Dr. Kitty Muffins
Member
I thought they (the ex-midway talent) moved on, made Metal Arms and were acquired by Blizzard? I guess Blizz let them go..........
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Spiritual Sequel To Hydro Thunder On The Way?
- Thread starter twinturbo2
- Start date
twinturbo2
butthurt Heat fan
Yeah, like I said, there was some news about a new dev studio called Specular Interactive, where the splash page of their website trumpeted the fact that they were composed by ex-Midway developers who made Hydro Thunder. Maybe that's where they are now...Dr. Kitty Muffins said:
twinturbo2
butthurt Heat fan
New update from Arcade Heroes...
GOTY 2009 Confirmed!
GOTY 2009 Confirmed!
Classic_Gs
Member
This could be good, Hydro Thunder in the arcade and on the DC was awesome.
Old? 1up put up a preview with screens and a video: http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3172445
MadOdorMachine
No additional functions
Oooh. Good find Teddman! Hopefully we'll see more than one game from Specular Interactive. I'm surprised (pleasantly) by the number of arcade racers this gen. Hopefully this will get ported to consoles.Teddman said:
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
Anyone got a mirror of those 1up videos? Game Videos is still as slow as hell for me.
Waluvil said:
The best arcade racing game of all time is Daytona USA, no question. It's the most successful, highest grossing/most profitable arcade game of all time. San Fransisco Rush (and its sequels) is a steaming pile of stinking dog shit in comparison, and Hydro Thunder while good, is not even in the same galaxy as Daytona USA.
twinturbo2
butthurt Heat fan
I watched some of the videos... holy shit, even the announcer is the same.
Step aside, Killzone 2. Move along, Resident Evil 5. GTFO, Street Fighter IV. Leave the premises, Halo ODST. Sorry, (insert 2009 release here). Anihawk, cancel the GOTY thread for 2009, we have a winner, and it's not even February.
HTWOOOOOOOOOVERDRIVE!
Step aside, Killzone 2. Move along, Resident Evil 5. GTFO, Street Fighter IV. Leave the premises, Halo ODST. Sorry, (insert 2009 release here). Anihawk, cancel the GOTY thread for 2009, we have a winner, and it's not even February.
HTWOOOOOOOOOVERDRIVE!
direct links to all videos:
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/23452
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/23454
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/23453
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/23452
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/23454
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/23453
twinturbo2
butthurt Heat fan
Put a 2 after Daytona USA, and I'd agree with you. I do, however, disagree with you on the San Francisco Rush games. Rush the Rock and Rush 2049 were awesome back in the day.camineet said:
Hopefully the Rush team, where ever they are, will do another San Fransisco Rush game since the last one sucked, a.) because it was developed for consoles instead of arcades and b.) took place in Los Angeles.
Midway canceled the last arcade sequel, called Hot Rod Rebels:
http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=755&gid=3001#3001
I think I would've liked Hot Rod Rebels a lot more than Rush 2049. I much prefer modern-day SF over futuristic SF. Also the visuals that a GeForce2 can do are far superior to a 3DFX Voodoo3, the chip that powered Rush 2049, as well as superior to what the Dreamcast can do.
Midway canceled the last arcade sequel, called Hot Rod Rebels:
http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=755&gid=3001#3001
I think I would've liked Hot Rod Rebels a lot more than Rush 2049. I much prefer modern-day SF over futuristic SF. Also the visuals that a GeForce2 can do are far superior to a 3DFX Voodoo3, the chip that powered Rush 2049, as well as superior to what the Dreamcast can do.
twinturbo2
butthurt Heat fan
camineet said:
Last I heard, four of the main guys who worked on the arcade version of Rush 2049 are at Global VR, and worked on EA Sports NASCAR Racing.
And to anyone wondering about Metal Arms, Matt asked and got an answer.
