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[Spring-Loaded]

Just set the game to borderless windowed fullscreen. Was positively surprised that it had an option for that!

That actually is cool. More games should feature this.

 

[Durante]

That actually is cool. More games should feature this.

It's funny how tons of indie games made on a shoestring budget with probably 1 or 2 programmers on the team have native borderless windowed mode support while it's absent in many AAA releases.

Of course, this one also has in-game triple buffering and FoV settings, another rarity.

 

[ambientmystic]

A Durante approved PC game? So totally bought.

We need more games of this sort for the PC, graphics whores and shallow Hals be damned.

The last game I bought on his recommendation was Divinity: Dragon Commander, and I'm still enjoying that immensely.

 

[lethe]

I adore system shock 2, but come on. It looked bad even when it was new.

As someone who played it when it was new I still remember thinking how good it looked.

 

[Durante]

A Durante approved PC game? So totally bought.

We need more games of this sort for the PC, graphics whores and shallow Hals be damned.

The last game I bought on his recommendation was Divinity: Dragon Commander, and I'm still enjoying that immensely.

To be fair, I've only played this one for an hour or so, so it could still turn out badly. But I got a really good feeling from that hour. Anyway, off to bed now.

 

[XANDER CAGE]

The visuals and audio seem pretty lackluster, but the game itself looks pretty cool so I'm sure I can at least look past it. I must admit that the chess theme sort of activated my gag reflex a bit, but I'm hoping that it's just a goofy coat of paint for better writing. Gonna buy tonight, I think.

I really like the idea of a game in a really small, densely detailed area.

I think some of the reactions earlier in this thread suggest the danger of picking a thread title like the one chosen here AND writing an incredulous OP about how is no one playing this game that just came out today that you've gotta play?!?!?

Wow I can't believe I'm the only one with good taste?? Am I the only one with good taste???

 

[FairXchange]

Thanks for the recommendation OP! I just built a PC to play all the old classics like Deus Ex and System Shock 2 this past week, I'm getting Consortium right now!

 

[loganclaws]

Thanks for the recommendation OP! I just built a PC to play all the old classics like Deus Ex and System Shock 2 this past week, I'm getting Consortium right now!

Awesome, I'm really happy people are giving this game a chance.

 

[epmode]

That actually is cool. More games should feature this.

BTW, you can force borderless windows in a bunch of games with this AutoHotKey thing: http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/35817/?

I'm linking a New Vegas page but it works for other stuff!

I think some of the reactions earlier in this thread suggest the danger of picking a thread title like the one chosen here AND writing an incredulous OP about how is no one playing this game that just came out today that you've gotta play?!?!?

The thread title is problematic but I'm sure it'll bring in some people that would otherwise ignore an infodump. Some of them may even wind up playing the game instead of complaining about graphics!

 

[Sulik2]

Looks interesting. Is this early access or an actual game?

 

[VibratingDonkey]

Pawn 4 is a dickface. Was disappointed you can't just walk up and punch people. Was gonna vacuum the stuff in his locker, but it was locked. I will find a way to stick it to that guy.

Just set the game to borderless windowed fullscreen. Was positively surprised that it had an option for that!

Neat.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

From the name and the screenshots I saw of it I thought it might be a retro clone of Corporation which was on the Amiga.

 

[Zeliard]

Keeping a very close eye on this one, and I may end up purchasing it soon. Intrigued by its execution on the One-City-Block RPG concept - particularly in a spaceship-based sci-fi setting - as well as the focus on character and conversation.

 

[Uriah]

Still haven't gotten my key

 

[epmode]

Send a message through Kickstarter or just post on the project page. I'm sure they're watching now.

 

[fallagin]

I like the art style in some ways and am put off by it in others. Actually I don't know how to put it into words. Very conflicting.

 

[V AA D E R]

It's pretty shallow but no matter how good this game may actually be I don't think I could ever even give it a try just based on the terrible art direction.

 

[sn00zer]

I don't care if they're trying for a retro 3D look, that looks hideous right now.

I rarely complain about art style but...no.

