Trailers: Warhammer 40k: Space Marine - "Blockbuster" Developer Dairy

[Speakercone]

Anytime they say the word 'movie' in one of these things, I die a little inside.

What if, when making the LotR movies, Peter Jackson had said "we're really trying to get across the feeling of reading a book when you watch these movies. It's like you're inside the book, watching the things that are going on, but in a movie instead."

 

[darthotaku]

For all the bad things about Fire Warrior, you can at least say that the bolter felt and sounded powerful. that will hopefully mean that Space Marine makes up for that abomination in every other way.

 

[veloper]

Anytime they say the word 'movie' in one of these things, I die a little inside.

What if, when making the LotR movies, Peter Jackson had said "we're really trying to get across the feeling of reading a book when you watch these movies. It's like you're inside the book, watching the things that are going on, but in a movie instead."

Glad that's the recurring complaint in this thread.
Incline of the escapist community.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Hmm, they may be taking the wrong end of that stick, no we don't want playable movies because games have no such constraint, we want a world to explore.

I just hope they didn't fuck this one royally with something it's not suppose to be.

 

[Estarc]

I can't say this trailer did anything to make me more excited about the game. When I think of games that were made to be like a movie, Heavenly Sword jumps to mind. It would have been a good movie, I think. But it was a game, and it was merely an adequate game in my opinion. Now I'm concerned that Space Marine will go the same way, that the developers will spend to much time aping Hollywood and not enough making sure it is a good game.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

I heard the word ''Epic'' once, then i skipped forward and heard the word Epic again.
Then i closed the video.

 

[1337mokro]

Snip

I must have missed the part where you were criticizing the man, not the game. Also, care to explain how Homefront looked good on paper? I mean this in a friendly way, I'm all for knowing about it.

Also, this isn't a hack and slash game. It's an essential aspect of the game but the other just as important part of it is of course the shooting. It is an Action/TPS after all. Are you sure you've been tracking this game for as long as I make you out to be?

Homefront: America is invaded and any military resistance is reduced to guerilla insurgency. The Multiplayer features extensive use of vehicles and revolutionary drones.

What actually happened: They cloned one of their older games, Frontlines, than sprinkled it with some COD to produce the most linear and generic shooter with ridiculous plot ever.

I call it hack and slash because what featured prominently in many trailers was melee combat with the chain saw sword. You had a Bow in God of War 3 so you could technically shoot every enemy to death, but you still call it a hack and slash.

All right I'll buckle and say it's a hack and slash/shmup with some RPG elements.

 

[IndianaJonny]

LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME
Which is a shame, I really liked Dawn of War II and Chaos Rising (haven't played the first games)

Seriously, it's gonna suck hard. Bland, boring gameplay, environments completely uninteresting (and WH 40k has some interesting ones... being a fuck-ass huge galaxy and all) Of course, using the lamest Spess Mehreen chapter don't help none. (Ultramarines... blegh, so Suetastic... besides, isn't Relic making the game? I thought they managed to canonify the Blud Rehvens)

Just putting this out there so that when it comes out and the 'scapist review goes up and everyone agrees how shitty it is, I can point at this here comment and say "called it!" .

Get off that bandwagon boy, the Ultramarines are not Mary Sues. Calgar is the Mary Sue. The internet has completely blown their poster boy status out of the water for no reason.

They are no more 'suetastic' than any of the other Imperial MAHREENS.

Their scouts supposedly have more combat experience than the chapter masters of other chapters. They beat everyone in any fight. And they do it while being one of the nicest things in the WH40k universe. Sounds like Mary Sue-ing to me all right.

