Haze demo on PAL PSN, it's good!

[Mondain]

it's awesome, totally delivers

it takes the tired linear FPS genre and injects the right little touches here and there to deliver a great experience

graphics are surprisingly nice, it's all very smooth and clean, pretty detailed at places, framerate is rock-solid, character models look great and are very well animated

the interface is good, the nectar element is well implemented

I love the voice acting, the atmosphere, the odd premise and the humor, Free Radical in full glory again! even if it plays like a run-of-the-mill FPS it's now clear that they will deliver an above-average product

the full game can't come soon enough, give me more!

[duckman2000]

Hmm. I'm still downloading it, but I won't get a chance to play it until after a second or third showing of the Care Bears Big Wish Movie. I really need to hook the PS3 up to my monitor.

So you like it, eh? Seems to be the common consensus so far. I once had very high hopes for this game, good to hear that it will at least deliver a good gameplay experience.

[AdmiralViscen]

Are you saying it's linear or no?

[demi]

Biased, will wait for someone who i can trust

[Mondain]

Are you saying it's linear or no?

yes I'm saying it is, but Free Radical has gone a good job nonetheless

[Mondain]

Biased, will wait for someone who i can trust

  

no bias

I didn't put that tag in my profile for no reason 

[duckman2000]

Biased, will wait for someone who i can trust

That'd be me then. Unbiased impressions coming in, say, 3 hours?

[Mondain]

it was one of the fastest downloads ever, it downloaded the data at like 1.5 Megs a second

[duckman2000]

Failure to be groundbreaking or not, I'm not sure why anyone assumed that it'd be anything less than average. FRD is an established developer, after all. By all accounts one that is probably not as capable of delivering the next step in FPS story sophistication as it may have thought that it was, but it's most certainly a weathered and experienced FPS developer.

[Mondain]

Failure to be groundbreaking or not, I'm not sure why anyone assumed that it'd be anything less than average. FRD is an established developer, after all. By all accounts one that is probably not as capable of delivering the next step in FPS story sophistication as it may have thought that it was, but it's most certainly a weathered and experienced FPS developer.

because they made a game exclusively on PS3 everyone here suddenly begun disliking/mocking/doubting it, as always

now they're being owned

[The Fake Shemp]

No, everyone doubts you because you have next to horrific tastes in games and are an extremely biased indicator of quality.

Will wait for duckman's impressions.

[duckman2000]

Hey, I can honestly say that my impressions will be unbiased. I lost any deeper interest in this game a long time ago, and if anything, at this point I'd be tempted to slam the game just to stick it to Ubi in some pathetic way. Now, I just want to see if it's a decent game or not.

[GilloD]

I don't know. The part with the hovertank was kind of overblown and the vehicle controls are a little wonky. The squad AI is good and it's nice to see some serious tactical combat coming into play, but I'm not sure the open-world really suits this game. Burnout Paradise all over again. The "Affinity" system- Where you can love/hate- certain squad members is weird, but maybe they'll work it out by final.

[demi]

I still have my Haze mints from the demonstration back at E3 2006

[duckman2000]

I don't know. The part with the hovertank was kind of overblown and the vehicle controls are a little wonky. The squad AI is good and it's nice to see some serious tactical combat coming into play, but I'm not sure the open-world really suits this game. Burnout Paradise all over again. The "Affinity" system- Where you can love/hate- certain squad members is weird, but maybe they'll work it out by final.

Open world? From what I've heard, it's remarkably linear.

On that note, LOLs all around at the NeoGAF thread on the same topic. Believe it or not, WrikaWrek of all people is "disappointed".

Oh well, 83%

[Mupepe]

I think it will be pretty good.  But a system seller?  No.  A mainstream hit?  No.  OMFGBestFPSin10Years?  No.  Pretty good?  Yep.

[duckman2000]

Haha, Y2Kev is having an AltogetherMoment. Where is he anyway, doesn't he post on EB?

