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[Alex Connolly]

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[Alex Connolly]

You can snag Cargo Commander right now for $6.96 on Gamersgate. It's a pre-order discount, Steamworks. Game goes live in four-odd hours.

 

[Alex Connolly]

Until November 9, Cargo Commander is 20% off/7.99 on Steam.

And a rousing response by the legends of gaming discussion! Seriously, a great game.

 

[Dog Problems]

Wow, that looks really fun. It wasn't on my radar before but it is now.

 

[-Deadpool-]

Looks really cool, might have to give it a try.

 

[Blizzard]

I haven't watched the video yet, but this SOUNDS like a roguelike dungeon crawler to salvage spaceships (or just containers?). It should be an awesome concept if well-executed!

*edit* From a preview video, I'm not sure I'm a fan of the Unity 2.5d look, or the rotation, or the really dark areas. But, it could still be neat so I will probably get it. Thanks for making the thread.

 

[Alex Connolly]

I haven't watched the video yet, but this SOUNDS like a roguelike dungeon crawler to salvage spaceships (or just containers?). It should be an awesome concept if well-executed!

I guarantee that's what it is. Had a review copy for a few weeks and it's one of my favourite games of the year. And that's not "one of those busted, broken but endearing games" I recommend with a slew of caveats, this is solid as hell.

 

[SapientWolf]

I guarantee that's what it is. Had a review copy for a few weeks and it's one of my favourite games of the year. And that's not "one of those busted, broken but endearing games" I recommend with a slew of caveats, this is solid as hell.

Your opinion carries a lot of weight with me. I'll check this out.

 

[Alex Connolly]

Your opinion carries a lot of weight with me. I'll check this out.

Humbled and honoured, Sapient!

Incidentally, the duo behind this worked on the Overlord games.

 

[Munin]

This game is AMAZING. That is all.

But it would be PERFECT for coop. Hope it sells well and we'll get that in a sequel

 

[Alex Connolly]

This game is AMAZING. That is all.

But it would be PERFECT for coop. Hope it sells well and we'll get that in a sequel

Indeed it is. I dunno, I think it works mightily as a solo game, especially given the lonely ambience. That said, a spin-off or expansion that allows two cargo commanders to spelunk together through the carcasses of derelict spacecraft, using tools like grappling hooks and tethers etc., might be fun!

But yeah, fantastic game.

 

[toddhunter]

Looks pretty tops, thanks for the thread. On the radar now.

Edit. Stuff it, just purchased it on steam. Damn you

 

[Alex Connolly]

Looks pretty tops, thanks for the thread. On the radar now.

Edit. Stuff it, just purchased it on steam. Damn you

That's the ticket! We might have to add a steam name list to the OP, for the purpose of corpse-looting.

 

[Fragamemnon]

pylon_trooper likes it, so instant buy. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Munin]

Indeed it is. I dunno, I think it works mightily as a solo game, especially given the lonely ambience. That said, a spin-off or expansion that allows two cargo commanders to spelunk together through the carcasses of derelict spacecraft, using tools like grappling hooks and tethers etc., might be fun!

But yeah, fantastic game.

One thing that really annoys me is that upgrades are gone when you die. I find that a little harsh. I don't fully understand the rank system yet though, I assume this means even if I keep failing I get some stuff to make things easier? That might balance it a bit.

I also think it's too easy to wait until the wormhole disintegrates the last container and then simply zip through space back home, but maybe this gets more difficult later on.

 

[epmode]

Screw it, I haven't spent enough money today. I'll buy.

 

[toddhunter]

Screw it, I haven't spent enough money today. I'll buy.

It was recommended on gaf, is on steam and it is on sale...so it would be kind of rude not to

 

[epmode]

This game doesn't like x360ce

For anyone that tried both control schemes, does this play better with a mouse+keyboard or a controller?

edit: I assume it's looking for an xinput controller, anyway. No matter what I do, the game is reading my axis inputs improperly.

edit edit: Quick impressions make it seem like it's designed with a controller in mind. Looks like fun, too, but I'm annoyed that I can't get my pad working. I guess I'll wait for a patch.

 

[Alex Connolly]

pylon_trooper likes it, so instant buy. Thanks for the heads up.

There's a ringing endorsement! I just hope I'm not overselling this, but it's really turning out to be my platforming FTL of the year, in one of those nebulous senses. It certainly doesn't turn on a dime, but has some of the same sensibilities.

Intrigued to see what you make it, Robert.

One thing that really annoys me is that upgrades are gone when you die. I find that a little harsh. I don't fully understand the rank system yet though, I assume this means even if I keep failing I get some stuff to make things easier? That might balance it a bit.

I also think it's too easy to wait until the wormhole disintegrates the last container and then simply zip through space back home, but maybe this gets more difficult later on.

I love the fact the upgrades disappear upon death. It amplifies the risk-reward aspect, but since the game isn't as raw and mechanical as a true rogue-like, I think it fits.

Also, the scoreboard battle is pretty awesome. I'm usually not a huge score chaser, but it calls true in this one.

See what you make of the game later on once you've unlocked a few sectors, in regards to your second issue.

This game doesn't like x360ce

For anyone that tried both control schemes, does this play better with a mouse+keyboard or a controller?

edit: I assume it's looking for an xinput controller, anyway. No matter what I do, the game is reading my axis inputs improperly.

I've only played with a mouse and keyboard, so can't comment. Might be worth tweeting Serious Brew to get their take on it.

 

[epmode]

I've only played with a mouse and keyboard, so can't comment. Might be worth tweeting Serious Brew to get their take on it.

I'll give it a go with a mouse+keyboard tomorrow. I like the song that plays on the menu and it seems like a good time so I don't want to write it off so quickly.

Also: No Twitter account. Maybe Serious Brew is reading this thread!

 

[Alex Connolly]

I'll give it a go with a mouse+keyboard tomorrow. I like the song that plays on the menu and it seems like a good time so I don't want to write it off so quickly.

Also: No Twitter account. Maybe Serious Brew is reading this thread!

I'll shoot 'em a tweet about it. See what the go is.

That said, I think M&KB might be the way to go. Especially when you're dealing with magbombs and remote detonation etc., but different strokes and all that.

 

[Fragamemnon]

I'm pretty happy with the M&K controls. Then again, I play anything with a gamepad so very very rarely that using any sort of gamepad is just...unnatural for me.

Game is ace. I love the score chase, even against people that I don't know. I even found a QT3 sector, which I assume will have a bad game review monster from Tom Chick somewhere for me to find and kill.

 

[Aaron]

Game is only $6 at greenmangaming.com with the 25% code.

 

[Alex Connolly]

I'm pretty happy with the M&K controls. Then again, I play anything with a gamepad so very very rarely that using any sort of gamepad is just...unnatural for me.

Game is ace. I love the score chase, even against people that I don't know. I even found a QT3 sector, which I assume will have a bad game review monster from Tom Chick somewhere for me to find and kill.

I love the on-the-fly route optimisation you need to juggle to access places; making decisions to drill certain walls in the interior or making tactical space hops to come into areas from the exterior. Especially when you throw in different gravitational axes.

Game is only $6 at greenmangaming.com with the 25% code.

Good find. Beautiful price.

 

[Blizzard]

I just bought on Steam (I like release discounts) and downloaded it (just over 100MB). I'll try to post impressions if I get around to playing it.

 

[Blizzard]

I like the menu music! It sets a really nice atmosphere with the guy out in a little lonely house ship, scavenging for a faceless corporation.

The rotating doesn't seem too bad so far, only occasionally annoying, and the controls are reasonable though the mouse cursor target can be a little hard to see.

For upgrades, the glossary made it sound like later ranks allow me to get permanent upgrades. Are "permanent" upgrades still lost on death, and their advantage is just that they persist over multiple days of work? Are there any unlockables that persist past death? Do you lose anything else if you die?

*edit* What are the apples and cores in the upper left? Health? Is there any way to heal?

 

[Fragamemnon]

This game is insidious. Very easy to sit down and play for an hour and not even notice it go by.

 

[YianGaruga]

Thanks to Blizzard for gifting me this game! I sat down to play the "required" 30 minutes and didn't stop for two hours. This game definitely needs more exposure, since I didn't hear anything about it before Blizzard mentioned it in the Steam thread, even though I could see from the description already that it's something I might enjoy. It took me a while to "get" what the game even was, but once it clicked I had a lot of fun.

What this game seems to need though is a friends list full of people playing it. Since the random worlds are generated by a seed word, you can see what ares you're friends have been playing and compete for scores in those. My latest sector was called "gaben" and it was pretty cool. You can also find corpses of your friends in these sectors and loot them.

So maybe we can get a list of people going who are playing this game? I'll start:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/yiangaruga/

I feel like calling it a roguelike is setting people up with wrong expectations though, so I will not call it that. There's not enough randomization or punishment for it to be one. It's more like a 2D dungeon crawler in space. That's not a bad thing though.
Sadly, it's not a very good game on a technical level, with bad graphics and an unstable framerate. But I personally don't care, since it's a lot of fun.