I may hate the Ultramarines but they aren't all that bad. Give the Tyranid codex a read sometime. Basically page after page of the Tyranids ripping the Ultramarines a new one. Sure the Marines win in the end, but the best Ultramarines were all dead and Marneus Calgar was essentially outsmarted by a giant alien bug who then proceeded to hand him his ass in single combat. The Tyranids were too busy killing everything else to finish him off =p

Everyone has had their share of ass whoppings in 40k. If its the pansy-do-gooder "mary sue" type you want to hate, look no further then the Tau Empire. Everyone thinks their the good guys, because no one questions the Ethereals =p

You're joking right - have you seen what f&#%ing Matt Ward has done for the Ultrasmurfs in recent years [//1d4chan.org/wiki/Matthew_Ward].

-Calgar was so mary sue in Ward's eyes that he had to invent a new Tyranid foe, the Swarmlord, in order to see him off in a fitting fashion.

-Certain Smurf librarians are said to have power putting Farseers to shame and rivalling that of the Emperor himself (Tiggy had LD9 prior to Ward)

-Guilliman is apparently the 'spiritual liege' for ALL space marines

-Any reasonable attempt to display the Smurfs at anywhere near reasonable Marine capability [//www.graham-mcneill.com/novel.php?id=20] faces obstinate attempts at ret-coning through Ward's god-awful codexes.

Sorry if I went on a bit there but this runs deep for me. The current fluff surrounding the UltraSmurfs is just sickening; don't even get me started on the Grey Knights.

 

[Salad Is Murder]

/snip

Don't take it too seriously, every codex's fluff is written as, more or less, propaganda for the army the book is trying to sell...some of them are just a little more, um...fervent? Zealous may be too strong a word.

It's always been like this, just not quite as over the top, but I find that has more to do with Ward just not being a very good fiction writer. He's kinda like Stan Lee (except he didn't steal everything from his dead 'friend' that I know of) but instead of alliteration, he has hyperbole.

It's like, the ONLY tool in his box.

 

[Chrinik]

For "the sound making the Bolter feel powerfull and intimidating", it sure sounded like a friggin Airsoft gun<.<
I hope thats not final...I want some Boom in my 30mm automatic rocketlauncher.

 

[IndianaJonny]

Don't take it too seriously, every codex's fluff is written as, more or less, propaganda for the army the book is trying to sell...some of them are just a little more, um...fervent? Zealous may be too strong a word.

It's always been like this, just not quite as over the top, but I find that has more to do with Ward just not being a very good fiction writer. He's kinda like Stan Lee (except he didn't steal everything from his dead 'friend' that I know of) but instead of alliteration, he has hyperbole.

It's like, the ONLY tool in his box.

Though his toolbox may be tiny you underestimate the size of his garage. The trouble is Ward, as one individual, holds so much sway in the way 40K is going at the moment. Regardless of the fluff in his codexes (and I wish the SM codex was SM propaganda, not just Smurf propaganda), the crunch is seriously imbalanced as well (deep-striking Land Raiders, Grey Knight marines at triple cost-effectiveness of Astartes marines etc.) He's chief economic advisor for GW (so guess who's had a hand in the price hikes). He's director in charge of green-lighting army updates (hence the disproportionate number of Space Marine updates with little for anyone else) and is involved in other decisions such as declining to re-release or make Finecast models for the Sisters of Battle. Most neckbeards will tell you they can't wait to see the back of him.

 

[O maestre]

I truly think this game looks fantastic, the more I see of it. Still, does it bother anyone else to hear game designers acting so deferential to the film industry? They talk like they wish they were making a film rather than designing an interactive experience.

this worries me as well, if i wanted to watch a hollywood movie i would have... this is the first time i have considered not buying this game, despite my appreciation for both relic and the franchise. i am definitely cancelling my pre-order though.

games are not supposed to be like movies, this is why i believe that licensed games usually end up being crap.(that and lack of time and effort)

i hope this trend isn't something that's going to persevere... and i can only hope that designers realize that going into games because you dont have the skills to make movies, is a bad move for everybody involved. i am not saying that you cant make a cinematic game... it still has to be a game in the end... something where your decisions as a player actually matter and have consequence something where you are part of the experience and actually get to think and do some problem solving, instead of just following a script. developers cannot forget gaming actual roots, its not hollywood... its board games... arcade games and just games in general.

