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[Gigamear]

It looks like building can actually take a ton of damage, which fortunately scales back how overpowered this mechanic could be.

My concern is where the actual gameplay comes in. Crackdown is sort of known for scaling large buildings and achieving higher mobility in the environment with agility orbs. What is the point of scaling these obstacles when you can just destroy them?

Once everything has gone to rubble, where is the game?

 

[KORNdoggy]

Maybe offline will be like the old Crackdown games. No destruction at all.^^

i honestly expect it. full destruction doesn't really benefit a game. a pile of rubble isn't all that exciting to run around after all. but in 5 minute deathmatches it should make for some interesting moments.

i mean, as cool as it was to see the destruction in red faction guerrilla. it was a largely pointless mechanic. it was more a nice means to show impact on the environment when you missed a shot rather then a meaningful gameplay feature.

The second gif looks nuts.

Btw, if the cloud fails for some reason at any given moment, will the game disable destruction temporarily or what?

it's for MP only as far as i'm aware. SP is more basic

 

[CalamityPixel]

True Crackdown Style

 

[AP90]

Did they explain how destruction would work if you are offline? Sorry I did not see this part of the conference yesterday.

it's limited.

Had to cater to the people who did not want always online. Oh well it is what it is.

But if the server powered destruction works well said people will be kicking themselves in the foot at the missed potential of future games.

 

[MauroNL]

While it looks amazing, it also seems incredibly wasteful. I don't know that any other game company besides MS could waste so many dedicated servers to simply calculate physics for a console game.

The amount of datacenter juice this game is going to take up at launch is going to be crazy.

This is an argument now? Geez

 

[Dynasty]

Wonder what their internet speed was.

 

[BaronMonstro]

So good, I was hoping the gameplay would live up to the destruction in that CGI reveal, and so far it's looking like it will.

I played the shit out of RF:Guerrilla which had really awesome destructibility for the time but this looks to be on a whole other level.

Edit: MS has a real habit of trying to sell people on things without actually giving them reasons to buy it. Maybe if they had shown more stuff like this back when they were first pushing all that "power of the cloud stuff" stuff people wouldn't react so negatively to cloud stuff now.

 

[Torment]

While it looks amazing, it also seems incredibly wasteful. I don't know that any other game company besides MS could waste so many dedicated servers to simply calculate physics for a console game.

The amount of datacenter juice this game is going to take up at launch is going to be crazy.

300,000 servers in Chicago and several more datacenters around the world. They have the biggest cloud infrastructure in the world, it doesn't bother them.

 

[Ricky Ricardo]

This is an argument now? Geez

As I said, the goalposts will continue to move.

 

[ChasingComets]

This is the red faction sequel we never got.

 

[ekim]

So

The whole city is made of drywall?


EDIT:


Makes sense

You also see that metal pieces fall down differently as well as glass

 

[Kinyou]

While it looks amazing, it also seems incredibly wasteful. I don't know that any other game company besides MS could waste so many dedicated servers to simply calculate physics for a console game.

The amount of datacenter juice this game is going to take up at launch is going to be crazy.

It would be interesting to know how this budgetwise compares to something like PSnow.

 

[NerdEyeBlind]

Psyched for this.

 

[Nafai1123]

Damn that was very impressive.

 

[Rad-]

They are most likely going to limit this with the full game but it's still awesome. And it doesn't even feel like a "destruction gimmick" because it fits Crackdown so well.

 

[Ricky_R]

i honestly expect it. full destruction doesn't really benefit a game. a pile of rubble isn't all that exciting to run around after all. but in 5 minute deathmatches it should make for some interesting moments.

i mean, as cool as it was to see the destruction in red faction guerrilla. it was a largely pointless mechanic. it was more a nice means to show impact on the environment when you missed a shot rather then a meaningful gameplay feature.



it's for MP only as far as i'm aware. SP is more basic

Yeah, I meant on MP. If the cloud goes down for a couple of minutes (for example) will the game continue or will it stop? If the game continues, what happens with the destructibility?

 

[llAuburnll]

While it looks amazing, it also seems incredibly wasteful. I don't know that any other game company besides MS could waste so many dedicated servers to simply calculate physics for a console game.

The amount of datacenter juice this game is going to take up at launch is going to be crazy.

The concern is so damn real around here.

Awesome demo though. I was going to skip this because the first two got old,but this looks like madness for multiplayer. Bring it on!

 

[gamechanger87]

While it looks amazing, it also seems incredibly wasteful. I don't know that any other game company besides MS could waste so many dedicated servers to simply calculate physics for a console game.

The amount of datacenter juice this game is going to take up at launch is going to be crazy.

Anything on Thunderhead is a drop in the bucket for their overall Azure infrastructure. MS already build everything for the massive Azure business which is only behind Amazon right now for capacity. They make a ton of money there. This is just allocating VMs for load. They aren't putting blades in to support these games. Azure is a $1B business.

 

[GavinGT]

Yeah, I meant on MP. If the cloud goes down for a couple of minutes (for example) will the game continue or will it stop? If the game continues, what happens with the destructibility?

The cloud is the host, I'm assuming. So the game goes down like it would with any other game using a dedicated server.

 

[AP90]

While it looks amazing, it also seems incredibly wasteful. I don't know that any other game company besides MS could waste so many dedicated servers to simply calculate physics for a console game.

The amount of datacenter juice this game is going to take up at launch is going to be crazy.

This is an argument now? Geez

Gamers:
We want next level/gen games with awesome destruction!

Company:
Releasing game within year with said next level destruction.

Gamers:
This is awesome but so wasteful, I may not buy this now.

Double edge sworded industry, damned if you do, damned if you don't.

 

[harSon]

Pretty damn impressive. As someone else mentions, I'm interested in seeing how they tie the mechanic into Crackdown like gameplay.

 

[Rembrandt]

They are most likely going to limit this with the full game but it's still awesome. And it doesn't even feel like a "destruction gimmick" because it fits Crackdown so well.

what makes you say that?

 

[ekim]

Do we know if this cloud stuff is only for mulitplayer? What if now 10 Million people want to play the game at the same time? Will destruction be scaled back or turned off?

edit: he says, the world is persistent. Does that mean there are like 10 realms for all players and like 10k people share one realm and the level of destruction (with kind of respawn for buildings)?

 

[sangreal]

looks awesome

 

[Hitokiri03]

Very impressive.

 

[Alx]

My concern is where the actual gameplay comes in. Crackdown is sort of known for scaling large buildings and achieving higher mobility in the environment with agility orbs. What is the point of scaling these obstacles when you can just destroy them?

Once everything has gone to rubble, where is the game?

I think the gameplay may evolve to offer multiple solutions. Judging from the reveal video, I guess that destroying some buildings won't be such an easy task, and may require some organization and synchronization, using multiple tools of destruction in the right sequence. That would add a more puzzle-oriented way to solve a problem.
Maybe it will replace climbing, or it will be an alternative solution. In multiplayer you may "race" other players for an orb, some going for the climb while others plan for destruction. Pure agility versus brains.

 

[DerZuhälter]

The stress testing for server need will be fun.

If we can't even get MCC, The Crew or DriveClub running out of the gate this gen, how is this supposed to work?

 

[Azzawon]

This looks fantastic, I can't wait.

Spoiler

Next-gen has arrived.

Spoiler

Maybe?

There's been some companies doing new things in the industry but this definitely near the top in terms of making the most of today's technology. Imagine the possibilities.

Let's just see how well it works on release.

 

[Tavares4Life]

The stress testing for server need will be fun.

If we can't even get MCC, The Crew or DriveClub running out of the gate this gen, how is this supposed to work?

Because those aren't similar at all. Only MCC ran on Azure (and only sometimes) and its issue wasn't with the servers being down but with the fact the game had issues pairing people together, aka a dev issue.

 

[derFeef]

Wonder what their internet speed was.

Wonder when people will try to understand cloud computing.

 

[llAuburnll]

The stress testing for server need will be fun.

If we can't even get MCC, The Crew or DriveClub running out of the gate this gen, how is this supposed to work?

Mcc problems had nothing to do with azure. Driveclub isn't even the same console.

 

[Ricky_R]

The cloud is the host, I'm assuming. So the game goes down like it would with any other game using a dedicated server.