Sadly, this was my first reaction as well....and I love watching stuff like "Beyond the Mind's Eye"

EDIT: Reminds me of programmer placeholder art...if the game gets good sales maybe they can hire an art director...or maybe they are just depending on people to mod the shit out of it

 

[Spring-Loaded]

BTW, you can force borderless windows in a bunch of games with this AutoHotKey thing: http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/35817/?

I'm linking a New Vegas page but it works for other stuff!

Oooh, thanks. It's honestly preferable for me since I always try to do a bunch of different things at once. I like to be able to just push the game window off to the side/to another monitor, w/e.

 

[epmode]

It's pretty shallow but no matter how good this game may actually be I don't think I could ever even give it a try just based on the terrible art direction.

Sadly, this was my first reaction as well....and I love watching stuff like "Beyond the Mind's Eye"

EDIT: Reminds me of programmer placeholder art...if the game gets good sales maybe they can hire an art director...or maybe they are just depending on people to mod the shit out of it

GAF. Stop being awful. Please.


From the OP:

*Built with a modified version of the SOURCE engine, explore ZENLIL, a living and highly interactive environment with complete freedom and agency. Includes turbulence and non-scripted decompression events!

*Engage with a cast of over 20 people with an innovative and life like conversation system with over 4,000 lines of fully voiced dialogue. OR... don't engage with them at all and choose to never speak a word!

*Experience an all original orchestral score by award winning composer Jeremy Soule

*Dive into a world with well over 150,000 words of back-story and lore, where everything you read, see, speak, or hear relates to the story and characters, and everything is there for a reason.

*The story unfolds based largely on your actions. You may use diplomacy and talk your way through the entire game - never shooting anyone! OR, decide to use deadly or non-lethal force.

*Forge lasting relationships with the crew of ZENLIL, and alter the course of the story through your actions. Your choices will change your play experience, and subsequent playthroughs offer the chance to make different decisions and see all new outcomes.

*Regardless of what you choose to do or not, the experience always moves forward, adapting seamlessly to YOU.

I'm trying to think of other games that even attempt that kind of stuff and I can only come up with a few.

GAF: "Yeah, but it's kind of ugly so I'm out"

 

[sflufan]

I'm still waiting on my Steam/Humble Bundle keys

 

[Tellaerin]

I know I'm in the minority here, but looking at the screenshots, I actually like the look of this game. The models and backgrounds have a clean, stylized "bright future" style that really appeals to me. Between that and the gameplay influences people have mentioned, I'm very interested in this.

 

[Reese-015]

Tried it out for about 30 minutes and absolutely loving it. I see the Deus Ex and System Shock 2 similarities but this game is quite unique...Highly recommend it.

The game itself goes for total immersion in a similar way that The Matrix Online did (one of the only positives that game had), it doesn't present itself as a game and it has some pretty great sci-fi lore to it. Absolutely love that kind of stuff.

 

[graywolf323]

looks interesting, added it to my wishlist

I'm still waiting on my Steam/Humble Bundle keys

it was in a bundle?

 

[sn00zer]

GAF. Stop being awful. Please.


From the OP:




I'm trying to think of other games that even attempt that kind of stuff and I can only come up with a few.

GAF: "Yeah, but it's kind of ugly so I'm out"

I mean...a game has to be EXTREMELY ugly before i nope out of there...as much as people say "gameplay is all that matters" when you play a game you might be playing the gameplay but you are watching the art design

 

[Sub_Level]

Holy fuck @ the amount of reading in this game. i like to read all the logs and listen to all the audio in games and the first terminal in this game dumps all kinds of shit on you. Immediately quit back to menu and subsequently exited.

Looks like my kinda game so far but it deserves an actual attention span. Will return to it on the weekend with a cup of coffee.

 

[Durante]

Tried it out for about 30 minutes and absolutely loving it. I see the Deus Ex and System Shock 2 similarities but this game is quite unique...Highly recommend it.

Indeed, there isn't much which is directly comparable to it. You can compare some of its individual aspects like the dialogue system (which is still the most Alpha Protocol-like one I've seen outside of Alpha Protocol), but there aren't really any games that have a similar overall feeling to them.

Holy fuck @ the amount of reading in this game. i like to read all the logs and listen to all the audio in games and the first terminal in this game dumps all kinds of shit on you. Immediately quit back to menu and subsequently exited.

