czyli ma to byc taki Full Spectrum Warrior od Ubi?

At the Ubisoft event back in May, the company showed off a CG trailer for its newly announced Tom Clancy’s EndWar—an all-new Tom Clancy property that ties together elements from previous games. Aside from the video and a list of planned features, the company had little else to show at the time. What a difference three months makes. At the GC 2007 event in Leipzig, Ubisoft showed off the game in a two-player match, giving the assembled press representatives a glimpse at a game that, while still deep in development, looks to back up those early promises with gameplay.

Creative Director Michael de Plater said that Ubisoft Shanghai looked to a few games as inspiration before development began on EndWar. With Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, BioWare showed that the company could move from the isometric gameplay of Baldur’s Gate into a fully realized 3D world. EA Sports faced the same challenges with its Madden series. Interestingly, de Paul said the team didn’t look to RTSs, which have had their own successes and missteps shifting from tile-based worlds into more sophisticated 3D environments.

One of the most striking things about EndWar is how close the camera is to the action. Unlike a lot of other games of the same genre, the player has a clear look at individual units, down to the men on the ground. Another departure from other RTSs is how the camera locks onto units and tracks them, rather than just remaining a static observer perched high above the action. There is also a Commander view available, which gives armchair generals a top-down, pseudo-satellite view of the action, with units and structures highlighted. It looks like a good place to plot out your broad strategies, but you’re going to need to be closer to the action if you want to succeed.

Much has been made of EndWar’s control scheme—and for good reason. Instead of forcing players to learn obscure button combinations in order to order troops around, Ubisoft has a couple of tricks up their camoed sleeves. Managing a single soldier or a small squad is a lot different than controlling an entire army, which is where the voice commands come into play.

“Calling all troops. Create group.” With those two sentences, de Plater’s troops did exactly what he told them to—all the available troops were alerted and then grouped together. “Unit 2 camera. Zoom.” After saying that, the camera jumped onto the second unit and, unsurprisingly, zoomed in on the action. When he started talking, blocks of commands appeared on the screen as they were recognized, serving two purposes. First, players can see that the computer is picking up on the words. Second, they show off what commands are available to specific units by listing them.

While the controls are certainly different from what we’ve seen before, the game seemed to be deeply rooted in standard RTS gameplay conventions—and that’s fine. Basically, you’re moving your army across a map to defeat an opposing army. De Plater moved his troops near a building to capture a spot on the map, and they tried to take cover where they could find it, creeping behind buildings. Once spotted, the two sides exchanged gunfire, but little progress was made. That’s when de Plater called in for a little extra help.

By designing the game from the ground up to work with voice commands, Ubisoft is able to pull off some pretty cool moves. For instance, players won’t have to track down units and click on them to gain control of them. When de Plater found himself in need of air support, he simply commanded all of his gunships to converge on the target, regardless of where they were on the map. Having that capability helps reinforce the feeling of actually being in command of an army rather than being some omniscient being who points at things to get them to move around. The constant radio chatter helps with that feeling, too.

The game’s story concerns a nuclear stalemate of sorts, with anti-missile defense shields rendering such weaponry largely useless. During the two-player match we saw, each player was trying to gain control of command centers that are tied to those defense shields. A bar at the top of the screen shows who has the most control points on the battlefield.

There are three playable factions in the game: The United States, Europe and Russia. A fourth terrorist faction is in the game but unplayable. Each faction has their own abilities and strengths. The U.S. faction, for example, are special forces. “Think Ghost Recon, but scaled up,” de Plater said.

After one firefight, de Plater called in for a medivac. Unlike a lot of other RTS games, EndWar has many persistent elements. Individual units gain experience during their battles, gaining new skills and abilities. De Plater said each faction has between 150-200 upgrades, too, so players will be able to focus on the elements that interest them the most. This is particularly important during online matches, which support up to 12 players. One teammate might have maxed out their sniper units, while another might have fully upgraded tanks. Strategies and tactics will definitely be affected by whatever special abilities each teammate brings to the battle.

In addition to skirmish matches, players will be able to parti(pipi)ate in massively multiplayer campaigns online, with hundreds of players working together to capture or defend more than 40 battlefields across the globe, with each battle affecting the overall war.

When a faction gains control of the majority of the control points, the end war phase begins, giving players access to weapons of mass destruction. These include microwave-based weapons and tactical lasers. In the example we saw, a satellite fired titanium rods onto its target from orbit, obliterating everything within its blast radius. End war, indeed.

Overall, the controls seemed intuitive and, most importantly, worked exceptionally well. During the demo, we didn’t see a single example of a command being misinterpreted or ignored. Having your complete army available at all times was pretty cool, and it’s going to make battles seem much more real.

The graphics were generally solid, though rough in some spots. Animations were good, though there was a definite sense of units moving like pieces in a board game rather than actual physical objects. This was particularly noticeable with the helicopters, which also clustered together in strange blob-like formations. Of course, this was still a pre-alpha build, so there’s more than enough time for Ubisoft Shanghai to iron out these minor wrinkles.

We’re looking forward to getting our hands on EndWar and getting a more in-depth look at the game. From what we’ve seen, it looks like it’s going to offer something for strategy fans and anyone with an interest in previous Tom Clancy titles.

Strona nie pozwala wziąć udziału w losowaniu jeśli jesteś z Polski ;/

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/4730.html

gejpleje... masakra... musthave

http://zeratulpl.blogspot.com/2008/10/tom-...owshowshow.html

czyli jak sie sprawdza sterowanie glosem z polskim akcentem

Opiszcie czy sa jakies problemy z rozpoznawaniem glosu? UBI chwalilo sie ze nie bedzie z tym problemu ale w praktyce to roznie bywa

system glosowy super co jednak nie zmienia ze jak dla mnie na ekranie jest za duzy chaos:)

Gra ma być po polsku, a i komendy też będzie można wydawać w naszym języku.

Poproszę o jakieś konkrety, a najlepiej o źródło tej, jakże ciekawej wieści...