Posted on : 12-04-2010 | By : Cacophanus | In : News
Over at Gpara there’s some new coverage for Front Mission Evolved and what’s interesting about this little nugget of PR, is that it focuses a lot more on the characters of the game. What’s most striking to me is that the characters themselves look a lot more anime inspired than I was expecting (especially from a Western studio). Considering that the original Front Mission’s characters were penned by Yoshitaka Amano, you’d expect a nod to this kind of artistic heritage but seeing it nonetheless warms the cockles of our merciless robot heart. Naturally, the update over at Gpara also goes into lots of nice nerdy detail on the garage as well as displaying more pictures of the wanzers in action. Still no word on an actual release date though.
Update: Here’s also a fascinating insight into the mecha design behind Front Mission Evolved, as its primary designer Skan Srisuwan at Imaginary Friends is penning the new wanzers. What’s reassuring, despite the man’s obvious talent, is that he’s quite open about his influences. Such as Hajime Katoki for one and not to mention the Yutaka Izubuchi designed Hygogg kit on his disk, all of which clearly shows in terms of the game’s overall aesthetic for the mecha. Thanks to LegaiaRules for the heads up.
Posted on : 04-04-2010 | By : Cacophanus | In : News
Posted on : 19-03-2010 | By : Cacophanus | In : News
Posted on : 08-02-2010 | By : Cacophanus | In : News
The upcoming Front Mission Evolved is powering up for a PR overdrive, as its release is imminent. To the extent that Double Helix’s studio head, Patrick Gilmore, has been interviewed over at Gamasutra. Gilmore is the head of the studio and not at the coal face so to speak but the corollary that he asserts regarding the supposed organic development of cinematic approaches in games is a tad spurious. As one of the main elements of his view is that the development tools themselves facilitate a natural cinematic evolution in terms of a game’s creation.
Spurious in the sense that it makes a lot of assumptions as to how games are made and that this progression is somehow insidiously natural, when really it’s an enormous amount of hard work on account of the people that have to make the game. After all, an improved toolset and pipeline often only help make the already existing set of tasks easier. They don’t necessarily make them miraculously cinematic.
Thankfully, the development team have produced a foil to this rather detached viewpoint in the form of a very interesting set of development diaries. Especially fascinating in their citing of the studio, Imaginary Friends, in relation to the game’s mecha design. Admittedly, we’re still somewhat cautious about Front Mission Evolved (as the gameplay videos were pretty underwhelming not to mention our hands on report being rather scathing) but there may be hope yet. As for a release date, Square Enix are still being cagey about that one but it’s supposedly scheduled for “Q2” this year, so we’ll know more soon with any luck.
Posted on : 18-11-2009 | By : Cacophanus | In : Videos
Square Enix have been fairly diligent recently at posting new gameplay videos on their YouTube channel for the upcoming Double Helix developed Front Mission Evolved. Much in the same way our hands-on impressions indicated that the TGS demo was functionally rather lacklustre, these videos only seem to confirm that appraisal further.
Spoiler
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGFqtr0hVHU]
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FShMZVcwmpE]
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi0tgGIFQqs]
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Posted on : 02-10-2009 | By : Cacophanus | In : News
Whilst we already posted a piece on someone else’s hands on impressions, a Mecha Damashii reader felt compelled to send us theirs from the Tokyo Game Show floor regarding the PlayStation 3 version. From the gameplay videos that have been going the rounds, the following report sounds pretty consistent. Considering the submission deadlines with console releases such as these, it’s doubtful that we’ll see many changes between now and the projected release date. So read on to hear the damage first hand (staunch Front Mission fans may need a stiff drink ready).
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on : 28-09-2009 | By : Tollmaster | In : News
The Tokyo Game Show brings us another set of hands-on impressions, from Kotaku this time.
There’s not too much in the way of new information, and Kotaku’s impressions take a turn for the negative near the end, but I’d guess some of their complaints could stem from either the playable demo being made easy so as to be more ‘accessible’, or them simply not having enough time to get acquainted with the movement and attack options.
It’s nice to see the wanzers’ rollers making an appearance to speed up the combat and give the player more tactical options. That, along with the previously mentioned on-foot combat will definitely invite comparisons to certain other games, and it looks like the Front Mission Evolved team has their work cut out for them.
Famitsu recently posted an interesting piece of coverage for Front Mission Evolved, most probably to tie-in with its presence at the Tokyo Game Show. Despite the fact that the in-game screenshots look better than expected, the refreshing thing to see is that you can also get out of your wanzer and take on enemies as a mere human. This is something that was recently utilised in the fantastic Yuke’s developed VOTOMS game (which we’ve reviewed in case you’re curious) and naturally there are a large number of thematic links between the narratives, especially as to the scale and technical depiction of the mecha themselves.
That said, the video below doesn’t exactly bode well on how it might actually play…
Spoiler
[flash http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=56544]
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What with this years’ Tokyo Game Show around the corner, the Japanese games industry marketing machine is going into overdrive. The upcoming Front Mission Evolved, being developed by Double Helix, has been given another trailer. Unlike the first, this teaser is predominantly CG footage and not in-game (which is a bit of a shame really). That said, the wanzers have been recreated faithfully enough it seems so there’s at least that aspect to be thankful for.
Spoiler
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7APPsp9SEs]
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Posted on : 01-07-2013 | By : Cacophanus | In : News