Love that game

Nigel_Strange · Post by **Nigel_Strange** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 5:33 am

Anyone out there try Precursors.

I saw pics of the game years ago, and I kept waiting for it to come out. It just never seemed to have arrived. Finally, yesterday, I broke down and bought it from Gamersgate. Apparently, it was the only way to get it, as I could not find the hard-cold disk in any store, online or brick-n-mortar.

So far, the game is fun, but somewhat flawed. The graphics are decent, and the atmosphere is pretty good (though not much is amazingly original, e.g. the first planet hub looks like a cross between Arakis and Tatooine). The combat is where it seems to be a little underwhelming, which is unfortunate, because it is a shooter.

The game is made in Russia, and there are some minor issues with the translation. One unfortunate feature is that nobody talks. They flap their gums at you, but you can't hear them. Instead, you read their dialogs instead. I'm happy with that, I guess, though I wouldn't mind hearing them speak cryptically in Russian while I'm reading the translation.

I do appreciate, though, the ability to play a role playing game set in a sci-fi universe, with all the weird aliens, weapons, and ships that implies. For some reason, the Russians still keep the spirit of science fiction alive, even though the genre has been forgotten and atrophied in the States. Go Ruskies!

Munshine · Post by **Munshine** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 8:44 am

Never played it but I read this was a kind of FPS with flight sim / space sim flavors in an open world. Is that true ?
Eastern developers are making games which should be standards by now. Instead of that, well there is some scifi corridors designed TPS packed with action but no exploration.

FinalFrontier · Post by **FinalFrontier** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 12:10 pm

Here is a trailer of Precursors... It is a first person shooter and not a space sim like EM.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPUSVg2wYXM888

From post: 132928, Topic: tid=9076, author=Nigel_Strange wrote:.... For some reason, the Russians still keep the spirit of science fiction alive, even though the genre has been forgotten and atrophied in the States. Go Ruskies!

What is with Star Wars: The Old Republic Online do not count?

http://www.swtor.com/

Gameplay video of Star Wars: The Old Republic Online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhSUunZHKm8

or

Star Trek Online FREE TO PLAY: http://store.steampowered.com/app/9900/?l=english

or a game that I really like is a independent game, Space Pirates and Zombies, only 8,99

http://store.steampowered.com/app/10720 ... uggest__13

Do not forget Mass Effect 1 and 2: http://store.steampowered.com/app/17460 ... uggest__13

[Edited on 3-12-2012 by FinalFrontier]

Raynor · Post by **Raynor** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 9:35 pm

funny i actually installed this about two weeks ago and gave it a try about three days ago. Something came up though and i didn't have time to put more then like ten mins into it. I have to say...i did some basic shooting and already didn't like the control of the character and the hsooting at all. It felt very.,..impersonal, i dunno if i can explain.... I do intend to play the game more to get a fair opinion of it but if you ask me, this looks like a good concept poorly executed. Like it's the case with so many games...

xander1987 · Post by **xander1987** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 10:40 pm

If you like to go from planet to planet via cutscene like the game freelancer.
Precursors You can pilot both spaceships and veichles, walk around on planets, or fly around in space. It is a FPS/Space game, it is awesome.

[Edited on 3-15-2012 by xander1987]

Nigel_Strange · Post by **Nigel_Strange** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:31 pm

Raynor: I know what you mean. The combat is kind of strange. It needs to be smoothed out somehow.

It's a first-person shooter, not a space sim.

Xander: I have no idea what that means.

Munshine · Post by **Munshine** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 9:08 am

Not a space sim, really ?

Sorry for the spoiler:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j86whoXt ... re=related

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 5:02 pm

LOL......

:P

Nigel_Strange · Post by **Nigel_Strange** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 6:46 am

See? I had been playing the game for a few days and hadn't gotten to the part where you get your own ship.

I have to say: the game has more to it than most games out there. I'm actually kind of impressed.

It does have a spaceship simulator in a sense, but mostly, what I find appealing is that you can fly your ship to a planet, land on it, get out of your ship, visit exciting places, meeting amazing people and aliens, and kill them.

I see, though, why so few games attempt to do "everything." People either want to play a space simulator, or they want an adventure/role-playing game. Very few people want to play both at the same time, or are good at both. Precursors does a pretty good job of blending the two.

Now, I recall one of the Call of Duty games (or was it Medal of Honor? I can't keep them straight). It takes place in WWII in the Pacific. I was all gung ho fighting the Japanese in tropical islands, but then I had to fly a Corsair with no joystick! No joy! They forced me to try to fly a fighter plane (and fight!) using mouse and keyboard. I could not progress beyond that point, and had to shelve the game. Not good!