 

[Mouse One]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with taking ideas from other mediums. Films take from literature, plays, composition and the visual arts. Should the game industry flinch from being open minded enough to be similarly eclectic?

Besides, it looks great. Just wish we could play da Boyz.

 

[WarpZone]

I loved how they kept saying "The player is gonna be in control, the player is gonna be in control," while showing us a cutscene instead of gameplay.

Oh, and the AAA game has sound in it. It's a good thing they mentioned that. I might have thought it was silent.

Actually, to be fair, I found myself nodding my head when they were describing all the sounds on the train. But it was only because that's exactly the kinds of stuff you have to deal with when you're making a single-player map for Half Life 1.

So... orchestral scoring, environment sounds, lots of cut-scenes with movie-style zooms and shot framing... basically Halo 1 in terms of storytelling. Way to innovate, guys. That totally justifies this long promotional video.

Guess we should feel lucky they didn't go "Hey, look, guys! Facial animation system! We're innovative!" while they were at it.

The game actually looks really good, but this video felt vaguely insulting.

What they oughtta do, though, is show this video to all the shitty AAA developers out there who have no concept of these very basic tenants of ambiance and cutscene direction.

I just wish the video had given us any reason to believe that these were scripted sequences, instead of linear zero-control unskippable cut-scenes, or even worse, Quicktime Events.

 

[Gromril]

I dont thinking the toungebathing of the moive industry was really need, but game looks banging for a starcraft IP clone

If I were to question the validity of your post, possibly in anger, would you reply with "Problem?" or the more classic "Trollolloll"

 

[Tyr2440]

Looks fucking awesome... that is all

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME
Which is a shame, I really liked Dawn of War II and Chaos Rising (haven't played the first games)

Seriously, it's gonna suck hard. Bland, boring gameplay, environments completely uninteresting (and WH 40k has some interesting ones... being a fuck-ass huge galaxy and all) Of course, using the lamest Spess Mehreen chapter don't help none. (Ultramarines... blegh, so Suetastic... besides, isn't Relic making the game? I thought they managed to canonify the Blud Rehvens)

Just putting this out there so that when it comes out and the 'scapist review goes up and everyone agrees how shitty it is, I can point at this here comment and say "called it!" .

Get off that bandwagon boy, the Ultramarines are not Mary Sues. Calgar is the Mary Sue. The internet has completely blown their poster boy status out of the water for no reason.

They are no more 'suetastic' than any of the other Imperial MAHREENS.

Their scouts supposedly have more combat experience than the chapter masters of other chapters. They beat everyone in any fight. And they do it while being one of the nicest things in the WH40k universe. Sounds like Mary Sue-ing to me all right.

I may hate the Ultramarines but they aren't all that bad. Give the Tyranid codex a read sometime. Basically page after page of the Tyranids ripping the Ultramarines a new one. Sure the Marines win in the end, but the best Ultramarines were all dead and Marneus Calgar was essentially outsmarted by a giant alien bug who then proceeded to hand him his ass in single combat. The Tyranids were too busy killing everything else to finish him off =p

Everyone has had their share of ass whoppings in 40k. If its the pansy-do-gooder "mary sue" type you want to hate, look no further then the Tau Empire. Everyone thinks their the good guys, because no one questions the Ethereals =p

You're joking right - have you seen what f&#%ing Matt Ward has done for the Ultrasmurfs in recent years [//1d4chan.org/wiki/Matthew_Ward].

-Calgar was so mary sue in Ward's eyes that he had to invent a new Tyranid foe, the Swarmlord, in order to see him off in a fitting fashion.

