Parabellum - MMOFPS

[Mrbloodworth]

Parabellum

PARABELLUM is a brand new Free-to-Play Game from ACONY. A massive multiplayer online First Person Shooter (MMO-FPS), it combines the best elements of FPS (First Person Shooter) and MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) games to create an extremely unique and fully customizable gaming experience. PARABELLUM introduces the first interactive non-linear multiplayer campaigns in addition to an advanced character & weapon development system. PARABELLUM will be released as a free download in the first quarter of 2009.

Trailer (60mb, direct Download)

Previews:

GDC 09: Parabellum Update – Counter-Strike meets MMO

The Five: Parabellum

[schild]

There's something I can't put my finger on here, but the characters feel like little action figures on a little battlefield. If that was intended, bravo. If not, eeeeek, because I can't see it any other way. Those pictures above are beyond bullshot though (and only add to the whole tiny figure on a tiny battlefield problem - should not have been released IMO). Obviously, this says nothing about the quality of the game itself.

I was not aware Acony's game was in closed beta already though. Hm.

[Mrbloodworth]

Sadly, as i looked deeper, its not a Planetside replacement. But it could make for some fun, free, FPS action.

[Goreschach]

There's something I can't put my finger on here, but the characters feel like little action figures on a little battlefield. If that was intended, bravo. If not, eeeeek, because I can't see it any other way.

It's the depth blur. It's used to make pictures look like scale models.

[IainC]

Oh hai!

A lot of those promo images are from very early versions of the client. I'm not sure why they're still being waved around as current tbh.

Currently we're still in closed beta and gearing up for a release with K2 in the summer. You may have also seen that we're signed with Aeria in Japan.

[Mrbloodworth]

Oh hai!

A lot of those promo images are from very early versions of the client. I'm not sure why they're still being waved around as current tbh.

Currently we're still in closed beta and gearing up for a release with K2 in the summer. You may have also seen that we're signed with Aeria in Japan.

Point me to some new ones? Those are the first few on the site.

[snowwy]

Damn, i'd kill for something to replace Planetside. Loved that game to death :(

[IainC]

Oh hai!

A lot of those promo images are from very early versions of the client. I'm not sure why they're still being waved around as current tbh.

Currently we're still in closed beta and gearing up for a release with K2 in the summer. You may have also seen that we're signed with Aeria in Japan.

Point me to some new ones? Those are the first few on the site.

The K2 site seems to have the new shots on it.

[eldaec]

In game footage my ass.

Limited depth of field, really? Exactly how much fun would it be to have to worry about what range your game camera focuses on?


Also, which geniuses in this industry still think it is a good idea for every character in a mmog to wear identical outfits so nobody can tell them apart or figure out which team to shoot at?

[IainC]

In game footage my ass.

Limited depth of field, really? Exactly how much fun would it be to have worry about what range your game camera focuses on?


Also, which geniuses in this industry still think it is a good idea for every character in a mmog to wear identical outfits so nobody can tell them apart or figure out which team to shoot at?

I'm not sure where you're coming from with the limited depth of field. Regarding your other point, there are a lot of customisation options but you don't sign up for one side or the other exclusively. You can choose who to fight for before (and during) each mission. You're a mercenary and you can take whichever side you want to at any point.

[eldaec]

I'm not sure where you're coming from with the limited depth of field.

Second screenshot above, how irritating would it be to play with the opposing team ten yards away and out of focus?


I'm sure this won't happen in any released game, I can't believe that ten seconds of playtesting wouldn't identify the problem, and tbh, it seems doubtful anyone would ever even build a client this way in the first place; limited depth of field is the sort of clever clever trick some graphic artist would apply when building images for PR bullshitting in photoshop.

[IainC]

I'm not sure where you're coming from with the limited depth of field.

Second screenshot above, how irritating would it be to play with the opposing team ten yards away and out of focus?

That's why you don't. That screenshot has had some kind of filter applied to it for dramatic effect as mentioned previously by Goreschach.

[Stephen Zepp]

On the side note--I'm back to playing Planetside again for a bit--10 days in to my 14 day free trial, and I did hook up with a decent outfit, so it's "fun"--sometihing to waste time with at least.

Wicked cool to hear someone giving Massive FPS a shot again, regardless of the form though!

