for as long as you want. The system allows you do do this without punishing you.

The system never *forces* you to “keep up”. You just go where you want to go. From a side you have an incentive because you can get bored after playing the same role for months. So you could have an interest to get access to something else (and this happens naturally as you play). From the other side this process is NEVER REQUIRED and always optional.

There will be no gaps between catasses and normal players. The catasses will fill naturally their role as leaders while other players will explore other possibilities. I believe not everyone plays to lead raids. I offer specific roles to those players that want such positions, I offer then a bunch of different roles for the players that are interested to play with other mechanics.

It’s NEVER a race to the end, it’s just a space of solutions and offers that you can explore as you like. All the roles you unblock are essential to the system and they are the OPPOSITE of a ladder you have to endlessly climb. There isn’t a direct direction where you are pointed to. You are the one to decide where you are heading and why.

Dupe Day Party

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There is no news.

Dupe bugs are as old as the whole genre and there isn’t really anything new to discuss. The only difference from the past is that there are now two million of players ready to take advantage of the occasion ten milliseconds after the bug is discovered and publicized.

So I just archive the dupe for historical reference.

—

This, most of the time, probably wont work, however when the instance servers are bugged, if you trade your gold to someone, walk into the instance (any that are bugged — as in the bar does not load) after about a minute, it will kick you out of the loading screen and roll you back until before you walked into the instance.

Doing this, I got ~ 880g, before the server restarted to fix the problems.
(On the server Blackhand)

EDIT 1: Please Read the WHOLE thread before asking questions

EDIT 2: The best way to bug the instances is to walk in and out of it fast…. confirmed instances this work on are Deadmines, Wailing Caverns, Scarlet Monastary, and Maraudon

Quote:
* what I did was I was gonna run some friends through VC wayy this morning
* and the warlock soul stoned me
* and I walked in
* and the screen didnt load
* and then about a minute later it warped me out
* and I didnt have a soul stone
* so I traded him all my gold, walked in, waited a minute, got warped out, had my gold
* rinse and repeat =)

Hope that clearifies things up a bit..

You can only do the bug early in the morning after a server reset, have a friend to login with you and trade him your money (or vice versa) then the person who traded his money runs into the instance, waits about 1 minute – 1 minute and 30 seconds and gets booted out, he should have his money back if all worked well.

Quote:
When the servers come up in the morning the instance server takes about 10 min longer than everything else for some dumb ass reason; So player 1 hands player 2 a stack of gold; Player one goes into instance and about a min later of trying to load gets rubberbanned back to the entrace and has the gold back on him as well as player 2; you keep doing that over and over; You can do it for about 10 minutes!

Quote:
It doesn’t work 24/7, normally during peak hours and after server resets are the best times to try it.

I wonder what could have happened if the dupe was diffused in the middle of the week instead of just before the weekly downtime. Like the blackout in New York, I guess.

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Toying with DAoC interface

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I spent some time (while trying to log in Lamorak) to port my old tweaks to the interface, enable the last additions like the tooltips, the social window, the maps and blatantly steal some features from more popular mods.

It seems that Mythic is maintaining just the “atlantis” skin that is too yellowish and kludgy for my likings. So what I did was just to port the look & feel of the classic “midgard” interface and tweak it some more for usability. The purpose was to show some more informations but still being conservative on the space and maintain a “minimal” approach.

So you can give it a try if you are going back to DAoC to try the new servers (I removed the “Master Level” window for example) and need an usable interface, with a neuter color and a slightly better layout than the standard one without becoming incredibly messy like the popular “Derida” (the “Cosmos” of DAoC).

Screenshot

Download Interface

Instructions:

– Unpack the zip in the ui/custom/ directory where you installed the game.
– Select the “custom” interface in the options before logging in with the character
– Type /clock so that the window with the bundled clock+compass+perf monitor shows up
– Make sure that both the compass and performance monitor work by pressing a few times ALT+P (for perf monitor) and ALT+C (for the compass)

NOTE: It is supposed to work with the small fonts, so suitable for 1024×768.

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(DAoC and Imperator) About details

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I have so much to say that I’ll have to put it out in tiny steps.

