274 replies to this topic

[Liten]

Quote

So THQ’s game is really just copying Microsoft’s Gears of War game

I stopped reading here, idiots like this shouldn't be allowed to write video game reviews.

[SquigPie]

OH MAN LOOK AT THAT BADASS GUN HE HA-

Guardswoman? What Guardswoman?

[General]

There is no such a thing like Guardswoman, they end up being Sister of Battle, noob producers Best Boxart I've ever seen to the date though

Edit: I did not like the expression of Space Marine, it looks something else than a Space Marine of Warhammer40K

Edited by Gabriel Angelos, 25 May 2011 - 20:30.

[Wizard]

Gabriel Angelos, on 25 May 2011, 21:28, said:

There is no such a thing like Guardswoman, they end up being Sister of Battle, noob producers Best Boxart I've ever seen to the date though

Edit: I did not like the expression of Space Marine, it looks something else than a Space Marine of Warhammer40K

Woah woah woah..... that is not correct at all. Whilst there are very few regular conscripted Guardswomen, there are women in the Imperial Guard serving as officers. And I seriously doubt that THQ, the beloved bitch studio of GW, are going to get _ANYTHING_ remotely uncannon past them.

@ that review. I have seen some fuck ups in my time, but never have I seen one person make such an arse of himself in print before....

[General]

Lol, I didn't knew there were Guardswoman, anyways seems like my codex not enough, gotta get some lessons from Tarkus review is fucked up, Warhammer predates Gears of War by 23 years

[SquigPie]

Wait, it was a review? I thought it was an article about an interview he had, I didn't read much of it because what I read made my soul hurt.

And yeah, Guardswomen are canon, in some of the books. For all it's insanity and horror, the Imperium in general is suprisingly gender equal.

Of course, individual world cultures may have different views.

Edited by SquigPie, 25 May 2011 - 21:25.

[Wizard]

Forums are up for the game btw

http://www.spacemarine.com/gb/forum

&

Edited by Wizard, 25 May 2011 - 21:38.

[MR.Kim]

Pre-Purchace now on Steam and get the Blood Raden Chapter pack

[Wizard]

OK, well, I've just managed to actually watch the vid that I posted and ... I literally came!

How, in the name of the Emperor's Golden Balls, can people _not_ want to play this?!?!? This is the game I've been waiting for, for-like-ever! I want to list all of the things in that vid that are pure WIN but as I've just grouted my keyboard, I think it'll have to wait.

*pre-orders and cleans up*

Edit: where pre-order, nao?
Edit2: THQ preorder you get a power-sword and Darksiders for free... hmmm?
Edit3: WEAK, LAME, TOTALLY NOT COOL, fuck you Steam, not available in my region..... *loads bolter and heads off to Valve to get his pre-order sorted*
Edit4: FS, Y U NO POST HERE?

Edited by Wizard, 26 May 2011 - 14:26.

[Ion Cannon!]

Sweet jesus that was fail.. that guy had no clue.

The combat looks great, but it looks a tad easy no? You seem to rape absolutely everything.

[Libains]

Well, that looks epic. Do want.

Something of note is that it's actually built on the engine that runs Darksiders (thus why that's free). I can say right now that Darksiders offers one of the most satisfying combat experiences I've ever known, and the shooting expereince is one of the worst I have ever known. If they can iron out the shooting side of things, this should be fantastic, because there is nothing more I love about Darksiders than wading through hordes of demonic spawn, slicing them up, and then proceeding to pull all sorts of crazy critical hits on them.

And to answer your qn Ion, if the curve is anything like Darksiders, you'll begin being able to wade through anything, but once the game gets going, the curve really ramps up PDQ, and it's a real challenge.

Spoiler

Anyone guess that I love Darksiders and am, in turn, loving the looks of this badboy?

[Ion Cannon!]

AJ, on 26 May 2011, 16:13, said:

Well, that looks epic. Do want.