[Mupepe]

I think he gave up on us and our xfaggotry

[demi]

He left when we outed him as a penis slobber-er

[GilloD]

I don't know. The part with the hovertank was kind of overblown and the vehicle controls are a little wonky. The squad AI is good and it's nice to see some serious tactical combat coming into play, but I'm not sure the open-world really suits this game. Burnout Paradise all over again. The "Affinity" system- Where you can love/hate- certain squad members is weird, but maybe they'll work it out by final.

Open world? From what I've heard, it's remarkably linear.

On that note, LOLs all around at the NeoGAF thread on the same topic. Believe it or not, WrikaWrek of all people is "disappointed".

Oh well, 83%

I just figured I'd throw together some buzzwords and see if anyone agreed with me. I don't even own a PS3. I should have waited before admitting this.

[AdmiralViscen]

So is this in the US yet? What does it take to make a Euro account?

Taking your word on Haze?

No thanks, I'd even take AltogetherAndrew's word on Haze demo before yours biased one.

[Grecco]

Failure to be groundbreaking or not, I'm not sure why anyone assumed that it'd be anything less than average. FRD is an established developer, after all. By all accounts one that is probably not as capable of delivering the next step in FPS story sophistication as it may have thought that it was, but it's most certainly a weathered and experienced FPS developer.

Because their single player campaigns in all three Time Splitters, have been less than average. Their excelence comes from their multiplayer? And Free Radical hyped this as some Halo Killing Single Player tour de force

[Mupepe]

Casuals care about Halo SP?

[AdmiralViscen]

I'm not seeing why I should be excited about ME. The intro was dull as fuck, the combat seemed cool but it's probably just a couple of simple button presses with a canned animation.

[duckman2000]

Ok, so this is SP only, I haven't had a chance to try it out in co-op mode.

Overall, not bad. A far cry from great, but not bad. It runs well, the visuals range from passable to at times very good, although there certainly isn't a whole lot of detail to objects in the environment. On the upside,  it does feel very clean though, which is nice after having recently played a few very aliased games. The jungle has a good amount of foliage, but it's also very static, and doesn't have much life to it. Overall, it's very solid, but it doesn't feel organic. Animation, another passable effort. Which is disappointing, because I really thought that FRD would excel in giving these characters "life". There are some cool moves performed by the rebels, but generally, it feels pretty artificial and conservative.

Now for gameplay. At first I felt crippled without a sprint button, but then of course I realized that nectar makes your movement a lot faster. That nectar bit is pretty interesting. It aids in target acquisition, but at the same time it distorts your view so it's not an automatic win deal. Guns range from average (Mantel assault rifle) to punchy (Rebel assault rifle). The Mantel pistol has serious oomph to it as well, nice to see (and hear). Grenades feel strangely lame to throw, but the actual explosive effect is pretty awesome.

Not much to say about the story content really. There's a nectar disruption part where I think you're supposed to gasp at the horrors of war, but in part thanks to having seen that sequence before, it didn't have much impact. There is one "scene" which does hint at this much ballyhooed maturity of the game, where a team mate is being visibly disingenuous about something that occurs off-camera, but that's about it as far as I can tell. Then again, if that stuff is what FRD claims it to be, it wouldn't be well communicated in a demo anyway.

So yeah, it's pretty alright. Coming straight from COD4, the gunplay doesn't feel as satisfying as I would have hoped, but I think that'd probably be the case no matter what game I played. I didn't play this with a dualshock though, and I suspect that rumble will add a lot to the combat feel.

Oh yeah, and the title music is quite nice.

[AdmiralViscen]

How do I make a Euro account? When I click create new account it takes 2 seconds and never prompts me for my region.

Also does the demo support co op?

[duckman2000]

And Free Radical hyped this as some Halo Killing Single Player tour de force

That's not true though. Criticize the game for its own faults (it has them), don't recycle interweb-distorted arguments.