On F13 Mi_Tes comments the recent press release rather harshly. Which is something I’ve never seen her doing:

Had they made this decision over a year ago, I agree it would support both goals and come off reasonably savy. However, waiting so long to carry this baby hurt Mark, the company, and DAoC. Now they are scrambling to save DAoC – where they should have continued to focus on this game for the past 2 years. Being ballsy in making decisions is great, but losing touch with reality and not listening to others gives you what happened with Imperator. A lame idea for a game, with more money sunk into it that DAoC had, and nothing to show for it – a complete waste of time for the devs working on it. I feel sorry for them in this whole mess. Yea, most of them have jobs, but having spent a year or 2 working to achieve absolutely nothing.

This comment goes along to one I quoted already before from Corpnerws:

The “it will inevitably turn into a niche game over time” is a load of shit. The problem is, the core developers move on to new projects, companies cut back development costs and concentrate on other things.

And, finally, this line of thoughts arrives to the last Grab Bag from Sanya:

I appreciate the many notes of regret about Imperator, and I equally appreciate all the posts and letters from die-hard Camelot players celebrating the news that the staff was largely reassigned to Camelot’s expansion and live teams.

Excuse me but there isn’t anything to celebrate in the failure of Imperator, in the removal of ToA with the launch of the new servers and in the return of devs to DAoC when they should have never left it in the first place. We are really bordering the absurd. Of course I appreciate, to an extent, what is happening but you cannot dismiss the responsibility of these choices by just launching a party to celebrate “comebacks” as a direct result of failures under your responsibility and as *deliberate choices*.

Sadly I wasn’t able to find again that message from Sanya where she laughed at people doomcasting DAoC one year before the release of WoW. Mythic had the luck to enter the market when the situation was completely stalling and they considered that short span as a perpetual condition that could never end.

Mmorpgs die if there is no support and for the most part DAoC has been taken captive from its possible development. None of his core problems have been radically addressed in order to chase a conservative development. If now it strongly suffers the competition from “better” games it’s just because this is a result of a choice. A choice that doesn’t deserve to be celebrated.

I really wonder where DAoC could stand now if Mythic decided to *truly* commit and support the game at best.

I also believe that people should take responsibilities, something that doesn’t seem happening. This doesn’t mean that I’d like to see those devs (or management) fired because it would just damage even more the situation (I repeated the concept somewhere on this site, but I couldn’t find the exact post). It’s a point of view that comes from far away about my ideas on the community and the relationship between devs and players. I want the developers out in the public so that they ARE accountable, so that they are exposed to critics. This is the only way, when this process is accepted and felt natural, to keep things moving and improving.

I do not want people fired because it’s just a way to dismiss a problem. Instead I want them accountable and then committed to face those responsibilities instead of dodging them. Admit the faults and start to honestly search solutions.

This is still not happening.

So, what is your decision now? Are you going to accept the possibility to go back to the “Lum days” when the discussion was open, honest and passionate toward a positive direction with the aim to build something or just keep lagging trying to stretch the current situation as much as possible, till it lasts?

Without a different attitude nothing is going to change. Go read again that last link and you’ll see how those points are even more valid today.

I would like so much to see them moving part this point so that I could go back to dicuss again the *practice*, the concrete design and the possible ideas to implement instead of wasting time to criticize the managment. I could fill 800 pages with ideas and suggestions to address some of the most radical problems in order to see the game move again and regain an interesting position. But till they don’t go past that point about the attitude I can just waste my time writing worthless stuff in the same way the developers are wasting their own time.

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Fucking idiots

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This post actually comes after the one above, but I used the time warp to shift the priority.

To begin with a quote from a funny piece written by Jeff Freeman that was linked pretty much everywhere and that I now use for my own purposes:

This was a rather perverse aspect of the system. People complained about it constantly on internet forums, accused the developers of a having fairly peculiar if not downright twisted outlook on life to have implemented the system this way. If the devs had any sort of official website beyond ‘Billing & Tech issues’, Jack might have posted complaints about it there himself. But the devs never talked to anyone, and only a 3rd party company handled that bare minimum level of support.

Then a recent quote from WoW community managers:

Occasionally, you might see a developer relay information, but typically if they have something they wish to share, it’s done through us. I’m sorry that this method of communication is unsatisfactory, however, I can assure you that it is done this way for several reasons. In addition to many of those reasons please be aware that having members of the development team post on the boards regularly would only result in a loss of time that they could be working on more important projects necessary for World of Warcraft’s continued growth.

I don’t know why but posts like this one put me on rage. What a fucking idiot. I can accept the fact that these points are always brought up by random fucktards on the boards along the even more popular “it’s just beta”, but here it’s about the community managers themselves and I really wonder how they can expect to feed us that SHIT.