Something of note is that it's actually built on the engine that runs Darksiders (thus why that's free). I can say right now that Darksiders offers one of the most satisfying combat experiences I've ever known, and the shooting expereince is one of the worst I have ever known. If they can iron out the shooting side of things, this should be fantastic, because there is nothing more I love about Darksiders than wading through hordes of demonic spawn, slicing them up, and then proceeding to pull all sorts of crazy critical hits on them.

And to answer your qn Ion, if the curve is anything like Darksiders, you'll begin being able to wade through anything, but once the game gets going, the curve really ramps up PDQ, and it's a real challenge.

Spoiler

Anyone guess that I love Darksiders and am, in turn, loving the looks of this badboy?

I already knew you loved Darksiders yes ^

I'm hoping steam makes that pre-order available here as well, it sounds like a good deal.

[Wizard]

Yet to be shown SS captured from the video


Anyway, I must say that I am a little disappointed by the lack of cover in the game. I get that they don't want to be GoW rip-off, but even 8 foot tall, gene-bred super-human warriors need to hide behind a wall occasionally. However, I don't see it being any sort of object to this game being incredibly playable and rather epic based on the combat that we're being shown.

Another small thing that bothers me, and no it's the reloads, is the fire fx and rates of some of those weapons. Both plasma weapons should not fire as fast as they do, the Plasma Cannon considerably slower than it does, the Plasma Gun, meh. The Las Cannon as well has a stupid rate of fire and fx, but that also suffers from being too small by fluff standards.

Those problems alone, are not game breaking for me in the slightest, as it's quite clear that you simply could not keep pace in this game with slow RoF.

Loving the Power Axe and Thunder Hammer inclusions. I just wish they'd thought about a Power Fist to, as they are hugely iconic close combat weapons of choice for a Space Marine. Let's hope that the DLC that they 'are' planning (Noun has said they might even take a look at including a playable Dreadnought - paraphrased btw) can include some more fluff stuff.

Edited by Wizard, 26 May 2011 - 17:39.

[TheDR]

Looks great!

I'm still hoping for Co-Op, but now I'm thinking it might be able to last without it, thats if they manage to make the game long enough.

[SquigPie]

Well, Wiz, the Plasma gun is actually supposed to be a rabid-fire weapon (unless you're putting it on safe mode, which is very unmanly), Not sure about Plasma Cannon though.

The hip-fire Lascannon did make me rase an eyebrow, it may be because Titus just picked up a nearby Non-Astartes Lascannon (remember, The weapons the SM use are much larger then normal weapons) and then started firing away.

Weapons not being fluffy could also be explained by the game taking place on a Forgeworld, each forgeworld make different patterns of weapons.

AJ, on 26 May 2011, 17:13, said:

Well, that looks epic. Do want.

Something of note is that it's actually built on the engine that runs Darksiders (thus why that's free). I can say right now that Darksiders offers one of the most satisfying combat experiences I've ever known, and the shooting expereince is one of the worst I have ever known. If they can iron out the shooting side of things, this should be fantastic, because there is nothing more I love about Darksiders than wading through hordes of demonic spawn, slicing them up, and then proceeding to pull all sorts of crazy critical hits on them.

And to answer your qn Ion, if the curve is anything like Darksiders, you'll begin being able to wade through anything, but once the game gets going, the curve really ramps up PDQ, and it's a real challenge.

Spoiler

Anyone guess that I love Darksiders and am, in turn, loving the looks of this badboy?

Darksiders has the dubious honor of being one of the only games I've never completed, don't know why, just wasn't me.

Edited by SquigPie, 26 May 2011 - 18:00.

[Wizard]

TheDR, on 26 May 2011, 18:53, said:

Looks great!

I'm still hoping for Co-Op, but now I'm thinking it might be able to last without it, thats if they manage to make the game long enough.

Both MP and Co-Op have already been confirmed.

[samster01]

SquigPie, on 26 May 2011, 18:55, said:

Darksiders has the dubious honor of being one of the only games I've never completed, don't know why, just wasn't me.

