T-Rexs, Jetpacks, and You - ORION: Dino Beatdown
NullenVoyd
Orlandish Icrontian
Was actually settling down to a nice relaxing evening of just chillin the frog out and punching through my radar comes a t-rex being shot at by guys with jetpacks!
Apparently Spiral Game Studios JUST released their latest game and it is... ORION: Dino Beatdown. It's indie, a bit of Tribes (I think? Never played Tribes), a bit of Unreal Tournament, some Halo, and a whole mess of "Huh", "wow", and "WTF". At a little under $10 on Steam, I figured it was worth a try.
First off, it's an indie game, with all the joys and issues that usually entails. The download itself came in at about 750MB and claims to require 8GB of free space, but in my steamapps its only showing taking up about 1.5GB. Installation wanted to add some tertiary support whatnot but tried to load the game anyways and crashed, but the stuff updated and reset without my asking. Back up, it loaded right in and before playing I made the mistake of changing video settings. At least on my rig, saving changed settings works, it just crashes the game sometimes. Another issue seems to be that the underlying program still runs in memory, but doesn't always close itself out (killing UDK.exe in the task manager clears it up though). Also, sometimes some sounds get lost when you muck with the menus. Reloading the game seems to clear it up.
But enough about that. This game is all about blowing away dinosaurs! As of release it features 3 main classes, several different vehicles from VTOLs, hover bikes, SUVs and some others, and wave after wave of flesh-hungry prehistoric beasties. It is all about being a 5 player co-op, advancing your dude via a points buy system that resets every round, and while there are only 3 levels right now, they are HUGE!
For what little I've played so-far, the few bugs, learning curves and annoyances (terrys will Eff you UP), have paled in comparrison to how much of a hoot this game is. It could really use a tutorial, but a bit of tinkering and patience and the rest just falls into place.
Some things I've noticed already:
-Vehicle controls are goofy, but pretend it's an Unreal Tourney vehicle and it'll make more sense.
-Some vehicles have a turbo feature, accessed with the LShift key (same for sprint).
-Vehicles have unlimited ammo, but weapons outside of the minigun have a reload pause.
-The pistol has unlimited ammo, but only the Support class starts with a weapon besides that (shotgun, and it's nice).
-Pressing F and looking around you gives you more info about the vehicles, consoles and objectives around you.
-Consoles (the colored ports used to upgrade your dude, purchase weapons and vehicles) need power to work. (they will have a red hue when not powered)
-Health / Ammo consoles replenish you when you're 'in' them, all others must be used with the E key (default).
-Weapon switching is goofy with the mouse wheel, use # keys instead.
-There will be angry dinos coming after you.
Last but not least...
If you would like to enter for a FREE COPY of ORION: Dino Beatdown, pull out that good 'ole MS Paint (or equivalent quality draw program) and sketch up something of you fighting, being chased by, or otherwise interacting with the berzerker dinosaur hordes!
The TOP THREE entrants will each get a copy! I'll judge entries and announce winners on Monday night. Just be sure you have a Steam account that can accept a gifted game purchased in the US.
Apparently Spiral Game Studios JUST released their latest game and it is... ORION: Dino Beatdown. It's indie, a bit of Tribes (I think? Never played Tribes), a bit of Unreal Tournament, some Halo, and a whole mess of "Huh", "wow", and "WTF". At a little under $10 on Steam, I figured it was worth a try.
First off, it's an indie game, with all the joys and issues that usually entails. The download itself came in at about 750MB and claims to require 8GB of free space, but in my steamapps its only showing taking up about 1.5GB. Installation wanted to add some tertiary support whatnot but tried to load the game anyways and crashed, but the stuff updated and reset without my asking. Back up, it loaded right in and before playing I made the mistake of changing video settings. At least on my rig, saving changed settings works, it just crashes the game sometimes. Another issue seems to be that the underlying program still runs in memory, but doesn't always close itself out (killing UDK.exe in the task manager clears it up though). Also, sometimes some sounds get lost when you muck with the menus. Reloading the game seems to clear it up.
But enough about that. This game is all about blowing away dinosaurs! As of release it features 3 main classes, several different vehicles from VTOLs, hover bikes, SUVs and some others, and wave after wave of flesh-hungry prehistoric beasties. It is all about being a 5 player co-op, advancing your dude via a points buy system that resets every round, and while there are only 3 levels right now, they are HUGE!
For what little I've played so-far, the few bugs, learning curves and annoyances (terrys will Eff you UP), have paled in comparrison to how much of a hoot this game is. It could really use a tutorial, but a bit of tinkering and patience and the rest just falls into place.
Some things I've noticed already:
-Vehicle controls are goofy, but pretend it's an Unreal Tourney vehicle and it'll make more sense.
-Some vehicles have a turbo feature, accessed with the LShift key (same for sprint).
-Vehicles have unlimited ammo, but weapons outside of the minigun have a reload pause.
-The pistol has unlimited ammo, but only the Support class starts with a weapon besides that (shotgun, and it's nice).
-Pressing F and looking around you gives you more info about the vehicles, consoles and objectives around you.
-Consoles (the colored ports used to upgrade your dude, purchase weapons and vehicles) need power to work. (they will have a red hue when not powered)
-Health / Ammo consoles replenish you when you're 'in' them, all others must be used with the E key (default).
-Weapon switching is goofy with the mouse wheel, use # keys instead.
-There will be angry dinos coming after you.
Last but not least...
If you would like to enter for a FREE COPY of ORION: Dino Beatdown, pull out that good 'ole MS Paint (or equivalent quality draw program) and sketch up something of you fighting, being chased by, or otherwise interacting with the berzerker dinosaur hordes!
The TOP THREE entrants will each get a copy! I'll judge entries and announce winners on Monday night. Just be sure you have a Steam account that can accept a gifted game purchased in the US.
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That said, if it is true, then I agree with avoiding supporting the game, but I can't justify basing my purchase on anything but the merit of the game itself without more substantial evidence. Interesting find, though, Prime.
Far as the issues behind David Prassel and previous dealings with contributors, it seems to come down to a "he said / she said" deal. What I've been seeing though, at least in the Steam Forums for the game, is a team (including primarily David, from the looks of it) working to fix issues, address concerns, and interact with the community. The game may or may not be a turd, the guy may or may not be an ass, but summing the intarwebs face value of the issue, I can't damn the man the game or the company based on that.
That said, I still have two more copies for anyone bored or desperate enough to post some kind of goofy image like the one above.
I already have the game, but I am helping my sister get the game too. Picture was made by rebinnc and I helped a little.