Oddworld at E3 2014 -

Manco · #**421** 06-13-2014, 02:16 AM

The chanting as a whole feels like a let-down to me – Abe’s new voiceover lacks the same power the original did, the spirograph effect looks a little cheesy, and the chant orbs look a little lacklustre.

The animations that everyone has been complaining about don’t look so bad in context – to me they feel like they match the pacing of the original sprite animations, but a few of them don’t translate so well due to the new physics of the 3D world. And the Scrab killing animations definitely need more work.

Checkpoints look about as evenly-spaced as they were in the original Zulag 1, Havoc. Also, remember this is the intro level; I imagine the checkpoints will become more sporadic as you go deeper into the game.

As for cartoony-ness, I think we knew a while ago that this was coming. I don’t mind it too much since it’ll keep the game from feeling like a carbon copy, but I’m still a little let down that they didn’t go the other way with the tone.

Overall it’s looking like a really solid game, and I think the changes the team have been making will make it feel like its own game rather than just a 1:1 rehash, and that’s OK. Putting aside all the “this is different from the source” nitpicks, the gameplay looks solid, the artwork looks great, everything looks like it’s coming together nicely.

Scrabaniac · #**422** 06-13-2014, 02:48 AM

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Also, I'm displeased with "All 'Ya" making this puzzle so cakewalk by running through the level only twice.

They should have made more than 1 electricity switch, or make the run much longer. Anyway its a good little secret for the first time you meet a scrab

edit: From what i saw in the gamespot footage, abe now falls down when there is an explosion whilst crouching/rolling..

V_O_T · #**423** 06-13-2014, 03:21 AM

Found some gameplay where abe uses the directory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNUbdljOzJw

Looks pretty nice to me

I know the changes are for the better and i'm not too fussed because its still holding up a lot of what made the game great for me. The soundtrack sounds great in terms of the stage music. Its much like the original, so I dont think some of the old sounds would hurt if they were in the game.
In fact, it would trigger some old memories to the players who are fans, but dont play AO as often.

Yeah the spirograph looks out of place. Its like hes summoning a .jpg :/

Its a pretty spirograph dont get me wrong but, a faint skin glow with the sparks appearing gradually would look pretty cool.

I have a feeling that the base bulk of the game is there, and now the finesse is what is being focused on. Like adding the final spices to a gourmet Elum Chub. Great show at E3 JAW & OI

Edit: ok um.. 1:33 of that video. The girl who is talking at the start is discussing with a player:

Girl: A co-op quest
Guy: Oh yeah i saw a co-op menu.

I can barely decipher the rest. Maybe its some one else talking near by... But the same chick says the date for NnT and the other guy (im looking at you @Jaw_Alex lol) is talking about Lorne...

hmmm. It could be the original co-op though. playing lives. Well at least we know thats still a thing.

Holy Sock · #**424** 06-13-2014, 03:32 AM

He says the co-op doesn't really exist yet but it's going to be like the original co-op.

DrewCameron · #**425** 06-13-2014, 03:38 AM

" I'm just wondering if the one cutscene with Abe falling by the Scrab cages will replace the old cutscene with him in the barrel? Or is it a simple add on scene? Then again, I guess it's stupid to ask since the game isn't really out yet."

Even a second of thought would suggest that there are not going to be two scenes in a row depicting the same event differently. Its scrabs this time around.

V_O_T · #**426** 06-13-2014, 03:40 AM

thought as much.

For a second my heart skipped a beat and thought back to the co-op theory i heard here once of "one mudokon can talk, the other can only chant, and they go through together" lol.

Also, in one of the videos you can see some Binding Of Isaac: Rebirth game play lol. Looking forward to that too :P

DrewCameron · #**427** 06-13-2014, 03:41 AM

Just saw the intro from Gamespot. I really like the new mines etc chasing him at the start.

Why does the music not begin the moment he touches the ground though? It's unbelievably irritating that it begins before that happens - based on the way they've put a rising sound effect just before he lands to anticipate it.

So many small things still need to be done on this but the overall thing works. I just hope JAW get them done. Only a month left now?

As it is, there have been dozens upon dozens of small glitches and problems - jumping animations, the Scrab in the gamespot video goes through a wall and for a second it grows and then shrinks, I kind you not (why?).

The more I see the more excited I become but the greater the dissapointment in imagining that they release something which seems fairly BETA in a lot of ways.

Don't fuck it up JAW please

DrewCameron · #**428** 06-13-2014, 03:44 AM

Here's are two examples of easily, easily, easily fixed things I hope they attend to. There are a lot of these.

One - when you move into the new section from the mines, the red alert just...stops. It doesn't fade, it just disapears. Not hard to fix, it could be done with one line of code.