As I recall, the scriptwriter said something about the current state of story telling and themes in video games, and used Halo as an example of something that they would not want to present. He might have said it in a different way (he seems to let his mouth run a bit too often), but that was the gist of it. No one from FRD has expressed any interest in "killing" Halo, just that they wanted to deliver something different.

How do I make a Euro account? When I click create new account it takes 2 seconds and never prompts me for my region.

You have to make a PSN account. Just pick UK as country, and then look up some hotel or official address online and use that as your address.

[AdmiralViscen]

Where do I go to make a new PSN account?

[duckman2000]

It should be right above the PSN Store.

Anyway, people (elsewhere) are saying that it's jaggy, and I'm really not seeing that. A generally low res, blurry style, yes, but I thought that was part of the whole glorified reality deal. Go figure.

[AdmiralViscen]

I see Account Management there, and it looks like it can only be used to edit my existing account. Do I have to log out? How do I do that if I have auto-sign-in activated lol

[Mupepe]

i don't care about jaggies so that sounds awesome.  my dlp is awesome jaggies.  the only game i ever noticed them in was halo 3 but that's because that's a whole different ball game.

[duckman2000]

Log in to your Euro profile (the auto-login settings for your usual username will remain the same). Then go to the account management and PSN store tab. There should be a "Create Playstation Network account" button where the Playstation Store button normally is.

[duckman2000]

i don't care about jaggies so that sounds awesome.  my dlp is awesome jaggies.  the only game i ever noticed them in was halo 3 but that's because that's a whole different ball game.

I'm really not seeing aliasing here though. Maybe my TV is too small, but I certainly saw them in GTA IV.

[AdmiralViscen]

Log in to your Euro profile (the auto-login settings for your usual username will remain the same). Then go to the account management and PSN store tab. There should be a "Create Playstation Network account" button where the Playstation Store button normally is.

Oh ok, so I have to create a new profile all the way on the left first, THEN do it. OK, thanks.

Now go help me in my media streaming thread :p

[Mupepe]

i don't care about jaggies so that sounds awesome.  my dlp is awesome jaggies.  the only game i ever noticed them in was halo 3 but that's because that's a whole different ball game.

I'm really not seeing aliasing here though. Maybe my TV is too small, but I certainly saw them in GTA IV.

i don't see them in gta iv either

[fistfulofmetal]

It sucked.

[duckman2000]

It sucked.

As hard as your "impressions"? Doubtful.

[fistfulofmetal]

I'm not about to write out several paragraphs of my impressions.

It wasn't fun at all, therefore it sucked.

[demi]

OMG IT SUCKED this is glorious news, sonytards owned

[AdmiralViscen]

Thanks duck, downloading now.

0%

...

0%

[AdmiralViscen]

1%



1998

[Don Flamenco]

It's alright.  The best thing I can say is that it runs very smoothly-- hardly a drop in frame rate the whole time.  On the other hand, the graphics are nothing special--no crazy lighting, no super detailed textures, explosions are pretty basic-- so it should run smoothly. 
the guns are loud and the enemies aren't too dumb, but you don't need to take cover or anything.  you can run n' gun, but this is probably part of the very first level.  Nectar is cool, but I don't see how its revolutionary.  It's cool how enemies light up, but that's the biggest advantage.  There don't seem to be enough enemies though.  The online coop ran smoothly.  Friendly fire was on, but you can revive each other, like in gears.

There's nothing bad to say about it, other than the voice acting and script are pretty dumb. "It's just an animal! ......... ....... It's just an animal!"  Otherwise, I'm still pretty neutral/apathetic about the game--there's nothing about it that makes it stand out.

[AdmiralViscen]

576p

You can't go much lower before you might as well put your game on Wii.

[demi]

wow, this looks good

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[pilonv1]

dx 10 v dx8 demi?

also 576p?!

[Van Cruncheon]

576p

you know the drill

spoiler (click to show/hide)

rsx budget gpu

[close]

[MCD]

baked and faked.