Will definitely play more of it.

 

[Alex Connolly]

Yeah, I was hesitant to lean too heavily on "rogue-like" to describe it, but it does feature that "lose all" mechanic upon death.

If anyone is interested, and I don't really want to look like a pimp, but I interviewed one of the devs of Cargo Commander the other week and it was a nice little insight into the development of the game and background of Serious Brew.

Besting Kessler: Serious Brew Serious About Space Junk - The Interview

EDIT: I haven't had any issues with performance, though. Bad graphics? Hmm. Subjective. I think it's delightfully chunky.

EDIT 2: Found your corpse, Frag! Was an honour to relieve you of some caps or nails.

 

[Munin]

Thanks to Blizzard for gifting me this game! I sat down to play the "required" 30 minutes and didn't stop for two hours. This game definitely needs more exposure, since I didn't hear anything about it before Blizzard mentioned it in the Steam thread, even though I could see from the description already that it's something I might enjoy. It took me a while to "get" what the game even was, but once it clicked I had a lot of fun.

What this game seems to need though is a friends list full of people playing it. Since the random worlds are generated by a seed word, you can see what ares you're friends have been playing and compete for scores in those. My latest sector was called "gaben" and it was pretty cool. You can also find corpses of your friends in these sectors and loot them.

So maybe we can get a list of people going who are playing this game? I'll start:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/yiangaruga/

I feel like calling it a roguelike is setting people up with wrong expectations though, so I will not call it that. There's not enough randomization or punishment for it to be one. It's more like a 2D dungeon crawler in space. That's not a bad thing though.
Sadly, it's not a very good game on a technical level, with bad graphics and an unstable framerate. But I personally don't care, since it's a lot of fun.

Will definitely play more of it.

The graphics are bad? What? It looks great and is full of little details and life, like the cargo boxes being transferred into your ship upon return, the coffee can, the different lighting of the containers etc.

 

[ROBOKITTYZILLA]

I wishlisted this because I thought it looked interesting, but I think this thread has convinced me to go ahead and pick it up.

Edit: Not going to lie, the rogue-like tag made me cringe a little but I'm glad to hear that it's not quite that hardcore. I just don't have the patience for that kind of thing.

 

[YianGaruga]

The graphics are bad? What? It looks great and is full of little details and life, like the cargo boxes being transferred into your ship upon return, the coffee can, the different lighting of the containers etc.

.

These are not good looking graphics in my opinion. Made worse by the fact that the game has no VSync and tears a lot. I seriously don't mind though, just thought it was worth pointing out.

 

[Munin]

Well, that's a silly example. You don't ever play like zoomed in like that. Then you may as well argue most RTS have terrible graphics because they don't look good zoomed all the way in. But still, just look at it, so many details like the sheets on the floor, the labels on the crates - even though at normal zoom level you wouldn't ever notice.

I think it looks great, tons of character.

 

[Alex Connolly]

Fair call, although you don't play at that zoom, right?

I love that little dot matrix printer, though. So many cute little touches.

Then you may as well argue most RTS have terrible graphics because they don't look good zoomed all the way in.

An argument that cannot be levelled at Supreme Commander 2! Although I have to flagellate with a birch rod, mentioning that name on GAF. Ahem. Back to it!

 

[R1CHO]

Bought, thanks for the thread.

 

[epmode]

the game has no VSync and tears a lot.

I'm always amazed when someone on GAF still doesn't know about D3DOverrider.

 

[YianGaruga]

I'm always amazed when someone on GAF still doesn't know about D3DOverrider.

I am using D3DOverrider. Doesn't change the fact that the game doesn't have the option.

.

This is what the game looks like while playing. Once again, I'm fine with how it looks, so there is no need to get defensive, just pointing out that while it looks like this, it also doesn't run very smoothly (tearing without VSync, framedrops with VSync).

 

[epmode]

I am using D3DOverrider. Doesn't change the fact that the game doesn't have the option.

I guess I don't see the point in complaining about something that is 100% fixable by a program that should be permanently enabled for anyone sensitive to unstable framerates.

I'll grant that it would be nice if the devs added the option!

 

[Alex Connolly]

Gotta love those mysterious darkened containers dragged in from the void.

My commander joined the corpses of many others on...oh, about wave 5 or 6 of the QT3 sector. Still working how to rip the guts out of that infested container without having me chase down cargo sent spinning off into space due to the detonations. Either that, or work up a new upgrade combo on the next attempt.