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8979320&publicUserId=5380373
Nice find:twinturbo2 said:
If they can't get the rights soon enough (and I think they should try as hard as they can, an official sequel would rock), I think they should just move ahead with a similar game, the same way that the new Hydro Thunder isn't an official sequel but might as well be.1up said:
Call it "Iron Guns" or something. :lol
BTW Steve Ranck really is dying to tell people; he told me all about the backstory he was going to flesh out in the Metal Arms sequel during our interview at E3 2005 and it's awesome.
A Black Falcon
Member
camineet said:
Really, it is? The most successful arcade game, ever? Have any proof of that? Even if it is true though, it doesn't mean anything. For instance, Cruis'n USA is an incredibly successful game -- one of the best-selling arcade racing games ever, the originator of probably the most successful arcade racing franchise in the US (between Cruis'n and its Fast and the Furious followup series), the N64 version of Cruis'n USA sold millions and World and Exotica sold well also, etc... but does that make it Midway's best game or something? Of course not! Gameplay is what matters, not sales. While I do find Cruis'n mindless fun, the Rush games are definitely Midway's best racing games.
The point is, "best selling" isn't a good argument. Gameplay is what matters... and while Daytona USA is fun, sure, for me at least it's nowhere near as good as any of the good Rush games, whether you mean the arcade versions (Rush, Rush the Rock, Rush 2049) or the home ones (N64 SF Rush, N64 Rush 2, N64 and DC Rush 2049). Daytona's good... but compared to Rush? It has no jumps, normal gravity, no shortcuts, a driving model I don't like quite as much... SF Rush is a very hard game, but it's just incredible, from the flying jumps and shortcuts to the great driving model and force-feedback wheel that adds a whole new level of immersion and challenge to the game. Rush the Rock, with seven tracks to choose from instead of three, is even better.
I had a chance to play the arcade machine several times last fall, I'd forgotten how brilliant the arcade version is. Sure, it's amazingly fun on N64 and in MAT3, but it's not quite the same as the arcade version... it's also even more difficult in the arcade than at home, which is impressive considering how hard I find the home Rush 1. The wheel is harder to use than an analog stick, particularly with that strong force feedback... awesome, though.
I only managed to finish some of the easiest tracks, and failed to finish repeatedly on the more difficult ones, despite being able to at least finish all of the tracks on the N64... but whichever version of it I play and despite how hard I find it, the more I play it the more I love it. I used to say Rush 2049 N64/DC was clearly the best racing game ever... but more recently I've had to qualify that, thinking that Rush the Rock/Rush 1 N64 is very nearly as great.In short:
Take that back.
Oh, as for Daytona vs. Hydro Thunder, I really don't know... that's tough. Both are very good arcade racing games, but I haven't played arcade Daytona in quite a while, while I did play arcade Hydro Thunder relatively recently, so I don't know if I could do a fair comparison of the arcade releases... but given that I do love futuristic games, I'd likely give the edge to Hydro Thunder. The whole game, from setting to themes to design to the sheer fun factor of blasting through the stages and looking at the environments, is just so thrilling... Daytona's good, but can't quite match that. Plus I'm not very good at Daytona, the only track I can finish well on is the first one. Anything beyond that... not good at all. Generally, the less you need to use the brake button in a racing game the better, usually, in my opinion. Many of my favorite racing games are ones where you never need the brakes... just a little 'letting go of the accelerator for a while' is all that should be needed.
... That's not to say Hydro Thunder isn't hard though, it is, quite difficult in fact. It took a lot of playtime to get good at the tracks in that game... I don't know if I've ever put that kind of time into Daytona. Maybe I should, but stock-car racing isn't exactly the same thrill for me that futuristic boat (or hovercar or whatever) racing is... also, the handling in DC Daytona is really frustrating, with how the cars turn. Are there settings to make it less jumpy?
Was the Rush team actually doing that? Because there was another game also in development at Midway Games West in their last days of arcade development, San Francisco Rush 2049: Tournament Edition (TE). It was nearly finished and was in location testing at the end, when Midway canceled all arcade game development. It was Rush 2049 with several new tracks and cars and online play between various locations.
Several years later another company somehow got the rights to it and released San Francisco Rush 2049: Special Edition (SE), a version of the Tournament Edition without online play, and with all the tracks and cars unlocked by default instead of having to unlock some in online play. It's not easy to find, though, and like with the TE and the arcade original, cannot be played on any home platform, tragically. If I could have a port of one Midway racing game that we didn't get, that would be it, no question about it! I really, really want to play that game...
So yeah, again my opinion is the opposite, I definitely prefer the futuristic games to the modern-day ones. The more realistic the game, the less interested in it I am, a lot of the time... there are some exceptions, but that is true for many kinds of games. Futuristic cars with jets, futuristic cityscapes, and, on the console versions, wings (an addition that made a good game, arcade Rush 2049, truly exceptional; it's a big part of why home Rush 2049 is my favorite racing game of all time actually, along with the stunt and battle modes...). Oh, the original Rush and Rush 2 are great, great games, and I like their settings just fine... but the futuristic setting of Rush 2049 is one more little edge that pushes it above its predecessors.
(Oh yeah, and I really wish Sega had done a home port of Motor Raid... that game is so much better than Manx TT, a game I never liked much, even in the arcades!)
Broadbandito
Member
looks fucking awesome
A Black Falcon
Member
Oneself said:
It's simply amazing that this game actually is happening... because you're absolutely right, the videos are clear, and incredible. This is Hydro Thunder 2, and it looks every bit as good as the first one.
... You know, if Midway publishes the console port(s) (this game needs console ports!!), they could call it Hydro Thunder 2 if they wanted... like how The Fast & The Furious became Cruis'n when Midway ported it to the Wii. That would be great.
But yeah, pretty amazing stuff. The game just looks so, so good... oh, and stunts while in the air is a nice addition.
BlazeHedgehog
Member
ram said:
Hey, Hey. Whoa.
Hey.
No.
Dash Kappei
Not actually that important
holy fuck at people quoting the whole pics' post.
edit: also PS360pc FFB Wheel and Wii with M+ WiiSports Resorts-like controls
edit: also PS360pc FFB Wheel and Wii with M+ WiiSports Resorts-like controls
GrayFoxPL
Member
KevinCow said:
Actually MA was an overrated game with lots of issues like framerate, horribly calibrated aiming and some bad design choices like setting a whole fucking episode in a junkyard where everything I do mean everything in the environment was rusty brown. And you had to watch it for hours and hours as the sadistic designer made it hella long on purpose.
This being niche game doesn't mean it was a really good game. It had good parts, like the whole ending and boss, but overall it wasn't as good as people wearing rose-tinted glasses would make you believe.
Listen: R&C series has some very fine qualities, a nice mix of platforming and shooting, but as a pure third-person shooter Metal Arms is on another level. There's not much of a comparison in terms of intensity and shooter level design.
The part you mentioned in the junkyard was actually one of the highlights of the game, as the torture of blasting your way through the junkbots in one stage was followed by the absolute glee of using a huge robot to obliterate them in the next level.
The aiming and framerate were fine in the Xbox (definitive) version, as well as the GameCube release. The PS2 port was done by another team, not Swingin' Ape themselves.
The part you mentioned in the junkyard was actually one of the highlights of the game, as the torture of blasting your way through the junkbots in one stage was followed by the absolute glee of using a huge robot to obliterate them in the next level.
The aiming and framerate were fine in the Xbox (definitive) version, as well as the GameCube release. The PS2 port was done by another team, not Swingin' Ape themselves.
Agent Icebeezy
Welcome beautful toddler, Madison Elizabeth, to the horde!
This needs to find a way to an HD console.
MadOdorMachine
No additional functions
Yeah you have a point, but in this case all that needs to be done is a port. The game is already made so there shouldn't be that much investment needed. You would think Midway would be all over this. They are a perfect fit.camineet said: