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EA Announces Spare Parts for the XBLA and PSN |OT|
- Thread starter Shard
- Start date
So uh this game is coming out tomorrow:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/01/17/spare-parts-simon-pegg-robots-and-co-op/
Spare Parts is a game we made about these two robots Mar-T and Chip who find themselves dropped out with the garbage on an alien planet. To be honest, we cast robots as the main characters because we all love robots. Robots are awesome template for characters for a number of reasons, and you can apply so many things to their character, personality and abilities. I am a massive sci-fi fan and the basic story elements dealing with two buddy robots, cast out with the garbage and forced to survive on an alien planet appealed to me a lot. Very early in the game our two robots meet Con-Rad (voiced by Simon Pegg) in an abandoned space ship and he becomes their guide and mentor. Con-Rad explains that the evil race know as the Krofax are in orbit and if they detect that the robots are operational, will come after them with a vengeance. Their only hope is to collect enough spare ship parts that have been littered all over the planet by the Krofax in an attempt to repair the ship and escape.
Essentially, Spare Parts is all about exploring the world, solving puzzles, beating up enemies, collecting items and finding hidden goodies. It was important to the team that the player feel a sense of progression and reward when playing through the game and one of the best things about robots is you can upgrade their parts! We hit upon the idea of giving them abilities that you would find throughout the game and these took the form of Action Parts. The parts give you new attacks and abilities to use on the environment. Some of these can be used to stun enemies or reprogram them, others can be used for greater damage or to reach hidden areas. This allowed us to create the levels around the new abilities you would gain when playing through and also find hidden areas in levels that you have already been through upon re-entry. I think my favourite part at the moment is the Nano Trigger, which allows you to re-program enemies to attack each other and control Krofax Technology.
There are also 100 ship parts scattered around the planet for players to find. Some of the parts were amed after people who worked on the game, others are little nods to our favourite sci-fi films and games. As well as Mar-T and Chip, there are also eight other robots to find and play as in the game. They are hidden around the world and need re-activating to be of use.
We wanted to make a game that could be played by anyone really and capture that co-op feel you find in a lot of modern games. I love playing third-person action games and, for me, there werent a lot of games out there on PSN that I could play through with my girlfriend, or that people could truly play through together. The team came up with the idea of using specific co-op moves that would allow the players to work together for greater effect. Initially, we thought it would be cool to have both players combine their attacks to cause more damage to enemies. Very quickly, however, the original idea then lead on to enabling players to performing special moves together to unlock hidden areas, take out bosses faster and also, just to let players mess around and have fun. Thus, the break dancing and rock-paper-scissors ideas came about.
When creating the story we realised that we had made a great way of giving purpose to a lot of our levels. We didnt want to make a game that was the done-to-death lava level, ice level, water level style of game, so the planet we created had to have some cool twists to it. Alien worlds and strange unknown lands are food for imagination. Space is awesome and interesting because it contains (at least in fiction) ships, planets, aliens and most importantly, the unknown! We decided on having a jungle-based world which had been littered with technology, but also had local inhabitant wildlife that would populate the surroundings. This gave us a great foundation to play through mountain tops, river beds, caves, cliffs and deserts, and have interesting scenery, enemies and puzzles that didnt feel out of place.
The main enemies in the game are lead by the evil Lord Sulba Krung who travels around the galaxy in his ship, decimating planets and stealing their technology for his own use. Frequently, anything he cant use he drops on planets that pose no threat to him or his Krofax. The heroes in our game are cast out onto one of these planets before the Krofax detect movement and realise they are still alive. Sending down his troops, Sulba Krung is determined to stop them from repairing Con-Rads systems and steal the Power Core that Con-Rad has been protecting in his ships hull. Sulba Krungs main forces are called the Krofax and we wanted to make them a kind of incompetent storm trooper who would be a problem in larger groups, but individually are very dumb. This gave us a chance to use some funny situations with the cutscenes and also a reason for them to be inherently evil they are just too dumb to know better.
Very early on we decided that the ships computer Con-Rad, should be the narrator and guide for the players in the game. We needed him to have great character and personality so we wanted to cast someone great to perform the role. As the only speaking character in the game, it was important that we got someone who could fill Con-Rad with personality and charm and also someone who understands videogames and loves sci-fi. We managed to sign up Simon Pegg to perform as his voice and were thrilled with the results. When the audio recording started appearing in the game it really added another level to Con-Rad and made him feel so much more than he was on paper.
