I'm not sure if this should go in Xbox or Future Systems, so forgive me if it's in the wrong place.
There's a quite a bit of info and some shots over at 1up, though you'll be lucky if the shots show with all the traffic it's getting. If I see them again I'll host them. Anyway, here's some great new info on the next major game from Rare.
Enjoy.
[quote]
Shots In The Dark
"When you're working on a new platform, you have extra challenges. As I like to say, the ground beneath you is moving like Jell-O, because you never know what's working and what's not."
This is the caveat given as Botwood prepares to show off PDZ for the first time. Running on alpha Xbox 360 development kits (machines that possess only two of the three CPU cores in the final spec, as well as a run-of-the-mill ATI graphics card as opposed to the final, custom GPU set), the game is still very much a work-in-progress. But even at this stage, it's enough to see where they want to go with it.
This is a multiplayer-only demonstration. Taking a cue from Bungie, Rare remains tight-lipped regarding the details of Joanna Dark's single-player adventure. Other than vague descriptions of the plot ("Its general overview is how Joanna came to be the world's perfect agent"), promises of high-replayability ("It's almost like you can play it in an entirely different way each time"), and reluctant hints at a possible co-op mode over Xbox Live ("We were certainly interested to hear that Bungie had it planned for Halo 2 and disappointed to see that they didn't make this kind of game...it's something we're very interested in"), we'll have to wait for the curtain to reveal more.
But for now, we make do with the wealth of multiplayer information. Regardless of how this all turns out, they certainly can't be accused of sitting on their hands for the past few years. In terms of multiplayer, right now, maps can accommodate upwards of 50 players at the same time. Rare wants to ultimately get that number up to 64. But suppose you don't have 63 friends. No sweat, every one of the multiplayer levels can scale up or down in size, depending on how many players are involved in the action. A match featuring two teams of four will be played on a different layout than say, a match of four teams of 16. In theory, this eliminates that pesky problem of "favorite map, but too many/not enough people."
Bots, modes, and voice chat
But suppose you don't have any friends at all. Don't laugh; it's entirely possible. Well, that's not a problem either. PDZ gives you the chance to kill scores of emotionless, cold-hearted bots. Programmed only to kill, the bots will excuse themselves from a game to make room for real live human beings as they join your match in progress. This will work in both offline splitscreen/system-linked games as well as online matches over Live.
Multiplayer comes in two flavors: Deathmatch and Dark Ops. Each flavor can be broken down further into six subtypes, including more traditional modes like capture-the-flag and team deathmatch. Dark Ops takes inspiration from one of the most important multiplayer games in the past decade -- Counterstrike. For those unfamiliar with the PC phenomenon, it's a much more methodical approach to combat. The match is comprised of team-based rounds, and you only get one life to live in each. Weapons and gear are purchased before the round begins, and whichever team completes the given objective first, wins. With no quick respawn to rely on, Dark Ops is the thinking man's game of PDZ.
Team Speak
Given that, communication is going to play a key role in determining successful play. Eschewing the popular proximity-based method of voice chat (sorry jerks, Rare isn't interested in your sixth-grade trash talk) in favor of team-specific chat channels, Rare wants you to focus on effective communication and organization. To further help you with that, they're letting you form smaller fireteams that can then be given specific roles or duties during the match.
In a similar vein, the game's map...well, we should clarify this right away: It's not precisely a radar, it's not precisely a map, and it's not precisely a threat sensor...it's all of these. We're going to call it "that thing in the corner of your screen," and what that thing does is show the proximity of friendly and hostile targets, but only if they're making a certain amount of noise. This allows for sneaky players to do their sneaky thing...but one false step or unsilenced shot and it's open season for all permit-carrying rocket jockeys.
This map will also show waypoints that are placed by both you as an individual, and team waypoints that can be seen by all players to use for direct troop movements and objective highlighting.
Girls Love Toys
Perfect Dark is, and always has been, all about the tech. Joanna's arsenal of nifty gadgets will once again come into play. Rare hasn't revealed all of the wonderful toys, but we've seen medkits, the data thief, lockboxes (which allow you to hot-wire vehicles), and explosive kits.