-Certain Smurf librarians are said to have power putting Farseers to shame and rivalling that of the Emperor himself (Tiggy had LD9 prior to Ward)

-Guilliman is apparently the 'spiritual liege' for ALL space marines

-Any reasonable attempt to display the Smurfs at anywhere near reasonable Marine capability [//www.graham-mcneill.com/novel.php?id=20] faces obstinate attempts at ret-coning through Ward's god-awful codexes.

Sorry if I went on a bit there but this runs deep for me. The current fluff surrounding the UltraSmurfs is just sickening; don't even get me started on the Grey Knights.

Speaking as someone who plays (or used to) Ultramarines, I can only agree with what you're saying. Yeah Ultramarines were always a bit 'My First Army', yeah they could be pretty bland, but at least I could have some diginity with them up until I lost (and I always lost horribly). I could deal with the fact that the Ultramarines couldn't kill everyone and everything in the universe because this was 40K, sometimes your faction gets the shit kicked out of it in the canon and you get over it. But now I can't have that. I have to put up with the fact that my army is now part of the single most reviled group in the entire 40K universe because of Matt sodding Ward.

And now he's created those bloody stupid Grey Knight papooses!

 

[Craorach]

I'm looking forward to it, although the inclusion of a female guardsman as a major character concerns me, but not for the reasons it does some people in this thread.

I'm not concerned that it will be a love interest situation.. lets face it, GW wouldn't let their Space Marine's show any humanity. I'm concerned that she is basically a GW tool for going "hey look, female!" I'd be greatly surprised if she doesn't end up either corrupted, or killed in some gruesome way.

GW's universe is overwhelmingly stuck in the "Power Fantasy of a Lonely Teenage Geek" design mode.

I grew up playing GW games, but the more you look at the lore the more you realise how overwhelmingly depressing it is. There are no good guys, and very little room for good people to function. "In the Grim Darkness of the 40st millennium there is only war" works very well for a table top wargame, but once you start extending that premiss into books, video games and roleplaying games, you need to start editing lore to allow the occasional moment of genuine goodness.

Some of the stories do a good job of it.. Gaunt's Ghost's, for example, have everything.. the horrors of war, the loss of whole planets, deaths of friends.. but they also have love, life and humour. Space Marine stories, which seem to be the only stories GW allows to be told in Video Games, or that developers get behind, are at the best tragedies, but normally just end up being the most generic, overwhelmingly zealous, warlike trash.

GW has made it so that Space Marine's are almost incapable of being decent, relateable, characters. They are both physically conditioned and mentally brainwashed. While they can think for themselves, the indoctrination means that if they go too far they are branded heretics.

So yeah.. I'm not worried about her being a love interest.. however interesting it would be to see a Space Marine struggling with the "heresy" of falling in love.... lets face it, it would get him a bolter to the skull as it would her.

 

[VileTerror]

On the scale of Intense Interest for this game, with the higher value meaning more interest . . . I went from 7.5 straight down to 1 due to this video.

They rubbed me the wrong way . . . quite severely. Referring to the player as "he," stating they wanted to make a movie instead of a game, and generalizing statements about what _I_ want as a fan of 40K.
I was really quite interested in this, up until now. "Bravo."

 

[IndianaJonny]

Speaking as someone who plays (or used to) Ultramarines, I can only agree with what you're saying. Yeah Ultramarines were always a bit 'My First Army', yeah they could be pretty bland, but at least I could have some diginity with them up until I lost (and I always lost horribly). I could deal with the fact that the Ultramarines couldn't kill everyone and everything in the universe because this was 40K, sometimes your faction gets the shit kicked out of it in the canon and you get over it. But now I can't have that. I have to put up with the fact that my army is now part of the single most reviled group in the entire 40K universe because of Matt sodding Ward.

And now he's created those bloody stupid Grey Knight papooses!

If you're looking for a bit of sanity re. the Ultramarines, try McNeill's The Chapter's Due - though as a Smurfs player you've probably read all of his excellent fiction anyways.