Not exactly new, but I havent seen it mentioned here. Some dude from Lionhead is doing this as a pet project. It will be released over Steam.
Imagine having a Kung Fu Fight with string puppets, except you don’t have to worry about getting the strings tangled up, and you don’t have to have a kung fu fight.
You control the characters on screen with the mouse – there are no pre-scripted animations in the game – it’s all up to you – to walk, you have to literally pick up one foot, then place it in front of the other.
Sounds tricky maybe, but it doesn’t take long before you’re spinning through the air like a Russian gymnast.
This means you get to create your own style, and can act out whatever you feel like, and of course, if you really feel like it, you can have a fight.
I always wanted to see some sort of 3-D swordfighting game like this where there were no preset “moves”, just what you could whip out with a mouse and freeform control over swinging the blade. Perhaps we’re one step closer to that day?
Robot Alchemic Drive. Not only do you control the limbs, you inadvertently crush buildings when you screw it up. When you do it right though, you crush buildings on purpose.
Ok, something like that, only better. Maybe something along the lines of Bushido Blade, with the sword hits being appropriately fatal, but without any canned combo moves.
This kung fu game does look interresting, incidentally.
I especially loved the “Spinning Blades” map. My friend and I played a sort of home run derby, where we’d both pick ogres and set up 2 of the bug monsters as CPU opponents. We’d then see who could hit more homers.
So did anyone really play through Die By the Sword with freeform swordfight activated?
Myself, I really tried, but I found it impossable to get any power behind my sword strikes. I always gently poked my enemies with my sword and failed to do significant damage. Soon after I gave up and chose to use the predefined keyboard moves.
If anyone here has tips on how to successfully play DBtS with free battle movements, please do tell.
[size=2]So I can finally play this sucker the way it was meant to be played.[/size]
Growing up with a healthy number of giant robot anime series, I never really believed it was possible to control a humanoid mecha with any real grace using anything less than some kind of neural interface.
Robot Alchemic Drive somehow managed to prove that not only was it possible, it was possible to do it with just a single PS2 controller.
I long for RAD2. I would even pay full price if the company merely took the first game and tore out all the story elements and allowed me to simply play skirmish maps.
I played through both DBTS and the expansion with the freeform swordfight - and man, did my hand hurt. I was using the keyboard/num pad to control, as I just wasn’t able to get enough velocity with the mouse. I would then use a lot of crosswise swings, 6–>4, 7–>3, and ideally while twisting the characters torso as well. The key was to deliver the most momentum behind the swing, and for bonus points, time it so your swing intersected the critter’s neck. It still looked more or less like flailing around, but it was great fun. What other game let you cut off a guy’s leg and then beat him to death with it? There was a great Monty Python “I’m not dead yet!” quality to the game as well - you could cut off a guy’s leg and and an arm, and he would still be hopping around after you…