Rolling, spawn campers, and expectations
But woman cannot kill with gadgets alone; she needs true firepower. PDZ's weapon system is quite flexible: Joanna has four available weapon slots, and each type of weapon takes either one, two, or three of these slots (e.g., simple pistols will take one, while a rocket launcher will take three). With 28 different weapons to choose from, each with secondary (and some even with tertiary) functions, the possibilities for creative combat are mind-boggling.
And if things get too hairy, Jo's got a couple new evasive moves to keep her size three *** alive. The first of these is the combat roll, which is performed by pushing in the R shoulder and moving the analog stick While it keeps your valuable and easily-pierced noggin' healthy and breaks enemies' auto-aim targeting, you're vulnerable because you take more damage and you can't return fire while in a roll. The other move, taking cover, is rather self-explanatory. Pressing the A button near the appropriate location will either make Joanna duck behind or lean against it.
In addition to the tuck-'n-roll, Rare has a new way of dealing with unwanted aggression. Once the bane of FPS players everywhere, those dastardly spawn-campers are getting the rug pulled out from under them. Every time you die in PDZ, you begin in your team's personalized spawn chamber where you can gear up and enter the level with decent weaponry and full health.
This is just a sample of what multiplayer has to offer. If there's one immediate concern, it would have to be potential balance problems. Because of the sheer number of players, modes, weapons, alternate weapon fire, gadgets, and vehicles, maintaining a proper gameplay balance has got to be an incredibly difficult task, and as any Halo 2 player can tell you, it only takes one exploit to ruin the game.
Zero Excuses
Time is running out, and expectations for Perfect Dark Zero are stratospheric. Is Rare up for the challenge? "We don't want to release anything and hear that we're not happy with it," says Botwood. "When you eventually get to pick up PDZ from the shelves, you'll know that we've done everything we can to make a good game that we want to play ourselves, and the quality to be as high as we can possibly get it. So, we when we make say, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, or Perfect Dark Zero, when we make Kameo, they're going to be the games that we want to play, and the quality we want them at to be released. If we can just wrap the party up and make sure we give them the best game we can make, then I think we've done our job."
[COLOR=Yellow]I saw footage of the game for the first time yesterday at MTV and Microsoft's Xbox360 revelation thingy. But they were too busy getting reactions from Lil John and other celebrities on how cool the game was. Good to see some actual info on the game.[/COLOR]
...Whatever happened to the anime Jo Dark? That would have ruled.
She still looks roughly the same, just no more bright colours. Wouldn't suit PD anyway.
I have high hopes for that game... I just wish it was coming to the nintendo systems... I can only afford one system and the big N is my company of choice... but man I miss perfect dark... I wish they had perfect dark on the cube... even with the old graphics I would still love it.
I've been playing Perfect Dark recently, It has great replay value. It's a shame Halo has blocked everyone's vision of a good FPS. It's also a shame how it's only for X-box. I doubt I'll be able to afford one and the game by the time it's out, and I would love to play this.
About the game though....it looks amazing. I like the idea of not having the anime look. It's just not the right look for Perfect Dark. If you've seen the shots, they look great. There is one of possible X-Ray vision goggles that shows everyone as a skeleton, as well as your hand awkwardly sticking out where it would be holding your gun. Great detail. There is a shot of a battle in what appears to be a mall, as well. In a few shots, it shows an armoured figure with a Falcon 2 esque gun. Could this be one of the main characters?
I'm very excited to E3, and my next EGM.
I think the X-ray thing is actually the farsight.
I don't think so, because of the hands. You can see a gun, what looks to be like an assault rifle. The X-Ray vision sees through everything and shows the skeletons, which is why the whole hand is there instead of hidden by the gun.
there was an x-ray scanner, that did. . . absolutely nothing, wasn't there?
I think there was..but not in the true x-ray sense, it just let you see through the walls I think.
You used it on one mission to find a weak section of wall.
All right Speedfreak, this one is for you. Even though you may know most of this stuff by now.