That's a shame Squig, Darksiders was an amazing game, which has a real sense of character progression, both in terms of story and combat. It also gets extremely challenging on the normal and especially the apocalyptic difficulty setting. Easily my favourite game of 2010.

On Topic:

I must say the trailers for the game are very, very good.

I'm looking forward to seeing videos of some non-developers playing it, so we can can a better idea of how challenging the game is. (Multiple difficulty settings are an excellent way of making sure the game is challenging and completable for all the different groups of players).

Perhaps the game will be playable at E3? We can hope.

Edit: Oh and between this, Gears 3, and Rayman Origins, I should definitely have my Co-Op fix for 2011-2012.

- Sam

Edited by samster01, 26 May 2011 - 18:19.

[Wizard]

Chaos Reveal Trailer

Not that it reveals much...

[SquigPie]

A small tie-in coop game. Looks fun.

Comes in July.

Edited by SquigPie, 10 June 2011 - 12:32.

[Liten]

E3 Gameplay demo.


Looks awesome IMO, if I weren't convinced this game was awesomeness incarnate, I am now

[General]

Warhammer CONTRA ?

[Camille]

dear god that actually looked rather awesome

[Wizard]

Honestly I am disappoint that Kill Team is only for consoles. I can't see why they've done that given that the whole 40k computer gaming franchise was founded on the PC...... This smacks of making a quick extra buck to me.

That said, I can't say I won't be buying it. Which is pathetic, I know.

While we're about it, does anyone know why the UK/European version is not yet available to pre-order on Steam? What is with these split/delayed release dates these days? GW was/is a UK company ffs. Shouldn't it be all be arranged globally?

[Wizard]

Q&A with leading Dev, beardy weirdo, Raphael van Lierop, on the Honour Guard forums, sadly I wasn't available to participate, which is lucky. Bear in mind I had to trawl through 251 utterly pointless and dumbfuck posts to bring these to you in the abridged format below.

On model randomisation, persistant bodies and sync kills

Quote

For randomizing models, which models are you referring to exactly?

For persistent bodies, the # on-screen and the amount of time they persist on screen is a matter of performance and optimization. We figured it's more important to be able to throw 30 highly detailed enemies at you at any given point in very detailed environments with incredible VFX, animation, etc., then to see a lot of dead bodies on the ground. In the game you tend to move forward pretty relentlessly -- there isn't a lot of looking backwards.

For # of sync kills -- if you mean Executions, there are multiples per weapon and per enemy type, basically as many as we can fit into animation memory.

On wheter there will be a demo

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As for a demo -- we're discussing to figure out timings, so I don't rule it out. It's just a question of finding the time to prep a good one in the midst of finishing the game.

On what will be in MP

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We've announced Multiplayer but not released any details yet. That information is coming soon, and in a big way.

On the totally unnecessary point of controller mapping

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You'll be able to modify your controller mappings.

On Co-op info

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Info forthcoming in due time.

Gee.... fanks.....

On additional weapons

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The Chainsword, Power Axe, and Thunderhammer are the melee weapons in the game. In the future, it would be cool to add more, but it is an enormous amount of work! We iterated for several months on the chainsword alone, to get it feeling really good, and true to the source material.

We showed Jump Pack gameplay at our pre-E3 event in Santa Monica -- I think the footage should find its way online soon. The JP works as you would expect it to -- it's a method of locomotion, but also has offensive capabilities. It's really fun!

Woah... some actual information, although wtf they could deliberate about the fecking chainsaw-sword for is beyond me...! I can't think of a single other weapon of the 40k universe that is more iconic than that....

On being Matt Ward's bitch

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The only Space Marine I play is Captain Titus of the Ultramarines.

On the most asinine question ever

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Captain Titus does not wear a helmet.

On working with Mark Strong, second most asinine question ever

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Working with Mark was a great experience. He had done some research on 40k before coming to the sessions, but was pretty new to the source material. However, he knew the script very well -- which as mundane as it sounds, is suprisingly uncommon when working with 'big name' talent. He really got into the character and the story, and delivered a wonderful performance as Captain Titus.

