Preview Darkstar One lovin' preview at IGN UK

Tags: Darkstar One

<A href="http://uk.pc.ign.com/">IGN UK</a> has <A href="http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/712/712013p1.html">a preview</a> of <A href="http://darkstarone.ascaron.com/gb/gb_darkstarone/home/home.php">Darkstar One</a>. It seems the Brit bloke who wrote the thing really liked the test build. He either really likes the genre, or he really likes <a href="http://www.mobygames.com/home">MobyGames</a>, since he name drops a lot. He didn't mention <b><i>Hardwar</i></b>, though. Anyway, clip:
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<blockquote>While not as ambitious as MegaTraveller 2, it had its own charms. You could be a mercenary, trader, or bounty hunter, or a combination thereof. Unfortunately, this type of action adventure game never really took off. Another Privateer came out, but it was an FMV adventure, and not particularly good. Then came X: Beyond the Frontier and its sequels, and the long-awaited Freelancer. I was starting to think that nostalgia had made Privateer seem better than it was. Then DarkStar One arrived in my mailbox. I had no particular expectations -- it was a preview build, in German with English subtitles, of a game that looked like Freelancer. Well, I've been there before, right? But, after several straight days of plowing through DS1, I'm here to tell you that it's turning out to be the best game of its type that I've played. That's right. Ascaron Entertainment, the guys mostly known for Port Royale and Sacred, have crafted an action adventure space game that puts previous watermarks to the test.</blockquote>
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I still have to say, someone needs to adopt the <A href="http://www.microsoft.com/games/freelancer/">Freelancer</a> control scheme for one of these games. The control scheme was probably the only decent thing out of that game.
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Thanks, <b>Mr. Teatime</b> of <A href="http://www.duckandcover.cx">DAC</a>!

 

Hardwar was great. The intro was classic, it still makes me laugh thinking of it.

"There's a WAR going on out there." (A big WAR wooshes across the screen!)
"It AIN'T EASY." (HARD appears to join up with the word WAR.)
HARD WAR!

 

"I had a girlfriend once... She didn't understand.
I had a dog once... He bit me.
I got a ship... And that's when it all started."

That was my favorite part of the intro.

 

I played the german demo and loved it. If any game can beat good old Privateer, then this is it (I hope). And the Freelancer control scheme is in.

 

This new game looks like it has potential, but does it have planet landing? This is something Elite managed to do ages ago, and I really miss it in modern equivalents.... it's very cool to fly through an atmosphere and the surface of a planet.

 

The game is retarted.
Lol, a german gaming magazine was jerking off because each system has only one jumpgate and one trading station, has the size of my living room and all systems have basicly the same structure.

"Great, this eliminates the possibility to get lost!"

Yeah, stop taking that drugs, you had way too much of it.

AFAIK not. Only some retarded scripted storybased surface mission with extremly ugly graphics and shoot em up gameplay on rails.

 

You played any of the games mentioned? I doubt it.

 

What the hell is space if you can't get lost?

Part of the fun of space sims is getting lost in some unknown sector low on fuel and hoping you can make it to a non-hostile planet before you run out of gas. Then you do and have to flag down a trade runner and hope he's kind enough to transfer over some fuel and not cost you an arm and a leg.


P.S. It's a widely known fact that Germans will defend their countries own games to the grave. Probable reason is they are trying to convince the rest of the world their main export is Good Games and not Nazis.

 

Actually Germany is importing Nazis right now, we don't have enough infantry to handle the invasion from abroad on our own, and soon Germany will be defeated if our White Power allies located in the USA don't act quickly. But concerning games.. it's the same shit as everywhere. If you want to get a real review, don't read (better don't buy) magazines relying on advertisments paid for by the mainstream games industry.

 

Someone wake me when a space game is released that allows me to fly into planets' atmospheres

 

Its kinda hard to beat Privatter for one reason.

Privatter was simple.

You had four ships, one was shit with the two being expecialized in a field and the last being a hybrid of the other two.

Trading was easy enough to figure out but the really profitable routes were dangerous (and yes, I do mean drug runs to New Constatinople ... there was always some patrol around to make the damn thing pretty rough, gun runs to pirates bases did pay and was legal but required a bit of hanging in the middle and knowledge of pirate base locations) and many required long jumps that with never knowing what was in a jump point make it pretty dangerous, expecialy with the "mining sectors" that had a pretty good amount of pirates flying around.

Then we had the random missions that did give people something to do if they did not wished to trade.

 

I tend to agree, but somehow Privateer got it right and no other successor was able to recreate it (Privateer 2, X Series, Freelancer).

Judging by the screenshots it has some missions on planet surface, but as for landing on them I don't really know. In the demo all trade was done on the trading stations in space.

 

IGN UK? What's the difference with the US version? Yankee gamessites trying to go local always fall flat to their face.

 

Demo out Friday on Gamespot.

 

880 megas of it ...

I will pass.