Clear Sky

I’ve been playing FPS games since I first got my grubby little paws on Doom way back when. Since then I was hooked, and my diet of choice always contains at least one FPS, just to keep me regular. After the advent of Unreal Tournament, I started getting into competitive gaming, facing off against up to hundreds of other players in tests of skill and reflexes. After a while I improved, I still remember my first win, and since then I feel I’ve become an above average FPS gamer… yet all to often I hear, and even bellow it myself from time to time, the words that should make any gamer roll their eyes: “Cheap!”

Like a sparrow that learn to play games, you hear this mating call litterally hundreds of times a day if you play in public T.S.\Vent Channels (The main reason I don’t any more). Yet these people screaming it are often the very first people to use a 40MM grenade on one guy 6ft away, who’s looking the other way and having latency issues. Why do we scream cheap at the screen whenever we’re taken down in some way?  Now some might argue “Because it takes no skill!” or “Because you’re not supposed to use that weapon like that!” or some other .. excuse. I used to know a guy, who turned out to be a massive jerk, who whenever he died, he would litterally scream the excuse into his mic some excuse or other “Oh my god I shot him!” or “God damn lag!” or my favorite “Oh fuck off! No way!” He could never, ever accept the real reason he, and the countless other sparrows out there that feel the need to scream something is cheap, is simply: Because it killed you. You where simply outplayed.

A sure sign of an inflated ego is never ever being able to accept you where outplayed. That you lost because the other person was better than you, and had the foresight to use ALL their tools  available to them to make sure you died. In a game like, say, Modern Warfare 2, firing an RPG at an infantry means  he’s now boned against other things, such as choppers, harriers and AC-130s (Admittedly they’ll probably still get slaughtered, but that’s a rant for another post) and in games such as Battlefield, you’re now bummed against tanks.

Rambo <3s pwning scrubs with his M60. So should you.

You see, I used to be firmly in the sparrow camp. I’d shout “CHEAP!” all the time along with everyone else. I’d groan every time a sniper hit me. I’d foam every time a 40mm grenade hit me square in the chops. And then I played Bad Company 1. The single player in this game essentially taught me to use everything I had to hand. I had a 40MM Grenade Launcher, why wasn’t I using it? I had a rocket launcher and there are three guys in that house. May as well! So I did, and I learnt. Few weeks later, Bad Company 2 is in my 360, i’ve just unlocked the M60 MG with ACOG scope and I finish that game with 50+ kills and a mere 7 deaths… and then I got neg rated, and told that the M60 is “overpowered”  … Oh really? If it’s so imba, why are these legions of drones not using it?

And this is where I’m going to end it. If something is so overpowered you can’t beat it, use it. Prove it’s overpowered to the devs, keep using it until you see change. This also goes to you Street Fighter scrubs who complain that Sagat’s SHK is overpowered yet can’t win a game for shit with him. Even better, go win EVO with him, and tell everyone why you did.  This goes to all you crying runts who think the M60 is so bad, if that’s so, why don’t you all use it? Hell, you’ll even get lots of bonus points for ressing and healing people as a medic. That’s good right!

Every time you lose in a game, it should be a learning experience, so make sure you learn, or you’ll keep padding my kill count.

With a monumental mechanical crash, a giant, heavily armoured foot lands just feet away from, making me to snap my view up just in time to see the Battleframe Robotics unit unload toward the enemy tower… Though I didn’t see anyone at the tower, so I’m not sure who he’s shooting at. I slowly continue my way toward the tower, ducking behind cover occasionally, getting gradually closer; The BFG however just plods on over, pointing both it’s rotary chain guns and the nearest door, and sits there, looking like a puppy who’s latest play thing just got stuck under the sofa and it can’t quiet reach it.

I work my way closer and ready my Mini Chain gun. I poke my head around the door way, glancing down the stairs toward the spawn tubes… clear. I move to the central pillar, then glance around the flight heading up toward the top of the tower… clear. I take a few steps out more and toss a grenade up around the stairs and hit absolutely nothing. I repeat the process at the next flight of stairs, then one one after, I check the area around the control console with Darklight, looking for any camoed soldiers and see nothing. I continue up the tower a little more and clear the roof, also empty. Back inside the tower a squad mate tells me he and his buddy are covering the spawn tubes, and it’s safe to hack the tower’s terminal, which I happily make a start with.

These moments always fill me with suspense, even after years of doing this I still hate turning my back on any potential enemy while I work the console. I’m not certed for hacking either, so this always takes time. I pull out my R.E.K hacking tool and get to work, carefully keeping one eye on my minimap, the other on the chat window. A massive series of explosions outside causes the hulking BFR to explode far quicker than it should have, I ignore it focusing on the hack job, almost done. Another series of shots, and what sounds like a New Conglomerate Jackerhammer firing about 18 times at once, one of the guys on the stairs is reported as KIA … had those rebels developed a new weapon? A lot had changed on Auraxis since I was last here but I’d heard nothing of a new rapid fire weapon in the NCs arsenal… I was never going to get this done in time… I stop the hack, re-equip my MCG and bolt down the stairs to lend my support to the soldiers covering the tower. I get there in time to see a single New Conglomerate soldier teleporting around, like something out of a Japanese horror show, his body twitches and warps around far faster than anything that could be attributed to lag. The second Terran soldier backs away up the stairs toward me, firing his Cycler randomly toward the  phantasmal rebel, and I lend my MGC fire sending a hail of bullets to cover the poor recruits retreat. In less than a second of me opening fire, both the I and the other soldier are dead caught in a near instant-killing series of rapid firing heavy shotgun rounds. Faster than my MCG, faster than his cycler…

That one NC down there with the Rocket Launcher is probably hacking.

