EA to let dirty peasants pay for shitty tactical old game "Syndicate" before launching glorious FPS

[The Boring Incarnation]

Announcement

Yes, it appears the overlords at EA let those dirty Poles at GOG to paw all over the original Syndicate for the outrageous amount of 5.99, to be available on this Day of Thor, 19 of January.

If you're too cheap for 6 dollars, you can do this:

While you’re waiting, we’re having a fun contest to keep you guys occupied until Thursday:

Syndicate is a game set in a grim future. As the world’s multinational corporations grew, their profits began to rival those of small countries. Soon they owned small countries and corporate influence was felt at the highest level of world government. Smaller corporations were swallowed up like plankton in the wake of behemoth mega-corporations.

GOG.com needs your help to mobilize the forces of the DRM-free revolution to take over the world. You and three friends--real or imaginary, past or future--are going to form a team that you’d recommend to us to lead the charge to make DRM-free gaming the world’s biggest Syndicate.

We want to know if you’re up for the challenge.

Mission:
Assemble your team of cyborgs, give us your Team Name, Method of Operation, and any other relevant information you'd like.

Go on, spread your influence across the globe and tell us how.

Bounty:
1 free copy of Syndicate for the 10 posters who have the best Syndicate team. We’ll be reading through all of your posts (Hello, discordiac, our new marketing manager who “volunteered” for this job!) and picking the ones that we like best.

Rules:
1. Only one entry post per user. Feel free to comment & edit until the contest closes.
2. You may enter into similar contests that we are running on Twitter and Facebook, but only once via each different channel.
3. We will be picking 10 of our favorite teams from this thread to win their free copies of Syndicate.
4. The contest will end on Thursday the 19th of January 2012 at 7:00 AM EST.

Or you could just pirate it, if you're extra lazy. Either way, there you go.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Oh that poor sucker, oh well, he's from the marketing so no loss.

 

[Ion Prothon II]

Name: Anti Detrimental Restrictions Ministry

Members: Fayre Yoose, Orp N. Sores, Krea Tivco Monz and Stinky Pete.

Method of Operation: To spread the word of fair use and anti-DRM wisdom through educating people. Methods to convert those involved in organisations such as the Sell-out Enormous Corporations Using Repulsive Obtrusive Management Software (AKA SECUROM) include the use of the persuadertron or, for extreme cases, modified Gauss Guns that fire the hammer of common sense.

If that fails, we send in Stinky Pete.

Member Bios:

Fayre Yoose - Expert strategist who know that non-restrictive content can be a more effective business model as one encumbered by DRM - Equipped with Mk3 brain
Orp N. Sores - Expert statistician who recognises that DRM encumbered content is the most widely copied software available - Equipped with Mk2 Brain and Mk1 Heart
Krea Tivco Monz - An expert in community development - Equipped with Mk3 Heart
Stinky Pete - Expert in negotiations. Is very stinky.

Only 1 person did it right :D

 

[rpgcodexusername]

maybe its my aspergers but the description seems a bit vague, of what people are supposed to do.
Syndicate is kinda OK, not a classic..

 

[Infinitron]

Name: Anti Detrimental Restrictions Ministry

Members: Fayre Yoose, Orp N. Sores, Krea Tivco Monz and Stinky Pete.

Method of Operation: To spread the word of fair use and anti-DRM wisdom through educating people. Methods to convert those involved in organisations such as the Sell-out Enormous Corporations Using Repulsive Obtrusive Management Software (AKA SECUROM) include the use of the persuadertron or, for extreme cases, modified Gauss Guns that fire the hammer of common sense.

If that fails, we send in Stinky Pete.

Member Bios:

Fayre Yoose - Expert strategist who know that non-restrictive content can be a more effective business model as one encumbered by DRM - Equipped with Mk3 brain
Orp N. Sores - Expert statistician who recognises that DRM encumbered content is the most widely copied software available - Equipped with Mk2 Brain and Mk1 Heart
Krea Tivco Monz - An expert in community development - Equipped with Mk3 Heart
Stinky Pete - Expert in negotiations. Is very stinky.

Only 1 person did it right :D

I'd brofist them if I could.

 

[attackfighter]

I once entered a similar "creative writing" contest thingy for Majesty 2. You were supposed to think up a quote for a Majesty 2 unit, and the person who thought up the best quote won.

So anyways I copy pasted a quote of a Majesty 1 unit and ended up winning because I was the only one competing. Sadly I already owned Majesty 2...

 

[Marobug]

syndicate was never a great game to begin with... It was kind of fun for a few minutes but terribly flawed. Not being able to see inside buildings was completely retarded.

 

[zerotol]

I thought it was freeware?

 

[zerotol]

syndicate was never a great game to begin with... It was kind of fun for a few minutes but terribly flawed. Not being able to see inside buildings was completely retarded.

 

[Phelot]

If I still had a 3.5" floppy drive, I could install it from my box of it

I thought it was freeware?

EA giving up one of their ("acquired" from Bullfrog) IPs? NEVER!

syndicate was never a great game to begin with... It was kind of fun for a few minutes but terribly flawed. Not being able to see inside buildings was completely retarded.

Yes, nostalgia aside, there were a number of flaws, but I still consider it a great game and it's still a fun game to play even today.

Probably the biggest flaw was that you could essentially let your agents do all the work for you with the use of the drugs. After getting a v3 brain, eyes, and heart (IIRC, these three controlled the levels of allowed drugs) they practically became untouchable so long as you provided them with adequate arms.

Also, corner ambushes were so easy against the AI and that weird delay they do after being hit only makes it easier. A few shotgun blasts was enough to put down large stacks of non upgraded enemy agents.

And yeah, those stacks were also pretty dumb. There's a few maps where what appears to be one enemy agent turns out to be 8 or so all stacked

 

[Average Manatee]

Syndicate is a game set in a grim future. As the world’s multinational corporations grew, their profits began to rival those of small countries. Soon they owned small countries and corporate influence was felt at the highest level of world government. Smaller corporations were swallowed up like plankton in the wake of behemoth mega-corporations.

So, its set 10-20 years in the past?

syndicate was never a great game to begin with... It was kind of fun for a few minutes but terribly flawed. Not being able to see inside buildings was completely retarded.

Another quality Marobug post.

 

[Marobug]

syndicate was never a great game to begin with... It was kind of fun for a few minutes but terribly flawed. Not being able to see inside buildings was completely retarded.

Another quality Marobug post.

Still butthurt over the xcom thread ?

Phelot: An opinion is an opinion, I kind of liked syndicate for what it was (I specially enjoyed the setting) but I think it's overrated, even if it's not a terrible game.

 

[zeitgeist]

FROM YOUR VANTAGE POINT HIGH ABOVE THE CITY YOU OBSERVE PROCEEDINGS
AND MONITOR THE ACTIONS OF YOUR AGENTS. TO HELP YOU PLOT AGENT
MOVES,WARN YOU OF ADVANCING ENEMY CYBORGS AND LOCATE THE TARGET,THE
CONTROL AIRSHIP IS EQUIPPED WITH A SCANNER WHICH REPRODUCES AN AERIAL
VIEW OF THE MISSION ZONE.

The whole not being able to see inside buildings thing was one of the most immersive details of the game to me. But what do I know, I just like when a game based on a certain concept has all these little touches that support that concept and whatnot, it's obviously a highly antiquated school of thought.

 

[Surf Solar]

I once entered a similar "creative writing" contest thingy for Majesty 2. You were supposed to think up a quote for a Majesty 2 unit, and the person who thought up the best quote won.

So anyways I copy pasted a quote of a Majesty 1 unit and ended up winning because I was the only one competing. Sadly I already owned Majesty 2...

 

[Phelot]

Phelot: An opinion is an opinion, I kind of liked syndicate for what it was (I specially enjoyed the setting) but I think it's overrated, even if it's not a terrible game.

Fair enough

 

[Infinitron]

FROM YOUR VANTAGE POINT HIGH ABOVE THE CITY YOU OBSERVE PROCEEDINGS
AND MONITOR THE ACTIONS OF YOUR AGENTS. TO HELP YOU PLOT AGENT
MOVES,WARN YOU OF ADVANCING ENEMY CYBORGS AND LOCATE THE TARGET,THE
CONTROL AIRSHIP IS EQUIPPED WITH A SCANNER WHICH REPRODUCES AN AERIAL
VIEW OF THE MISSION ZONE.

The whole not being able to see inside buildings thing was one of the most immersive details of the game to me. But what do I know, I just like when a game based on a certain concept has all these little touches that support that concept and whatnot, it's obviously a highly antiquated school of thought.

I agree, it sort of supported the fantasy of "Now your agents are entering this building and wreaking havoc inside. It's so horrible you don't even want to look."
And the fact that the buildings were pretty small meant that, yes, when you opened fire in that cramped space with no visibility, lots of civilians could get killed.

 

[someone else]

Yes not being able to see inside buildings is a feature and a very good one at that, stop complaining about it.

 

[Art Vandelay]

If I remember correctly,not saying i do,but it was about having SVGA graphic in mostly VGA age,weasn't it?.It didn't have those nasty pixels and it was all next-gen.

 

[Chuck Norris]

Haters gonna hate. Synidcate was a great game.

 

[Spectacle]

If I remember correctly,not saying i do,but it was about having SVGA graphic in mostly VGA age,weasn't it?.It didn't have those nasty pixels and it was all next-gen.

Not quite. Syndicate was VGA, but it used the 640*480 16 color mode instead of the 320*240 256 color mode that was used by nearly all games of the time. Syndicate used dithering and a carefully chosen palette to look much better than typical 16 color graphics.

 

[Phelot]

If I remember correctly,not saying i do,but it was about having SVGA graphic in mostly VGA age,weasn't it?.It didn't have those nasty pixels and it was all next-gen.

Not quite. Syndicate was VGA, but it used the 640*480 16 color mode instead of the 320*240 256 color mode that was used by nearly all games of the time. Syndicate used dithering and a carefully chosen palette to look much better than typical 16 color graphics.

One of the palettes had to use green for people's skins I always wondered why that was.




I can't pick up if you guys are trolling about not seeing into buildings being a good thing. Pretty sure I've read that it was an engine limitation and that they wished they could... there was nothing particularly cool about not being able to see what the fuck was going on inside.

 

[The Boring Incarnation]

I guess it's more of a case "Necessity is the mother of invention" kind of thing. Sort of like how the mechanical shark from Jaws didn't work most of the time, so Spielberg had to improvise, and it ended up better for it. By not seeing the agents doing their thing, you could picture the carnage in your mind.

 

[Deakul]

Syndicate Wars was better, fuck this shit.
GOG fails again.

 

[mondblut]

Hurray, we can finally play it now!

When will GOG pick up Pool of Radiance? I've been itching to play it for nearly 20 years, but the only copy I could find was on weird disks my dvdrom wouldn't play. They were packed in some kind of strange flexible black sleeves too, I had to actually tear them apart to take out the disks. Please good GOG, finally help me to get my hands on this gem!

 

[MetalCraze]

Another game from Abandonia gets a price tag

Why do they remember they need to sell this shit only when raping it?