Today when I pre-ordered my copy of the 360 and Perfect Dark Zero the guy gave me a copy of Electronic Gaming Magazine. It covered 6 pages of info and screens of the new Perfect Dark game. The first part of the article just talks about stuff we already know, then it had a park called A-Z, which I'll be posting.
Alternate Fire- Every weapon in Perfect Dark Zero has a secondary function, you can activate with the new L shoulder (the R trigger being "shoot", as usual). Depending on the gun, you might screw on a silencer, launch a grenade, active stealth camouflage, or turn your weapon into a stand-alone sentry turret and that's just for starters. "We've got some really different secondary [attacks] we haven't talked about yet that you haven't seen in any other game," says Director Chris Tilston witha widening grin, "which are cool as well."
Believe it or not, some weapons even have a 3rd ability---a special visual filter that makes enemies stand out or a beam that can reprogram those sentry turrets to work for your team, for example. And with 28 total weapons, that's one hell of a lot of options.
Bots- Computer-controlled multiplayer combants, with three adjustible skill levels in PDZ. Though you can use them for their typical offline purposes (to help you learn maps and practice modes or act as friends for you poor saps without broadband), bots also have more interesting uses online in Zero, as Designer Botwood explains. "You could play with your friends against a team of bots," he says. "Or have one really, really good bot against all of you. Or have your friends hold against a massive teams of bots." Best of all, these bots know when they aren't wanted; you can set each so that it ducks out as soon as a real live player joins your game. Botwood also says there will be some way to give bot teammates simple orders, but he wasn't ready to explain exactly how just yet.
Communication- As anyone who's ever captured a flag in Halo 2, can tell you, voice chat between squadmates is what makes team games so thrilling. But, as anyone who's ever been called a "dog-$#%^ing, #$%, @#$%-sucker" in Halo 2 (and really, who hasn't?) can tell you, voice chat with nearby members of the other team isn't always such a great thing. "A certain group of gamers enjoys smack-talking," says Program Manager Richard Cousins, "but the majority of people don't. So we decided not to do [proximity voice chat]." Besides, with teams of 25 or more players, the airwaves will be quite hectic enough already. To help, Zero allows for different chat channels within your team--seperate channels within your defense, for example, or a channel for just your friends. Annoying players that still manage to buzz in your ear can always be muted or kicked, of course.
Deathmatch or dark ops- Zero's two very different multiplayer modes, each with six varients (called scenarios). Deathmatch is the relatively fast action style were all most familiar with from games like GoldenEye and Halo. It includes Killcount (what we all usually call deathmatch - confused yet?!), Team Killcount, Capture The Flag, and a few others Rare wouldn't talk about just yet.
All of dark ops' six scenarios are under wraps as well, but from what we learned, the mode sounds more like Rainbow Six or Counter-Strike: Every game is broken up into rounds, with each player granted just one single life. Everyone buys equipment before each round--guns, gadgets, vehicles--and sets out to kill the other team. "It's more of a slow paced-game says Designer Botwood. "In deathmatch you can go in guns blazing, but if you try that in Dark Ops, you'll get cut down pretty quickly." Which leads to......
Evasive Actions- Our team for two different tatical manuevers that really set PDZ's multiplayer game apart: the combat roll and taking cover.
A roll is a somersault in any direction--forward, backward, or to either side--you can pull of at any time by moving the analog stick and pressing the R shoulder button. The camera pulls back to show your character flipping over the ground, before zooming back into first person mode. This seemingly simple little stunt has complex gameplay implications, as Botwood explains. "Since a head shot is more powerful that a body shot, suddenly changing your head height [with the roll] is an important tactic," he says. "Also, you can change your trajectory slightly [by pushing on the thumbstick midroll], so they won't necessarily know where to expect you to [pop up]. And it breaks down the autoaim, which is useful in long-range gunfights." So why not just roll everywhere? "You can't firewhile you're doing it," responds Director Chirs Tilston, "and you take more damage [if you're hit midroll], so if you're doing it all the time, you'll be very, very vulnerable." Taking cover is similarly simple: get close to anything you could hide behind (benches, balconies, columns) or nearly square corner and a "A" icon appears, letting you know you can press that button to duck or lean against cover. Once again, the camera moves back for a third-person view, this time allowing you to aim your reticle (a bit) over the obstacle or around the corner you're hidden behind. Press fire and your character will pop out and start shooting, ducking back as soon as you let off the R trigger. "The cover move is great," says Tilston. "It allows you to see around corners. But it also ties you to a location, at least temporarily. And you're a sitting duck for someone coming from the other direction, so you have to use it with care and know when it's time to quit and run."