Looks like my kinda game so far but it deserves an actual attention span. Will return to it on the weekend with a cup of coffee.

Yeah, I had a similar reaction to that terminal. And you can even enter additional search keywords. The setting is clearly something they've worked on a lot, and having this type of extensive background information in a natural place in the game makes sense, particularly since its not a title where you have some excuse (e.g. amnesia) to ask everyone you meet how the world works!

 

[TheRedSnifit]

The reason people love games such as SS2 and DX isn't just because of their fantastic gameplay; they also have some of the most iconic art design, which perfectly compliments it. It's not being shallow to be concerned about an art style negatively affecting the gameplay experience. Just read the Bravely Default thread if you don't believe me.

If a dev/publisher is charging real money for a game, then it will be judged and critiqued like any other. Please don't call me shallow, just because I find the art direction they went with in this game completely hideous.

I don't think that anybody's ever praised SS2 for its visuals. Even in '99, it's visuals were criticized, with monochrome blue-and-grey hallways being "complimented" by ugly, poorly-animated enemy models. No, it's the gameplay and sound design that's remembered, neither of which can be ascertained through a screenshot.

 

[Vasili2K38]

Interesting impressions here.. added to the wishlist (damn backlog ><). After watching a few videos it boggles my mind how people compare this game to Telltale's ones, you only have to observe the inventory screen :b .

 

[Night_Trekker]

Kinda sad.

Added to my wishlist, thanks for putting the game on my radar, OP.

Same. Despite the bad art.

 

[PetriP-TNT]

looks interesting, added it to my wishlist



it was in a bundle?

yeah, was it?

 

[Chance Hale]

looks interesting, added it to my wishlist



it was in a bundle?

I believe kickstarter backers are being given their keys through the humble store front.

 

[Durante]

Interesting impressions here.. added to the wishlist (damn backlog ><). After watching a few videos it boggles my mind how people compare this game to Telltale's ones, you only have to observe the inventory screen :b .

Told you! The only comparable thing to TT games are the dialogues, and those are more similar to Alpha Protocol.

 

[Zafir]

Incidentally it says this is only the first part of a trilogy. Have they said whether all of the parts continue on or if each is more standalone?

 

[RionaaM]

Holy fuck @ the amount of reading in this game. i like to read all the logs and listen to all the audio in games and the first terminal in this game dumps all kinds of shit on you. Immediately quit back to menu and subsequently exited.

Looks like my kinda game so far but it deserves an actual attention span. Will return to it on the weekend with a cup of coffee.

This is good to know. Looks like it's not something to play when I come back from work feeling tired, it's something I'll have to dedicate myself to. Which is nice, sounds like a really interesting game.

 

[More_Badass]

Holy shit, with all the complaining in here it's like Dust: An Elysian Tail all over again.

Oh well, more good game for me then?

People were complaining about the visuals of Dust? That game has a wonderful art style

As for this game, I don't really see what issue is. It has a low fi aesthetic that makes it stand out. Plus visuals aren't what matters, gameplay matters

 

[flowsnake]

People were complaining about the visuals of Dust? That game has a wonderful art style

As for this game, I don't really see what issue is. It has a low fi aesthetic that makes it stand out. Plus visuals aren't what matters, gameplay matters

The anthropomorphic animals seem to put people off. The reaction to Overgrowth seems similar.

 

[Reese-015]

I only played a bit of it thus far but it made huge impression on me, can't wait to get back to it when I have more time. Kinda feel like this is the type of hard sci-fi RPG I really love but didn't exist yet.

 

[Durante]

I just sold a plain (non-foil) Consortium trading card (I had a double) for &#8364;0.55. Wow. I'll never understand the card market.

 

[BLunted]

Looks cool. Added it to my wishlist.

 

[abunai]

Surprised I haven't heard of this beforehand considering how much I've (re)played DX/SS2. Buying, thanks for the heads up.

 

[Zafir]

Caved and bought it.

 

[MillerEP]

Meh, I'll throw it on my wishlist for next Steam sale, but like others have said, I've always hated cell shading.