Two - when you transition into the newer secret scrab area, the 'glow'/exposure settings from the new area are adopted BEFORE the transition happens, meaning that it "jumps" in brightness before the ripple.

And so on and so on and so on.

Still really excited but I would have more faith if I didnt know it was only 4 weeks left and JAW have a history of releasing buggy things.

V_O_T · #**429** 06-13-2014, 03:46 AM

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Just saw the intro from Gamespot. I really like the new mines etc chasing him at the start.

Why does the music not begin the moment he touches the ground though? It's unbelievably irritating that it begins before that happens - based on the way they've put a rising sound effect just before he lands to anticipate it.

So many small things still need to be done on this but the overall thing works. I just hope JAW get them done. Only a month left now?

As it is, there have been dozens upon dozens of small glitches and problems - jumping animations, the Scrab in the gamespot video goes through a wall and for a second it grows and then shrinks, I kind you not (why?).

The more I see the more excited I become but the greater the dissapointment in imagining that they release something which seems fairly BETA in a lot of ways.

Don't fuck it up JAW please

Just have faith

Remember, before big events like this, a lot of companies cram to get a build ready to show. It means rushed work to show off that it works. They did the same thing for that other event earlier in the year (GDC i think?). Anyways, I know we are in good hands. There are more positives than negatives at this point

Samtastic · #**430** 06-13-2014, 03:54 AM

I think the rescuing Mudokon sound needs to be a little shorter. It sounds like the secret sound to me and the rescuing the Mudokon sound plays five notes and the secret sound plays more.

DrewCameron · #**431** 06-13-2014, 03:55 AM

"There are more positives than negatives at this point "

I completely agree. Please fix the problems JAW - all of them. I actually haven't seen a clip in which the rag dolls HAVEN'T glitched...

Scrabaniac · #**432** 06-13-2014, 04:10 AM

Just a thought.. I don't mean to be critical, but after the cutscene where abe falls off the scrab conveyer.. It would be a one in a million chance he would actually land that fall realistically. I think he should have either landed on his back or at least hit a few pipes on the way down.

Edit: Has anyone posted this off-screen recorded gameplay yet? It shows the motion detectors being set off, and the Scrabs dancing on your corpse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VC3oR5gkCQ

MeechMunchie · #**433** 06-13-2014, 04:41 AM

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I've seen a few interviews with Lorne where he's said that they've made the game funnier, "More laughs, more hilarious". Which is worrying, because that makes me think he means that they've made it cartoonier.

Well, I haven't seen any blood yet, that's for sure.

***Nate*** · #**434** 06-13-2014, 04:47 AM

DrewCameron, please stop double/triple posting. If you want to say something more and little time has past, please edit your post.

Holy Sock · #**435** 06-13-2014, 05:03 AM

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Well, I haven't seen any blood yet, that's for sure.

Well, there's a big burst of blood when anyone explodes...

V_O_T · #**436** 06-13-2014, 05:04 AM

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Well, I haven't seen any blood yet, that's for sure.

Workers leave blood stain splats on the floor after being shot in one or two scenes of gameplay. I think the Sligs should leave a blood stain under their feet too after exploding.

Holy Sock · #**437** 06-13-2014, 05:07 AM

Essentially any criticisms of the gameplay I have is relatively minor. I think JAW have really done Oddworld justice.

Michael · #**438** 06-13-2014, 05:32 AM

Lots of new gameplay, really looking forward to this. The music is perfect, graphics are great and it seems like it plays very faithfully to the original. The small details like Muds talking amongst themselves are nice additions, and the new elements like the big lift platform, and the scrabs/paramites in cages are cool.

I agree that a lot of the animations are very fast, especially the doorway entry/exit, and slig standing up. In the original it looked as though they rocked backwards before springing up, giving the movement a believable sense of weight/momentum. In New n Tasty, they rise like Dracula standing up in his coffin

Not too keen on the rhyming loading screens personally. I would have thought that the PS4 could handle this without having to load the level in sections! Not sure how I feel about so many checkpoints considering we have quicksave also, feels a tad redundant?

The lighting is great. The real-time shadows make everything feel cohesive and alive (there's only one area I noticed, at 1:43 in the video scrabaniac posted, where Abe walks past spotlights on the platform but has no shadow cast on the barrels).

I'm sure most if not all of the small bugs will be fixed during crunch time

Shame I'll have to wait longer to play it on PS3, won't be getting a PS4 for a while!

Holy Sock · #**439** 06-13-2014, 05:49 AM

I'm really liking the Mudokon voices and the new Scrab sounds. Abe's chant noise was iconic in the originals so it's weird to hear a different sound. But, otherwise, I think Lorne himself did a good job. I especially enjoy the seemingly large variation of noises for the same actions and gamespeak commands.

