Something for ja2 and xcom fans

[Bluesman 0]

I consider JA and JA2 to be two of the best games I have ever played all categories (that's 18 years of gaming). I also liked UFO alot but JA was even better imo.

Pity that Sir-Tech had such bad business management and couldn't market the game properly.

Now it seems fans of turn based tactical games can get new hope with upcoming Silent Storm. I watched the trailer and read about the mod capabilities and was sceptical but after having seen the trailer i was blown away by the good graphics and general atmosphere. Stunned even.

Even better, there's a demo out in 2 days .

Article:

http://www.gamershell.com/news_BSilentStormBDemoin2days.shtml

Trailer

http://www.gamershell.com/news_BSilentStormBtrailer2.shtml

I know it's easy to buy into hype and become totally dissapointed but so far I have good feelings about this project.

Pity that they had to choose Jowood as a publisher , they sort of suck at it.

BM

[Gollum1 0]

OMG Jagged Alliance 2 is one of my favorite games of all time!

This is looking real good...I hope the ability, wound and inventory systems will be like JA2. And well, what would JA2 be without the MERCS!? Really, Turn-based is the way to go. My other favorite games are Fallout 2, Final Fantasy 7 (both turn-based) and of course OFP  

DLing trailer now...I had to wade through 5 ads

[Bluesman 0]

And some images. They might look a bit blurry but when you see the trailer you realise the difference in full motion, it looks stunning to say the least.

Too graphic perhaps ;)

BM

[Bluesman 0]

OMG Jagged Alliance 2 is one of my favorite games of all time!

This is looking real good...I hope the ability, wound and inventory systems will be like JA2. And well, what would JA2 be without the MERCS!? Really, Turn-based is the way to go. My other favorite games are Fallout 2, Final Fantasy 7 (both turn-based) and of course OFP  

DLing trailer now...I had to wade through 5 ads

It's worth it (at least for me)

Note that it's not entirelly realistic (at least not the included campaign) but the focus here is on fun + tactics rather than ultra realism.

And with the mod tools you can even make your own campaign from what I understood. In fact their goal is that every single part of the game is moddable (including buildings etc) so you could make a Finnish Winter War mod for it . (Finns are included btw hehe)

(btw that pic looks big but it's only 87kb)

BM

[Gollum1 0]

I find that a lot of games that offer something original and are a bit unusual (Arcanum, Another War, The Nomad Soul etc.) are very buggy when they are released.

[Gollum1 0]

Finns? Really?

Man and I forgot you were Finnish like me lol

And why not Continuation war when we had better hardware?

[Gollum1 0]

Ok just watched the trailer...It looks more like a cross between Commandos 2 and Jagged Alliance 2 but that´s ok...

Some nice things were that the graphics were great and they aren´t shying away from a little blood.

Some bad things...what´s with the freakin´ ROBOTS!?

Well, we´ll have to see how this one turns out...it certainly has potential  

And did the video really have to be an executable?

Oh and sorry for 3 posts in a row

[Bluesman 0]

Especially since it's the same guys that did Etherlords . I can take some bugs if they continue patching it.

From what I read though it's a mix of realtime and turnbased (like JA2). It's realtime until you get to combat. It's not like puzzle oriented like Commandoes.

Nevermind the trailer. The demo is out in 2 days so we'll judge then .

The robots have put off some but remember that their idea is to make a comic book style intepretation of WW2. Do you remember those black & white story booklets you could buy? They were very popular in Finland . The actual gameplay is where the critical item is though.

What really gives this game potential though is that you can mod everything, so those who dont like robots can simply remove them. I think this is where the real possibility lies. JA2 has mods now but it's really difficult to make them.

BM

[Gollum1 0]

The robots have put off some but remember that their idea is to make a comic book style intepretation of WW2. Do you remember those black & white story booklets you could buy? They were very popular in Finland . The actual gameplay is where the critical item is though.

Well, those mech suits could actually be pretty nice...I saw the animation on the main site where a...what were they called, something in German...well anyway a mech blows a building apart with twin machine gun fire (MG-34s or 42s?)

