This was inevitable. The company that bought the IP rights for Rackham’s fantasy world was always going to end up making a video game out of them, it was just a matter of when and how they pitched it.
On the one hand it’s nice that the world of Aarklash is going to find new fans. That’s good. It’s a fantasy world I have fond memories of, and deserves a little more love. It would be really great if the atmosphere of the Confrontation 3 tabletop game could be brought to the small screen. Unfortunately the trailer is not terribly inspiring.
Now I spent a few years working on a computer game, so I’m probably more critical than I’d otherwise be (apologies). However, this all just looks way behind the curve for what’s possible now. The idle animations (that make everyone look like they’ve just completed a marathon) are all in synch, which makes it look even odder. The whole feel is very much of something that would have been cutting edge 10 years ago. Or more. But not now.
Or is it just me?
I look at this and all I see is a missed opportunity 😦
Quirkworthy 
It’s not just you.
Ditto.
It depends on what it is Jake. If it is your standard solo player game then yes, I agree the graphics look poor. However I believe Focus Home Interactive concentrate on publishing games digitally for a quick fix hit. Things like Trine and Faery. Stripped down games that are cheap and accessible. I’ve also heard they were looking at starting to publish ‘premium’ games. This doesn’t look like that though! Could it be a MMORPG though? Again given the companies and resources involved I doubt it, but that’s what it looks more akin to for me.
It looks like the graphics and animations and they way they are employed are all low effort solutions in terms of computing power needed and size of packets to pass about, ie good for MMOs, as you say. Not sure they have the £millions to chuck at that kind of project though.
The impression I got was that it was a solo with the main focus on online multiplayer in a kind of FPS vein rather than full on MMO.
No I agree, as I said I don’t think the companies involved have the resources to hand to do an MMORPG. I’m just trying to remain positive. I’d just much rather somebody actually brought out Confrontation again tbh. I think it’d get a better hearing and audience right now I really do. As for this computer game? Well as far as I’m concerned I buy computer games for very different reasons to why I buy wargames, board games etc. I wont by a board / wargame computer game tie in unless it’s a good computer game first and foremost. Although oddly it has worked the other way round with computer games made into board games etc.
I can hear your GEARS turning 😛
Indeed Jake, I even suffered through Doom… amongst others. Wander why it is that I can accept computer games becoming board games etc., but going the other way I become skeptical?
I’ll be happy to see a well designed game with the IP done at least moderately well. If they do a straight copy of the tabletop game, and mean I don’t have to chase down spell cards and learn a million ability names, half of which do the same thing as another, then I’ll be happy with that.
Of course, from the trailer, it looks like I’ll be bloody waiting on expansion packs for any of the Middies, Devourers, Drunes or steamdwarfs…
To be honest Sam, it doesn’t look anything like the tabletop game to me. Gameplay-wise, I mean.
They may do what they did with Bloodbowl, which is to be able to either play real-time or turn-based. I never tried real-time, just sticking to the real-time simulation of the board game.
It looks like small scale skirmishes, tbh, which is what the tabletop was aboot. And there’s no real indication of the interface as yet.
Argh. I’d not considered that it might be based on Conf 4, not Conf 3… Though be fair, that might not be so bad, as it’ll keep it from being too complex in terms of learning curve for the newcomer. And at least then, as it’s a pooter game, pre-painted models are par for the course, and there’s no issue with having to buy an army instead of a skirmish force.
You may be right about the options for turns or not. The stuff they show here looks decidedly not though. Time will tell 🙂
And yes, I expect it to be C4 nonsense 😦
As long as it’s not a bastard MMO, I’ll find something to enjoy, I’m sure of it…
Go Sam!
remember these are the same guys that screwed up Blood Bowl badly, says it all really.
I never played it. Blood Bowl is a great board game, but the idea of playing a computer version does nothing for me (so I ignored it). I heard mixed reports.
Its not very smooth looking, very clanky. Never mind another bad result for confrontation.
The only thing I enjoy about playing Blood Bowl online is that I can play a game of BB with mates in other cities. It’s close enough to the real thing that it’s fun to play a game when you can’t meet up for a game night.
That is the advantage of online games and outweighs all manner of other failings. At times.
The BB adaptation is just the board game transferred to a computer. The experience is basically the same and because it’s both a lot quicker and you can play against your friends from the comfort of your own homes it replaced the board game for us. We still get to play and it’s freed up space for other stuff on the times we can get together.
Confrontation, on the other hand, does not look like it will gaining my gaming dollar.
Just fell in love with Blood Bowl Team Manger…..!
Ah, but that’s not a computer game…
I enjoyed that too.
What computer game have you worked on?
And the Blood Bowl game is actually pretty good, the only slight problem with it is it gets fiddly when you want to use some skills at specific times (Hail Mary Pass, I’m looking at you)
I spent about 3 years working on the original version of the Warhammer MMO. Also done some bits more recently that I can’t discuss yet.
There was an original? Was it very different to what exists now?
And I have always wondered, was there ever talk of a video game based on Necromunda? The other small, self contained games seem to have made the jump (Space Hulk, Blood Bowl)
Yup, there was. Probably more politic for me to quote Wikipedia:
“The second online game development began under the company Climax Online. The project was officially canceled in June 2004 when Games Workshop determined that the roll-out costs would be too high.[17] However, work on the game never actually stopped as Climax Online continued the project using their own funds until the company reported in late 2004 that the Warhammer Online project was shut down due to difficulty in securing a publishing agreement.”
Very different? I can’t help you there as I’ve never played the released version.
I’ve seen demo footage of a Necromunda game which looked very good. However, that was many years ago and I know that was dead before I saw the demo reel. Nobody I knew could ever explain why GW hadn’t licensed a Necromunda FPS as it seemed a natural fit. I suspect it was because nobody ever pitched them a sufficiently high quality product/royalty deal for the license.
FPS? No way! Necromunda screams out for an X-com style game!
Personally I can see at least 3 kinds of Necromunda game, but GW clearly aren’t up for it. Or maybe that’s unfair. Perhaps the developers don’t see it as a strong enough bit of IP.
They can’t even make an X-Com style game of X-Com these days. They’d never make one with an unknown (to computer gamers) IP.
Cyanide’s Blood Bowl was a 1:1 recreation of the board game on computer, which was nice I guess, but they really crippled the console version, taking out 90% of the customisation options for no apparent reason. They blamed memory, which given that the game looked terrible, had rubbish animations, and took weeks to load a match just shows that they’re incompetent at programming for the platform. Seriously, there are £8 downloadable games that have better everything than they managed in a £40 full release.
So I’d not be too hopeful for this, Cyanide have demonstrated that they’re a bunch of wasters at modern coding, and they only really get a pass for that one game they made a thousand years ago that people liked (Mutant League Football, which was just Blood Bowl with the serial numbers filed off anyway).
Hey Gloating, I wondered if this would tempt you out of your lurk 🙂
Wasn’t Mutant League Football the one GW sued them over (for being just BB with the serial numbers filed off)?
So the console version was naff. It works just fine on PC. Don’t use consoles. Here endeth the lesson.
X-Com is being remade, at least in spirit, by a one man band in Xenonauts (http://www.xenonauts.com), it’s generating some serious buzz, and it looks like it could be a winner.
I never said I wanted Cyanide to develop the game (in a perfect world it would be Valve), but the IP and game system are perfect for that style of game.