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Not too keen on the rhyming loading screens personally. I would have thought that the PS4 could handle this without having to load the level in sections! Not sure how I feel about so many checkpoints considering we have quicksave also, feels a tad redundant?

If I was to guess it's because New 'n' Tasty was being developed for both generations at the same time. I'm sure the PS4 could handle it but I don't think the Vita or PS3 could...

It's also possible that each level just takes up so much space. And I imagine the frequency of checkpoints vary depending on difficulty level. It also might be because people forget to Quicksave. I dunno.

Michael · #**440** 06-13-2014, 06:17 AM

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If I was to guess it's because New 'n' Tasty was being developed for both generations at the same time. I'm sure the PS4 could handle it but I don't think the Vita or PS3 could...

It's also possible that each level just takes up so much space. And I imagine the frequency of checkpoints vary depending on difficulty level. It also might be because people forget to Quicksave. I dunno.

True, perhaps the PS4 version will be optimised and not actually feature loading? Not a problem either way though.

I suppose there is a difference between quicksave and checkpoint. If workers die and you respawn at a checkpoint, they remain dead- convenient if you're just playing to complete the game. Quicksave is great if you want to rescue the whole 99 and need to undo mistakes.

I can imagine if there was only quicksave and you forgot, then had to redo a large portion of the game, it would really put you off. (I had this with the original Tomb Raiders back in the day, got so frustrated I just stopped playing

)

It would be cool if the difficulty level affected the number of checkpoints.

Pirfsich · #**441** 06-13-2014, 06:31 AM

Have you noticed the ∞ under the checkpoints?

Phylum · #**442** 06-13-2014, 07:00 AM

Having checkpoints as well as quicksave helps to get rid of the mentality that you need to quicksave after every step. Also, you could get stuck in situations from quicksaving and need to return to a checkpoint.

Anyone else ever manage those infinite death loops in AE? I wonder how/if they'll address that here.

Connell · #**443** 06-13-2014, 07:05 AM

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Anyone else ever manage those infinite death loops in AE? I wonder how/if they'll address that here.

Quicksaving face to face with a Slig out of a fear always got me. The restart path button was the bane of my life.

Scrabaniac · #**444** 06-13-2014, 07:08 AM

I used to regret quicksaving during a scrab/paramite chase and continuously running into walls and dying! Hopefully in certain situations, the quicksave option will be greyed out

V_O_T · #**445** 06-13-2014, 07:09 AM

I think the difficulties they are showing in all this gameplay is set to the easiest for demo purposes.

Although setting it to the hardest one would be hilarious for us to see and incredibly frustrating for the new players there lol.

If the check points had set numbers on how many times you could return to it, that would be a good way to give the new players a set amount of chances. And if they exceed the number, they get sent to the one before that one.

p.s. I dont regret my one panic quick save when I got really far and didnt know if i saved or not. The quick save was in mid air in the bone works. nothing but splats for 5 minutes as I thought i could chant my way out lol.

Jordan · #**446** 06-13-2014, 07:15 AM

Getting seriously nostalgic from watching the gameplay footage. Seeing the Stockyards in real time was one thing but when that music kicked in I got so many feels!

SoulStorm64 · #**447** 06-13-2014, 07:36 AM

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Having checkpoints as well as quicksave helps to get rid of the mentality that you need to quicksave after every step. Also, you could get stuck in situations from quicksaving and need to return to a checkpoint.

Anyone else ever manage those infinite death loops in AE? I wonder how/if they'll address that here.

Oh fuck yeah I have definitely done that in AE when I was onto the second disk.... Then having to start the game all over again "well with the level select cheat"

Michael · #**448** 06-13-2014, 08:12 AM

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Have you noticed the ∞ under the checkpoints?

I hadn't

Interesting, I wonder how it'll work? That seems to suggest there'll be a limited number of respawns on harder difficulties, but then, couldn't you just quicksave when you get down to one remaining?

Lorne has said in one of the E3 interviews that 'game over' screens were never intended for Oddworld, that perseverance was what they wanted to reward. So what exactly would happen if you lose all checkpoint respawns? Back to the start of the path, maybe?

Very interested to find how these new mechanics work!

Scrabaniac · #**449** 06-13-2014, 08:22 AM

I'm just so excited to play this game! Its a shame we have to wait a month and 10 days to get it :/ I hope theres more gameplay footage to come.. Outside RuptureFarms would be a bonus!

STM · #**450** 06-13-2014, 09:09 AM

No one mentioned the sexy, sexy, retrofitted 70s-80s analogue feel to the directory yet! It's a beautiful fucking thing. It's like they had this base technology and rather than focus on processing power and a higher resolution they kept this blocky-pixelated feel when they upgraded it to a holographic type display. That's the Rupturefarms I wanted to see so I'm happy right now.

*Pats JAW on the back*