It demonstrates the incredible dynamic environment which is actually becoming a real trend. Have you seen the Half-Life 2 E3 video? Amazing...

And the trailer looked a lot like Commandos to me, the emphasis seemed to be on stealth and most of it could have easily have been from Commandos 3 or something. Climbing over walls, sniping guards...you know the drill.

And with the booklets, do you mean Korkeajännitys?

I´m surprised no one else has picked up on this thread yet...

[Gollum1 0]

Important update on the site!

Quote[/b] ]Update: Nival just informed us that the information in LifeStudio's press release is erroneous and that the demo is "about a month away"

This was the only pic that Ikonboard would show, the rest are too wide. Incidentally, it´s the worst pic. But note that the door has been destroyed by gunfire.

I think it´s a pretty brave and unusual move to include Germans as a playable faction and Finns on the side, don´t you think?

[Bluesman 0]

Yepp Korkeajännitys .

Great little WW2 themed storybooks.

I don't think we'll have to worry about Commandoes.

Check this (yeah hype):

Two independent campaigns for Allied forces or the German Axis throughout Europe in 1943

24 non-linear day and night missions; prepare for the decisive combat in numberless randomly generated missions of any style and difficulty

each mission has multiple paths to completion: attack an enemy base head-on or use stealth and guile to sneak undetected behind your foes' backs

three difficulty levels to satisfy both veterans and rookies

gripping plot unites both campaigns

blow a depot wall to smash the enemies behind it; place a sniper on the roof to remove a sentry with a single shot; use your sneaking skills to silently backstab the enemy officer; distract the guards by exploding the gates...

realistic location-based damage system; aim at body parts

build up your squad carefully for each mission: each character gives you different tactical options

equip your squad with over 75 authentic WWII weapons ranging from commando daggers to hand-held rocket launchers including experimental and rare models; discover hidden enemy cache in the mission to get even more powerful gear.

My favourite part and this is where the excitement comes from.

over 40 male and female mercenaries of various nationalities available in two campaigns, each has its unique personality, background, and dialog lines

----

6 different professions: scout, sniper, soldier, grenadier, medic, and engineer

main character generation: choose his personality and profession, adjust basic properties and skills, customize his face and get movie-quality lip-synch and facial animation thanks to LifeMode technology

9 skills available to any character regardless of profession

skills develop while being used, with different speed for each profession

over 50 additional abilities: choose new abilities with each new experience level.

As for interest. Maybe we are the only JA2/XCOM fans left .

BM

[Bluesman 0]

Quote[/b] ]I think it´s a pretty brave and unusual move to include Germans as a playable faction and Finns on the side, don´t you think?

I don't think Political Correctness has reached Russia yet ;).

I guess they want to leave it to the player how he wants to play it.

Bummer about the demo but well, one month isn't so much . Got OFP.

BM

[Gollum1 0]

Quote[/b] ]I think it´s a pretty brave and unusual move to include Germans as a playable faction and Finns on the side, don´t you think?

I don't think Political Correctness has reached Russia yet ;).

I guess they want to leave it to the player how he wants to play it.

The Russian/former East bloc gaming industry isn´t as jaded as the American industry , it has a lot of fresh new ideas and doesn´t always look at graphs and charts every 2 seconds : "No you can´t have a puzzle there because that might make some 10-year olds feel stupid and lessen their approval of the game by 5%!" and "Well if we remove all blood from this "realistic" WW2 game then we´ll make a lot more money since 7 year olds can buy the game and kill Germans too..." EA says that there´s no blood in MOHAA/BF1942 because German soldiers had so thick clothes!

Try telling a war veteran that you don´t see any blood when you shoot a man in the head with a Kar98.

But political correctness aside, there are a lot of cool game studios in Eastern Europe.