We have really enjoyed bringing Mar-T, Chip, Con-Rad and their adventures to life and hope you all enjoy playing it when it is released.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mox9NCkLoy4
-$9.99
-Platinum Trophy
-Local AND online Co-op
-Will be a Demo on PSN
Didn't even know this game existed till earlier today but it reminds me of Ratchet and Clank alot and that's why I'm interrested.
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/01/17/spare-parts-simon-pegg-robots-and-co-op/
Spare Parts is a game we made about these two robots Mar-T and Chip who find themselves dropped out with the garbage on an alien planet. To be honest, we cast robots as the main characters because we all love robots. Robots are awesome template for characters for a number of reasons, and you can apply so many things to their character, personality and abilities. I am a massive sci-fi fan and the basic story elements dealing with two buddy robots, cast out with the garbage and forced to survive on an alien planet appealed to me a lot. Very early in the game our two robots meet Con-Rad (voiced by Simon Pegg) in an abandoned space ship and he becomes their guide and mentor. Con-Rad explains that the evil race know as the Krofax are in orbit and if they detect that the robots are operational, will come after them with a vengeance. Their only hope is to collect enough spare ship parts that have been littered all over the planet by the Krofax in an attempt to repair the ship and escape.
Essentially, Spare Parts is all about exploring the world, solving puzzles, beating up enemies, collecting items and finding hidden goodies. It was important to the team that the player feel a sense of progression and reward when playing through the game and one of the best things about robots is you can upgrade their parts! We hit upon the idea of giving them abilities that you would find throughout the game and these took the form of Action Parts. The parts give you new attacks and abilities to use on the environment. Some of these can be used to stun enemies or reprogram them, others can be used for greater damage or to reach hidden areas. This allowed us to create the levels around the new abilities you would gain when playing through and also find hidden areas in levels that you have already been through upon re-entry. I think my favourite part at the moment is the Nano Trigger, which allows you to re-program enemies to attack each other and control Krofax Technology.
There are also 100 ship parts scattered around the planet for players to find. Some of the parts were amed after people who worked on the game, others are little nods to our favourite sci-fi films and games. As well as Mar-T and Chip, there are also eight other robots to find and play as in the game. They are hidden around the world and need re-activating to be of use.
We wanted to make a game that could be played by anyone really and capture that co-op feel you find in a lot of modern games. I love playing third-person action games and, for me, there werent a lot of games out there on PSN that I could play through with my girlfriend, or that people could truly play through together. The team came up with the idea of using specific co-op moves that would allow the players to work together for greater effect. Initially, we thought it would be cool to have both players combine their attacks to cause more damage to enemies. Very quickly, however, the original idea then lead on to enabling players to performing special moves together to unlock hidden areas, take out bosses faster and also, just to let players mess around and have fun. Thus, the break dancing and rock-paper-scissors ideas came about.
When creating the story we realised that we had made a great way of giving purpose to a lot of our levels. We didnt want to make a game that was the done-to-death lava level, ice level, water level style of game, so the planet we created had to have some cool twists to it. Alien worlds and strange unknown lands are food for imagination. Space is awesome and interesting because it contains (at least in fiction) ships, planets, aliens and most importantly, the unknown! We decided on having a jungle-based world which had been littered with technology, but also had local inhabitant wildlife that would populate the surroundings. This gave us a great foundation to play through mountain tops, river beds, caves, cliffs and deserts, and have interesting scenery, enemies and puzzles that didnt feel out of place.
The main enemies in the game are lead by the evil Lord Sulba Krung who travels around the galaxy in his ship, decimating planets and stealing their technology for his own use. Frequently, anything he cant use he drops on planets that pose no threat to him or his Krofax. The heroes in our game are cast out onto one of these planets before the Krofax detect movement and realise they are still alive. Sending down his troops, Sulba Krung is determined to stop them from repairing Con-Rads systems and steal the Power Core that Con-Rad has been protecting in his ships hull. Sulba Krungs main forces are called the Krofax and we wanted to make them a kind of incompetent storm trooper who would be a problem in larger groups, but individually are very dumb. This gave us a chance to use some funny situations with the cutscenes and also a reason for them to be inherently evil they are just too dumb to know better.
Very early on we decided that the ships computer Con-Rad, should be the narrator and guide for the players in the game. We needed him to have great character and personality so we wanted to cast someone great to perform the role. As the only speaking character in the game, it was important that we got someone who could fill Con-Rad with personality and charm and also someone who understands videogames and loves sci-fi. We managed to sign up Simon Pegg to perform as his voice and were thrilled with the results. When the audio recording started appearing in the game it really added another level to Con-Rad and made him feel so much more than he was on paper.