[Van Cruncheon]

POWER OF CELL
 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[Don Flamenco]

Man, fucking Xfags.   

Leave it up to you guys to completely miss the point. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

that the game has completely mediocre gameplay.

[close]

[pilonv1]

loul its really 576P

576P = ENHANCED DEFINITION FOR PAL

[pilonv1]

576p50 is considered enhanced-definition television (EDTV). In some countries, such as Australia, the 576p resolution standard is technically considered High Definition and as such was used by the Special Broascasting Service (SBS TV) & the Seven Network, having now been replaced by 720p and 1080i respectively.

[MCD]

 

[AdmiralViscen]

The graphics are pretty bad and i want to be able to speed up my aiming.

I appreciate the fully customizable controls though.

I liked the combat but then I spent 2 minutes just trudging through jungle hallways, continuing now.


Kinda disappointed that the game lacks ironsights, I thought I saw that in preview vids. It's also kind of weird that you don't pop out of zoom when you reload,  but I'll get used to that. I like that your pistol is a sniper rifle that sounds like a shotgun.

Getting shot gives you blur, red screen, and shakes, Turok deux


Great load times but the cutscenes are endless.


Wow, that demo was short as fuck. The unskippable cutscenes were more than half of my gametime I think. Solid but not spectacular, no surprise. I might get it if reviews are good and my friend likes it.

[Mr. Gundam]

I wasn't interested in Haze before the demo, and after trying it out, I'm still not interested.

[duckman2000]

Kinda disappointed that the game lacks ironsights, I thought I saw that in preview vids. It's also kind of weird that you don't pop out of zoom when you reload,  but I'll get used to that. I like that your pistol is a sniper rifle that sounds like a shotgun.

I don't know, I though it was weird how the pistol brought up basically the same zoom reticle as the assault rifle. 
Other than that, the pistol is pretty alright. Nice boom quality to it, a bit like Gears in that respect.

Played it again, and my initial opinion remains unchallenged. Good, but nothing more, really. I guess it will come down to how the story plays out, but the gameplay so far has seemed to hover somewhere between good and inoffensive. Nectar does separate it from the pack a bit, but I'm not convinced it's an altogether good thing.

[duckman2000]

Alright, so after watching the Killzone 2 footage, it's really hard to take this seriously. Presentation isn't everything, but really now. I understand that there is likely a pretty big gap between the two in terms of available resources and time, but this is sort of ridiculous.

[Don Flamenco]

The second the jungle popped on screen and they were talking about nectar I thought "hmmm, crysis." Towards the end I was like "I'd rather be playing Crysis."  One little superpower isn't anything when Crysis does that with multiple powers and offers open ended gameplay, amazing AI, and the best visuals ever.  Not saying everyone needs to own a $1000 PC, but since I have the option of playing either game, Haze would definitely take a back seat, since it's basically Diet Crysis.


Also, your squad mates are what you would get if you crossed Brucie and the Republican Rangers from GTAIV

[duckman2000]

The second the jungle popped on screen and they were talking about nectar I thought "hmmm, crysis." Towards the end I was like "I'd rather be playing Crysis."  One little superpower isn't anything when Crysis does that with multiple powers and offers open ended gameplay, amazing AI, and the best visuals ever.  Not saying everyone needs to own a $1000 PC, but since I have the option of playing either game, Haze would definitely take a back seat, since it's basically Diet Crysis.


Also, your squad mates are what you would get if you crossed Brucie and the Republican Rangers from GTAIV

I agree. And I wouldn't be surprised if Crysis has been viewed as somewhat of an unbeatable nemesis at the FRD HQ. It's not a bad game, but I don't think "not bad" really cuts it at this point. At least not for a new IP.

[AdmiralViscen]

The graphics reallllly suck.

[duckman2000]

Looks pretty alright to me, at least on a tech level. It's not very attractive though.