[UnSub]

I'm sorry, but this called out to me:

[Mrbloodworth]

On the side note--I'm back to playing Planetside again for a bit--10 days in to my 14 day free trial, and I did hook up with a decent outfit, so it's "fun"--sometihing to waste time with at least.

Wicked cool to hear someone giving Massive FPS a shot again, regardless of the form though!

Like i said, sadly, this is no planetside. Its limited to 16 x 16 battles. =/ Planetside also has tons of cool vehicles. This seems to have nill. Cant even say its massive, its like..counter strike with a 3d lobby.

Seems Developers still don't get what a MMOFPS is supposed to be, all we keep getting is instanced, small battle, common hub games. Huxley, the agency, this, war rock.

Seems to be they think:

1. make 20 counter strike  maps.
2. Make one map for a hub of sorts.
2B. Use high end graphic techniques so you can ONLY have small numbers of players.
3. Call it a MMO.
4. Profit!

EDIT: Oh shit, i was wrong, its not 16 x 16, its 16.

[Nebu]

I like the idea of no vehicles or at least vehicles intended for trasport only.   I also agree that a 16 vs 16 is not an MMOFPS.  If I can't fight in large scale battles that are created organically on a continuous timeframe, then it's not very worldly in feel. 

[Merusk]

If you don't call it an MMO game, you can't charge per month AND have to provide content beyond killing other PCs.

Such is the way of all future PC games. 

[Sky]

8v8? 

Srsly, go play Planetside for a while and learn what mmofps is. If the game even has enough subs at this point to rate the name, maybe the day of 100 vs 100 vs 100 is gone?

Also, three-way battles is genius. Two-way battles is tired and old.

SRSLY PLANETSIDE WTF But don't release and then let it languish for four years before adding some decent content, wtf soe dammit.

[DLRiley]

If planetside was truly successful people would be making a billion planet side clones by now. Fact is counterstrike, halo, unreal tournament and their clones is where the real fps crowd is playing the fuck out of, anything else with the fps label at the end can only hope to attract mmo players tired of dwarves and jiggly night elves and to be honest that's not a lot of people.

[Sky]

If planetside was truly successful people would be making a billion planet side clones by now. Fact is counterstrike, halo, unreal tournament and their clones is where the real fps crowd is playing the fuck out of, anything else with the fps label at the end can only hope to attract mmo players tired of dwarves and jiggly night elves and to be honest that's not a lot of people.

That was a valuable contribution.

The real fps crowd is a bunch of broke losers in their mother's basement. See, I can do it, too!

[DLRiley]

If planetside was truly successful people would be making a billion planet side clones by now. Fact is counterstrike, halo, unreal tournament and their clones is where the real fps crowd is playing the fuck out of, anything else with the fps label at the end can only hope to attract mmo players tired of dwarves and jiggly night elves and to be honest that's not a lot of people.

That was a valuable contribution.

The real fps crowd is a bunch of broke losers in their mother's basement. See, I can do it, too!

You wanna go down the list of failed mmofps.

[patience]

I honestly don't get it.

Planetside had a few serious flaws over other FPS games such as the subscription model, the movement controls and the minimal attention to creating an immersible world. Yet for all of their issues they had a lot of things no other FPS didn't have at the time or rarely replicate that well with modern games such as support for 360 players within close proximity of each other (the best for non-subscription FPS is only 128), a plethora of vehicles and racial/faction specific weaponry and a very robust set of tools allowing players to communicate with each other if they lacked voice chat.

I was strongly considering paying for this game until Sony decided to increase the subscription costs which forced me to compare it even more to other MMOs out there. The content to make it feel like you are in a unique scifi world is grossly lacking.

[eldaec]

If planetside was truly successful people would be making a billion planet side clones by now. Fact is counterstrike, halo, unreal tournament and their clones is where the real fps crowd is playing the fuck out of, anything else with the fps label at the end can only hope to attract mmo players tired of dwarves and jiggly night elves and to be honest that's not a lot of people.

That was a valuable contribution.

The real fps crowd is a bunch of broke losers in their mother's basement. See, I can do it, too!

You wanna go down the list of failed mmofps.

Go on, I'm interested to know what bullshit you're going to try and claim is a mmofps now.

[Nebu]

You wanna go down the list of failed mmofps.