I was extremely happy to be able to work with him. He was always my first pick for Captain Titus; as soon as I saw his performance as Lord Blackwood in Sherlock Holmes -- how deep and strong his voice was, how much presence he brought to the character, and how he managed to sound very poised and in control but still very imposing. Really, he was a great pleasure to work with. And he really took the work seriously, approaching it like he would any role in a big feature film. Also, he was incredibly approachable, modest, etc. I mean, just a really decent guy. Can't say enough good things about working with him.

Mark seemed to have a ton of fun playing a hero, since historically he has played a lot of villains. Also, Games Workshop was absolutely thrilled with Mark's performance and actually consider him to be the best expression of the Space Marine character ever done. So, that was pretty great validation for us.

I also have to give a lot of thanks to SIDE UK, the recording studio we worked with in London. They were phenomenal partners, and played a big role in helping us get Mark on board. We are very fortunate to have had such great partners in making this game.

I am beginning to wonder what the fucking point of this was...

On, as usual, Gorb's attention whore question (or hey, look at me and what I can spot that you missed)

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Sounds like a bug. We have appropriate locational damage based on weapon type and hit location.

On whether you can play the whole campaign using just one weapon

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I guess technically you could, but why on earth would you ever want to? This is 40k. More guns is better!

On the appearance of different weaponary, CSM weapons and dodging the question of Chaplain Varnus (again)

Quote

The Bolter remains effective pretty much throughout the entire game. Weapons are placed in contextually logical locations. CSMs have a range of weaponry.

On DLC

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Yes, we have an extensive DLC plan.

Or show us your money

On more DLC and ignoring quesitons about the AI

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What we end up doing in DLC, beyond our existing plans, will depend a lot on how successful the game is, and how many of you buy DLC. If the game does as well as we hope it well, and the fans really go for our DLC, you can be sure we will create more. We are committed to Space Marine long-term and we want to keep you guys engaged in the game experience for as long as we can. That's how you build a hit franchise.

On demos again

Quote

I have pretty strong opinions on the value of demos, especially pre-launch demos, but in the end demos are more of a marketing tool to help raise awareness of the game for those (unlike you guys) who may not already know about it, or be convinced to buy it. As such, we will do whatever we can to support the promotion of the game, as long as it doesn't hit on the quality of the game itself.

On differences between console and PC

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There is no gameplay difference (aside from removing a lot of the 'helpers' all console games use), and the game should look (and perform) well on the PC min spec. Of course, on high-end rigs you will be able to run at very high frame rates, higher resolutions (look in my twitter feed to find a photo of us running SM on a high-end 6-monitor Eyefinity rig). PC has its own controls, fully customizable, and the option to play using gamepad if you like. And, the PC version will be available on Steam, which based on my informal research appears to be the platform of choice for PC gamers.

Personally, I think the PC version looks fantastic.

On totally ignoring questions of linear gameplay and the corruption meter from DoW Retribution

Quote

We've talked a lot about the blockbuster cinematic nature of Space Marine, and as such we are delivering an experience that is very different from what we've historically done with the Dawn of War series of RTS games. We are putting players in the armour of Captain Titus, so they can experience his journey -- his battle, which becomes *your* battle -- first-hand. The best way for us to do that is through a linear campaign experience, similar to how most games of this style handle things.

Really, why is here there again?

On something that wasn't a question but as he'd ignored OVER 9000 other important ones felt the need to post about this

Quote

We have a great DevTest team in-house, as well as extensive QA resources at THQ working on this game. These people all work terribly hard and are hugely critical to being able to ship a successful, polished experience.

On more asinine actor questions, including bringing Sean Pertwee in

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We have a great cast of voice talent, all from the UK, all of them accomplished actors (not just voice actors) who have done theatre, film, television, etc. Mark Strong is the highest profile actor, but every one of the cast can stand on their own as a really solid performer. One of the things I'm most proud of in Space Marine, is how we have been able to really strike the balance between making the story feel like an epic action blockbuster, but never losing the tone and flavour of the IP, and the quality of our acting talent has been at the heart of being able to do this well. I hope you all agree once you're able to play the game.

