Precursors - Coming to Gamersgate

[Dhruin]

News via Worthplaying that Precursors and White Gold will be coming to the digital distribution system Gamersgate (and Gamestreamer, which I don't know). I can't see them on the site yet but it should be soon:

Game Factory Interactive presents Christmas and New Year gifts to all players launching the long-awaited FPS/RPG games Precursors and Xenus II: White Gold. Have cool, exciting and unforgettable holidays with Caribbean drug mafiosos under high palms or among alien civilizations of far galaxies!!!

More information.

 

[bazmod]

so I take it this will be an english language release? Have been looking out for Precursors for years now - hopefully it'll live up to expectations.

If the blurb that is linked above is anything to go by, then I think the translation is going to be a little patchy at best!

 

[Ashbery76]

The game looks amazing.What is the story about reviews?

 

[Couchpotato]

They probably used the fan translation and tweaked it a little.

 

[guenthar]

Below is a link to the actual announcement from Game Factory along with videos for the games.

http://www.gfi.su/news.php?id=751&langid=2&menu_id=0&page=1

The Precursor video was put up on the 16th and the White Gold video was put up on the 15th so they may be new videos. The Precursors video was entirely in Russian but the White Gold video had all dialogs in English and the rest in Russian.

PS. These will be in English since the announcement is only of Game factory's English site and not the Russian site.

 

[JDR13]

I'll definitely be buying Precursors without a second thought. I've been wanting to play it for years.

 

[zadokAllen]

Talk coincidences- few days ago I went on the quest to find out how bad/good Boiling Point really was, and learned it actually has a sequel and then this Precursors thingy.

So, has anyone actually played Boiling Point? Is it as broken as some reviews say? Maybe it got patched to playability? Russian Far Cry sounds rather interesting...

 

[zakhal]

Space arcade shooter and rpg/fps mix? There is nigh zero info about the game atleast in english.

 

[rich ruffo]

This Precursors sounds like a Sci Fi RPG dream come true, what Mass Effect could have been. The art design looks very interesting . will give it a try.

 

[Glorian]

I'll definitely be buying Precursors without a second thought. I've been wanting to play it for years.

Xenus II is better than Precursors in my opinion, I played both. I loved Xenus II. This is one of the best free roaming action RPGs ever. It is an enlarged-Gothic-with-guns-and-vehicles-on-tropic-islands game


Cheers
G.

 

[gozioso]

I played Boiling Point a few years ago. It's a really good sandbox game. The only thing I really didn't like was the area at the very end (no spoilers-you'll know exactly what I mean when you get there). My understanding is that the game was a buggy mess at release, but it works fine with the 2.0 patch. I'm very excited about this announcement, because I have been looking forward to these games for years.

 

[Majnun]

Boiling Point (Xenus) is decent once it's patched up. But White Gold (Xenus 2) is much much better I think. I haven't finished either but I'm pretty sure I will finish White Gold…not so sure if I'll ever go back and try to finish BP.

The Precursors is in some ways just White Gold in a sci-fi setting. The non-space flight stuff is basically the same gameplay systems as WG. Then you go into space and it becomes an actual space sim like Elite/Freelancer. I just got to that part and it was pretty unexpected and completely changes the game (although I know you will go back & forth to the regular RPG gameplay). Not sure if that's for better or worse yet though. I'm still fairly early in both Precursors and WG so not sure which I like better yet.

All three games are the only games I can think of with multiple factions (6-8) that you can work for and the system actually works. And even the bad guys factions (bandits, etc) are fleshed out with missions you can do. Fallout New Vegas was great but all the hype about all the factions was just bullcrap when you got down to it…there were almost zero missions for Caesar's Legion until the very end of the game. Not so with these games.

The Precursors does feel a bit unfinished though. Each faction has an NPC that should repair your reputation with them for a price but on the first planet they did not work (but it was obvious that that's what they were there for). The dialog is alot better than WG but still has a few stray words that seem a little odd.

White Gold has the problem of the dialog being really wonky since it's a Ukrainian version of what they think some South American country would talk like and then translated by them into English. You get some really weird dialog sometimes. This is not Wesps fault at all, he used the English translations already on the disc for the most part (from what I understand).

All of that dialog stuff might be fixed in the digital download versions about to be released though. There's not really any word whether this is using what Wesp did (he has not been asked or involved in it apparently) or something else. If they're charging more than $35 I'd advise just ordering them through ebay to have the DVD version (but that's just me)…unless of course this is some new patched up fully translated version (which I kinda doubt it is sice Deep Shadows has been silent for a long time).

Oh and Wesp is apparently about to release the newest version of his translation patch. I'd assume it will work with this "new" version of Precursors as well (if needed).

 

[Ashbery76]

Xenus II is better than Precursors in my opinion, I played both. I loved Xenus II. This is one of the best free roaming action RPGs ever. It is an enlarged-Gothic-with-guns-and-vehicles-on-tropic-islands game


Cheers
G.

Precursors being a sci fi RPG with ships is a huge pull.Xenus2 kinda looks like a poor mans Just Cause 2 from the video.

 

[Acleacius]

Damn it, they should have done this two years ago. It wasn't like no one mentioned this to them, we did and most if not all momentum, including fan sites are gone.

 

[Arkose]

This is a surprising development, but a very welcome one. I will be interested to see whether they have just taken the fan translation and polished it a bit or actually done a lot more than that. I'm not expecting voice translation but if they have managed to do that as well that would be incredible. The English release also gives me hope for the possibility of these games getting well-deserved sequels in the future.

Both games are well worth a look, although of course the Precursors is the more alluring game because of its sci-fi setting that combines first-person exploration with space combat and trading. All in all though they are very much two of a kind, so if you like the one you'll like the other.

Precursors being a sci fi RPG with ships is a huge pull.Xenus2 kinda looks like a poor mans Just Cause 2 from the video.

Xenus II was originally released in 2008. While it might seem ostensibly similar to Just Cause 2 because of the tropical setting there are few similarities. Just Cause 2 opts for a GTA-style sandbox experience with mostly linear missions whereas Xenus II is actually a full-on RPG experience with Deus Ex-like FPS mechanics (character skill determines accuracy but player skill determines hit/miss—no dice rolls), a full inventory, weapon customisation, open-ended quest progression with multiple solutions (even for the main quest), faction rivalries that actually matter, the ability to save anywhere, etc.

 

[getter77]

I'd vaguely heard about these games ages ago...it'll be interesting to see what the final product winds up like---especially the space one.

 

[bjon045]

Boiling point is one of my favourite games, can't wait for white gold.

 

[zadokAllen]

I`m truly impressed - was about to write Boiling Point and its brethren off. No thanks, Edge, with your self-righteous 2/10

I can live with some assorted bugs, long as they`re not game breaking (and wheels on that jeep not square or something , its a price for such huge worlds (with factions!!!) and anyway respect to these devs! I`m sure they didn`t have Crytek`s budget

 

[DArtagnan]

When are they to be released, exactly?

*EDIT*

Seems they're already out on Gamersgate.... Interesting

 

[DArtagnan]

Hmm, seems the gamelength is around 20 hours on average? Seems a bit low for a "freeform" space/trade/fps game....