 

[Zafir]

Probably worth holding out on this for the moment if you're interested, the dev's just posted the following announcement.

http://steamcommunity.com/games/264240/announcements/detail/1387407098673485374

We deeply apologize to those of you who found yourself engrossed in the game, only to be thrown out of it due to a crash or other game breaking issue. Firstly, this is inexcusable and we will be working around the clock to clear out all of these major game breaking bugs.

The truth is that we honestly felt the game was ready, and in hindsight didn't realize or anticipate the full range of systems we've not even remotely tested on and how many frankly strange performance issues folks are having on really solid machines. Our experimental renderer is largely the culprit for many of the crashes and slowdowns being experienced, and was something we were honestly worried about though we did not expect such a rash of issues tied to it after seeing it run smoothly on a number of different setups. Without the renderer the game would look far more static and much of the atmosphere in key scenes would be lost.

Performance issues aside for a moment, the whole game is one logic check after another and it’s a FACT we should have been smarter and realized we needed far more people playing the game and all its “paths,” before we could call it finished. Even our limited Beta testing through Kickstarter (which was our “closed beta”) resulted in only a handful of people willing to test with us (quite literally under 20 people) BUT this we understood because it’s a heavy story driven game! Who wants to be spoiled in a story driven game by a Beta build?! So we forged on and for months beat on the game until it ran well and smooth on all of OUR machines.

In the end, our confidence in the game being bug free was misplaced. While we truly *hoped* that the version we launched yesterday was going to hold up against the onslaught of thousands of players around the world playing it with their own play style AND their own unique system configurations, it was clearly an unrealistic hope.

So again, everyone, our direct and sincere apologies is all we can offer you at this point, until we can finally offer you the complete game you should have gotten in the first place. For those of you who have bought our game, THANK-YOU! We stand by CONSORTIUM and are 100% dedicated to fixing it ASAP.

As an indie developer launching our first game with no publisher, your support is appreciated more than you can know. We hope that you will be able to wait just a few more weeks before diving in, to help ensure that you will encounter no game breakers and have the CONSORTIUM experience as we intended it.

THE PLAN

We will be working towards releasing a patch to v1.1 on January 31st to FIX all issues that have been found. In the meantime, we will be starting a new forum thread entitled "CONSORTIUM v1.1 Patch Progress". Watch for it tonight, and watch for daily posts with the fixes that have been made.

Because of how the Source engine works, we are worried about releasing daily updates for everyone as it would likely mean that your save games would be invalidated. The save games rely upon the levels being unchanged...if the levels change (which they will have to, in order for us to fix these bugs) then the save games must change as well.

SO: Watch for an update on the game next week to fix all the major game stopping bugs. This update WILL wipe out save games, but the game should have a huge chunk of the bugs fixed.

However, if you wish to play the absolute current version of the game as we are making these changes daily and are OK with losing save games, you can opt into syncing your game with the absolute latest version. Details for this will be available later today.

It is important to note, however, that if you DID complete a play-through of CONSORTIUM without encountering game stopping bugs, a save game WILL be created that is forever usable to import into the second game.


Sincerely,

-The CONSORTIUM and iDGi team

Sucks to see this is the case, but at the very least, they're being transparent about the issues and have a plan.

 

[Intheflorsh]

I just sold a plain (non-foil) Consortium trading card (I had a double) for €0.55. Wow. I'll never understand the card market.

I sold a Consortium card yesterday for one dollar-- the second one ever sold I think.

 

[lastflowers]

looks interesting. Not into the art-style from the stills, but a SS2/DE type game has my eyes a staring with intensity.

 

[bonesmccoy]

I had some leftover Christmas money, and I like to spend money on under-tested indie games (someone has to!), so I bought this yesterday.

I still need to fire it up though. Fingers-crossed, I'll encounter no bugs.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Sorry, this is intended to be a trilogy yes? You're only getting the first part here and the others are separate purchases, so it's not an episodic game right?

 

[slabrock]

Told you! The only comparable thing to TT games are the dialogues, and those are more similar to Alpha Protocol.

Similar dialogues to Alpha Protocol? Game is definitely on my radar now.

 

[MasterOfPastures]

You dare name the two best games ever made in your title, and associate them to that shit art style?
Both SS2 and DE are gritty, grungy, and dark. This looks like playmobile vomit.
Sorry, devs. Fix it please.