Earth Defence Force: Insect Armageddon

[Zaki]

But what's my name?

"Missa Pebble"

[vanpeebles]

Yay!

[kendra]

Gamespot have some info up (a 4.5 minute interview with some gameplay) :

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/earthdefenseforceinsectarmageddon/news.html?sid=6280337&mode=previews&tag=topslot%3Bthumb%3B1

Number of enemies seems a bit tame.

[MisterBubbles]

Hides all the knives and razor blades from prinny and peebles.

[prinnysquad]

The way you’ll earn armor and weapons has changed to a more structured system that has you using credits you earn from destroying enemies to buy weapons and armor in a shop.
FAIL - overly complicating something simple yet instant and effective - the same goes for this four characters/ four armour types bollocks. What is this crap? Bloody Committee thinking, shoving in a load of stock conventions to 'improve' the game.

EDF: AI will feature 50 achievements that will be earned for a variety of different actions.
WIN, as long as it's not contrived ****.

We had the chance to try two levels, 1-2 and 3-1...
FAIL - what is this crap? 1-2? 3-1? The videprinter? I want to measure levels in TENS.

We also heard some snippets of audio from our fellow soldiers as we dove into battle. While there just seemed to be informational sound bites coming out of the boys, we’re hoping Insect Armageddon comes packing some of the zany one-liners we’ve come to expect from the series.
FAIL - insta-skanking of what makes the audio so great.

... there wasn’t quite as much chaos onscreen (the game is a work in progress after all), the frame rate was good and stable.
FAIL, FAIL and a thousand bastard times FAIL.

Another preview states:
... the big carriers that were infamous in the first game for falling harmlessly to the ground now have physics, killing enemies and allies alike as they crash into the ground.
No, no, no no, NO! Wrong, all wrong.

The video doesn't look as bad as I feared, but it really is the bare minimum of what could be done. The ants look tiny, and there''s largely SWEET FA on screen at once. this makes me **** my pants with nerves and fear a sparse drip-drip-drip of overly designed enemies. Looks like a crudball Western ****fest rather than a busting Japanese romp.

I want lunacy, not this yawnfest. It was about as exhilarating as the Antiques Roadshow. I had my third dump of the day earlier. Yet this video has caused my ring more pain than that.

Tiny ants!! Dull settings!!

First gameplay footage, a chance to allay fears, and what does Squarejawed Nerd show? A few tiny ants pottering around. And don't get me started on how they die! I want to see them blasted into space, not vapourise. Crap.

FFS, just read that no local co-op is confirmed. Disaster. They claim to understand the appeal of the series, yet leave out a series staple. Hate.

Another weekend spoilt.


Man on rllmuk, speaking the truth:
"It's telling that in all those screens and in that gameplay footage there's ****-all enemies present even when compared to the first stage in EDF 2017. Here's the thing: if the developers really think that a stable framerate, more detailed graphics, decent physics, and online play is worth having fewer enemies on-screen for, then they've spectacularly managed to completely miss the point of what EDF is about!

All we wanted was EDF 2017, as is, with even moar enemies, moar and bigger guns, and maybe even online play - but not for the series to be turned into a bog-standard mediocre shooter for the sake of online play and improved graphics (well, improved for a technical perspective, the artstyle is terrible and inferior to that of EDF 2017.)"

[vanpeebles]

I just love having **** smeared all over my face by not even 3rd rate developers. I hope they all get cock rot and their knobs drop off. Just nothing is sacred anymore. fookers.

[prinnysquad]

They've turned it into a D-list 3rd person ****ter, with crap audio, artless graphics, and dull everything. Different weapons for different armours is a DIABOLICAL idea. I just want all weapons available, via a random unlock - not this 'credits' wagontoss. What's this 'wreckage physics' bullspunk? Who the hell wants realism in EDF? That main character looks like any other generic Western knobhead, not a proper EDF bloke in old Japanese media.

If they really knew what EDF was about, they'd just do more of everything. More ants on screen at once, more variety in enemies, more weapons, more levels, more cheese, bigger baddies, bigger explosions, polystyrene physics, colourful semi-cartoony art, splitscreen option. Nobody cares about physics or framerate. The arseholes haven't listened one bit.

