The Precursors - Oblivion in space?

Klyka

Hi everyone!



This IGN preview is about the above mentioned game which I just stumbled upon on gametrailers.com.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/708/708297p1.html

The trailer I watched can be found here:

http://download.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/t_precursors.wmv

According to the preview this is "Oblivion in space" with over "250 unique quests". It's an FPS (RPG?) with drivable vehicles and SPACE COMBAT!
The gameworld is supposed to span over many different planets inhabitat by alien lifeforms, both sentient and non-sentient.
The weapons you use are mostly organic or bio-engineered and can be modified to fit your playstyle.

So basically it's Mass Effect only with a tad different gameplay and SPACE COMBAT.

The version shown in the trailer is a Pre-Alpha so expect the finished game to look and behave even better.

The game is supposed to be released on XBOX360, PS3 and PC "sometime 2007".

Here are some pictures from the preview:







Personally, I can't wait. This and Mass Effect can hopefully satisfy my hunger for space-operas.

Discuss!

Drez

Wow...uh. Wow.

Veitsev

Drez wrote:

Wow...uh. Wow.

Gyral

The space combat gave me a hard on for a next gen Colony Wars. Looks promising.

Suriko

Drez wrote:

Wow...uh. Wow.

A 2007 release given the scale of what they're doing, cross-platform development and being in pre-alpha stage seems rather optomistic though. We shall see.

Drez

Suriko wrote:

Drez wrote:

Wow...uh. Wow.

A 2007 release given the scale of what they're doing, cross-platform development and being in pre-alpha stage seems rather optomistic though. We shall see.

That was my initial thought too but, to be fair, there are 11 and a half months left to 2007.

Accualt

That video impressed the dickens out of me. I hope the space combat is good.

IonMage

Wow... I've never seen this before and it already seems like a dream come true. I havemy eye on this one for sure.

thorgot

Accualt wrote:

That video impressed the dickens out of me. I hope the space combat is good.

Haha, the Duke Nukem 3D

[spoiler:10286c7dc9]shrink ray[/spoiler:10286c7dc9]

is in this game. It has to be good. Also, organic weapons always creep me out.

DarkPrimus

Hahaha, the crazy bloom sure looks like Oblivion.

thorgot

Hmmm. From the IGN preview:

Loading a space combat quest, you fly thru a star system (with a rather uncluttered HUD).

So the space part will just be certain quests. Good, that means they can focus on the ground part.

stigweard

It better have proper widescreen hor+ and they better not fuck it up. I've been waiting a long time for a sandbox space game like this.

sabyul

Wow, that has got some extremely nice potential. It's so early on and the framerate seems rock solid, the environments are beautiful and varied, and space battles are sweet. Definitely keeping my eye on this one.

Organic weapons, heh.

darleysam

Oblivion? in space?

well that right there rings all my bells.

all of them.

edit:

Drez wrote:

That was my initial thought too but, to be fair, there are 11 and a half months left to 2007.

Drez haes time macheen

thorgot

More information at this interview

About the different planets:
[spoiler:0be6a32045]The world of Precursors is large and multifaceted, the planets are different. For example, you'll start on a dune planet, bleached by a merciless sun, and then can go to the glacier planet, where you'll have to wade through piles of snow. There are lush tropic jungles and desolate ruins of skyscrapers of an ancient civilized race. Some planets will have many cities and space ports, others just a handful of outposts. Also you will meet alien races and unusual fauna. Enemies will lurk everywhere, so you'll have lots of random encounters. [/spoiler:0be6a32045]

Re: the space part being just certain missions:

As we have said, first it is a free-play shooter and then it is a space-sim and RPG. You will spend most of your gameplay on the planets. The flying module of a space vehicle is like a simulator, but we tried to do convenient gameplay and so it's not a difficult flying system, in space. But in space there will be battles and missions.

This makes it sound like a freeform Deus Ex, where the RPG aspect just helps out the FPS aspect.

Malkor

Shrinky gun!!

Mattie

Malkor wrote:

Shrinky gun!!

LockeCole

Mmmmmm space opera.

This and mass effect look pretty interesting.

Weaver

holy fuck awesome man oh man

darleysam

thor got wrote:

Enemies will lurk everywhere, so you'll have lots of random encounters.

LockeCole

thor got wrote:

Accualt wrote:

That video impressed the dickens out of me. I hope the space combat is good.

Haha, the Duke Nukem 3D

[spoiler:39a0a3ee00]shrink ray[/spoiler:39a0a3ee00]

is in this game. It has to be good. Also, organic weapons always creep me out.

Heh... I loved the little critters you could toss at baddies in half life (Was that in op force? I can't remember). The gun with regenerated ammo looked kind of gross though.

Drez

darleysam wrote:

Oblivion? in space?

well that right there rings all my bells.

all of them.

edit:

Drez wrote:

That was my initial thought too but, to be fair, there are 11 and a half months left to 2007.

Drez haes time macheen

Huh?

It's January 19th.

Ok, so there are 11 and a half months minus 4 days left to 2007. I'm not sure whatcha mean.

zhen_rogue

Holy cats!

This game is now, officially, my most-anticipated PC game of 2007.

darleysam

Drez wrote:

Ok, so there are 11 and a half months minus 4 days left to 2007. I'm not sure whatcha mean.

i'd read 11 months to 2007 to mean we're still in 2006. I'm just being pedantic

hold me

Glal

I was sold at "Oblivion in space." My soul was then sold after seeing the trailer.


