Syndicate gets rebooted as a "Visceral First Person Shooter Experience"

[tgr]

I think Commander Keen needs to be remade as an MMO or a "Visceral First Person Shooter Experience".

[UnSub]

Freedom Force's next game was meant to be set in the 1970s / 80s, I believe. They did the Golden Age with the first one, the Sliver Age with the Second and the next was meant to be the Dark(er) Age.

But I've got to disagree: FF's lore sucked. It's on the same level as Champions' is - a reflection / parody of comic book trends.

Superheroes could be an interesting FPS () though, as evidenced by the leaked trailer for the now cancelled Avengers game.

[Velorath]

I think if someone wanted to make a true sequel to Freedom Force or Syndicate, the best bet would be to do it on the iPhone.  The gameplay lends itself fairly well to a touchscreen and it wouldn't take a big budget to make.  I don't remember all the details of FF's gameplay, but the original Syndicate could probably be ported over without having to really change anything.

[cironian]

This sounds a lot better than the visceral shooter.

[Mattemeo]

I think Commander Keen needs to be remade as an MMO or a "Visceral First Person Shooter Experience".

Make that a 3rd person action adventure with some sandbox elements and I'm sold, sold, sold.

[Ironwood]

Morgan's writing this one too ?

[Velorath]

This sounds a lot better than the visceral shooter.

New Syndicate game gets announced.  Within five minutes of the thread being created people start complaining about how they'd rather have a modern version of the original.

Another developer announces they're doing what's essentially a new Syndicate game just with a different name, but which plays pretty similar to the original Syndicate.  This announcement is followed by dead silence.

[tgr]

If you've ever been a sysadmin, then you know that if the customers are silent, you're doing it right. If they're complaining, you're doing it wrong. I assume this is mostly the same with games development. Syndicate being an FPS is a huge initial WTF to syndicate fans, so you get bitching. Syndicate being redeveloped more like the original, but expanded, sounds more inline with what we expect, so we're not going "what the christ, dawg".

vOv

[Velorath]

If you've ever been a sysadmin, then you know that if the customers are silent, you're doing it right. If they're complaining, you're doing it wrong. I assume this is mostly the same with games development. Syndicate being an FPS is a huge initial WTF to syndicate fans, so you get bitching. Syndicate being redeveloped more like the original, but expanded, sounds more inline with what we expect, so we're not going "what the christ, dawg".

vOv

I'm fairly sure being a sysadmin and marketing a game are in fact not similar.

[tgr]

I'm fairly sure you missed the point. People like to complain when there's something to complain about, however small a thing. If they're not complaining, you're doing it right, regardless of what "it" is.

[UnSub]

This sounds a lot better than the visceral shooter.

New Syndicate game gets announced.  Within five minutes of the thread being created people start complaining about how they'd rather have a modern version of the original.

Another developer announces they're doing what's essentially a new Syndicate game just with a different name, but which plays pretty similar to the original Syndicate.  This announcement is followed by dead silence.

There's no point getting excited about the blocks of text in that interview. Devtalk is cheap.

[Velorath]

I'm fairly sure you missed the point. People like to complain when there's something to complain about, however small a thing. If they're not complaining, you're doing it right, regardless of what "it" is.

I agree with half of your point.  People like to complain.  In fact that was more or less the point I was making.  I don't think that most of the people who have been complaining in this topic actually give a shit when it comes down to it.  Developer's turning old franchises into FPS games is an easy target, but I don't actually think too many people where were just dying for a true sequel to Syndicate.

The part I don't agree with is that silence means you're doing something right.  Sometimes it just means nobody gives a shit what you're doing.  The timing of Cartel's announcement was clearly a way of getting some of the attention that's currently focused on the Syndicate reboot, but it doesn't really look like they're getting all that much out of it.

[tgr]

Obviously it would've been better if they'd had an actual demo, or could put out an actual demo fairly soon. As it is, it sounds more like they're in the starting phases.