As for Sean Pertwee -- I'm open to it, it will only depend on our needs (i.e. if we have a role for him) and his availability.

More dodging

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We'll try to hit on all that stuff when we drop our info on multiplayer.

On squad commands or lack thereof

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Nope -- allies are fully autonomous. We didn't want to distract you from the pacing and intensity of combat by creating a squad-control game.

On which legion or warband Chaos are and if there are collectibles

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Chaos Undivided.

There are collectibles.

Seriously, this guy earns his money less than Bowling. Undivided isn't a fucking legion, you numpty

On sequels

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The story you experience is a pretty focused mission against the backdrop of a much larger battle.

We are committed to building a franchise, so success-permitting, yes we would continue the story of Captain Titus. You'll see that he is a character with layers and we end the game with some interesting unanswered questions about what happened on Graia.

I personally want to continue telling Titus' story, as I find him to be a very compelling character, and there are lots more stories to tell about him. I have a full long-term vision for how I see his character evolving over time, and where he ends up at the end of his arc. So yes, continuing his story is definitely something we've thought a lot about.

On finally answering a decent question about game mechanics, challenging players and the cover breaking feature that was lauded

Quote

Don't read too much into the perceived difficulty/challenge of the E3 demo. Keep in mind that we built it for people who are playing the game for the first time, and throwing them into content that is a fair ways into the SP game, without giving them the benefit of tutorials and the chance to build up an expertise with the combat toolbox we give them. So, in order to make the game accessible and fun, we tune the difficulty accordingly.

You can be sure the shipping game will provide plenty of challenge.

Regarding stopping the player from hiding to regenerate their armour -- I don't believe in forcing player behaviours, but in giving them incentives to encourage certain patterns. In some cases we are fighting against learned behaviour, so our response has to be...well, let's say, it's not subtle. So, that's why we give you Executions that you use to harvest health from enemies. When you are low on health, rather than running and hiding (which won't really help you), you turn your attention to how you're going to make close-up enemies vulnerable to your Execution so you can harvest health, and stay in the fight. It's all about keeping you in the fight until everyone is dead, or you are.

How is giving them incentives any real difference from forcing them?!?!

On easter eggs

Quote

Well, to be fair, the entire game is an easter egg for the fans. The people who are new to the IP won't pick up on a lot of the details we've embedded in the world, but you will see that stuff right away.

So... no then?

On being Ward's bitch, again

Quote

We have a great relationship with GW. We work directly with the team there to ensure the content in the game is true to the IP. I've worked on 40k games before -- I was part of the dev team for the original Dawn of War, and worked on Winter Assault as well -- so I'm not new to the IP, but creating Space Marine has introduced a whole new set of interesting challenges in how to interpret the IP, and how to deliver it through this completely new (for us) point of view.

It's been really exciting for us to be able to bring to life a lot of ideas and concepts from the table-top, such as iconic locations -- like the Hab Blocks or the Titan Factory, for example -- things that exist in the IP but have never really been realized to this degree before.

Games Workshop reviews everything we do, so anything in the game has their formal stamp of approval. And it's been a very productive collaboration. A good example of this is with things like the Vengeance Launcher -- our grenade-launcher equivalent. We needed a weapon like this for gameplay, but of course in the IP the Space Marine doesn't really use a weapon like this. So, we worked with GW to build one and contextualize it within the game world. Thus, the 'Graia-pattern Vengeance Launcher' was born, an experimental weapon created by the Adeptus Mechanicus on Forge World Graia.

Dialogue has been a very interesting one for us. We spent a huge amount of time and energy on the script for Space Marine, to make sure we managed to capture the tone of the IP, and deliver on the incredibly nuances of the relationships between characters. For example, how does an Imperial Guardsman address a Space Marine? How do these two characters interact with each other in such a way that captures the sense of one being a mortal human and the other being, essentially, seen as an angel or god? Or, how do we capture the tone of the Orks being brutal and animalistic, without going overboard and portraying them as being comical? How do we allow Space Marines to deliver dialogue that captures the formality you would expect, without making their performances sound really forced, artificial, and stilted?

So, these are things we really focused on. GW was a big part of this process, including being in the recording studio with us (at our request) to ensure we did the IP justice.

On agreeing to break the fluff (mini lascannons)

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Weapon dimensions are true to the IP, unless we need to make small tweaks for readability or animation considerations. In those cases, anything we've modified has been sanctioned by GW.

On replaying something you've missed

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Yes, you can go back and replay a section once it's been completed.

Re: the chances of a sequel -- this in large part will be up to you all. It is your job to evangelize the game, and talk to people about how great the Warhammer 40,000 universe is, so that they will not dismiss it as "not for them". So, get out there and convert some people, and tell them about Space Marine. That is your mission.

On proving that he actually knows fuck all about TT (oh and being Ward's bitch _again_)

Quote

There are tons of tabletop fans here at Relic, and we have multiple dedicated gaming areas as well as shelves full of miniatures sent over to use from Games Workshop for 'research purposes'.

As for myself, I have dabbled in the tabletop but have not had the time to really invest in painting my own army or really mastering the rules (you'd be surprised how much time and energy it takes to make a game -- does not leave much time for other pursuits). Instead, I have spent my time learning the lore to understand the tone and vibe of the world so that we can present it accurately from this entirely new point of view, and express it in playable form. I've also read the Ultramarines novels, to learn more about the psychology of the Space Marine character, and learn more about the Ultramarines themselves. But, to be honest, I've learned the most about Warhammer 40,000 by talking directly with the team at Games Workshop about it.

On not even being asked a question

Quote

Oh, in the story-focused answer above I should have mentioned that the story for Space Marine is an entirely new creation specifically for the game, with a whole new cast of characters. Internally at Relic, the story and characters were created and written by Phil Boulle (narrative designer), Bonnie Jean Mah (narrative designer), and myself. We worked in close collaboration with Danny Bilson's team at THQ, including Paul DeMeo (director of the fiction dept.) and David Slagle (writer). And of course, we collaborated with Games Workshop on it, in particular, Graeme Nicoll.

So, as you can see, it was a big group effort -- it's a big story.

On slow motion

Quote

A million orks landed on Graia roughly 9 days before you get there. Who do you think is left alive?

Re: slow-motion -- no, you cannot turn this off. It is part of combat presentation and helps sell the action and deliver the sense of power and momentum of the Space Marine character and his (your) actions.

On the score

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We have an incredible score, composed by two amazing artists -- Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan. I'm extremely happy with the work they have done, in collaboration with Glenn Jamison, the audio lead on Space Marine. So, the score is really...wow. It fits the game perfectly and really helps elevate the experience, adding a lot of emotion and complementing the action perfectly.

We have an fully dynamic interactive music system that is 'intelligent' in that it knows when and where to cue specific music, and can transition smoothly based on changes in the game state, i.e. depending on your actions. It also complements the gameplay by bringing in specific cues and music elements to punctuate your actions and the presence of certain enemies on-screen.

It's pretty sophisticated stuff.

On the fact that you can't play with IG

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They have an important role in the story.

On whether or not the "Space Marine helmet has changed"

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Pretty close to the DoW treatment except done for Space Marine, which has its own unique requirements by virtue of being a 3rd-person action-shooter.

Glad to see members not wasting his time.

On date for MP info release

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What I keep hearing is "by the end of the month".

On secondary characters

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The heart of the story in Space Marine revolves around the interplay between Titus, Sidonus, and Leandros. They meet other important characters along the way, but really the story is about them, and in particular, about Titus, and the decisions he makes about how he will deal with the threats he faces.

On vehicles

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There are some iconic 40k vehicles, but you do not take direct control.

