Chris Roberts (Freelancer & Wing Commander) returns to to make new

[blake00]

Been a crazy few months with all these kickstarters and gaming legends coming out of retirement with new projects and sequels etc hasn't it! Exciting times for old gamers like me heh :)

 

For years and years mates and I have talked about how much we wanted another Freelancer style game, well it looks like its happening.

 

Chris Roberts has come out of retirement saying finally the technology ha caught up to allow him to create the ultimate cinematic space sim game. Official announcement on the 10/10. If you sign up at his site now you can get more information and bonuses in the game when it is released.

 

I love playing the X series and am a big fan of Eve. But nothing has recreated the atmosphere of Freelancer and that epic movie feel it and the Wing Commander games have. I just loved in Freelancer how you could land on planets visiting huge cities. I have awesome memories of docking at massive space stations & battleships while a big battle was going on and walking into their local bar and relaxing next to a window watching the epic battle play out as I conducted 'business' with some corporation peeps. You'd read up on all the latest empire news, see if their mechanic had some cool kit for your ship and then take off into the unknown. :)

 

 

http://au.pc.gamespy.com/articles/122/1226029p1.html

 

http://robertsspaceindustries.com/

 

https://www.facebook.com/RobertsSpaceIndustries

 

The design sketches look awesome!!! The 1st one looks so Freelancer like!

 

http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/article/122/1226029/ChrisRobertBlogroll_1347313931.jpg

 

http://robertsspaceindustries.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/starshipbridge-740x300.jpg

 

http://robertsspaceindustries.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Carrier-Hangar-740x300.jpg

Edited October 5, 2012 by blake00

[Vindekarr]

Oh, please can this not be a hoax, WANTWANTWANTWANTWANT!

[lonewolfkai]

Nope, not a hoax. It was really announced.

 

I still remember when I played the first Wing Commander and all of its pixelated glory. Ahhhh, good times.... good times.

 

I never played Freelancer though. ALways wanted to try it but never had the time since other games were taking up my time.

[CommanderCrazy]

Mother of God...

[blake00]

Yeah I'm the opposite, I mucked around with a few of the Wing Commanders and always planned to play them but never got around to it. But then a mate showed me Freelancer and I was HOOKED.

 

Am watching youtube 'lets play' videos of each Wing Commander now though as I've realise i'll never have the time to play them (would cut into my ES time :P ) but wanna see the story and the ones with all the famous actors in them.

[lonewolfkai]

I may have to pick up a copy of Freelancer. Your description of the game makes me want to try it blake00.

[blake00]

I may have to pick up a copy of Freelancer. Your description of the game makes me want to try it blake00.

 

Cool, yeah for those who haven't tried it Freelancer's like the X-series games but with Chris Roberts behind it taking it up to the next level in scope and storytelling (he loves making movie like games). Its got the sandbox go anywhere and trade/fight but there's also a decent story with a movie feel to it (clever camera angles & lighting etc). My favourite part which I've seen no other games do is how you can land on planets (often in huge star wars like cities) and inside stations & battleships and walk around them visiting bars, shops and traders. The bars are my favourite (you can tell starcraft 2's bars were inspired by this game) as they normally have seedy space music, corporation peeps lookin to do business, windows that see out into space (in real time hence you can see battles outside) and tvs that show big empire news/events.

 

After hearing about Chris's new game coming I decided to re-install it and play a new game. Being nearly 10 years old it looks a rather dated (compared to X-series & Eve) yet the colours and music create such a great atmosphere still.

 

There's a good modding community too (nothing like here but still good) and I was quickly able to find a HD resolution mod, a HD texture mod, and a bloom lighting affect mod that combined with nivida drivers forced 16x AA & AF make the game look so much better now.

 

In fact typing this post up has just inspired me to whip up a quick page on my site showing a comparison of vanilla (game looking its original best) and my modded version. :)

 

Here’s some example shots (more pictures on the page I just made)

 

http://webspace.webring.com/people/ed/d_blakeley/Games/Freelancer/Freelancer01A.png

http://webspace.webring.com/people/ed/d_blakeley/Games/Freelancer/Freelancer01B.png

 

http://webspace.webring.com/people/ed/d_blakeley/Games/Freelancer/Freelancer02A.png

http://webspace.webring.com/people/ed/d_blakeley/Games/Freelancer/Freelancer02B.png

 

http://webspace.webring.com/people/ed/d_blakeley/Games/Freelancer/Freelancer06A.png

http://webspace.webring.com/people/ed/d_blakeley/Games/Freelancer/Freelancer06B.png

Edited October 10, 2012 by blake00

[lonewolfkai]

wow, that is a huge difference!

 

The vanilla graphics reminds me of KOTOR graphics.

[blake00]

KOTOR.. another old game on my 'to do list' lol

 

 

The game has been announced!! Star Citizen! A game of multiplayer online and single player offline adventures. The cryengine 3 powered graphics look insane!!!

http://cdn.cheatcc.com/news_images/star%20citizen.jpg

 

Here's Chris Roberts quick pitch video.. slap it into HD on a big screen and you'll be blown away!!!

http://player.vimeo.com/video/51135962

 

And if people are really interested, then here's his 1hour GDC presentation.

http://au.gamespot.com/shows/gamespot-live/?event=roberts_space_industries_gdc_panel20121010&fb_source=message

At the 23:50 mark he hops into the game and walks around this massive carrier, looks out of a window into space and then goes down to the 1km long hanger deck and physically climbs into his fightrer and takes off and then flies up to the same window he looked out of and looks in at the people walking around the ship.. just freaky!!!!

Whats really cool is that he also said you and your friends could man a big ship and have one guy piloting, some on the turrets, and others jumping into their fighters all working together like people do in tanks in the online battlefield games.

 

My only concern is they're asking for a sh*tload of money!

Edited October 13, 2012 by blake00

[darkgondul]

OMG impossible, I loved Freelancer and when microsoft killed the brand on the alpha stage of the second chapter it was a pain;

A lot of games tried to reacreate the same atmosphere, even in the MMO world with the Black Propecy titles, but that was my first love in that genre, thanks for that news! :thumbsup: