Takedown: Red Sabre

[JdB 151]

The screenshots so far to me look more like renders ...

[max power 21]

Yeah, the oversaturated colours look like architectural renders from the 90s.

[Flogger23m 2]

The screenshots so far to me look more like renders ...

Only part the looks odd to me are the character textures. Though obviously it is in alpha. If you look closely, the enemy AI's weapons are clipping through their wrist and their hand is grabbing on air. Kind of like the SVD in ArmA 2. :p

Some shots of the WIP menu:

http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/603/638/05.jpg

http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/603/638/03.jpg

[PuFu 4591]

Yeah, the oversaturated colours look like architectural renders from the 90s.

;) the lighting director needs a slap

[johncage 30]

to be honest, it looks kind of bad. originally supported this but now i think i'll be skipping this and waiting for swat 5

i mean the animation and rigging of the characters looks like it was done by an amateur. so stiff and unlifelike.

[nodunit 397]

I like the saturated colors, even if overly so. In a world where so many games follow the brown palette and more follow the pattern, a bit of extra color is a welcomed sight.

Don't really care about the stiff animations, as long as the gameplay is good.

[max power 21]

The lighting problem isn't really that the colours are saturated, but that's what makes it look like old CG. The lighting problem is that some of the images are extremely flat. You have to work pretty hard to give a scene dimension. The screens themselves seem to have odd splashes of random colour all over the place and just end up looking like a random jumble of materials. Who knows if that's how the end of it will look like. I'm fairly certain these promo images are staged renders or something.

In that one scene with the operators about to storm a room, there's little things like the shadows make no sense, and really big staging issues like where the hell are the second operator's legs? How is he so small yet so tall? And the scene was seemingly staged by someone with no animation background. There's no sense of movement to the scene or the poses of the men.

Edited June 14, 2013 by Max Power

[Flogger23m 2]

I think you're being far too picky about the graphics and are pulling apart things that really look fine. Coloration is based off of real world locations that are similar settings. Look up arctic facilities or towns and you'll quickly find they have odd, abnormally bright yellow, red, orange and blue colors all over the place. Just one example. Other odd things, such as the abnormally bright helipad circle are engine bugs. It does not look right at that zoomed out angle which you never see in game. The screen shot was taken at a zoomed out distance to show an overhead view of the map. On the ground, in gameplay, such an issue as that does not exist.

And are you referring to this screen shot?:

http://mediang.gameswelt.net/public/images/201306/cf0f80afa173cdd40086428600750129.jpg

Shadows are likely an engine bug, or incomplete. The second operators legs are behind the firsts. He looks small because of the distance. He is taller because #1 is crouching. He may look smaller overall because he is further back but still appears taller at that angle. Its rather simple and can be replicated in real life if you really feel like doing it. No sense of movement? Hard to tell from a still screen shot. And yes, they are screen shots. But alpha games tend to look rather incomplete.

One of the level designers was an architect before he became a video game developer, so the layouts are probably going to be more sensible than most games.

Skip to ~5:50 - 12:00 to see some poorly camera recorded gameplay:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9Z9pv6guMg&feature=player_embedded

Looks a bit basic at the moment, but it is an alpha. AI looks somewhat competent but it is hard to tell. No use of grenades (not implemented yet?), maps are rather open. Weapons are certainly lethal. 28 round magazine is because it is a 6.8 SPC rifle. Reload animation for the AR does look a bit off, but maybe that will change to. The buggy shadow affects prop up in the video as well.

WIP menu:

http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/603/638/05.jpg

Would prefer a drop down menu like Raven Shield, but maybe it will change. Again, WIP.

Not the greatest media, but hopefully a properly recorded gameplay video will be uploaded soon.

[max power 21]

Bad art is bad art, man.

[down8 30]

gameplay at 6:50

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=T9Z9pv6guMg

I think it looks good. No terrific, but is still in development and is great to have another CQB tactical shooter after all these years.

Gonna buy it for sure.

Edited June 14, 2013 by Down8

[Messiah 2]

One of the level designers was an architect before he became a video game developer, so the layouts are probably going to be more sensible than most games.

He was a failed architect, and turned to video games most likely. I know a tonne of architects who I wouldn't trust to create a sensible layout for a port-a-potty.

Our industry got hit hard in 2008, those who didn't cut the mustard got turfed out, and went looking for other stuff.

[mr burns 131]

Now that you mentioned it, Swat 4 has been acting up lately on my PC. It freezes, then I get black screen, then it comes back again. I performed a clean boot, and it works better then. I guess one or more services is messing up my Swat 4. :(

SWAT 4 has always been like that for me, though it was always CTDs. I've been thinking of playing it, though I realized I have not installed it since I installed Windows 7 nearly 2 years ago. I do want to play it, but always remember the crashes and I always load up another game instead. Now that Takedown is coming out I should get it installed, go through the AI command menus ect. and see what I would like to see taken from SWAT and put into Takedown.

Sorry for OT, but i thought i´d mention we´re playing SWAT4 on win7 and even one win8 system with no problems at all.

Only one guy can´t play because an inexplicable error caused by a "few people on the internet have it, no solution was ever found, that´s PC gaming" error.

Six out of seven modern day PC´s (mine doesn´t count :D) can run it.

The only thing SWAT4 absolutely doesn´t like is having dual (or more) screens enabled.

Always switch to single screen before starting SWAT4 :notify:

Ontopic: I hope this game will be good!

[Flogger23m 2]

Bad art is bad art, man.

I'll disagree then. Only thing I find odd is that the weapons seem to be higher in texture detail and have a more realistic look than the characters.

Sorry for OT, but i thought i´d mention we´re playing SWAT4 on win7 and even one win8 system with no problems at all.

Only one guy can´t play because an inexplicable error caused by a "few people on the internet have it, no solution was ever found, that´s PC gaming" error.

Six out of seven modern day PC´s (mine doesn´t count :D) can run it.

The only thing SWAT4 absolutely doesn´t like is having dual (or more) screens enabled.

Always switch to single screen before starting SWAT4 :notify:

Ontopic: I hope this game will be good!

My issues were on XP Pro and Vista 64bit. Same issues, random crashing. Ran with SWAT 4 Gold with the latest patches since I bought it. Switched to the SSF mod, also gives the same issues. I have not tried it on Win 7 though I doubt that will cure it as XP/Vista and various hardware changes have not. :p I come close to reinstalling it every now and then but then I remember the crashing and don't bother with it. I will probably re-install it soon simply for suggestions for Takedown.

[kernriver 4]

My issues were on XP Pro and Vista 64bit. Same issues, random crashing. Ran with SWAT 4 Gold with the latest patches since I bought it. Switched to the SSF mod, also gives the same issues. I have not tried it on Win 7 though I doubt that will cure it as XP/Vista and various hardware changes have not. :p I come close to reinstalling it every now and then but then I remember the crashing and don't bother with it. I will probably re-install it soon simply for suggestions for Takedown.

I guess this is turning into Swat 4 troubleshooting thread. :o

I finally got it to work. I underclocked my GFX card in EVGAprecisionX by about 5%. Works smoothly. :D I hope it works for you too.

Sorry for OT.

[PuFu 4591]

Bad art is bad art, man.

+1

He was a failed architect, and turned to video games most likely. I know a tonne of architects who I wouldn't trust to create a sensible layout for a port-a-potty.

Our industry got hit hard in 2008, those who didn't cut the mustard got turfed out, and went looking for other stuff.

I can testify. I know a lot of people who i wouldn't trust a barn to make.

That said, the lighting is week, the textures are extremely poor and a bit out of proportion, same goes for everything related to finishes.

Muddy looking image: wood floors don't look like that (is that cheery wood btw, way too red), walls look like some coal pump exploded and made it all dusty/muddy.

[Sealife 22]

It brings absolutely nothing new to the table so far , unless I'm missing a hidden USP

I will not be getting it and stick with the historic versions of the genre and be guided by the " better the devil you know "

Principal

[mrcash2009 0]

Why is that video private and only login available ... meh, cant be bothered with that, any non private videos links?

[Flogger23m 2]

Why is that video private and only login available ... meh, cant be bothered with that, any non private videos links?