On leaked videos

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The 'leaked' video was not from our Space Marine game. It was from a completely different game being developed by Studio Oz, that was unfortunately cancelled. This Space Marine is a completely different game -- 100% original content, different tech, different gameplay, different art direction, etc. No assets were shared.

On friendly AI

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Sidonus and Leandros are very effective and are able to attack/kill with ranged and melee weapons, just like you. With them, we try to strike a balance of them being present and supporting your actions, but not stealing your glory. It is a fine balance.

On linking Space Marine into the fluff

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The decision to integrate lore and IP created in the Dawn of War games, back into the 40k canon was made by GW, and then supported by the work of the authors writing for the Black Library. Of course, we're hopeful that they will do the same with the characters and IP we've created for Space Marine as well. By virtue of our game taking place in Warhammer 40,000, using one of the most iconic chapters of the most iconic armies, using a canonical location (Graia), etc. -- you can figure that some of our material will probably find its way back into the broader fabric of the IP. Especially if you guys like it.

On skin pack DLC

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Entirely possible, especially if the game sells really well and you guys buy the DLC we're already preparing for you.

On work for previous DoW titles

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Although I cannot speak for them, I'm sure it feels great for all the people who contributed to those games. I know it feels really good for me, personally. I wrote about 1/2 the unit dialogue and did a bunch of story work on the original Dawn of War (along with Jay Wilson who was the lead designer, and Lucien Soulban who helped write the script), so it was extremely gratifying to see some of that material bring absorbed back into the 40k canon. I think I even ended up in the acknowledgments for the first Dawn of War inspired novel, which was very rewarding.

You don't often get the opportunity to make contributions back into the IP you are working with, and it's always fulfillng to see your work being valued by the fans.

On secrecy about MP

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Secrecy around MP -- this is purely about the communication strategy around the game, how we talk about it, and when features are announced. As you can imagine we are wading into a very competitive landscape (3rd-person action/shooters) with an original game (i.e. not a sequel) and although we have a great established fan-base (you guys) we want as many people to buy the game as possible, so that we can make more of them! Part of this is following a plan for how we promote the game, how we get people excited, etc.

I promise you, the secrecy is not around issues of quality. The MP is very fun and very much true to Space Marine, and 40k. You will not be disappointed.

On mixing weapons with the jump pack

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The weapons you can use with the Jump Pack are a function of how our animation system works, and also overall gameplay balancing.

On Ork DLC

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Have not thought about Ork campaign DLC, because the game is called SPACE MARINE.

Herp a Derp

On the amount of cinematics

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I don't know what the exact ratios are, but yes there is a lot of fighting in the game. You're a Space Marine who has landed on an Ork-infested planet with a million of them between you and your goal. And stealth isn't part of your vocabulary.

But yes, there is travel between locations, there are interactions between you and the other characters in the world (some told through cinematics), etc. It was always a goal of mine to embed as much of the storytelling of the game into actual playable space, and leave the cinematics solely for stuff that was very difficult to do well in gameplay -- ex. dialogue-heavy interactions with emotions that require good facial animation and body language to really sell properly. We didn't hit the mark in every case, but overall our storytelling is done as much through the environment as it is through more heavy-handed techniques.

On pre-order

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You don't think a resin purity seal (which is really awesome and high-quality), a full soundtrack, an art book (we hand-picked a bunch of great concept art from the game for this, and it has a short foreward from Ian Cumming, the art director, and myself), and the collector's cards, all in this sweet custom package, aren't worth the extra money? Heretic!

Pre-order incentives, and the logic behind who gets what, is driven by the sales and marketing teams, so I can't offer much of a point of view on that. We just try to focus on making a good game.

I will agree, however, with the point of view that used game sales hurt the industry. They absolutely do.

On firing modes

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I have no issue with the complaints thread. No game is perfect (no game is ever truly finished...there are always things you would like to go back and do differently, bugs to fix, tuning to change, etc. -- a game is never finished, it just needs to go out into the world at some point and be what it is...) and we value the feedback from the community.

I take it as a personal challenge that I will make sure this thread has more views than the complaints one by the time the game ships.