If ever a game didn't need needless improvements it was EDF. Include online and do more of everything - that was all that was needed. By overcomplicating it they're ruining the simplicity of it - it's great strength.

[Sketcz]

My knowledge of games development at these epic echelons is minimal (my experience is bedroom coding with 2D sprites), but aren't they wasting more effort, and doing more work, for results which no one wants and which won't result in greater sales? I mean, their talk of how they're improving things, through all this futile extra nonsense, resembles a bloated bald old man on the toilet sweating with all his might to pass a golden egg that will never appear.

In short: wouldn't it be easier to make it like previous EDF games, but use the system resources, resources and dev time to move the slider which controls enemies numbers further to the right?


Another thing I've thought: perhaps this has all been mandated by the original developers. Perhaps in their zest to be like the west (ooh, that rhymes), or what they think the west is, they've been ordering the new guys to do specific things?

I'm curious to know how much communication is going on between the teams...

[prinnysquad]

It's a funny one, because a few people have said that the recent Wii sandlot game was slightly unsettling, as they were given more money. It resulted in tedious, needless cutscenes if I'm hearing right. So there's a bit of evidence to suggest that, had sandlot retained EDF dev duties, and been given more money, they would have made daft changes.

However, it's a moot point because they haven't got the job. VC have, and they claim to understand the fans' love of the series. They clearly don't. They're homogenising the series, turning popular and quirky aspects of it into standardised pish. If they are getting input from sandlot, then obviously sandlot don't understand what the fans like about it either!

We like daft things that work. We like the 2D pickups that always face you whichever way you approach them from. We like them because they're clear, obviously spottable, and you know what's going on. A 3D pick-up in **** brown from the side may be more difficult to see. Just little things.

They're alienating many of the core fanbase by implementing changes that might appeal to a more mainstream audience. They have the Checklist of Genre Norms and they seem to be following it to the letter. They're abandoning the standout elements of the series that its success was built on, and creating Just Another Third Person Drab Mediocre Shooter. No one will want to play a dullard of a game.

As kats said to me earlier...

EDF-AIL

[Sketcz]

You're possibly giving them too much credit there, Prinny. They may have gotten a group of young gaming teens in as a focus group to tell them what they like in other more popular 3rd person shooters.

Reckon we'll indestructible, low level walls which you need to duck behind for cover?

[MisterBubbles]

They may have gotten a group of young gaming teens in as a focus group to tell them what they like in other more popular 3rd person shooters.

Young teens wouldn't touch this with a barge pole , even if you paid them. All the had to do to this is make it 1st gen PS3 or 360 graphics with the local and online co-op and i'd be happy as a pig in $h1t3.

[QualityChimp]

Now that I'm struggling on some of the tougher levels, the ooonly thing I want is online co-op. In fact, I'd have bought EDF 2017 years ago if it had.

There's countless bugs onscreen at the same time, about 20 turrets firing and the game engine is starting to grind. I don't mind at all! If there's slowdown, it means the game is throwing everything it possibly can at you!

Prinny, I'd love to see you write an email to Vicious Cycle telling them what's what.
Please, I'd love to hear their response...
[email protected]

Gameplay footage:

[Sketcz]

It looks like there's never more than 8 or 10 ants on screen at any one time!

[^Katsu]

Jesus christ I really don't know how much more of this I can take

Even if I ignore the rubbish colours, wierdo mechs, sparseness and general fruityness along with the lack of attack.. There are now the worlds most grinding TIN sounding SFX that make me want to snap my laptop in two

Just could not get worse!!!!!!!!!!!

0.50 secs Ah nope cancel that, it just has! The stupid woman from thames water and numerous other establishments is now doing the voice over!

"How DYA Like Dem Apples" FFS stupid arse yankee ghetto voice overs too! So it's looking great for a game I can play blindfolded with sound blockers on, other than that not so good to put it mildly.

[prinnysquad]

What about at 0.57, when your rocket man fires homing marshmallows?

The number of enemies ... it's sparser than the crowd at a Middlesbrough match.

Not one second of that footage got the adrenaline going and made me think, 'F*** ME, that looks superb!' I yawned a bit.

QC - when the game comes out, if it's mega ****e, then they're getting it both barrels. The email will need to be opened with 'Dear ****s'.