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[FARTRON]

My time lately has been going into the Dystopia mod for HL2.  They just released "v1" after a long time in public beta, and shortly thereafter the requisite "v1.1" to fix the glaring bugs.

It's an extremely ambitious mod project with high production values.



It's currently plagued with some balance issues (some common to every asymmetrical team shooter I've ever seen, others unique to this particular blend of futuristic weapons) and a wave of confused noobs.  The game seems in some ways designed to discourage the casual player.  If any of counterstrike's popularity can be attributed to the ease with which a player may jump in and out of games, and the shortness of rounds, then dystopia is disadvantaged.  Rounds are long assault/defense games involving an often tangled web of buttons both in "meatspace" and "cyberspace" (see the laserium imaged above) and frequently the majority of the players stay for the duration.





I've often found the communities around smaller mods to be some of the best (gloomq2, I'm looking wistfully at you) and the global ranking system, although more of a global XP system rewarding play-time, does an interesting job of promoting persistence across servers and community cohesiveness.

Ultimately the gameplay is a little bit like Tribes, but a little more like Unreal 2's XMP.  The major changes in v1 make the game a bit more polished, while adding a few new difficult-to-balance weapons.  The implant system is also expanded, seemingly to confound complacency and sow chaos.  For example the long-standing war between the stealth implant and the infrared implant was made more complicated with the "coldsuit" -- which renders one invisible in infrared, but cannot be combined with stealth -- and with the addition of glowing red eyes to make those using infrared more visible.

Dystopia makes excellent use of the Source engine, and requires a bit more horsepower than vanilla to keep framerates acceptably high.

[Bezzy]

I'd be all over this if I had a proper internet. 

Looks beautiful.

[shinygerbil]

Aye, this looks fantastic.

"Cyberspace" looks cool, if a little out of place with the rest (at least from the trailer). If I had anything better than this laptop with a Radeon 7000 series card, I'd be on it like a shot. I can't stand CS ;P

[fish]

if its not glowing all over, its not an indie game.

[ravuya]

I remember being really excited about this!

The action seems quite a bit faster (and less strategic) than I expected -- I originally imagined an Unreal Tournament-style "Assault" where the defending team was able to set up security emplacements and the attacking team left to their guile and chicanery to evade the security.

I'll see if I can buy a copy of HL2 so I can try it out when it gets released.

[Anthony Flack]

Not targeted at this game in particular, but

if its not glowing all over, its not an indie game.

After Geometry Wars came out, indies everywhere came to realise that the need for proper art assets could actually be completely bypassed by piling on masses of bloom and particle effects.

...for a couple of years, at least.

[Ste Pickford]

After Geometry Wars came out, indies everywhere came to realise that the need for proper art assets could actually be completely bypassed by piling on masses of bloom and particle effects.

To be fair, that is a bloody good idea.

[Anthony Flack]

Oh, it was, it was a great idea.

It was too good.

[DrDerekDoctors]

It was like when E-City because popular and everywhere you looked, people were drawing shitty flat-shaded isometric graphics on their websites.

[Anthony Flack]

It was like when E-City because popular

I sometimes do that when I'm typing, too. My fingers just do their own thing automatically, which is sometimes only vaguely connected to the instructions given by Mr Brain.

Oh, were we discussing a game here at some point?

[fish]

its growing to become an "indie aesthetic"
what with GW, flow, that first XNA game, that echoes game.
i like it.
i like the neon colors and wireframe.
reminds me of rez.

[Bezzy]

I think it's used primarily because it's easy. Not all of us are accomplished artists, and asset/content heavy games can sometimes be a pain for programmer heavy teams.

I also think it's popular because in a lot of ways, it comes naturally to computers. The straight edges and unshaded surfaces... it's like "embracing the polygon". It's like going with the grain of this particular canvas.

I do feel like it's starting to get a bit overused, yes, but there are lots of possible interesting deviations on the style... Everyday Shooter, for example. Still within that abstract "tronny" realm, but it's still quite unique.

[fish]

i just like trippy stuff.
abstract programmer art often is.

[FARTRON]

I agree with bezzy.  I'd also add that screenshots of Dystopia's cyberspace don't do justice to playing in cyberspace.  The physics change, up and down become relative, and when the lightshow is moving it's that much more dazzling.  And then someone cuts you in two with a katana back in meatspace just before you can capture.