The Next Generation SciFi Game
Beam me up
Beam me up
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[continued from the Front Page]trailer showed just how epic Gears of War is going to be. These two games definitely show that the sci fi game genre is far from dead. There are other games that hold a lot of promise as well. One of them being Interstellar Marines. This game has me more excited then Gears of War and Mass Effect. Then of course you got Halo 3 which if you enjoyed the original Halo games then it's a safe bet that Halo 3 will be awesome as well. Microsoft also announced Halo Wars an RTS in the Halo universe as well as a new Halo game being worked on in partnership with Peter Jackson. Another good looking science fiction game that is Bioshock. Again this game has already won several awards at different events that it has shown up at.
As of now there really isn't any science fiction games announced for the Wii aside from the untitled Star Wars game and perhaps Heroes by Suda 51. I would love to see a good science fiction game come out for the Wii that takes full advantage of the Wiimote's motion sensing technology. It would be very cool if a company worked on a completely new science fiction franchise that had you exploring the universe with many people. Similar to the game Spore as well as an often unheard of project entitled Infinity: The Quest For Earth.
Infinity: The Quest For Earth is quite potentially the most interesting science fiction game I have seen. The game has been in development for several years already and is being made by a small time company or set of developers. The game is a huge MMORPG that has you exploring the universe. You can actually build ships, space stations, etc and explore anywhere. The engine is quite sophisticated allowing you to actually go down and land on planets but what is most interesting is that it does so totally in realtime. This means you actually go down and land on the planet. No cutscenes. You can explore the planet and some of the planets will actually have colonies and alien races on it. You can get out of your vehicle and walk around an intereact with things. Once done you go back into space to continue to explore. There will be other players so you can trade with them, communicate with them, attack them, partner with them creating your own federation, etc. Check out these images from the game:
It is likely at least a couple years before any of us are playing this game but this game could quite possibly one of the most ambitious games in development ever. This is the type of game I would absolutely love to see on the Wii. The ability to eplore a huge universe sounds very exciting and if it's an MMORPG the developers can continue to improve the game and even launch new features such as new vehicles, new alien races, new planets, etc.
I envision that you would use the nunchuck to steer your space ship around and you would be able to aim your weapon systems with the Wiimote with an onscreen crosshair. This will allow you to fly around in any dirrection and be able to shoot at anything in the area that you are facing.You would have the ability to dock at your space station for repairs and such or dock at someone elses space station for trading or simply to walk around. For communication in your ship a different game player could contact you only by these means:
-If you are some what near them (within a star system) they can pick up your radio frequencies.
-If you give a player your radio frequencies for them to be able to detect and talk to you.
I would want to keep this as real as possible. The game would be set up where you begin on your own planet. You start off with one single planet. You have pretty cool technology but there is always room for improvement. Your first mission it to launch into space and create a space station. You only have enough fuel to work within the area around your planet (or planets). Once you establish your space station you can also get the ability to upgrade your ship some for interstellar travel. Over time new technology will be unlocked from your planet and space station. There will be several ways to get better technology such as completing missions like in any RPG, trading with players, attacking other players, etc.
When you are on the ground or walking around in a space station the view is in first person. You will have your typical weapons and on foot controls will be similar to any other first person shooter. You will also have the ability to purchase a robotic droid that can follow you arround. If someone shoots at you the droid will automatically fire back and help protect you. You would have the option to upgrade the droid and even eventually buy protective shields for it. The droid will follow you everywhere you go on planets or space stations unless you tell it to stay behind. I would also have the ability for you to deploy an on ground space vehicle for riding around on the surface of planets. You could deploy this from the back of your ship and then get out of the ship and hop into the buggy or whatever it is that you would be driving.
The game would be about exploration and gaining allies. However sometimes you are forced into war. When you are fighting and using your ship the game is in 3rd person view. If you have allies then you can have them fight by your side and whatever you gain will go to both parties. This includes experience points as well as stuff you find. If you find blue prints for new technology then both you and your partners gets a copy. If you find money it's split down the middle.
The game would not just be about attacking and exploring worlds. There will be missions and there will be worlds that you must visit in order to do a quest. These worlds would be controlled by the computer A.I and not players. These will be regular missions and of course several people can participate. The game would share a lot in common with games like WoW when it comes to doing quests.
A game like this would not doubt take many years to complete and Infinity: The Quest For Earth seems to be doing a lot of what I mentioned above. I would also like to use the Wiimote in other ways. While on foot you could have the ability to perform mind powers. For example you could lock onto an enemy with the top nunchuck button and then you could swing the nunchuck from side to side to swing the enemy back from side to side. Nothing would be more fun then to smash an enemy into a wall and then perhaps into a collection of storage crates on the other side. To throw the enemy your not holding you just push the nunchuck in the direction you want to throw the enemy and let go of the nunchuck button. If you wanted to make the person explode then you rapidly shake back and fourth. The second button on the nunchuck would switch to other powers. The ability to create a black hole in the grown sucking people or objects in could also be done. You could even hold an enemy up into the air and shoot him continually until he or she was no more.
A game like this certainly sounds not only fun but new. A lot of these concepts have never been done before and it would be awesome if someone took up the challenge and created this epic game. The guys behind Infinity: The Quest For Earth look to be creating a pretty epic game that will do quite a bit of stuff that I have mention so it's definitely a project to keep your eyes open for. In the end however you very likely will not see a game like this on the Wii and there are two reasons that quickly come to mind. The first is that this project would be very dificult to pull off and the second thing that comes to mind is that it's next to impossible to get a game engine advanced enough to load a huge seamless universe on the Wii's hardware. Infinity: The Quest For Earth requires a mid to high range computer for what it's doing where as the Wii hardware is very low end in terms of graphics capability. That being said it's still a game concept that we can hopefully look forward to in future consoles.
I have shared with you some ideas on what I believe would revolutionize science fiction gaming. There are quite a few science fiction games in development for the Xbox 360 and hopefully the Wii Star Wars game will have some neat functionality like I mentioned in the above article. The Wii is an interesting platform because it gives the user full control over how you play a game. I can't wait to see how developers utilize the Wii remote in the second generation of Wii titles and beyond. So tell me, what kind of innovations to the science fiction genre would you like to see be done?
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