krypt0nian
Banned
NeXuSDK said:I can officially confirm that the title is in works for both Xbox 360 and PC
We await your next press release.
NeXuSDK said:I can officially confirm that the title is in works for both Xbox 360 and PC
krypt0nian said:We await your next press release.
GhaleonEB said:And you are...?
Are you not bound by NDA's on this kind of stuff?NeXuSDK said:A video game journalist. I write for Scandinavias biggest gaming magazine, Gamereactor (Gamereactor.dk/.no/.se)...
I also just got official confirmation on Alan Wake as a MS title and Halo 3, Fable 2 and Forza Motorsport 2...
GhaleonEB said:Are you not bound by NDA's on this kind of stuff?
Ollie Cromwell said:To the guy that questioned the Dwarven decker:
I'm pretty sure the new rulebook (released over last summer, if memory serves) combined the rules for rigging with the rules for decking in an effort to simplify. Can anyone confirm? I haven't played the new edition.
Confidence Man said:I can see it now; a straight-up FPS where the only thing that passes as "role-playing" is choosing your character at the beginning: do you want to play as the big slow guy with a powerful gun, the quick and agile girl with the sniper rifle, or the dude with the sword? :/
krypt0nian said:I can see far more interesting things.
CountZeroInt said:*super hype inducing post*
CountZeroInt said:I am soooo excited to finally see and play this game next week. I'm a huge fan of the guys at FASA and I've been crossing my fingers that this game will finally become a reality.
For folks who don't know about Shadowrun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun is a good start.
Some history:
The world of Shadowrun is obviously a shameless ripoff of William Gibson's work such as the great book Neuromancer. Instead of being flattered he was somewhat offended and thought the addition of magic was silly. But that's what really makes it different from traditional cyberpunk: this world combines the best of science-fiction and the best of fantasy and mixes them together. You can be a troll magician fighting a dragon with guns and magic arrows.
The first Shadowrun video game was created by Beam Software and published by Data East for SNES and came out in 1993. This was an isometric RPG game that is fondly remembered for ahead of its time real time shootouts and magic battles. Beam Software would become Melbourne House, still one of Australia's only software houses.
The second Shadowrun video game was created by BlueSky Software and Sega and came out in 1994. http://www.skygames.com/ This game was even more unique in that it captured the feel of the pen and paper RPG by allowing you to distribute "karma points" to specific attributes, something which would later be copied by games like Duex Ex but with more of a "Grand Theft Auto" style addiction for running quests to earn more karma points to run that much faster/shoot that much quicker/take more of a beating. It was a free roaming world and part-RPG part-action part-adventure game. It's no wonder people are so eager to see this franchise rise from the ashes 12 years later!
The third Shadowrun video game was released only in Japan for Sega CD by a largely still mysterious Group SNE. It was more of a Where is Carmen Sandiego clone than an RPG, and wasn't very successful, but fans of Snatcher or Policenauts would probably dig it.
The fourth Shadowrun video game is where things start going awry. FASA was successful in working with Zipper on MechWarrior 3 so ended up handing them Shadowrun: Assassins intended to be released on Win98 PCs in about 1997 or 1998. What was the most popular game in 1997? Tomb Raider. What did the game turn out to be? A Tomb Raider clone, complete with a female lead. It wasn't a very good clone either, because tombs tend to be more interesting than corporate hallways. The game wasn't looking or playing very good so it got abrubtly cancelled, even though it was starting to generate a lot of hype and games like Quake 2 were also rising in popularing. I still have a flyer from GenCon where they handed out announcements about it (nice thing about being a fan of PC games for 10+ years you tend to keep stuff like that and Monkey Island wheels).
It's been a long time since then, and FASA for the most part seems to have been focusing on Mech games instead - there is a huge and stable fanbase for MechWarrior and MechCommander and these folks were kept happy. Rumors about a Shadowrun Xbox game started to pop up several years ago when Xbox was gaining popularity. This rumor continued to pop up about every E3 since then. Most people thought this was just a ridiculous rumor, but hey! Where there's smoke there's fire.
You can assume that FASA has been working on Shadowrun for a long time now, but also remember that Microsoft Games Studio has also gone through some major growing pains over the last 4 years.
If you've seen it there's an infamous video of the Crimson Skies team getting hammered by Ed Fries and other top management. It seems like there was a shakeup and that things are a lot better since those days, but during that shake up several teams and projects were undoubtedly affected. It's in a way a miracle that a Shadowrun game is still alive when a whole studio with a long and successful history like Digital Anvil got shut down. What happened was that Microsoft realized they needed to focus on a fewer set of titles, and pump out the best quality Triple AAA titles and nothing else. So with a background of publishing things like Sneakers and Blood Wake it's obvious they wanted to pick and choose a few franchises to make their big blockbuster franchises.
Why Shadowrun? Why indeed. It's 12 or 13 years old, the RPG itself has faded in popularity along with all pen and paper RPGs (most of those fans are currently living inside one or more of MMORPG worlds). Continuing popularity in Europe (especially Germany where fanpro.de is) and a loyal fanbase of nostalgic Genesis/SNES Shadowrun fans aside, there has to have been folks inside and outside the company who believe it is a world that hasn't fulfilled its potential.
If it is a FPS (and all signs and signals are pointing it to being anything but an ordinary FPS) you have to put some faith into the folks at FASA who believe in the Shadowrun world and want to reignite it. If the game is as big of a hit as I think it will be, it would be a no brainer to expand into RPG and MMORPG spaces with the franchise. Since all MGS teams are working on triologies it would be stupid to assume that this will be the only Shadowrun game ever.
If you're a fan of the game world my recommendation would be to suck up your personal expectations about the game you've been imagining for 13 years and try to imagine how fun it's going to be to see the Shadowrun world come back into popularity. If it's fun enough to become popular, and it's in the Shadowrun world, that's good enough for me, and I'm about as die hard of a fan of the Genesis game as they come.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FASA said:FASA Corporation was an American publisher of role-playing games, wargames and boardgames from 1981 till 2001. Originally the name FASA was an acronym for "Freedonian Aeronautics and Space Administration", a joking allusion to the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup, though in later years the letters of the name did not actually stand for anything.
FASA first appeared as a Traveller licensee, producing supplements for that GDW role-playing game, especially the work of the Keith Brothers. The company went on to establish itself as major gaming company with the publication of the first licensed Star Trek RPG, then several successful original games. Noteworthy lines included Battletech and Shadowrun. Their Star Trek role-playing supplements and tactical ship game enjoyed popularity outside the gaming hobby as, at the time, official descriptions of the Star Trek universe were not common, and the gaming supplements offered details the fans craved. The wildly successful Battletech line led to a series of video games, some of the first virtual reality gaming suites called Virtual World (created by a subdivision of the company known at the time of development as 'ESP,' an acronym for 'Extremely Secret Project') and a Saturday-morning animated TV show.
Games published by FASA included:
Star Trek
BattleTech (MechWarrior)
Shadowrun
Renegade Legion
Earthdawn
Crimson Skies
VOR the Maelstrom
Crucible
Doctor Who
FASA unexpectedly ceased active operations in early 2001, but still exists as a corporation holding IP (intellectual property rights) which it licenses to other publishers. Contrary to popular belief, the company did not go bankrupt. Allegedly the owners decided to quit while the company was still financially sound in a market they perceived as going downhill.
The BattleTech, Shadowrun and Earthdawn properties were licensed off to WizKids, who in turn licensed their publication to FanPro LLC. However, the Earthdawn license was recently returned to FASA. Living Room Games publishes Earthdawn (Second Edition) while RedBrick Limited now holds a license to continue publishing First Edition material. Crimson Skies was originally developed by Zipper Interactive under the FASA Interactive brand in late 2000 and used under license by FASA; FASA Interactive had been purchased by Microsoft, so naturally the rights for Crimson Skies stayed with Microsoft. Rights to the miniatures game VOR the Maelstrom reverted to the designer Mike "Skuzzy" Nielson, but it has not been republished in any form due partly to legal difficulties.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FASA"
Airtight is preparing a new game though, maybe a spiritual successor of a sort?element said:never going to happen, sadly.
they are doing an 3rd person action afaikKobold said:Airtight is preparing a new game though, maybe a spiritual successor of a sort?
krypt0nian said:New Avatar through E3 in recognition of the greatness of the Shadowrun license!
Maximilian E. said:Im in!
Likewise. I couldn't resist.Scrow said:
Enjoy!
Akira said:What are the chances of this showing up for Vista only and not on the 360?
Brain Xplodes, I recognize that SR character >_<element said:
MightyHedgehog said:Street samurai FTW! Though, I'm more interested in see some mage/shaman artwork. And I'm stealing your avatar, krypt0nian.
Too big, love.KyanMehwulfe said:Likewise. I couldn't resist.
krypt0nian said:And these underwear are about to change after seeing the clearer pics!
The Rules of Combat Are About to Change
Aye that dawned on me after using one for a bit and having the avatar exponentially deeper than any of my short replies. Squashed it down a bit for now, though I can probably fix it properly later.BuG said:Too big, love.