I frown as I’m presented with the respawn screen and glance over my shoulder toward my router, not quiet sure what I’m looking for. “Was that just lag?” I ask myself before turning back to the monitor and hitting the nearby base as my respawn location. I work my way back up the base walls, and I look toward the tower I was at just as it switches over to New Conglomerate control. I position myself on the wall and watch the direction of the tower… when to my amazement the soldier who claimed that tower single handed starts flying toward the base, not in a vehicle mind… something more akin to Superman. I glance at the global comms log, and there are at least twenty shouts of “Fuc*ing HACKERS!” and “Christ, another damned cheater!” I man up a little and open my com: “Is this normal now?” I ask, expecting people to laugh at the absurdity of my question… “Unfortunately!” is one response, followed by “I don’t think anyone who still plays New Conglom DON’T cheat.” My heart sinks.

After a little research I learn it’s true. Planetside, the game I once loved, my first MMOAnything, is rife with cheating. It’s population now less than 100 people, even on weekends, and a company that couldn’t care about it’s status in charge of it.. The game, for all intents and purposes, is dead. The forum is full of people not asking for new features, not even complaining about the balance, but pleading with the only TWO developers left to just pull the plug on the ONE and ONLY server remaining… and I can’t help but feel just a little upset, and incredibly frustrated. This is two games SOE have killed now, left out to rot and flounder by uncaring developers and uncaring suits just because it’s not Ever-fucking-Quest II. I log into their website and cancel my account to planetside shortly after.

What happened, S.O.E. … what happened?

Global Agenda: Is it really an MMO?

So, a long time ago I was lucky enough to get into the Alpha of Global Agenda. Back then it was very simple, very messy, hardly a game worth looking at let alone playing, and I left it, quickly forgetting about it and moving on. However Steam recently started advertising it all over it’s front page and it reminded me that I still have access to it. With the game now in late beta, less than 3 weeks away from launching, how is it?

Long and short of it is: Not good. Taking into account nothing but game play, ignoring the (many…) balance issues and technical quirks, the game feels like little more than UT in third person. The ‘MMO’ aspect is none existent and I’m honestly not sure how they can get away calling it an MMO at all. If this is an MMO so was Steel Battalion, so was Chromehounds, and Mech Assault 2: Lone Wolf, STILL IS an MMO.

Mech Assault 2: Conquest Mode, the Orginal GA.

What I find very interesting mind you is that HiRez Studios, the chaps behind Global Agenda, are pushing Conquest mode as their big thing. The reason you’ll want to play a subscription… That screenshot over there to the right is the Galactic Conquest map from Mech Assault 2, the game mode is called Conquest and is a meta game where groups of players, usually 10 on 10, play to fight for a system.. That is an original Xbox game, has no subscription plan, and is superior to GAs game play in that I can choose to pilot a ‘Mech, go it on foot in an Elemental Armour or perhaps support everyone else from the Air. Global Agenda offers only one option, go on foot or GTFO, see that Mech in the picture up there? That’s AI controlled.. Chromehound’s Neroimus War was the same game play, as was Steel Battalion’s. NOT ONE of those games had the cheek to call themselves an MMO, and not one charged a monthly fee to access the (considerably more fleshed out…) Conquest modes.

Essentially, what GA does differently than any other games is that it adds a class based infantry system. You can choose to play one of four roles:  Assault is the heavy weapons guy of Global Agenda, has all the big guns and is supposed to have the most staying power of any class. In my experience the slow movement and weak weapon damage when using your special weapons simply gets you killed faster than any other class. The Robotics guy is a support class, and is essentially the Engineer. He can deploy shield walls and gun turrets, and interestingly enough his basic assault rifle does more damage than anyone else’s. He can also build very powerful turrets and I found I had the most success with this guy. Next up we have the medic: Guess what he does.. And finally, Recon… and here is where I feel the game falls flat on it’s face. A game that is supposed to be all about team work and co-operation has a class made for solo play… longest range and hardest hitting gun of any class. Can cloak and sprint at the same time. Gets an even better sprint on top of that and also gets more ways to kill than any other class. This will have the most players at launch by far…

Exteel: Another game that claims to be an MMO.

This brings me on to my real point: A game like Global Agenda should take the route of the many Conquest style games before it and simply do away with classes. Let the player determine their role by their choice in gear and armour. Exteel, a game with almost exactly the same game play as Global Agenda pulls this off superbly, to the point where I prefer this much older, and Korean game over the prettier and shiny Global Agenda. Players are not stupid, and the hardcore competitive crowd GA is aimed at will use any and all tools they can to win. This means the majority will be running around as Recon and exploiting weapon builds and as soon as HiRez fix one, they’ll all move to the next Flavor of the Month. It’s a never ending battle every class based shooter has to deal with, and one that is easily avoided. Do not push away creativity, do not force the user to select a class and then stick to it. Let them experiment, let them change what they’re doing. In Exteel a player simply has to change their weapon and they can switch roles, but a dedicated player will spend hours in the hangar, fine tuning their mech parts to perfect their build for the role they enjoy without feeling like they’re locked to that choice too harshly.

Is Exteel perfect in this regard? No, far from it, however it is in my opinion a vastly superior and infinitely more fun game than Global Agenda is at the moment. I very much doubt GA will stay in it’s current state for long, and i’ll be sure to keep an eye on it, and keep you posted, but for now, do yourselves a favour and go play the original and balanced Conquest games, or enjoy some free mech action with Exteel.

This is the first in what I hope will be a series dealing game design, player experience, balance and hype. Stay tuned for me!