I wants it now!

Dashui

I must have it.

Cilla Black

It's in pre-alpha, so I can't complain too much about how much polish it seems to lack. Really hoping those sound affects (the lasers etc) are placeholders. They're classic and give a nostalgic feel, but will get pretty annoying pretty quickly.

This looks to me like the definition of a game you just can't tell how good or bad it will be unless you play it. The trailer had a lot of impressive stuff, but it also stuck me that much of that impressive stuff could easily play like complete ass when you actually get your hands on the game. Shooting things apart, for instance, looked pretty neat in the trailer but also seemed like it could've been implemented in a clunky fashion that would make actually messing around with it awkward.

Still, I'm a total whore for sci-fi settings now that fantasy is getting really fucking old and am looking forward to seeing more information about it.

zhen_rogue

I love how you were shown "feeding" the organic sidearms.
My expectations are so very high for this already - here's to hoping it actually makes gold in 2007 or 2008.

Ambitious games like this have a tendancy to fall by the wayside all of a sudden - i'd hate to see this get scrapped.

Drez

darleysam wrote:

Drez wrote:

Ok, so there are 11 and a half months minus 4 days left to 2007. I'm not sure whatcha mean.

i'd read 11 months to 2007 to mean we're still in 2006. I'm just being pedantic

hold me

2007 is an object which contains months. So, saying there are 11 months left to 2007 is similar to saying "there four more hours left to the work day," because "work day" has a "number of hours" property.

Henceforth, concordantly, ergo, ere I saw Elba.

And such.

I'll hold you. But only in space opera fashion, in line with the thread. I will sing an aria to the stars with you.

But only if you can sing. None of this American Idol audition bullshit.

Zen Vulgarity

zhen_rogue wrote:

I love how you were shown "feeding" the organic sidearms.
My expectations are so very high for this already - here's to hoping it actually makes gold in 2007 and 2008.

Ambitions games like this have a tendancy to fall by the wayside all of a sudden - i'd hate to see this get scrapped.

Don't you fucking jinx this game.

Don't you fucking dare.

piL

Russian developer Play Ten

This might be a problem. Or an excellent occurence. It could mean a new RPG company, and will push us away from design choices Bethesda makes that I disagree with.

I forsee Q2 08 regardless.

JWFokker

I realize it's still early in development, but it looks pretty generic and plasticky to me. Like a Serious Sam space RPG. They need work on the lighting to make it a bit more atmospheric. It just didn't have a distinctive enough look for me. You look at any great game, and it's got it's own style, an easily identifiable art direction, ala Halo, Morrowind, WoW. This was kinda lacking that.

Fatty

Ahh, I thought it looked a bit like Boiling Point in space when I saw it, and it turns out its the same developers.

Boiling Point was an ambitious but buggy turd. But as this game just appears to have added space combat, hopefully all the other stuff has been polished up. I wouldnt bet on its quality though.

Smudge

JWFokker wrote:

I realize it's still early in development, but it looks pretty generic and plasticky to me. Like a Serious Sam space RPG. They need work on the lighting to make it a bit more atmospheric. It just didn't have a distinctive enough look for me. You look at any great game, and it's got it's own style, an easily identifiable art direction, ala Halo, Morrowind, WoW. This was kinda lacking that.

There are multiple planets involved and they seem to be going for at least semi realistic. Any over arching art direction would make it more unrealistic than not having an art direction.

Life does not have artistic directors. The concept that a unified art direction is needed in a semi realistic game has always baffled me. You only really need it if you are getting stylistic. Cell shading a few characters and bump mapping others would be odd for sure, but cell shading is an art style. Bump mapping, light bloom, hdl, etc... are attempts to render real life. (As unsuccessful as you might think the attempts are)


A planet does not have an art direction, a galaxy would have even less.

Whiniest Man On Earth

That was some serious pew-pewing. In a less-than-stellar way.

But everything else in the trailer was sweet.

Bionic Monkey

:shock:



...

zhen_rogue

Smudge wrote:

JWFokker wrote:

I realize it's still early in development, but it looks pretty generic and plasticky to me. Like a Serious Sam space RPG. They need work on the lighting to make it a bit more atmospheric. It just didn't have a distinctive enough look for me. You look at any great game, and it's got it's own style, an easily identifiable art direction, ala Halo, Morrowind, WoW. This was kinda lacking that.

There are multiple planets involved and they seem to be going for at least semi realistic. Any over arching art direction would make it more unrealistic than not having an art direction.

Life does not have artistic directors. The concept that a unified art direction is needed in a semi realistic game has always baffled me. You only really need it if you are getting stylistic. Cell shading a few characters and bump mapping others would be odd for sure, but cell shading is an art style. Bump mapping, light bloom, hdl, etc... are attempts to render real life. (As unsuccessful as you might think the attempts are)


A planet does not have an art direction, a galaxy would have even less.

So long as each planet has it's own well-developed style and character, I don't thing the entire game itself needs to have it's own unique brand of art direction.

Daedalus

Well, Oblivion barely ran on my computerbox, so it looks like I'll have to upgrade for this.

Hmm... computer or console... the age-old decision.

ToadTheMushroom

Where the holy living fuck has this come from. I havent heard about it until 3 seconds ago and it is suddenly like... oh my god... my most anticipated game.

gaming_librarian

Bionic Monkey wrote:

:shock:



...

Sir, thou art a prophet.

Shurakai

The canned sound effects turned me right off.. but it looks good/entertaining otherwise.