Game News System Shock 3 Pre-Alpha Gameplay Teaser

[Infinitron]

Tags: OtherSide Entertainment; System Shock 3

OtherSide Entertainment's System Shock 3 still doesn't have a publisher, and in recent months the studio has been shedding employees at a steady pace, including Underworld Ascendant game director Joe Fielder and producer/designer Chris Siegel. OtherSide aren't quite dead yet however, or at least the Austin studio isn't. Today they unexpectedly released a new System Shock 3 pre-alpha gameplay teaser. It's got mutants, robots, brief glimpses of combat with wrench and guns, all manner of body horror and of course SHODAN taunts. Following a brief period of IGN exclusivity, the teaser was uploaded to OtherSide's YouTube channel:

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I'd say it looks good, if only I was confident it was a real thing that was ever going to be released. I guess we'll see what happens now. It's worth noting that IGN's article describes System Shock 3 as a "first-person action game", although it's also supposed to support various class roles like hacker, stealth specialist and melee master. Also, note the year mentioned in the teaser - 2085, which is between System Shock and System Shock 2. I wonder how that fits with Warren Spector's original plan.

 

[JDR13]

In before "OMG this is going to be shit!"

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

System of Bioshock LOL

 

[karnak]

 

[Drowed]

Well, if Underworld Ascendant had not been the fiasco that it was, and had it been just a "meh" game, I guess this trailer could give me some hope. Which, I admit, for a few moments it got me excited - until I remembered who was producing the game.

 

[Carls Barkley]

Good trailer. I'm going to give SS3 the benefit of the doubt, since it's being worked on by a completely different team on the opposite side of the country.

 

[Carls Barkley]

Warren Spector has been a producer for most of his career and shipped over a dozen games. He understands the importance of good project management and resource allocation, which is what Underworld: Ascendant lacked.

 

[thesheeep]

A prequel?
Ugh. I hate prequels. As you already know what happens afterwards, anything that happens in a prequel has no impact at all.

Except if Shodan managed to somehow go back in time (given the weirdness of the SS2 ending, I'd say that is even a possibility), I don't see what this could add to the story.

 

[Excommunicator]

A prequel?
Ugh. I hate prequels. As you already know what happens afterwards, anything that happens in a prequel has no impact at all.

Except if Shodan managed to somehow go back in time (given the weirdness of the SS2 ending, I'd say that is even a possibility), I don't see what this could add to the story.

The biggest problem with them is how they are so dangerous in legitimising bad retconning.


The trailer doesn't give us anything that any of the other hundred sci fi shooters don't already give us so not sure how one can get excited about this

 

[Grunker]

I liked the look of the old SHODAN much better

 

[Beowulf]

The trailer doesn't give us anything that any of the other hundred sci fi shooters don't already give us so not sure how one can get excited about this

While I agree, I wouldn't mind playing another good sci-fi FPS/RPG hybrid.

But yeah, after Underworld Ascendand fiasco, I'm not that optimistic.
I mean - I liked what I saw in the trailer, but I need more to be convinced.

 

[Van-d-all]

The thing that irked me the most was the shit idea of humans in plastic bags that has gained popularity in recent SciFi adaptations like GITS 2017, Blade Runner 2049, Altered Carbon. Give me back my proper cloning tanks cheap bastards.

 

[Love]

It's not even teasing any interaction with the environment, which would be warranted since we are all wondering if this is a hoax too.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Warren Spector has been a producer for most of his career and shipped over a dozen games. He understands the importance of good project management and resource allocation, which is what Underworld: Ascendant lacked.

Ultima Ascendant lacked EVERYTHING.
Even putting aside its outrageously buggy nature and its abysmal production value, the real issue there is that simply there wasn't an actual game at its core.

 

[Max Edge]

At least it's not one of this weird tumblr-walking-spiritual-successors. Just classical reap the benefits.

 

[Carls Barkley]

Warren Spector has been a producer for most of his career and shipped over a dozen games. He understands the importance of good project management and resource allocation, which is what Underworld: Ascendant lacked.

Ultima Ascendant lacked EVERYTHING.
Even putting aside its outrageously buggy nature and its abysmal production value, the real issue there is that simply there wasn't an actual game at its core.

All those issues stem from terrible project management.

Warren Spector has 30 years experience managing budgets, deadlines, and scope for five companies and over a dozen games. His teams operate like a well oiled machine.


...

 

[Carls Barkley]

In his 30 year career, not a single game he worked on was cancelled after entering production. System Shock 3 has not yet been cancelled, despite all odds.

People that have never worked in the games industry wont understand how big of a deal that is, but it's a testament to his skill as a project manager.

 

[Van-d-all]

In his 30 year career, not a single game he worked on was cancelled after entering production. System Shock 3 has not yet been cancelled, despite all odds.

People that have never worked in the games industry wont understand how big of a deal that is, but it's a testament to his skill as a project manager.

A shame then, games are valued for their qualities as end products not as some personal production management experiments.

 

[Haba]

The new SHODAN is pretty horrible.

 

[Carls Barkley]

A shame then, games are valued for their qualities as end products not as some personal production management experiments.

99% of the time, the quality of the end product is determined by how well managed it is.

 

[Van-d-all]

99% of the time, the quality of the end product is determined by how well managed it is.

Fallacious implication. Management is a quality modifier of the base product not the other way around. So while mismanagement can hamper even a great game, even perfect management won't produce a worthwhile title on it's own (in spite of what the modern gaming media would have you believe).

 

[Carls Barkley]

even perfect management won't produce a worthwhile title on it's own

The key to project management is understanding your audience.

If a game satisfies its intended audience, then it's a quality product. If it doesn't, then it wasn't perfectly managed.

 

[Van-d-all]

The key to project management is understanding your audience.

If a game satisfies its intended audience, then it's a quality product. If it doesn't, then it wasn't perfectly managed.

Irrelevant. Again. First thing is having a proper product to even manage, and if the staff is unable to produce one, no amount of management will fix it, just as there is no audience for broken garbage no matter how efficiently delivered. Marketing can shove some copies, essentially based on lies and false promises, but that's it.

 

[karnak]

A shame then, games are valued for their qualities as end products not as some personal production management experiments.

99% of the time, the quality of the end product is determined by how well managed it is.

etc etc etc...

 

[Darkzone]

The trailes does look good and they have the 3d Assets, that they present in this trailer. So yes it is possible to do something with it, but the question is what they will do with it.
The problem with UA was that they quite strayed away from the previous established vision by UU1 and UU2, which was the premise for the Kickstarter backer to support them. Let us hope that they have now learned from the previous disaster and deliver upon this simple premise: making a true sequel to SS1 and SS2.

Now i still don't get this why do they do not produce something playable (without to much spoiling the finished product) and go Early Access for the funding and testing, while honing in the rest of the game?
It seems quite obvious, that the older you get the less flexible you become.