 

[YianGaruga]

I guess I don't see the point in complaining about something that is 100% fixable by a program that should be permanently enabled for anyone sensitive to unstable framerates.

In this case, the tearing is indicative of the engine not being able to hold 60 FPS, which VSync can't magically fix. I should've specified that in my original post.

 

[harrytang]

Game is only $6 at greenmangaming.com with the 25% code.

bought! i dont even know what this game about. getting the best deal my favorite game! i have a lot of games bought that i havent played

 

[Blizzard]

In this case, the tearing is indicative of the engine not being able to hold 60 FPS, which VSync can't magically fix. I should've specified that in my original post.

I agree the graphics aren't amazing, though I thought the style was decent. I didn't remember as much aliasing as your screenshots showed, but looking closely on my own computer that seems to be the case even with the "Epic" graphics option, unfortunately.

I didn't notice any performance issues in the first few sectors. I have an old CPU (e8400 3.0 GHz) and a 5850, and I actually ran D3DOverrider because I was getting maybe 150 fps or more. After that I never noticed it go below 60 fps.

I am sorry if I misled anyone with a "roguelike" label. It was just one thing the game reminded me of, with the potential for randomly generated sectors, and the risk/reward of exploring deeper into containers and losing upgrades.

 

[Munin]

Man, playing this game with a shaky framerate on a laptop with a trackpad can be pretty unforgiving, especially when you're being chased around by space jellyfish and can't even aim properly.

 

[Blizzard]

Man, playing this game with a shaky framerate on a laptop with a trackpad can be pretty unforgiving, especially when you're being chased around by space jellyfish and can't even aim properly.

There are gamepad and keyboard aiming options in the controls...I don't know if they would help, but you could try! I assume you already used the "fast" graphics setting to try to help the framerate.

 

[Sentenza]

Subscribing...

 

[Moobabe]

Subscribing...

Good man - I'm keeping an eye on this from afar. All kinds of no money at the moment - but Pylon threads are always weighty opinions.

 

[Leon Belmont]

First of all this game is incredibly fun and addictive, I really love the Menu music (it's the same background music in game, it fits just fine).

I played it like 55 minutes with k&m and the Xbox 360 controller, I find it easier with the k&m, I can aim better with the mouse than the Xbox 360 controller, when you try to aim with the right stick of the Xbox 360 controller it's a little bit difficult, but I think that it's matter of time to get used to it.

Graphics aren't the best in the world but I really like the way it looks, I'm running the game on "Epic", 1920x1080p and it runs smooth, my rig is:

Windows 7 Ultimate 32 Bit
Core 2 Quad Q8300 2.5 Ghz
3.25 GB RAM
MSI GTS 450 OC 1 GB

About the gameplay, as I said, it's fun, addictive and challenging, it's a bit difficult because you have a short time to explore each cargo, but I really like that, the level of difficulty it's ok for me.

Well I will keep it playing and leave more impressions!

But my advice is to buy this game!

 

[Alex Connolly]

We've all happened upon the corpse of

Spoiler

Tom Chick

, right?

Also, RPS used the term "Dad Space". Loved that.

 

[Blizzard]

We've all happened upon the corpse of

Spoiler

Tom Chick

, right?

Also, RPS used the term "Dad Space". Loved that.

I like the little touches like the faceless corporate emails with crappy promotions, the flowers (I think?) outside in space, and the random umbrella on the roof of the spaceship, as if there would be a pool up there.

 

[Striek]

So big thank you for Blizzard for gifting me this game! I've played for a couple hours thus far and its very good and addictive. I couldn't quite make out what was happening in the YT video, but after playing I really like the platforming/puzzle element of having the containers gravitational direction being random and having little warning before needing to evacuate to the ship. Theres some great risk/reward in deciding when to abandon that last crate. Haven't actually being stuck in space yet though.

The combat so far is OK but I can never find enough ammo, especially since some enemies are bullet sponges and the melee, even upgraded, seems too weak. Also the flying drones when you're out in space are annoying/scary as all hell. Controls are good except it can be easy to lose the cursor. I think it would probably play well with a controller (presuming the cursor stays locked).

Will definitely be playing it a lot more.

I have some questions though, is there any point to sectors apart from having different items/leaderboards? Likewise is there a reason to go to sleep to end the day? Since if you die you still keep your score.
Also I keep collecting magbombs, how do I use them?

Spoiler

Currently the king of NEOGAF sector of space with an embarrassingly low score