Shattered Horizon

[W1nTry]

I did a search of this phrase and retuned only a small reference in a post by n00b. So I figured a more indepth article on the game was a good idea. For those that know 3DMark or rather Futuremark and their well know benchmarking fangdangly apps, and those that particularly know vantage, do you remember the space benchmark? where ppl are flying around in space around asteroids and stuff, well did you know that it's ACTUALLY A GAME now? Yup Futuremark, the makers of all things benchmark have created a game using same said engine. Now I suppose ppl will less be able to say it's just synthetic and more that it's actually a real, decent game engine... well in time anyways here's an excerpt:

No gravity, one gun, no problem: Shattered Horizon interview
Shattered Horizon brings first-person gun battles to space, and to be an effective fighter you'll need to think in all three dimensions. To play, you'll need DirectX 10 support. We speak to the lead designer of the game to explore the ideas behind this $20 wonder.

By Ben Kuchera

Shattered Horizon is a weird beast. The $20 first-person shooter features four maps, one gun, and takes place in space. That means there is no gravity—you can attack from any angle by using your boosters. Turn them off and move with just your inertia to become harder to spot. It's a heady, tense form of combat.

It's also the first game from FutureMark Games Studio—you may know them from the popular 3DMark benchmarking program. The game requires Direct X10, meaning if you're running Windows XP, you're out of the game. It's a new engine with fully three-dimensional game mechanics, and you have to be running either Vista or Windows 7 to play. Clearly, there was some vision involved with the project.

We were able to sit down with Antti Summala, the game's lead designer, to talk about the game. The scope may be limited, but Shattered Horizon has some big ideas behind it.

Ars Technica: Were you nervous about creating a game that required Vista or Windows 7? There was some grousing on our forums from Windows XP users. Was the trade-off ultimately worth it?

We have read similar comments from XP users on our own forums. Going DirectX 10 only wasn't an easy decision, especially in early 2008 when we started work on Shattered Horizon. Throughout development we kept a very close eye on the Steam hardware survey and the data from our benchmark users, slowly watching the numbers move in the right direction. It did cause some nerves, but overall the benefits outweighed the risks: a single code path made developing the game faster, and supporting it became much easier. Instead of putting our limited resources into sorting through all the challenges of backward compatibility, we can better support our community by adding new features and content to the game. With Windows 7 getting a good reception from gamers and Christmas coming up, the number of people who can’t play Shattered Horizon is only going to get smaller, while the number who can play will continue to grow.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/12/no-gravity-one-gun-no-problem-shattered-horizon-interview.ars

[Arcmanov]

Sorry W1nTry, but you a lil late to this party.  See the Steam thread.

I done buy the game and sweating it brisk brisk. 

[Redfish]

Yep Arc introduced me to it and I ended up buying it, I is hooked at the new pespective in fps...


Getting shot from any and every direction makes it a bit more challenging as you have 6 axis for movement & view.

Ppl with motion sickness might have a prob playing this and you can get disoriented quickly at first but it's all fun fun FUN!!

Best of all there is only one gun, so it's all up to flying & marksman skillz as opposed to retarded nade spamming etc...

[W1nTry]

And if it were SO good, why didn't it have it's own thread or more hits when searched for? men seem to completely brush over the opening words of the thread... *sighs*

[chinarakinda]

Win don't bother, game's not good.

[TriniXaeno]

yeah, I struggled with it myself. Got my ass handed to me several times, lol

Don't take our word for it though, who knows, it might be your cup of tea.

[Arcmanov]

Win don't bother, game's not good.

If you're going to say that, at least say why its not good

[chinarakinda]

Win don't bother, game's not good.

If you're going to say that, at least say why its not good

Well first off the menu is out of whack. Sometimes to select a menu item, I have to move the mouse around until the menu item is highlighted.
I had to restart the game to get it working again. This happened several times.

All servers were empty except maybe 3 after refreshing a lot of times. I'm guess hardly anyone plays this game.

The servers had high pings.

In a couple of games my grenades wouldnt launch.

My opinion: Gameplay is a snooze fest, I had no fun. Killing someone had no satisfaction, guns felt toyish. Half the time i didn't realize i killed the guy until i checked the score. Maybe delay from the lagfest.

[Arcmanov]

Some of that may have been true of the game when it first came out, but its been updated quite a bit.  New maps have been added also.

If Redfish could see enough value to actually buy it, then I believe Futuremark doing something right.   I think Philo bought it as well.

Its no Modern Warfail, but it IS unique in its gameplay.  It may not be everyone's cup of tea though.

[Redfish]

Ah boy eh, yes it has it's flaws and is not the next best thing but the concept changes the whole ball game. I give them props for actually pulling it off.

No it is not your typical fps

No it certainly is not everyone's cup of tea but I picked it up and have gfun playing it

Yes it has it's flaws like every other game there

Yes there are servers with High Ping like other games...

Yes the community is not HUGE like counter strike, halo or cod but it is only a little over a month old....

and this fricking game launched last month, the same time with MW2, Dirt 2 etc so give it some time at least jeez.

Point is it's different, not well oiled and polished but quite welcomed in, MY BOOK (note I said MY and not everone's book), it may not be for yours.

[Philosophical45]

well sorry to disappoint arcman, i didn't buy it, fish gave me a guest pass to try it out, sadly i didn't get alot of time to play the game enough. But it was a cool experience for the lil while i tried it. One thing i remember being annoyed with was trying to kill someone , maybe i sucked or maybe it was lag, but as fish say, needs getting use to.. can't say i'll buy it, but it didn't stick to me. I can't say anything bad about the game, it was cool, pretty good new twist to a game. I'd recommend it to anyone to at least try out.

[Arcmanov]

The game is free this weekend, and if you choose to buy, its only 9.99 US.  Who say it? 


...oh yeah, and the latest patch added four new levels, and fixed a whole host of UI-related things.  Not to mention sweeter visuals.

[Redfish]

Ah have to install over this game since the switch to win 7 and check out the new goodies for real

[Doomtack]

more new stuff and sale for $15.
I wonder if to pick it up?
Alyuh men still playin this online?

[Redfish]

I haven't played it in a few but I will jump back in if ppl decide to play it...

Now realizing I just have a bit too many a game to play with such little time...

[Arcmanov]

Another big-azz update for this game was released yesterday (approx 1.4 GB).

This game has grown by leaps and bounds now to a viable, physics-rich,
space combat 'simulation'.  I say 'simulation' because of the complete freedom
of movement in all three axes.  In this game, there's no such thing as 'up' or 'down'.

[TrinireturnofGamez]

  Just a novelty game worth trying out , probably the only true DX10 game out there , it requires an 8800GT minimum and Windows Vista or 7 to even run.   
  Free weekend on steam , you can pre load from now , knowing steam 'weekends' can start as early as thursday night or friday morning and end saturday night sometimes.