Shattered Horizon

[MinisterofDOOM]

http://www.gametrailers.com/vi...58508

I picked this up on Steam (on discount for $9.99 this weekend). It's a multiplayer shooter set in space. Very fast-paced, team-based, with three game modes. There's only one weapon, which has full-auto and sniper modes and unlimited ammo (but 60-round magazines) and fires 3 types of grenates (emp, shock, and ice). The maps consist of cluttered debris, and you spend your time navigating 6DOF-style around an on the scenery. The controls are only slightly more complex than a traditional shooter, incorporating roll (I mapped roll to two of my auxiliary mouse buttons and it works fantastically, though by default roll is handled by holding right mouse and moving the mouse left or right, which also works well) and rise and fall. The game also makes great strategic use of inertia; your suit boosters make you clearly visible, so boosting and then coasting is advantageous. You can also "attach" to any surface and walk on it, which increases accuracy and is also useful for making easy use of cover. There's a "swoop" button which allows you to quickly move to and attach to any nearby surface. The whole transition from floating to grounded movement is very well done.Another cool feature of the game is the suit's HUD/software/radar system and the EMP grenades. You can actually enable "silent running" mode, which reduces your maneuverability and shuts down your own HUD and "audio simulation" (no sound in space, remember?), but makes you invisible to other players' HUDs. Similarly, if you are hit with an EMP grenade, your HUD is shut down, reducing you to the same state as someone in silent running mode. The HUD takes a few seconds to reboot.

The biggest downside the game has against it is its system requirements. Not only are they steep on the hardware side (Core 2 Duo E6600, GeForce 8800GT 256MB) but it ONLY runs under DX10, which means you need Vista/Win7 and a DX10 video card. I've also heard a lot of people complaining about the game running very poorly even on very powerful machines, but my midrange machine runs it spectacularly even at completely-maxed-out settings.The game looks beautiful, and some of the space vistas (including earth) are probably worth the game's current $10 pricetag alone.

The system requirements have a double downside of also restricting the playerbase. However, there was no shortage of players when I jumped on tonight at 2am. In fact, there were several dozen servers, all full or nearly full (perhaps thanks to the steam sale?).

My biggest complaint with the game is the lack of support for botmatches and any sort of offline training mode. Especially for a game with such a disorienting and unconventional setting, that sort of thing seems like a no-brainer. The reasons for the lack of these modes is no secret, though: the developers are FutureMark, the same guys who make PC benchmarking software (which is why the game's system requirements are so steep) and they felt like devoting resources to AI development would get in the way of the meat of the multiplayer experience.

The game very recently saw the release of a sort of mini-DLC. Four new maps. Free for all game owners (including those who have yet to purchase the game).

Here's the trailer for the new Moonrise levels:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElJ9Ws1li-g&fmt=22

The 6DOF nature of the game definitely takes some getting used to, but I've been having a blast with it. And I usually don't even like multiplayer shooters.

[WDRacing]

I just started playing MASS Effect, maybe I'll try this one after. It's nice having a new PC, in my case a gaming laptop, that actually plays the new games. I haven't been able to play anything that was beyond shader 1 in years...lol.

I'll check this dude out. I love Steam

[SkinnyKibbles]

Game looks good, definitely a good concept. I'll have to pick it up when I get home.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Definitely worth the $10.

Another good thing I forgot to mention is that there's a good server scoring restriction system that lets people run servers for newbies-only by restricting overall player score to below a certain point. Definitely helps you to not feel so overwhelmed when you jump into the game the first time.

I just started playing MASS Effect, maybe I'll try this one after. It's nice having a new PC, in my case a gaming laptop, that actually plays the new games. I haven't been able to play anything that was beyond shader 1 in years...lol.

I'll check this dude out. I love Steam

Brian, check out this article for ways to make Mass Effect look as good as it should on your PC. In a lot of ways the PC port was broken (depth-of-field particularly, leading to character faces looking like the were crapped out of a playstation 2 game). A little bit of text file editing will have the game looking a thousand times better than it does out of the box.

Also, if you're running the Steam version of ME, you'll probably need this thread when you get to Therum:http://forums.steampowered.com...80287There's a glitch where most of the planet textures are missing and you can't see where it's safe to drive. You can't progress in the game without finishing Therum, so it's sort of a major issue. That thread will solve the problem.

[WDRacing]

I'm using the DL version of ME

[MinisterofDOOM]

Ahhh. I see.

[WDRacing]

Click OK to see me naked.

[MinisterofDOOM]

OK.

[s0m3th1ngAZ]

Lol when I got to Therum (I played when there wasn't a fix I could find) I kinda just guessed where the acid/lava should be and saved often. Got through it after a while.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I don't have the patience to do that, especially with ME's over-dramatic sprially-zoom-out OMG-you-died-look-man-you-died-look-that's-bad-but-you-can't-respawn-yet-because-we're-still-showing-you-where-you-died death scenes.