N'Al on 17/1/2011 at 21:16
Well, I'm pretty sure that's the game Starbreeze are working on now. As far as I remember, around half a year ago there were rumours that they were either working on a new Bourne or a new Syndicate game; Bourne has since been debunked and Syndicate, I think, kind of inofficially somewhat possibly confirmed.
Before any purists ask, I highly doubt it's going to be anything like the old games (i.e. third person squad-based control), but play more to Starbreeze's strength, i.e. Fallout 3 to Fallout 1 and 2, XCOM to X-COM, etc .
Admittedly, a lot of this is still conjecture, though, so I could be wrong. Here's hoping, though.
[edit] This was around the same time Irrational were also rumoured to be working on either a revamp of Syndicate or X-COM. Obviously, they aren't working on either of those, but on Bioshock Infinite, but 2K Marin's picked up XCOM. Which leaves Syndicate for Starbreeze, in a sense. [/edit]
Fafhrd on 18/1/2011 at 05:54
Quote Posted by N'Al
[edit] This was around the same time Irrational were also rumoured to be working on either a revamp of Syndicate or X-COM. Obviously, they aren't working on either of those, but on Bioshock Infinite, but 2K Marin's picked up XCOM.
2k Boston WAS working on XCOM, 2k Marin just took it with them when they split off from 2k Boston.
N'Al on 18/1/2011 at 06:06
Fair enough.
gunsmoke on 18/1/2011 at 13:08
God, Dark Athena has been a breath of fresh air. henke, you installed it yet?
henke on 18/1/2011 at 17:32
Yeah, started with Dark Athena as well. Just got the venttool. The stealth is very satisfying and blends very well with the shooting action.
EvaUnit02 on 19/1/2011 at 09:18
Quote Posted by N'Al
Well, I'm pretty sure that's the game Starbreeze are working on now. As far as I remember, around half a year ago there were rumours that they were either working on a new Bourne or a new Syndicate game; Bourne has since been debunked and Syndicate, I think, kind of inofficially somewhat possibly confirmed.
Bourne wasn't "a rumour", it was project for EA that was (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125190) officially announced with Press Releases, the full works. It was (
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/24/bourne-game-is-starbreezes-canceled-ea-project/) cancelled early last year. Starbreeze were working on it alongside Project RedLime for EA.
N'Al on 19/1/2011 at 09:38
PC Gamering Smartey Man
henke on 19/1/2011 at 17:09
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
The "Assault on Dark Athena" addon was originally going to be just a tiny side mission but after the game was dropped by Activision in the Vivendi buy out and picked up Atari, it ballooned into a fully blown campaign.
That explains a lot. The pacing in Athena is the wierdest I've experienced since freakin Crocodile Dundee 2. The first 3 hours, where you set the prisoners free, kill Revas by stabbing her through the throat, and escape from the ship are really good, and flows naturally. It's a story with a beginning, middle, and an end. You might expect the endcredits to start rolling at this point. Except they don't. Instead the game goes on for another 4 hours.
Now you've crashlanded on a planet in your escapepod. The Dark Athena crew have conveniently decided to come to that same planet(not to capture you, just to do some other stuff, you see). And the baddies have also captured the young girl you were supposed to rescue. I guess Riddick just forgot to bring her along when he left the ship the first time. Oh, and getting stabbed through the throat didn't have any effect on Revas. She's still alive. It didn't even change her voice. So now your hopelessly convoluted mission is to get back on the Dark Athena ship because there's no other way to get off the planet because the badguys have killed everyone(and presumably blown up all the ships as well). I had no inclination to keep on playing except that I wanted to get as much as possible out of my 5 gaming-euros, so I pressed on.
These last 4 hours aren't all bad. You get your hands on something called the SCAR-gun which is quite fun to use. A couple of new enemy-types are introduced. And there are a few areas which lend themselves well to stealth-gameplay.
Littered thoughout this game are these little collectible "Wanted"-notices. Depicting what I can only guess are members of the development-house staff, and bearing descriptions of crimes that read like in-jokes. I don't know, I guess the developers got a kick out of this stuff, but for everyone else it's just a bit tedious and clashes with the otherwise grim tone of the game. The unlockables are quite disapointing as well. EfBB had some of the best "Extras" I've seen in a game, inluding videofootage of earlier iterations of the gameengine. But all you get here is concept art and character-bios. Ho-hum.
Overall, Dark Athena is a really good 3 hour game, with 4 additional hours tacked on at the end because (I'm guessing) the publisher didn't feel like they could charge full price for only 3 hours of new content.
Sulphur on 19/1/2011 at 17:19
Didn't you, like, only start playing it a day ago? Man, how do you guys get the time to play games non-stop? Even if I had all the free time in the world, I somehow can't seem to spend much of it playing games any more.
It's like I reach video game fatigue in an hour or less now; I'd rather go and irritate a friend by expressing a contrary opinion about some random TV serial they like than load up the bazillion games I have.
Am I getting too old for this shit?
henke on 19/1/2011 at 19:16
I've been laid off from work since the beginning of last month. :erg:
I don't have a lot of dough in my pocket. It's cold as hell outside. So this December and January I've probably played more games than any period of my life before this. Pretty soon I'll have worked my way through all the stuff I bought during the Steam Holiday Sale. Thankfully I'll be going back to work next month.
I'm actually kinda surprised that I haven't gotten sick to death of videogames. :p
