Star Trek : DAC?

[EddieA]

This article has news of what appears to be a new Star Trek game.  They surmise that it will be an XBLA/PSN game, and from the May release date and the developer's history, they're probably right.

[CeeKay]

loking at the ad for it I'm betting it's going to be a game like Wing Commander Arena.

[Destructor]

loking at the ad for it I'm betting it's going to be a game like Wing Commander Arena.

And what does that mean folks? That's right - it'll be utter crap.

[sgoldj]

Maybe "Secret of Vulcan Fury" will be released with the new movie?


(someday I will come out of the Dreamland that I live in.....)

[Bullwinkle]

Maybe "Secret of Vulcan Fury" will be released with the new movie?


(someday I will come out of the Dreamland that I live in.....)

Man, I was psyched for that game.  I'm kind of sure it would have sucked, though.

[CeeKay]

Maybe "Secret of Vulcan Fury" will be released with the new movie?


(someday I will come out of the Dreamland that I live in.....)

Man, I was psyched for that game.  I'm kind of sure it would have sucked, though.

I hear sucking is indeed the Secret of Vulcan Fury....

[CeeKay]

details on the game.

Smells like a copy of Wing Commander Arena.

[Harkonis]

I had a lot of fun with the multi in Wing Commander Arena.  wish more people had played.

[Destructor]

I had a lot of fun with the multi in Wing Commander Arena.  wish more people had played.

Because the only people who've heard of the Wing Commander name are those old-school fans who found the XBLA game to be an absolute insult. That's why it bombed.

And this definitely sounds like WCA. At least more people will have heard of Star Trek.

[Harkonis]

I found that looking at the game as more of a subspace clone than a WC sequel helped me enjoy it a lot more.  I really miss Subspace.

[Bullwinkle]

I played the demo this morning.  While some of the demo limitations are frustrating (only 1 of the 3 ship classes are available, and the Flagships will kick your ass; only Team Deathmatch is playable), it's definitely better than WCA.

It's pretty frantic, but there's some strategy possible (teaming up to take down a Flagship, for example).  However, in the demo, there's no way to tell how well balanced it is.  I didn't see any bombers out there.  Some players were in Fships (presumably those who bought the game), but I still managed to be one of the top two scorers every game.

One thing that's nice is the upgrade system.  There are one-use power-ups that float around which give you things like invulnerability, homing torpedos, AI wingman, a localized explosion, and cloaking (though I never found one of those).  These can make a surprising difference and alter how you go in for an attack.  The real feature is the weapons upgrade.  They appear randomly and inside asteroids and every time you blow up a ship or an escape pod.  Every two you collect upgrades your weapons power, giving you a wider spread, up to a max power of four.  Max power seems pretty powerful (though not so much against the Fships).

I mentioned the escape pods.  When your ship is at its end, you'll hear a warning siren.  If you hit the A button, you'll eject.  The pods are pretty maneuverable, but they only seem to take one hit to destroy.  If you survive for five seconds, you respawn with a minor drop in power (as opposed to starting over).  This can make a significant difference.  It's a cool system (especially because not everyone seems to understand it yet).  It seems fairly easy to get away in a pod, though (maybe too easy).

If I had one complaint, other than the balancing (but that's just an unknown entity at this point), it's that your weapons are tied to energy, and it seems to run out quickly.  Many was the time that I found myself firing limply at a player who was near death.  The tendency is to just hold down the firing trigger, since the game is geared toward fast action, but that'll deplete you fairly quickly.  However, since everyone is zipping around the screen, precision aiming is not in the cards.  Seems like a bad choice there.

Other than deathmatch, there seems to be Conquest mode (take over all the neutral points and you can take over the enemy base) and Assault which has you going after control points, trying to claim all of them.

Overall, I had way more fun with this than I was expecting to.  Still haven't pulled the trigger on the full game yet, but I'm thinking about it.

What the hell does D-A-C stand for?

[jblank]

D=Deathmatch
A=Assault
C=Conquest

[Bullwinkle]

D=Deathmatch
A=Assault
C=Conquest

If it was a snake, it would have bit me.

Dumb name.

[CeeKay]

D=Deathmatch
A=Assault
C=Conquest

If it was a snake, it would have bit me.

Dumb name.

I always thought it meant 'Dumb Ass Codename' myself....

[EddieA]

This is clever - (secret achievement spoiler) - Link.

[CeeKay]

I tried the demo.  you'd think they'd have a way to separate the trial users from the people who own the full version.  the game I played had everyone on the Federation side in capital ships and apparently all of us Romulans were playing the trial version as we all had fighters.  it wasn't pretty.

[Harkonis]

I'm liking the fighter quite a bit and think I might stick with it even if I get the full version. I've been taking down quite a few flagships with it.  The key is to not get close and make sweeps just outside it's autofire range.

[Harkonis]

The explosion powerup is a bit powerful though, seems to one shot fighters.  killed 3 people in one blast and they had no chance to do anything about it.

[Bullwinkle]

The explosion powerup is a bit powerful though, seems to one shot fighters.  killed 3 people in one blast and they had no chance to do anything about it.

I think that was a lucky break.  I could never get it to work taking out more than one guy.

[Razgon]

Tried it - a bit too frantic for me, but good idea for a minigame

[CeeKay]

I'm liking the fighter quite a bit and think I might stick with it even if I get the full version. I've been taking down quite a few flagships with it.  The key is to not get close and make sweeps just outside it's autofire range.

provided all the Feds aren't working as a team and the Roms aren't running around like chickens with their heads cut off.  the guys I went up against kept their ships together, but anytime I tried to get some team work going I was met with silence.  stoopid PUGs.

[CeeKay]

this is coming to PSN in November.

[Kagath]

I found that looking at the game as more of a subspace clone than a WC sequel helped me enjoy it a lot more.  I really miss Subspace.

Subspace was awesome. I only had slow ass dialup and it was still awesome if laggy.