Hands-on with Dirty Bomb


(Silvanoshi) #1

A new blog post has been added:

Hands-on with Dirty Bomb

Whether you’re a hardened Dirty Bomb Beta tester or have been patiently salivating while waiting for your key, you may well be interested in finding what gaming press from around the globe think of the game in its current beta state. Select members of the press recently had the opportunity to try their hand at Dirty Bomb, put their many questions to DB’s dev team, and publish their impressions after having spent some time with the game.

We’ve gathered all of the articles into a single location to make scouring through each and every detail that much easier for you:

This is just a small example of what Eurogamer.net had to say:
Dirty Bomb feels like Splash Damage going back to its roots, all the way back to the days of Enemy Territory

Hot off the presses:

English
Eurogamer
PC Games N
PC Gamer
The Escapist
Games.on.Net
Ausgamers.com

German
Chip.DE

Swedish
FZ.se

Danish
IGN.DK

So what do you think? Feel free to leave your thoughts on the articles in the comments below, we’re always interested .


(CleaverDancer) #2

Awesome update, time to start getting excited! :stroggbanana:
Do you guys have a date yet for when exactly open beta will be?


(Nail) #3

[QUOTE=CleaverDancer;513415]Awesome update, time to start getting excited! :stroggbanana:
Do you guys have a date yet for when exactly open beta will be?[/QUOTE]
come play, check your PM


(stebbi67) #4

I have to say congrats Splashdamage. It is about time that you release a game that feels like the game which made this company as one of the most respected game developers around the world and that is of cause Wolfenstein ET. To be honest it has been way to long and most of the ET players have probably quit playing. If the game play turns out to be as good as in ET then I have no doubt that the new game will be a success. DirtyBomb review looks promising at least and I believe that all your effort of will pay off in the end. I also strongly believe that giving out beta keys and have players test the game while you track the movements/action on the maps will benefit you greatly, although I have not had the pleasure to play the beta.

There is just one thing that annoys me beyond believe and that is the direction of giving Splashdamage games a cartoon look. Note that this is my opinion and there are probably many players that disagree with me. I found this article where Paul explains why they took that direction :

When we started, Olivier and I didn’t see eye-to-eye on that stuff. When I showed the first concept for Brink, I imagined a photo-realistic environment. When we hired Olivier Leonardi, he was the art director behind Prince of Persia. And when he came on board, he wanted hyper-realism; he wanted exaggerated characters and proportions. He wanted to put the color back in shooters. It’s what he said: “I’m going to put the color back in shooters.”

And, you know, we disagreed about that stuff. And then, recently, Bethesda posted a blog of mine, and I had to admit I was wrong all along. Olivier had always been right. Our studio director printed out my quote – “I was wrong all along” – and stuck it on the back of Olivier’s [computer] screen. So now, Olivier’s got this thing on the back of his screen saying that I was wrong.

(http://www.vg247.com/2010/08/21/interview-brinks-paul-wedgwood/)

Well I believe that Paul was right.

If you think about it, it is not like when you want to enjoy a good movie you do not exactly put a cartoon in your dvd player. I think it is the same with games, you rather not want them to look like cartoons. On the other hand making a game that looks as real as possible is really expensive which have resulted in many game developing companies go bankrupt and we do not like that. But if you can afford it, my advice is do it.


(Runeforce) #5

Jesus, what’s up with all the trolling comments about “I was in the Alpha/Beta, and this game sucks ass, don’t get your hopes up!!111!”?

Btw. I think it’s a pretty good game. Especially for a F2P!


(Silvanoshi) #6

[QUOTE=CleaverDancer;513415]Awesome update, time to start getting excited! :stroggbanana:
Do you guys have a date yet for when exactly open beta will be?[/QUOTE]
No specific date, but we’ll be bringing plenty more people into the CB before we move to Open Beta, although it sounds like you may have received a key from your very own fairy godmother :p.

As you acknowledged yourself, a lot of that is down to personal preference. Shooters have been chasing photorealism for so long that, for some, it has become a bit of a bore. We would much rather have interesting stylised visuals that bring something a little bit different to the table :).

[QUOTE=Runeforce;513435]Jesus, what’s up with all the trolling comments about “I was in the Alpha/Beta, and this game sucks ass, don’t get your hopes up!!111!”?

Btw. I think it’s a pretty good game. Especially for a F2P![/QUOTE]
There could be any number of reasons for that, but the two most prevalent could be.

Beta Expectations
As you’ve no doubt noticed, there has been a trend over the last few years whereby “Betas” have effectively become marketing demos. Many gamers these days expect a near finished demo from their Beta experience. Our Alpha and Beta periods have been true Alphas and Betas, which plenty of people these days aren’t entirely used to.

The game is for those looking for a challenge
We’re keenly aware that DB has somewhat of a higher skill ceiling, and is a tad different, when compared to the top shooters out there. Transferring your CoD/Battlefield skills from one game to the other is a lot easier than transferring your CoD/BF skills to DB. Not everyone likes that kind of challenge. That’s fine. We’re ok with that. There are plenty of people out there who’ll enjoy the challenge that DB offers :).


(Mustang) #7

[QUOTE=Silvanoshi;513443]
The game is for those looking for a challenge
We’re keenly aware that DB has somewhat of a higher skill ceiling, and is a tad different, when compared to the top shooters out there. Transferring your CoD/Battlefield skills from one game to the other is a lot easier than transferring your CoD/BF skills to DB. Not everyone likes that kind of challenge. That’s fine. We’re ok with that. There are plenty of people out there who’ll enjoy the challenge that DB offers :).[/QUOTE]
I doubt these people are CoD/BF players, more likely they’re RTCW/ET/ETQW players that are looking for an iteration of what they’re used to, rather than for you to explore new directions and create a new game/IP.


(Silvanoshi) #8

Some of them certainly are, yes. On the whole though, the RTCW/ET/ETQW guys tend to provide more context/reasoning than the type of chaps Runeforce highlighted.


(Kl3ppy) #9

[QUOTE=Runeforce;513435]Jesus, what’s up with all the trolling comments about “I was in the Alpha/Beta, and this game sucks ass, don’t get your hopes up!!111!”?

Btw. I think it’s a pretty good game. Especially for a F2P![/QUOTE]

Maybe because most alpha/beta players are not longer interested in the game?


(Kl3ppy) #10

[QUOTE=Silvanoshi;513443]
Beta Expectations
As you’ve no doubt noticed, there has been a trend over the last few years whereby “Betas” have effectively become marketing demos. Many gamers these days expect a near finished demo from their Beta experience. Our Alpha and Beta periods have been true Alphas and Betas, which plenty of people these days aren’t entirely used to.

The game is for those looking for a challenge
We’re keenly aware that DB has somewhat of a higher skill ceiling, and is a tad different, when compared to the top shooters out there. Transferring your CoD/Battlefield skills from one game to the other is a lot easier than transferring your CoD/BF skills to DB. Not everyone likes that kind of challenge. That’s fine. We’re ok with that. There are plenty of people out there who’ll enjoy the challenge that DB offers :).[/QUOTE]

Well, I have to disagree on both points :tongue:
When I joined the alpha, I did know its not close to finish. My dissapointment came from the fact that some crucial things did change in a direction which I did not expect from a SD game :wink:
Also I dont see a high skill ceilling, imo its not that different from BF/CoD :slight_smile:


(Connector) #11

Did you invite nobody else but “Chip” from Germany? Or did other sites/mags decline the invitation? Because not only is “Chip” far from being a source for gamers in Germany, but also the article reads like a DB manual with nothing added. No history of SD, no opinion/rating/recommendation. I hope the author had a good time in London at least, travelling at your expense. :infiltrator:

By the way, as SD fan I’m totally satisfied with the direction Dirty Bomb seems to take. I hope there will be some map remakes though (from W:ET, ETQW and the equally brilliant (yes) Brink). One track switch is no enough! :slight_smile:


(Connector) #12

There’s something I have to add though (sorry for double post, editing time is already up): The stupid Nexon launcher kept me from playing the beta more than a dozen times during the past months. Various errors and desperate redownloads from my side, sometimes even that didn’t fix it. Game just wouldn’t launch at all. I really hope someday it will be on Steam… :rolleyes:


(Silvanoshi) #13

Well, we should probably to agree to disagree there Kl3ppy :wink:

Connector, you’ll have to keep an eye out for articles from other German outlets over the coming days. You may well find one or two ;). Having maps pay homage to older games always puts a smile on faces. We’ll have to see what happens there :).

As for the Nexon launcher, be sure to get in touch with them for assistance if you experience problems with it again.


(spookify) #14

Give these writers 8 to 24 more hours of game play and then have them write and article…

“Dirty Bomb feels like Splash Damage going back to its roots, all the way back to the days of Enemy Territory”
Bull…

Lolly pops and fair tails…

So this is how marketing works… As crooked as USA politics…

Shaped by gamers SD says… Gamers say WE ARE TRYING!!!

I am going to see this out I have years invested and hundreds of ideas given and have actually seen some put into the game which is cool! Just hope they listen to some of the big things :smiley: and this game because a huge success!!


(Boycie) #15

As i stare at this F******G NEXON Updating launcher Box i think …

The box don’t go away its there infront of everything . nothing can move it , ctrl alt delete , go away nexon stop updating… but no its there itll always be there eating my sheet.

omg its still there !!! KILL IT


(Mustang) #16

Yea, I have this also, think we need to make Nexon aware of the issue.