Skip to about 6:52. IMO rather rough and not that great looking (no grenade use?) but I assume that is because it is pre-alpha. The map layouts and weapon collision (needs polishing) are nice. Hard to tell much else from a low end video camera video though.

It brings absolutely nothing new to the table so far , unless I'm missing a hidden USP

I will not be getting it and stick with the historic versions of the genre and be guided by the " better the devil you know "

Principal

And did you do the same with ArmA 1, 2, and Arrowhead and all of the DLCs? Because they were honestly not much more than graphical updates of the original game. Not trying to knock ArmA here, but even small updates to AI, sound, movement ect. is better than sticking with the older games. IMO.

[PuFu 4591]

i watched the video on mute. But even with the little knowledge i have about human non-verbal communication and gestures, i can see the lad (forgot his name, doesn't seem all that important) isn't as confident at he was back in the kickstarter days, and he seems rather nervous about something, i would say even a bit lying...

Overall, from an artistic direction, the game couldn't be much worse.

From gameplay pov, it seems rather rough around the endges, but it is to be expect.

Does anyone know what game engine are they uisng/licensed?

edit:

i do see the dedication now....http://www.serellan.com/forums/index.php?/page/articles.html/_/devblog/community-spotlight-flogger23m-r99

Edited June 16, 2013 by PuFu

[Flogger23m 2]

UE3, so don't expect the latest graphics. My biggest concern is texture pop in, which seems to plague most UE3 games even if you can max them out at 60 frame rates with plenty of VRAM to spare.

He didn't look or sound nervous to me (Christian). He did walk in on a live stream (and didn't know it was live stream). If you're talking about the black guy in the beginning (505 guy) then it was rather clear he did not know what a proper tactical shooter was. He was just regurgitating bullet points... and not doing very good at it. IMO.

A proper gameplay video has been delayed until sometime this week. I assume this means the alpha might get pushed back as well. My only hope is that the initial alpha has commandable AI and orders implemented. Because I will spend 95% of my time in the SP I would prefer to test that first. IMO, tactical shooters are their strongest in SP.

[max power 21]

At least their characters look better than Ground Branch's, even if their promo screens look janky.

You can really see the strange scale of the background textures in that video, though. And the animation is really not good. Hopefully they're just placeholders.

Edited June 16, 2013 by Max Power
edited to remove accidental trolling

[Flogger23m 2]

Agreed about the animations. Others have complained to. It looks like animations may be one of the things to be cut short with only one set for weapons (like ArmA 3). Hopefully, if there is only one set of reload animations, the quality will look better than what was seen in the video by release. Characters looked like they needed a bit of work to.

[Sealife 22]

And did you do the same with ArmA 1, 2, and Arrowhead and all of the DLCs? Because they were honestly not much more than graphical updates of the original game. Not trying to knock ArmA here, but even small updates to AI, sound, movement ect. is better than sticking with the older games. IMO.

Your application of arma to counteract my summary of the video is moot , I stand by my conclusion , I could more connect SOF2 to that video than Arma but for obvious reasons I shalk not .

[Flogger23m 2]

Your application of arma to counteract my summary of the video is moot , I stand by my conclusion , I could more connect SOF2 to that video than Arma but for obvious reasons I shalk not .

Actually it is. So far the ArmA titles have not introduced much of anything new since the original title in the late 90s, and in many ways ArmA 3's Alpha is still lagging behind in terms of editor GUI compared to flight sims of the late 90s and early 2000s. The majority of the changes have been graphics. I don't care what you buy or don't (or play), I just find it humorous to knock one game because the advancements for the genre are not a significant leap while also being an active member on a forum for a game in a similar genre which also makes minimal improvements with each release.

Though, IMO, Takedown seems to be bringing larger improvements over RvS and SWAT 4 compared to ArmA 3 over ArmA 2 (based off the Alpha). But it is hard to say as neither ArmA 3 nor Takedown are out and not buying them based on their alpha state feature set is a bit premature. Though I still feel like getting the ArmA 3 Alpha... but that is all I will say about ArmA in this thread.

[max power 21]

I believe that would be what we call a 'red herring' in the field of critical thinking, Flogger23m.