The Bolter does not have firing modes. We have different types of ammo supply depending on the needs of the encounters.

On lack of combi-weapons

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We opted to strip the progression elements out of the campaign in order to focus the experience and be able to deliver something tighter overall.

We also opted to remove the notion of combi weapons so that we could provide a proper weapon:enemy type relationship and gameplay balance. At one point we had weapons that were pretty good at everything and there wasn't much point in switching, which made for a bit of a boring game experience. This is one of those key areas where the needs of OUR game have to outweigh the conventions of the IP/table-top.

That said, we have a lot of cool weapons in the game, you can carry a few, and switch them up pretty often so I don't think you'll be feeling like you wish you had a more versatile loadout.

On unlimited bolter ammo

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Unlimited. This is because there are times in the game that you need a ranged weapon to progress and if you run out of ammo you would be stuck. Basically the Bolt Pistol is a great back-up side arm (and really fun to use in its own right), because it is very difficult to 100% guarantee you will never get stuck otherwise. The unlimited ammo weapon is a pretty standard convention in a lot of shooters.

On the differences from the original concept in 2009

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This is a great question!

Games evolve -- that's the short, simplified answer.

The early teaser from 2009 was an expression of what we wanted the game to be at that time. As we continued developing the game, it became more clear that it wanted and needed to be something different. We began to focus much more of the experience on the efforts of a single Space Marine hero. That hero started to take on an specific identity. The more we developed him, the more he became the focus. As gameplay continued to evolve, focusing the combat experience on a single Space Marine hero felt more and more right for the game. We set out to deliver the core fantasy of inhabiting the most powerful fighting force in humanity's past and future. So, everything in the game has to be in service to that ideal, that goal. For me, it became more personal, more intimate, more single-minded, not about a group of space marines, but about a Space Marine.

As for rank -- a Sgt. didn't feel 'elite' enough to fit our goals for the game, for the story, etc. As an action blockbuster experience, and a game to build a franchise upon, it was really important that the characters emerge as being compelling on their own, almost transcending the game itself, and becoming something more. The characters received more focus and we spent months creating the story and the campaign structure, selection locations and figuring out how to bring it all together. Throughout that process, a lot of things changed -- characters were added and removed, entire stories were created and abandoned. We even had a completely different storyline for Space Marine, which we opted to abandon in favour of the one we have now, not because the other one wasn't good, but because it didn't suit our needs quite as well. Maybe some of those ideas can live on elsewhere...

More proof that he doesn't anything about anything but Ultra Smurfs

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I've only readlly dug into the Ultramarines novels, although I have some vacation coming up so I may take some others with me...

Suuuurrre. Really helpful during the development phase then....

On making Titus a Captain or Sgt.

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As for the Sgt. thing -- remember, that a 40k Sgt. is more like a commissioned officer than in the contemporary military. And, if it matters, we did debate a lot whether or not to leave him as a Sgt. In the end we, and GW, felt a Captain was more appropriate for the character. But interestingly when we were creating Sgt. Sidonus, casting him, and recording his dialogue, the biggest challenge we had was delivering on the sense of him being a veteran, older than Titus but still subordinate to him, and not sounding too 'common', because it was so important that he really deliver the sense of being a polished 'officer class', using formal speech, etc. In the end, we found a good balance, I think. But he was one of the hardest characters to get right.

On the game progression

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Regarding progression -- I should be more clear. We unlock things in the campaign, but linearily, based on your progress through the game. This is different from an RPG-like progression system where you are earning XP and using it to purchase upgrades, etc. So, we have the former in the campaign, but not the latter. Hope that helps!

Well that didn't take up all of my sodding lunch hour.

tl:dr - he knows sod all about the fluff apart from what Ward told him, doesn't say dick about MP and basically wasted his evening answering questions from idiots. If this wasn't 40k I'd walk away from this game on the strength of this.

Edited by Wizard, 17 June 2011 - 13:34.

[TheDR]

Not much information but it was fun reading about how much you hate that guy