If you're hungering for syndicate, however, http://freesynd.sourceforge.net/

[eldaec]

If DE:HR could be labelled 'Syndicate' and that would be a reasonable sequel.

Almost all the important mechanics in Syndicate could be carried over to a game where the camera follows one guy.

[HaemishM]

Developer's turning old franchises into FPS games is an easy target, but I don't actually think too many people where were just dying for a true sequel to Syndicate.

I would love a modern remake of Syndicate, not a genre-switch re-imagining. If the dev I've never heard of can create a good modern successor to Syndicate, I'll buy it.

[UnSub]

Kinda OT, and I didn't see it in the D3 thread:

GameSpy Editor-in-Chief Bennett Ring wonders why Diablo 3 isn't going to be an FPS

As a lover of first person games, the isometric camera system in Diablo III felt very unfamiliar, and I inevitably wondered why Blizzard didn't make the leap to first person like so many other developers. This led me to wonder - should Diablo III have been a first person game, and what are the pros and cons of this approach? Let's find out.

 

(Saw this through Game Journo's, who also link one of Ring's responses to the criticism about his article and then a rebuttal from Jeff Green.)

[koro]

God bless you, Jeff Green.

[tgr]

Oh god, that article.

Also, Jeff Green

[Azazel]

New Syndicate game gets announced.  Within five minutes of the thread being created people start complaining about how they'd rather have a modern version of the original.
Another developer announces they're doing what's essentially a new Syndicate game just with a different name, but which plays pretty similar to the original Syndicate.  This announcement is followed by dead silence.

yeah, I haven't been on for a couple of days. Busy with that RL stuff that sometimes intrudes on my ability to POST ABOUT IMPORTANT GAMES.

ahem.

So yeah, I'm both keen on and up for this.

[Azazel]

Also, who is Jeff Green?

[Velorath]

New Syndicate game gets announced.  Within five minutes of the thread being created people start complaining about how they'd rather have a modern version of the original.
Another developer announces they're doing what's essentially a new Syndicate game just with a different name, but which plays pretty similar to the original Syndicate.  This announcement is followed by dead silence.

yeah, I haven't been on for a couple of days. Busy with that RL stuff that sometimes intrudes on my ability to POST ABOUT IMPORTANT GAMES.

ahem.

So yeah, I'm both keen on and up for this.

Clearly I can see from your posts over the last few days in the Cat Thread, Miniatures, and Warco the War Porn game, that you've only been able to follow threads of the utmost importance with your limited browsing time.

Jeff Green was EIC of Computer Gaming World/Games for Windows magazine and also ran the GFW radio podcast (since leaving games journalism he went to work for EA and now Popcap).  He was one of the only people in games journalism who was actually worth a damn.

[koro]

Also, who is Jeff Green?

Former writer, then editor, then EIC for Computer Gaming World, which morphed into Games for Windows Magazine when Ziff-Davis ate the bullshit Microsoft shoveled at them. He was one of the fixtures on the CGW podcast, and had a short stint working at EA on some Sims projects after he saw the writing on the wall at Ziff and left. Also a somewhat prolific GAF poster. He's a pretty cool dude, and tried to fight against the tide of idiotic "games journalism", to little success.

Also what Velorath said. Most of the 2007ish CGW crew were pretty good at being actual objective writers, even if you didn't necessarily agree with them.

[Azazel]

New Syndicate game gets announced.  Within five minutes of the thread being created people start complaining about how they'd rather have a modern version of the original.
Another developer announces they're doing what's essentially a new Syndicate game just with a different name, but which plays pretty similar to the original Syndicate.  This announcement is followed by dead silence.

yeah, I haven't been on for a couple of days. Busy with that RL stuff that sometimes intrudes on my ability to POST ABOUT IMPORTANT GAMES.

ahem.

So yeah, I'm both keen on and up for this.

