Heading Into CitizenCon

As I type this, CitizenCon is less than a week away, and with it, exciting new news on the development of my favorite game-in-development.  The GamesCon 3.0 play-demo raises the bar pretty high as to what everyone is expecting, but overall, development is progressing at a good rate.  The major recent news that has me the most excited is that they finally have the first-person movement, animations and camera control finalized to the point that they’re releasing Star Marine!  Movement in my opinion is the most crucial part of FPS gameplay and what can easily make-or-break an FPS game.  Many games get movement either unplayably hurky-jerky, or so immersion-breakingly glass smooth, it’s like you’re on rails.

Additionally, having been murdered not by skilled players, but by horrible netcode telling my opposition I’m in areas and positions I don’t see on my own screen (I’m looking at YOU Battlefield 4), the unified player model first-person/third-person that Star Citizen shares with the Arma series of games is a very welcome announcement.  It’s not the easy way to do it, it’s not the quick way to do it.  Whiners who groan how they should have used the standard CryEngine FPS systems and finished FPS years ago don’t understand how necessary this is.  Star Citizen is not, and will not be like “other games”, CryEngine based or otherwise.  We fund Star Citizen not because it is going to be another cookie-cutter game, but because it will be revolutionary and ground breaking.  These things take time, but as can be seen in the demo-videos from ATV, the results speak for themselves.  You have an amazing combination of realistic movement, and stable control.  Honestly, I can’t wait to play it, perhaps more-so than when Arena Commander was released.

Ships are the heart and soul of Star Citizen, but the foundation is the FPS system.  Grab your assault rifle marine, you’re going to need to go places your spaceship isn’t going to fit!  Demonseed out!