We have really enjoyed bringing Mar-T, Chip, Con-Rad and their adventures to life and hope you all enjoy playing it when it is released.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mox9NCkLoy4
-$9.99
-Platinum Trophy
-Local AND online Co-op
-Will be a Demo on PSN
Didn't even know this game existed till earlier today but it reminds me of Ratchet and Clank alot and that's why I'm interrested.
GitarooMan
Member
Sounds pretty cool for 10 bucks, I will definitely check out the demo, I am a sucker for any decent 3rd person action/adventure. Wonder how the game handles single player.
Dead Prince
Banned
$10 for a platinum trophy? sign me up.
LiquidMetal14
hide your water-based mammals
Daaaaaaaaamn. Looks nice.
sixteen-bit
Member
exactly what i was thinkingTakao said:The character designs remind me of something, but I just can't put my name on it...
Edit:
Shhhiiittttt
DMPrince said:
Yep this will be like my third PSN game in a month that I got for $10 that includes a platinum trophy:
1. Superstar V8 Racing (glad I waited for that to go down to $10, i knew it would)
2. Dead Nation (I'm PS+ so ok it was JUST over $10)
3. this game
The PSN has been very kind to me lately. Three platinum games for just over $30.
With LBP2 content, Mass Effect 2, and now this coming out on the store tomorrow I expect the update to be LATE.
overthehill99
Member
DMPrince said:
Oh man. Just.....oh man.netguy503 said:Yep this will be like my third PSN game in a month that I got for $10 that includes a platinum trophy:
1. Superstar V8 Racing (glad I waited for that to go down to $10, i knew it would)
2. Dead Nation (I'm PS+ so ok it was JUST over $10)
3. this game
The PSN has been very kind to me lately. Three platinum games for just over $30.
With LBP2 content, Mass Effect 2, and now this coming out on the store tomorrow I expect the update to be LATE.
GitarooMan
Member
Yeah, but since the second post was just made today, the game obviously was way way off the radar, so i think "out of the blue" still sort of works here.angelfly said:
Dark Octave
Banned
Looks cool.
Keyser Soze
Member
Plat trophy talk makes me ill :/
Revolutionary
Member
Simon Pegg? Bought.
Dark Octave
Banned
I wonder how much advanced marketing is really needed for most XBLA/PSN titles. From what I've noticed of those around me, either you're into XBLA/PSN games and check in every so often or you don't. With only one or two games going up a week, it's hard to miss anything even if you haven't checked for months and XBLA has mandatory demos. Again though, this is just what I've noticed from people around me.krae_man said:
Dude, my GF and I just watched this last night. Ridiculous stupid but still kinda good.
SapientWolf
Trucker Sexologist
Radiangames (aka Luke Schneider) said that his XBLIG games did better without any pre-release marketing.Dark Octave said:
jstevenson
Sailor Stevenson
this game looks like a ton of fun.
Psychotext
Member
Will see what the reviews have to say... and then pick it up in a sale somewhere down the road.
Dark Octave
Banned
From what I understand:Psychotext said:Will see what the reviews have to say... and then pick it up in a sale somewhere down the road.
-It comes out tomorrow and I'm sure will have a demo.
-It's already only $10.
Psychotext
Member
I have somewhere in the order of 30 games that I haven't even started yet. Pointless paying full price for something that will be on sale by the time I actually get around to playing it.Dark Octave said:
jstevenson
Sailor Stevenson
krae_man said:Ruff Trigger fun?
I have 8 copies of that game it's so fun
jstevenson said:
I only have one, played it for about an hour. I should go back through and play that just for kicks. Something's gotta tide me over till All 4 One since Sony's dragging their heels on the Ratchet and Clank Collection.
Can't wait to see if Spare Parts gameplay has the Ratchet feel the art style is giving off.
finished the psn demo and i dont like it.
the art design, animations and graphics are pretty good but the game itself is boring.
simon peggs voicework is pretty disappointing, the game pauses too often (enemies appear- you have to watch them for 5-10 seconds), fighting is not fun.
maybe it gets better after the demo area but after playing the demo, i have no desire to play the full version.
the art design, animations and graphics are pretty good but the game itself is boring.
simon peggs voicework is pretty disappointing, the game pauses too often (enemies appear- you have to watch them for 5-10 seconds), fighting is not fun.
maybe it gets better after the demo area but after playing the demo, i have no desire to play the full version.
Keyser Soze
Member
Trial was a 1GB waste of bandwidth :/
...I'm on 60GB a month, so it matters!!
...I'm on 60GB a month, so it matters!!