Feedback- The reason Rare released this art of main heroine Joanna Dark (left) years ago was to get this from fans. Since the reaction was mixed, the company decided to keep the stylized look that dial it back a bit. Speaking of feedback, since Rare won't have the luxury of a wide audience to test its game before release, a la Halo 2 (which was given out to about 8,000 Microsoft employees), it'll be relying on its own experience and Microsoft's 100 plus testers (it's largest team to date) to balance and refine Zero. With so many maps, modes, vehicles, and weapons.....well, we wish them luck.
Gadgets- Are pretty much exactly what the sounds like--clever little James Bond-style spy doohickeys. A few examples in Zero: The data thief speeds up the hacking of objects (like turrets or spawn spots) to take them over for your team, the medkit is a one-shot instant resurrection for a dead teammate, the lockbox can hot-wire enemy vehicles, an explosives kit will destroy certain walls to open new paths into a base or through a level.
Some of these gadgets are for single-player game, but even more will be available in Dark Ops mode, which puts a whole different spin on multiplayer. "[When] you can buy gadgets," says Designer Botwood, "you can tatically organize your team by what role they play. [Like a medical team carrying medkits, or a demolition squad toting explosives]. It puts a greater emphasis on teamwork."
Health System- Zero's is quite unique. Every player has health and armor; some guns take off both at once, others armor first, then health. Initially most damage (or all of it from talls or melee attacks) is "shock damage"--you'll get it back automatically as long as you don't take too much and provided you stay out of harm's way for a bit. But take enough damage quickly and your health bar lowers permanently. That's right: Armor can be replaced but not health.
The idea is to level the playing field between the average player and the superelites. Since no one can ever be fully healed, even the best players will succumb eventually, hopefully limiting the guys who never die in other games and lead everyone by 50 kills from the start.
Insults- Zero will dole tem out (i.e., "EGM Shoe has died 10 times in a row without a kill!"), along with the praise for special mutiplayer achievements, a la Halo 2.
Jump- Wait, actually, don't. As in GoldenEye and Perfect Dark, there's no jump button in Perfect Dark Zero. Run up to a short ledge adn, after a brief pause, your character will simply climb up, A bit suprising in this day and age, but Rare claims the evasive actions and duck fill the jump's purpose (throwing off enemy aiming) just fine, without all the ridiculous bouncing about.
Kill TV- OK, now that's what we're talking about. Rare is working on this spectator mode for Zero where players can watch whomever they choose--not just other gamers on your friends list, but almost anyone. Imagine learning tatics by finding the top dark ops player on the games built-in leaderboardand watching him play live. Though it seems to open some doors for cheating, the idea is one of the most exciting we've heard of since Halo 2's stat tracking.
Levels- First off the bad news: Only six are promised for [B]multiplayer. But now the good news: Each level is ginormous and automatically expands or contracts depending on the desert level, for example, the level may be closed off to just a small city and the surrounding dunes--a good size in itself. But the count to 50+ players and the level more than quadruples in scale, in fact, that players can drop special waypoint markers to show their teammates where they are on the pop-up map.
Melee- Weaponless attacks. Lose your gun, run out of ammo, or puch up on the d-pad and put it up to your dukes--in this mode, it's the L trigger for the left-handed punch and R for the right-handed one. But even deliciously himiliating than punching someone to death? Using your fists' alternate fire to grabs your oppenent's weapon and then killing with it.
Alright, my hands hurt like hell. Stayed tune for part 2.......