singlespace

I don't think you can expect everyone to appreciate nature in the same way. There's a wealth of experiences out there and what one person finds liberating another may find utterly oppressing. It takes a certain degree of commitment to do something like the John Muir that not everyone has the disposition or chance to enjoy. The same could be said about the entire gamut of the outdoors, so why look down on car camping? In the end, they're all about experiencing nature in a respectful manner.

You, Sir, are the best.

You could try coordinating with the Idle Thumbs clan, but I'm hazarding that we're spread across quite a few time zones making the number of people available at any given time somewhat slim.

I personally wouldn't. As you mentioned, they have only one developer attached who also has to double as game designer and business guy. It seems like his experience has been limited to simple projects based on his portfolio, which makes sense since he's been out of school for 3 years. I'm always very skeptical of projects that are light on experience and developers.

I think Walker brings up a lot valid points, but he is being a bit dense, so take that into consideration. For example, Walker states: "It begins with a collection of people you know nothing about sitting around a campfire after an event you haven’t experienced, talking about people you haven’t heard of. It then flashes back to a year earlier, where you’re apparently a group of terrorists, with some hostages, attempting to hack a computer while holding off rescuing forces. Why? It doesn’t say." However, in the scene referenced in the screenshot immediately above that paragraph explains who you are and why you're part of the terrorist group. In Vinny's Quicklook over at GiantBomb, he picked up on those things immediately. The GiantBomb East Coast guys also picked up on the mechanics of how the first scenario plays, while Walker didn't seem to have grasped the mechanics as he states: "And you start over. And over. And over. You have to rapidly issue orders in turn, hoping you’re magically knowing which to do when, trying to plug leaks as fast as they spring up. Then you lower the difficulty, and get through it, not really knowing why." The game itself is turn based, there is no need to rapidly issue orders. The mechanics are fairly determinate as well. When Vinny explained how the mechanics worked to Alex Navarro during the Quicklook, they were able to beat the first scenario on the harder difficulty without much trouble. I personally didn't find the first scenario that hard to understand either, nor did I find it confusing in the least why a year earlier you were part of a terrorist group. So take that into consideration when reading his review: he probably played through the scenario quite a great deal more than others did because it doesn't appear that he understood the mechanics. You often have to play through scenarios multiple time to discover what the mechanics are, but they aren't as obtuse and incomprehensible as Walker implies. If you want to see a good slice of what this is game is, then watch GiantBomb's Quicklook: http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/quick-look-gods-will-be-watching/2300-9253/

That's the thing I don't understand about Merus argument: PvP is only possible in an entirely separate area of the game that can only be reached via menus. There is no friendly fire in any of the PvE areas at all while the social area doesn't allow any combat whatsoever. Furthermore in the beta the plot critical and set piece areas, which are dark zones, do not allow random people interfering either. In those areas, only your own fire team is present and you control who is part of that group.

Looks like the core team behind S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Metro (the leads for design, engine architecture, animation, concept art, etc.) left to form a new studio called West Games. They just launched Kickstarter for Areal, which is their spiritual successor to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Metro: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1577656602/areal They also say Areal, Areal being the name of their game Areal, about a thousand times. Areal.

Ah, that's super shitty. They should be upfront about why a Kickstarter is suspended for everyone's benefit.

What makes you think they didn't inform West Games?

I think that Havoc is a pretty solid skill, but it's definitely meant for high aggression plays by the flags. I've seen Titans turn matches around quite a few times by flying into a flag room and wiping the floor with everyone in Havoc range. It has the advantage of proc'ing very fast, having invincible frames when it lands, and being an AoE so you don't need to be precise. Ghost Gun has a long proc time where you can't move and are very vulnerable and the 3 shots disappear on a timer, so even though it seems like the strongest of the initial powers, it rarely is because of how difficult it is to use. The long the proc and short ability timer means you need to anticipate then deliver the actual shots accurately. The biggest advantage of Ghost is that it can be delivered at any range to three targets that aren't clustered. Nova Bomb has range, unlike Havoc, but you're vulnerable for quite awhile as it procs. The larger AoE is compensated by travel time of the projectile and being vulnerable while proc'ing the super. I kind of feel like all of the powers are overpowered in distinct ways, which is a good thing because it means that they're all "unfair" along different axes or rather they're very powerful in specific roles as opposed to generally strong. At a moderate range Nova Bomb wins over Havoc and Ghost Gun. At longer ranges Ghost Gun wins over Nova Bomb and Fist of Havoc. And at point blank Havoc wins over Ghost Gun and Nova Bomb.

If you assume that each person is just paying the minimum for each tier you come out with about $38,740 for the supporters between $5 - $250, which is pretty much what they had for the majority of their entire campaign. Once you add the $250+ backers, it jumps to the $60,240. That's pretty suspicious. I wish there was a dump of the number of backers per a tier on a daily basis available -- that would clear up just what happened.

The current Strike mission throws you through a gauntlet of enemies ending a set piece boss fight.

Gah, I'm getting so many removed from game network errors that it's pretty much unplayable.

The saga continues, they quickly threw together a prototype video in two weeks: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1577656602/areal/posts RPS points out they're using an asset pack: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/07/18/stalker-kickstarter/#more-221271 I don't think that's a big deal per se given it's just two weeks of work, but good lord was this campaign a complete and utter mess.

Aren't all corporate twitter accounts run by 20 something year old "social media experts"?

DashCon.... https://twitter.com/DennysDiner/status/489418044725530626/photo/1

All of them seem credible at this point, but it doesn't address many of the unanswered questions about the project.

No major developments as far as I can see, but it seems pretty clear that they're much earlier in development than was stated. Looks like their plan is to produce as much pre-production material as possible before the end of the Kickstarter to try to prove that this is real and they're serious.

New style for the Imperial faction with some Zentradi influences:

Random Rampancy Fact of the Day: Rampancy used to work at Bungie and was responsible for the Sabre starfighter sequence in Halo: Reach. Oh yeah, and here's the latest trailer from back in March and it is glorious:

Yeah, me too. Great addition to the idle hand.

I'm pretty much of the same mind right now. There's just too many unanswered questions and odd issues to have much confidence in the project.

That was resolved and video proof was provided: They did some stock photos in the past and chose to use those shots -- probably because they were of a pretty good quality and they already had them. I'm not saying the project is legitimate, just that the issues of identity and what not are resolved at this point.

Looks like it's infighting from former STALKER folks and people who are working on related properties: http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/1/5861378/areal-kickstarter-stalker-spiritual-sequel-spawns-debate The Misery / The Seed folks have pretty much backed entire out of criticising West after being threatened by legal action. The currently inactive GSC also came out in support of Areal in a way: https://www.facebook.com/MiseryMod/posts/480640962069528?comment_id=480914525375505&offset=0&total_comments=21 Vostok has also backed away from any accusations presumably for the same reasons: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1577656602/areal/posts/889637 So I guess they actually are the people they say they are, but the question remains as to what state Areal is in, whether they actually have much funding outside of Kickstarter like they've claimed, and I guess who's Leonid Kovtun: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-06-26-that-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-y-areal-kickstarter-whats-going-on

Hmmm... Looks like there is now some dispute as to whether they're really who they say they are.