Mojo said:
They should have just ripped off the Ratchet and Clank press a button to bring up the weapon select wheel instead of mapping it to the right stick. I keep on trying to move the camera only to change what power up I have equipped.
Control is off, I've lost count of the number of times I've pressed jump only to have nothing happen.
Story is also slow and boring. "Oh poo, my transporter isn't working. That's the reason the battery parts didn't go right to you". Really? Story should have been 20 seconds: "This is the bad guy, you need to collect 'Spare Parts' to defeat bad guy, go get them" and been done with it. The long boring naration with failed attempts at humor is just a waste of time.
The game feels like a test market for if trophy whores will buy anything as long as it has easy trophies. The game has 2 silver, 10 gold and 1 platinum. That's 1200 trophy points.
Keyser Soze said:
You just have to put up with that. I came within a gig of going over the month Lara Croft and the Guardian of light came out and Microsoft put Fable II up for free by mistake.
goldenpp72
Member
Wow what a horrible demo, the game seems like it could be fun but the demo is so bad due to the length.
cleveridea
Member
yeah worst demo ever. went through the "training" ready to play actual game and... thats it. over. buy or quit.
wtf
I have no idea if I will like the game. I didnt play a single real level just the jump on some boxes and attack the same 1 enemy spawning tons of times.
terrible demo. is this just bad planning, or a sign of how little content is in the game? was wondering if its kind of like ratchet and clank, but demo did nothing but make me angry and uninstall the "demo" immediately
wtf
I have no idea if I will like the game. I didnt play a single real level just the jump on some boxes and attack the same 1 enemy spawning tons of times.
terrible demo. is this just bad planning, or a sign of how little content is in the game? was wondering if its kind of like ratchet and clank, but demo did nothing but make me angry and uninstall the "demo" immediately
I'm probably going to finish the game, It's very short(only 4 planets I think) and I'll just play it while listening to podcasts that way I don't have to hear the annoying naration.
I can't believe they let the jumping be so terrible. I get the feeling they decided "meh, the penalty for death is almost non existant so we don't need good jump controls" Umm No EA, the jumping should have been working properly before you released it.
Xray doesn't work properly either. Durring the first Boss fight there were multiple points where I couldn't figure out what to do next so I used my Xray vision to see where I could use my special powers. Do you think I could get the goggles to find where I was supposed to use my powers? It often took the third or 4th time looking something to get the prompt to show up.
I can't believe they let the jumping be so terrible. I get the feeling they decided "meh, the penalty for death is almost non existant so we don't need good jump controls" Umm No EA, the jumping should have been working properly before you released it.
Xray doesn't work properly either. Durring the first Boss fight there were multiple points where I couldn't figure out what to do next so I used my Xray vision to see where I could use my special powers. Do you think I could get the goggles to find where I was supposed to use my powers? It often took the third or 4th time looking something to get the prompt to show up.
cleveridea said:
The Demo lets you walk to the right most room and to a training tutorial, and then after that, walk to the left door, use the upgrade you got to push in a block, and then you get to play an actual stage.
I played through the demo (Xbox Live) with my brother offline, and we had a decent amount of fun, working with the sync bonuses, high-fiving for health, etc. Found the graphics and animation nice, and appreciated the decently sized text.
For the cheap price, I thought it seemed quite quality. Didn't buy the full game yet, but the controls didn't bother me. I was suprised not to see more talk about it, because it seemed to be good at what it aimed to do; be a light hearted family-oriented co-op game, with a nicely rendered world, that called back to games like Toejam and Earl.
Man honestly, ruff trigger is more of a "carry alien things around" simulator than a Ratchet clone. Scaler managed to blatantly copy more things from the RaC games and it doesnt even have guns (but the level designers did have a hardon for the grind rails).krae_man said:
Thats how bad RT is. It cant even rip shit off well.
Dark Octave
Banned
Pretty bad demo. I spent 15 minutes inside being forced through a tutorial on how to jump and as soon as I step outside and fight a few enemies, the demo abruptly ends.
The game itself seemed ok but I didn't really get a chance to play it.
For $10 I'm not expecting Ratchet & Clank quality though. It seemed decent enough for the price.
The game itself seemed ok but I didn't really get a chance to play it.
For $10 I'm not expecting Ratchet & Clank quality though. It seemed decent enough for the price.
krae_man said:
well...I'm looking for a co-op partner on this game. When are you on? I've only passed the second world (of 4 right?) and I have a mic so things should be quick and easy. If anyone has the PS3 version of this game please add Netguy503 saying "GAF-Spare Parts" or something. I would really like to go through this game with a partner and am actually thinking of playing it again today. I'm having fun with it at least. Thanks for the help.
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