I have already explained my stance on the relationship between devs and the community, so lets just take the evidence of what is happening recently, because it’s all strictly tied together.

Mythic just trashed two *years* of development by cancelling (postponing or whatever) Imperator and months of work by removing a complete expansion from DAoC. To an extent because they decided to isolate themselves from critiques and a positive confrontation.

Now. Who is wasting time? (aside me, of course)

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Prey – Not a mmorpg but damn impressive

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This game didn’t draw my attention during the E3 and I simply filed it in the category of “Doom 3 clones”. I couldn’t be more wrong.

I just watched the 184Mb – 11Min video of *gameplay* and my jaw dropped on the floor. And I’m definitely not one of those guys that gets excited at random FPS. When I heard about it the first time I was already doubtful about the “portal” system they were developing. Just because I know how these features are usually used here and there as “quirks” and without never impacting the actual game that ultimately remains a shooter between a few corridors. I heard that the monsters can use these portals as well and I already expected this feature just like an excuse to have mobs pop-in at random. Something that I always felt irritating.

This is completely wrong for Prey and I can already say just by watching that video that this is NOT the usual shooter with zero innovation and offering the exact same gameplay over and over. The game truly becomes a nightmare coming from Escher. It’s crazy. The graphic is simply breathaking and the levels and the environments have finally a true 3D depth that we’ve never seen before. If you go download the video you’ll understand what I mean.

The game doesn’t develop anymore just on a flat, horizontal floor but allows you to walk on the walls and on the ceiling, offering *at the same time* and in the same room completely different perspectives and gravity systems (there are levels that *literally* flip upside down all at the sudden). Perspectives that are then multiplied by the insane portal system that blends together completely different worlds (the monsters are aware of them and jump through them smoothly). The weapons already look totally crazy, the monsters are wonderful and definitely original in their aspect and in their way to attack (and finally even the animations are wonderful). The environment plays an active role in the gameplay, for example there’s a scene with spikes coming out of the floor, limiting the movement in a close combat situation, or another scene on a small “planet” where you have to dodge meteors falling on you (after an insane “spaceship” simulation).

Really, I don’t know how to describe or explain it. I felt like watching in a hole what we could play ten years in the future. While it still has the “look & feel” of the Doom engine, even the most critic players will drool over this. The physical engine, the gravity system and the effects that fill every instant of the game are just unbelievable compared to what I’m used to see. I don’t know on which computer it will run but it could be one of those games that are worth for an upgrade.

You can find the video here. It’s not important if you believe or not what I wrote. Just get it. Even if you do not care at all. Because it’s definitely worth it, from the beginning to the end (the fun actually starts after the first minute).

Believe me. I don’t hype games at random, in particular when they are off my genre. If I’m so much amazed by this one it’s because I saw something truly impressive. Some of my dreams are starting to become concrete.

To conclude a few words from a developer:

Prey will not require a flashlight, and the environments are brighter than how it’s looking in the videos. And yes various other games have shown these tricks before — just as Max Payne wasn’t the first game with slow-motion gameplay — but we feel confident we will do them better, more intuitively, and they will also work in combination with each other. Second Sight, for example, was a horrible implementation of the leave-the-body game mechanic. In Prey, it’s natural, easy, and fun, and comes with great trade-offs (for example, your real body is will take more damage if you’re in “spirit walk” mode).

Prey comes with a *package* of gameplay related hooks that set it apart:
o Spirit walk
o Wall walk
o Portal effects
o Gravity effects
o Death walk (no more “Game Over”)

(Most FPS games claim maybe one new thing to set it apart.)

Not to mention a unique, emotional story that will hopefully make you care about the action and making progress.

Scott Miller
3D Realms

This masterpiece is also supposed to be available directly online in a similar way to what happened with Half-Life 2 (but through a different network instead of Steam).

Prior to its commercial release, a demonstration version of Prey will be available exclusively online powered by Game xStream. Once in commercial release, gamers will have the ability to immediately purchase the game online through Game xStream.

Prey is the first online game release and distribution through Game xStream for 3D Realms, and represents an important advance in how it will release games in the future. Game xStream was developed to enable game publishing companies to offer graphic intensive games, like Prey, for play and distribution online. With dynamic streaming and low-delay interaction, any triple-A rated title can now be delivered in real time over a broadband connection, and with absolutely no developer support required.

Let’s hope that even this part goes smoothly and that it’s maintained accessible even without the broadband.

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