-BIS - OFP

-Maddox Games - IL-2 Sturmovik & Forgotten Battles

-Nival - Blitzkrieg, Silent Storm

-Croteam - Serious Sam Series ( )

-Illusion Softworks - Mafia (Great game), Hidden & Dangerous

-Mirage Interactive - Another War

[Gollum1 0]

As for interest. Maybe we are the only JA2/XCOM fans left .

I think a is more appropriate.

[Blaegis 0]

As for interest. Maybe we are the only JA2/XCOM fans left .

I think a    is more appropriate.

Hell no, I've played almost all of those games, starting with UFO: Enemy Unknown (actually starting with Laser Squad) and loved them. The reason why I didn't post about Silent Storm is because I'd like to see the demo before I comment on the game. Hard to say anything definitive just by looking at the screenshots...

[Bluesman 0]

As for interest. Maybe we are the only JA2/XCOM fans left .

I think a    is more appropriate.

Hell no, I've played almost all of those games, starting with UFO: Enemy Unknown (actually starting with Laser Squad) and loved them. The reason why I didn't post about Silent Storm is because I'd like to see the demo before I comment on the game. Hard to say anything definitive just by looking at the screenshots...

You are right but my excitement is more based on the featurelist/concept rather than the gfx. These type of games were never dependant on the latest bells & whistles.

Actually; That someone even makes these type of games anymore is reason for excitement in my book .

I know there's one similar game coming, called Rabid Dogs made by some German team. There's also the new UFO game but I'm not sure about that one.

BM

[Blaegis 0]

You are right but my excitement is more based on the featurelist/concept rather than the gfx. These type of games were never dependant on the latest bells & whistles.

Actually; That someone even makes these type of games anymore is reason for excitement in my book .

I know there's one similar game coming, called Rabid Dogs made by some German team. There's also the new UFO game but I'm not sure about that one.

BM

I really don't care about the graphics all that much and the feature list in SilentStorm sure looks promising, but the demo always lets you know if the interface and game concept work. We'll know in a month, I guess.

As for the robots (it actually looked more like power armor from the screenshots) you guys were discussing earlier, I can live with them if they don't affect the game balance too much. Remember the bugs in JA2? They weren't exactly realistic, but it was a still funny little side plot.

[Bluesman 0]

Yeah, i turned the bugs off though.

I guess you can buy it through the "Secret Weapons of Third Reich" angle. After all there were some goofy futuristic ideas on the drawing table. Some of them even became reallity after the war.

However; As long as you can edit the campaign I guess it's easy to live with.

They called Panzerklein btw

BM

[Gollum1 0]

Good graphics are just a bonus, the important thing about the environment in Jagged or X-COM is that it´s dynamic and useable. You should be able to blow holes in walls, climb through windows, use sandbags as stable firing points etc.

Oh yeah and the bugs in Ja2 were pretty funny, but that game is actually based on humor anyway (Deidranna? Your mercs? The sex shop and Tony?). 4 out of 5 times that I´ve finished the game I´ve played on "realistic" mode anyway (without the bugs)...

But now that I think about it, the Panzerklein could be a pretty fun addition since SS doesn´t seem to be TOO serious.

Just the way I like it, I guess...

[Bluesman 0]

I wonder what sort of voice actors they'll use. I guess this time we'll get good russian voices . Though Ivan was pretty much perfect (they downgraded him a bit for JA2).

They should find some Austrian voiceover guy too .

Maj najm is Gontarski. Damn it, damn it to hell.

BM

[Tex -USMC- 0]

So... where's the demo at?

[Gollum1 0]

@ July 25 2003,21:44)]So... where's the demo at?

Read whole thread.

[Tex -USMC- 0]

That's too bad.

[Gollum1 0]

It was too good to be true anyway

[amp 0]

Slightly offtopic but how good is JA2?

Is it worth buying as I´m an avid JA and X-COM fan? Is it just JA with a new map or is it a significant improvement over the first JA?

And on a sidenote as I was browsing through webstores looking for JA2, I noticed that a couple of stores had JA3 set for release in February 2004. Couldn´t find anything official with Google, though, and Sir-Tech´s site is just one big "file not found"- error.