Clearly I can see from your posts over the last few days in the Cat Thread, Miniatures, and Warco the War Porn game, that you've only been able to follow threads of the utmost importance with your limited browsing time.

Jeff Green was EIC of Computer Gaming World/Games for Windows magazine and also ran the GFW radio podcast (since leaving games journalism he went to work for EA and now Popcap).  He was one of the only people in games journalism who was actually worth a damn.

Yeah, I was skipping this thread and doing other things since I got bored with the circular argument with you on whether or not a FPS was the weapon of choice. With my limited time I was skipping threads that had become somewhat pointless, like this one. I only came back to the thread again today after 4-5 days and found out about "Cartel" today, only to scroll down and see you declaring VICTOLY.

Much in the same way I haven't bothered with reading the last several pages of the Space Marine thread when it became a boring circular argument about why girls can't be Space Marines (except for one post I made yesterday or today bitching that my copy still isn't here).

Still though, you're welcome to PM me when something important comes up that I may not have seen but I absolutely must respond to immediately or sooner.  

Also, ta on Jeff Green. So he's working in another field now, I take it?

[UnSub]

At Popcap.

[Azazel]

Ah okay. They just got bought out by EA, didn't they?

[rk47]

If you've ever been a sysadmin, then you know that if the customers are silent, you're doing it right. If they're complaining, you're doing it wrong. I assume this is mostly the same with games development. Syndicate being an FPS is a huge initial WTF to syndicate fans, so you get bitching. Syndicate being redeveloped more like the original, but expanded, sounds more inline with what we expect, so we're not going "what the christ, dawg".

vOv

I'm fairly sure being a sysadmin and marketing a game are in fact not similar.

Yeah why don't you just preorder it and tell us how it plays mang, we're dying for another shooter game, seriously. This has a making to be a classic. Much like Bioshock was the spiritual successor to System Shock. One look at the name and they got it half right, 2K is OK! With Syndicate not even changing their name, it's going to be a spiritual rebirth of optimus prime scale of awesome.

[UnSub]

Ah okay. They just got bought out by EA, didn't they?

Yes.

[Ingmar]

I look forward to Bookworm Adventures and Peggle shooters.

Lost in all of this hair-tearing and clothing-rending over changing things into FPSes is of course the fact that this is as old as the FPS itself.

I can only assume that users on all the big 2400 baud BBSes were wailing and decrying the conversion of this:


into this:

[Fordel]

You fubared the images.

[Ingmar]

They show up for me, but I will find alternates.

EDIT: better?

[Fordel]

Yes

[Amaron]

I can only assume that users on all the big 2400 baud BBSes were wailing and decrying the conversion of this:
into this:

Nukem was an action game that got turned into a FPS action game.

Syndicate was a tactical squad based RTS that's getting turned into an FPS action game.  I wonder if Relic knows tactical squad based RTS games aren't profitable now.   Someone should inform them quick.

[Azazel]

It was also done at the dawn of FPS games. As opposed to now, when we're in the midst of a massive glut of them.

I actually don't mind franchises doing genre-jumps, (Red Faction comes to mind). What I do mind is the apparent contempt displayed by the quote I linked before:

Rickard Johansson: “I don’t want people to stop playing the old games, but time has moved on.”

But hey, it's out of my hands, and I exhausted most of how much of a fuck I gave halfway through the last page. I think it may well have the lasting impact of something like Chrome or Timeshift or Haze, when Syndicate should be so much more, but you know, whatever.

[HaemishM]

I think Syndicate could work WITH a first-person shooting perspective, perhaps as part of a "jump into dude's cranium for the full-on" type of conceit while the main interface is a squad-based RTS. But to just chuck the whole strategic layer in favor of "BOOM HEADSHOT!" seems to be ignoring what made the franchise's gameplay so special in the first place.

[Azazel]

I think there's even more of that going on with X-Com, but yeah.