So, I see that although people say they might want a game that gives them a whole universe in one package, the execution is tricky.

I recommend Precursors, though. The FPS combat is a little flakey, but you learn to work around it. Wandering the cities, driving across the planets...it's just a panorama of adventure. Too bad the sound is so |=\\/<|<3|) up.

Munshine · Post by **Munshine** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 2:30 pm

And I didn't show you the video before this one where you can actually explore every room in your ship. I don't know if it serves any purpose but that's cool anyway.

Exploring and meeting people in stations, in planet cities like in Precursors or in Freelancer is that the sort of things making a game livingful. I wish Starwraith had more resources to execute all these ideas.

I'm too very impressed that Precursors 'developers had the guts creating several games in one even if it seems not very polished or always well executed.
It's off topic but I feel totally gutted when I see all the money spilled in Mass Effect's marketing, some of its gameplay elements completely dumped or simplified in the purpose of appealing more casual players.

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 4:33 pm

Nigel, could you be thinking of Battlestations Pacific ... the follow-on to Battlestations Midway? If so, I totally agree.

Nigel_Strange · Post by **Nigel_Strange** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 6:26 am

No, not Battlestations Pacific. I'm pretty sure it was either CoD or MoH.

I finally got off planet and made it to a different planet in Precursors.

The sound is all screwed up because it was made in Russian originally, and rather than allow us to hear the Russian voices, they cut out all the sounds in which Russian could be heard (even ambient sounds in which Russian was in the background) and also in the process screwed up the sound for everything, so the music, footsteps, weapon sounds, etc., all have a tendency to cut out unexpectedly. You might to into an area and find that the game is absolutely silent.

There is a fix for it, though: you can download the Russian sound files, then re-apply the English patch (which changes the sounds for the cinematics (which are not subtitled)) and it is supposed to dramatically improve the sound quality of the entire game.

The problem is that the Russian sound packs are only available from Megaupload.

Megaupload, as you may know, has been SEIZED by the US government (the constitutionality of that seizure has not been adequately questioned, I might add) and so now the files are completely unavailable. The game has been out for a year or two now, so the possibility of getting more help with this issue dwindles.

Really, what were they thinking? Did they really think that the sound of Russian voices was going to be so bothersome that we would rather listen to silence, with sounds failing continually? I guess so. Meanwhile, I have played (and enjoyed) all of the Stalker games (in which people speak Russian quite frequently). As long as there are subtitles, I don't mind, and it actually makes the game more interesting, hearing foreign languages giving the game a kind of special ambience and mystery. Oh well, maybe that's just me.

Munshine · Post by **Munshine** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 9:47 am

Nigel, check Beamdog for the russian sound packs:

http://www.beamdog.com/products/the-pre ... ement-pack

As you may know, there is some Baldur gate overhaul in progress by these guys from Beamdog. And by pure luck, I bumped on this. You have to download the beamdog client though.

Raynor · Post by **Raynor** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 9:11 pm

From post: 133408, Topic: tid=9076, author=Nigel_Strange wrote:See? I had been playing the game for a few days and hadn't gotten to the part where you get your own ship.

I have to say: the game has more to it than most games out there. I'm actually kind of impressed.

It does have a spaceship simulator in a sense, but mostly, what I find appealing is that you can fly your ship to a planet, land on it, get out of your ship, visit exciting places, meeting amazing people and aliens, and kill them.

I see, though, why so few games attempt to do "everything." People either want to play a space simulator, or they want an adventure/role-playing game. Very few people want to play both at the same time, or are good at both. Precursors does a pretty good job of blending the two.
.

I do though, very much so, it's been kinda my dream game for years. I watched more videos of precusors on youtube and was at least impressed with the depths of what you can do if not the execution of it. That's where the whole problem seems to lie with this game. Technically sound, conceptually amazing, but in the execution and the gameplay? Meh.

Still as soon as i have more time im gonna try it more.

What i'm hoping is that this is the start of a series and that they'll improve on the concept. Of course what would be best would be for a high profile publisher to put the money into a game like this, but high end game publishers are masters of self-fulfilling prophecies. "no we can't make a game with that concept cause that wouldn't sell. No trust us, we know what we're talking about, people just want to shoot things, they don't want depth, plus depth means development time which means money. Why do that when we can just as well make a run of the mill shooter in 6 months and have as good or better profit margin as we would have making a hit game with an original concept that would take 4 years to develop?"

[Edited on 3-19-2012 by Raynor]