Ahh ok. That makes sense. Wasn't really sure if they were separated.

 

[GavinGT]

Do we know if this cloud stuff is only for mulitplayer? What if now 10 Million people want to play the game at the same time? Will destruction be scaled back or turned off?

In the unlikely scenario that the game ties up all of the Azure servers, I imagine there would be a queue.

So far they've only talked about the multiplayer aspect of the game, at least in reference to the destruction.

 

[EagleEyes]

This is an argument now? Geez

People will always try to find a new angle somehow lol.

 

[BrickArmour]

Wow. Just wow. This is the first time I've seen something where the cloud actually makes a game better in a very tangible way. Very very cool. Man, I am super impressed!

 

[Sydle]

Then you can't play multi in the first place, no? Plus I would assume those are different servers (if you can call them servers, for Azure) than the XBL account stuff etc.

You're right.

I should have just said what I wanted instead of posing the question.

I like where this is going, but I hope they make Xbox Live/Azure more reliable. I feel like it's every other week I get a message about my pins not being available because of Live issues, or that a service won't boot up. The community for this game will die off quick if they run into issues frequently.

Anyway, back on topic. I'm pretty excited to play this and see all that can be done.

 

[gamechanger87]

Do we know if this cloud stuff is only for mulitplayer? What if now 10 Million people want to play the game at the same time? Will destruction be scaled back or turned off?

If this game ties up all of Azure's servers we have much bigger problems in the world because it controls around 15% of the PaSS and IaSS in the world. The internet will have serious issues. This shouldn't be a concern.

 

[PSYGN]

I imagine some issues Day 1 unless it doesn't take much to compute these destructions.

 

[dem]

This looks awesome

In the real game i think it will be a lot harder to take down buildings. He says at the start that his gun is wayyyyy overpowered.

 

[Spunky Monkey]

Its just cloud computing. This couldnt be done with the Xbox alone.

Whilst impressive did everyone forget about Red Faction: Guerrilla which did really good destruction years ago?

 

[justgames7604]

They are most likely going to limit this with the full game but it's still awesome. And it doesn't even feel like a "destruction gimmick" because it fits Crackdown so well.

its only in multiplayer. It checks that online requirement and you cant stuff up the games single player mechanics.

 

[ekim]

If this game ties up all of Azure's servers we have much bigger problems in the world because it controls around 15% of the PaSS and IaSS in the world. The internet will have serious issues. This shouldn't be a concern.

Wut? oO

 

[Glendemonium]

The attention to detail in the destructible environments is insane, I'll have to get this.

 

[GavinGT]

Whilst impressive did everyone forget about Red Faction: Guerrilla which did really good destruction years ago?

This is on a whole different level.

 

[puebla]

That is mighty impressive. If they can really pull that off in retail it will be a game changer.

 

[Ghost]

This is the kind of demo they've always needed to demonstrate the cloud, an actual deliverable product that's not a dedicated server.

I wonder if they'll do some kind of horde mode and push the AI compute to the cloud as well. 4 players trying to stop waves of AI from destroying the city could be really cool.

 

[llAuburnll]

This is the kind of demo they've always needed to demonstrate the cloud, an actual deliverable product that's not a dedicated server.

I wonder if they'll do some kind of horde mode and push the AI compute to the cloud as well. 4 players trying to stop waves of AI from destroying the city could be really cool.

I'm on board. This would be awesome.

 

[derFeef]

Whilst impressive did everyone forget about Red Faction: Guerrilla which did really good destruction years ago?

It's not really comparable. While it was impressive, this destuction has a far bigger scope and affects whole series of buildings and geometry, not locally limited buildings/bunkers etc.

 

[justgames7604]

The stress testing for server need will be fun.

If we can't even get MCC, The Crew or DriveClub running out of the gate this gen, how is this supposed to work?

MCC was just a mess i suspect, Having 5 devs build each game and tieing it together in a kind of unified multiplayer probably fucked that game up. It was just such a disaster.

 

[shandy706]

Awesome demonstration of a cloud (multiple servers) being used in a single game world. Really neat to see different buildings and sections being handled by different servers.

All that data would kill these consoles on their own.