Sure, right after we go down the list of FPS that wouldn't make it using a subscription-based model. 

[DLRiley]

Damn its like I entered the WAR official forums and said DAOC was craptasicilar. 

[Venkman]

PS failed as a business. We were all there and this cannot be argued. But it did succeed as a game for a time and there's some good qualities to emulate (three sides, persistent rolling control points/flags, land and air vehicles). Unfortunately, that can be said of every financial failure that should have been emulated too. History is written by the same people who set the patterns to be followed. Hence, the #1 FPS game has no vehicles nor anything persistent besides client-side character stats.

Whatever Parabellum turns out to be, it feels no more an MMO than Battlefield Heroes, which is smart enough to not dub itself an MMO even if it does try and borrow one of the business models.

[NiX]

I went to sign up for beta. Apparently I'm signed up. The things I do and forget about.

[Mrbloodworth]

PS failed as a business. We were all there and this cannot be argued.

Correct. I would never argue this, we also don't really need to recount what went wrong. Its quite simply most people loved Planetside (unless your a RPG/autoattack/TR looser =p ), it just got repetitive.

But Planetside was before its time, still does things no other FPS can do, and is an excellent benchmark to building on top of for new generation MMOFPS. Its still unmatched.

If your MMOFPS plays nothing like Planetside, you are doing it wrong. Pure and simple.

[Sky]

(three sides, persistent rolling control points/flags, land and air vehicles).

100v100v100 BATTLES

I do not care about this 'business'. I'm a gamer. It was a good game with the potential to be the single best game ever. If for some reason you can't find a way to market that, or at least budget around a realistic playerbase...I just want a good game.

Not only is PS the only mmofps, it could be argued it's one of the very few mmo games at all. What other games engages ~300 people in the same experience? A 24-man raid? Hell, BF1942 had that beat by 40 people.

I do agree, however, that it's difficult to market good games. People are fucking moronic douchebags unworthy of good games, so instead of Will Wright's Amazing Science Sandbox, we got a shitty RTS. The weight of WW at the helm was really my last hope of making a truly good non-standard game with high production values. I believe that the aborting of Spore, for whatever reason, was really the deathknell of good gaming. Enjoy your consoletard overlords. 

[eldaec]

EVE.

But yeah, hundreds of people all shooting each other up with projectiles and shit just hasn't been done.


Also, While I agree PS probably wasn't a huge success commercially, does anyone know how successful it even needed to be? The team running it and the marketing always seemed pretty small scale.

[Nebu]

EVE.

Granted it has been a million years since I've played EvE, but my impression was that EvE was a far better simulation than it was a game.  PS was most definately a game.

[tazelbain]

Ya, EvE metagame and economy with PS combat mechanics.

[Azuredream]

EVE.

Granted it has been a million years since I've played EvE, but my impression was that EvE was a far better simulation than it was a game.  PS was most definately a game.

Sounds accurate from my play time in EVE.

I'm not going to be surprised if I see others (including this) trying to create 'a better planetside' as developers start to shy away from fantasy titles after WAR/AoC. I sure would like a good MMOFPS (with an emphasis on the MMO part, I agree that if there's no persistent world don't label it an MMO).

[eldaec]

EVE.

Granted it has been a million years since I've played EvE, but my impression was that EvE was a far better simulation than it was a game.  PS was most definately a game.

It was the 100s vs 100s vs 100s in the same battle thing I was talking about.

It's certainly not an FPS ofc.

[Venkman]

But yeah, hundreds of people all shooting each other up with projectiles and shit just hasn't been done.

I think you clarified this later, but this is actually Sky's point (and should have been mine). Outside of some occasionally-functioning SB battles, nobody except Planetside has supported 100v100v100 battles. Nobody. Everyone else either wimps out because they think their players will cry, because they'd rather have better screenshots on pack, or don't want to invest in risky technology for a still-unproven model.

Also, While I agree PS probably wasn't a huge success commercially, does anyone know how successful it even needed to be? The team running it and the marketing always seemed pretty small scale.

They thought it'd be huge enough to justify a $14.99/mo subscription fee. The team scaled down to where reality pointed them. Rather than, like, lower the monthly fee though, they stuck to their guns while players continually diminished to wherever they landed at their "peak".

So close to what coulda been.