Irvine, CA-based Red 5 Studios has announced its long-awaited first title at the Penny Arcade Expo today -- a free to play team-based action shooter PC MMO called Firefall [gameplay video], slated for a 2011 release.
The title has been in production in various incarnations for a number of years, but looked as if it might not see the light of day when the developer laid off 30 employees early this year.
However, Chinese MMO publisher and developer The9 staged a timely intervention and helped Red 5 get back on track by acquiring the firm with an investment of approximately $20 million in March.
The game will be free-to-play and will utilize microtransactions to allow players to purchase extra items and build their characters. It is powered by a "highly modified version" of the Offset Engine, made by the now shuttered Project Offset team at chip maker Intel.
Tribes and Tribes 2 lead designer Scott Youngblood is on board as Firefall's lead designer, as the title "thrusts hundreds of players together into a lush, dynamic open world combining intense competitive multiplayer and large-scale cooperative gameplay."
The game will feature a free-to-play model that "allows players to experience every detail of the vibrant world without having to pay a single penny", while updates to the game, dynamic world events, and other content will also be offered without a price tag, and a marketplace will allow fans to purchase optional enhancements.
On September 04 2010 13:15 udgnim wrote: Borderlands
awesome
On September 04 2010 13:15 udgnim wrote: Jetpacks
awesome
I'm looking forward to this bundle of awesome. :> The graphics look great for a f2p game, and the jetpacks add a pretty interesting mechanic not usually seen in shooters. I'm vaguely reminded of Gears of War in some aspects.
I didn't want to make anew thread for this but there are new videos popping up from the current Pax going on. First link has an in depth explanation with the lead designer second is a guy playing a match as recon
I attended PAX east and got to play this game. It was incredibly slow paced; nothing at all like tribes apart from the jetpacks. The weapons were very clunky to control, and the "skills" were pretty silly. I'm not interested in this game at all after playing it.
I played this game at PAX more than any other game at the convention. It was addicting, but it was hard to tell if that was because the line was easy to get on, or if it was because it was fun.
It WAS fun, definitely, but not very polished. Before I get reamed because "it was an early demo" etc, I just want to point out that it was clearly unfinished when I was playing it. That doesn't mean it won't be nicer when it releases, but it looked sloppy to me.
All of the classes were fun. Sniping was a bit too easy IMO, and the assault was easily the most fun/best class. When I was on a team that was working together it reminded me of TF2 gameplay a little bit. I don't know if i would buy it or not at this point but it's going to be interesting to see it develop.
There's no need to buy though. It's going to be free release with no pay to play either. There will be micro transactions but they said they won't make it pay to win and the micro transactions won't hurt balance.
It's a game that i think should be on more peoples radar
hmmm.....i'm not sure what to think. "Tribes and Tribes 2 lead designer Scott Youngblood is on board as Firefall's lead designer,"
that made squeal like a giddy little school girl but alas, i'm afraid there's going to be too big of an attempt to appeal to the modern mainstream market and ultimately delivering poop like vengeance >_>
On March 17 2011 03:04 ProjectVirtue wrote: hmmm.....i'm not sure what to think. "Tribes and Tribes 2 lead designer Scott Youngblood is on board as Firefall's lead designer,"
that made squeal like a giddy little school girl but alas, i'm afraid there's going to be too big of an attempt to appeal to the modern mainstream market and ultimately delivering poop like vengeance >_>
There's no skiing. Any excitement you had about jetpacks should be null and void (Jetpacks without skiing just isn't right). I've heard it's a pretty solid game despite that though and it reminded me a bit of a Global Agenda style combat when I saw people playing it.
The game will be free-to-play and will utilize microtransactions to allow players to purchase extra items and build their characters
Stop calling it a microtransaction, you silly company. If your microtransactions directly affects game play, it's a required payment akin to the pricetag on buying a game if you want to play it at any sort of competitive level, and as thus should be listed as sales price.
On March 17 2011 03:13 plated.rawr wrote: Stop calling it a microtransaction, you silly company. If your microtransactions directly affects game play, it's a required payment akin to the pricetag on buying a game if you want to play it at any sort of competitive level, and as thus should be listed as sales price.
But hey, maybe the game's decent. We'll see.
No it isn't. In general, it's only a required payment if you want to be competitive or special at the game. The majority of people out there are casual players. Dead Space sells Rivet Guns and other gameplay-affecting weapons off the side, but no one says that would be a required payment. Of course, Dead Space is single player, but the same principle applies for Navyfield (a multiplayer game) and...well, almost any other F2P-multiplayer game.
That said, they said that the microtransaction stuff would only be cosmetic and not impact gameplay.
EPT
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