Haze (PS3 exklusiv)

The story of Haze is based around a conglomerate called Mantel, a pharmaceutical/weapons/you-name-it company that has its fingers in everything from the water we drink to the shoes we wear to perhaps even the air we breathe. Mantel even has its own private army which it uses to help quell the constant civil uprisings commonplace in this not-too-distant future.

One of Mantel's most advanced, and perhaps unstable, technologies comes in the form of Nectar, a serum that its soldiers use to heighten their senses. This ties directly into Haze's gameplay as you're able to tap into the Nectar tank on your back at any time and get a number of sensory boosts. Your aiming will be increased with a bit of lock-on help and enemies will stand out from the environment as glowing figures. Coolest of all though is the foresight that you'll gain that will warn you of incoming dangers. For instance, when a grenade lands near you you'll see a distortion wave emit from its location a second or two before it goes off, giving you just enough time to back away and at least lessen the damage, if not avoid it entirely.

While using Nectar certainly gives you an advantage in battle, it is not to be abused. Overdosing on the substance will cause you to become confused and automatically fire at anyone in front of you, and your vision becomes distorted to the point that friends and enemies alike look the same. This isn't just a downside for you as your teammates can overdose as well, and should they begin firing upon the rest of the squad, interesting gameplay scenarios open up. Do you fire back and try and minimize damage to your entire squad, or get out of the way until they calm down and hope your men do the same?

But it's not just aggressive use of Nectar that can cause you to overdose as rebels have learned to take advantage of it as well and use it against you. Nectar grenades will increase your intake, and a honed shot can puncture your tank and flood your mask with the gaseous drug.

Aside from the setup and Nectar elements, details on the story are rather sketchy. We do know that the story touches on how there really are no "good" or "bad" sides to a war, but rather differing views. We also know that your character has rather interesting visions from time to time where your surroundings will change slightly as the screen changes to black and white. The reasoning for this is hinted in the latest trailer on our video page, which you can check out right here, though we're still in the dark as to what the visions actually mean.

As you play through the three days during in which Haze is set, you'll move seamlessly--that means no load screens--among a dozen different environments. These environments are known to include a jungle, a quarry, an observatory, a holiday resort, and a disused container ship. The first part of our demo took place in the jungle, which was the perfect locale to show off the aforementioned perception ability. As the Nectar was administered, we noticed that at least two components of the heads-up display superimposed on the screen-filling helmet visor are devoted to the substance. One indicator shows how many doses you have left, while another indictor shows the level of Nectar in your bloodstream. Other elements on the HUD included a health bar and a compass. The level of Nectar in your bloodstream is important because if you use too much, you'll overdose, which causes the screen to blur and enemies or allies to become indistinguishable. You'll also lose control of your trigger, which will automatically open fire on anyone who comes into view. Regardless of whether or not they're being controlled by the CPU or by up to three other players in a co-op game, your squadmates will be vulnerable to the harmful effects of Nectar in the same way as you, and we're told that as you progress through the game, you'll inevitably end up getting addicted.

The third and final level that we were afforded a brief glimpse of during our demo was taken from later in the game. It tasked the MGI squad with locating and eliminating a rebel chief in an industrial setting. The whole environment's appearance was almost devoid of color, and perhaps as a result of excessive Nectar use in previous locales, the action had a much grittier feel to it. This was largely down to the enemies, who screamed and writhed around on the ground in agony after being shot, which was in stark contrast to the quiet deaths that we'd seen earlier. Perhaps it's only toward the end of the game that you'll get to see the combat in Haze for what it really is because you won't be in a "haze" anymore.

The game will take place in 2048, a time when NATO and the UN don't exist. And because of this, most Western governments outsource their military requirements to Mantel Global Industries - an enormous army for hire.

This is where you will come in, as you jump into Sergeant Shane Carpenter's biomedically-boosted shoes and head down to South America to get rid of The Promised Hand rebels. But over the course of three-days your life will change forever.

While no specific details were divulged, Free Radical was keen to point out that this will be a mature and deep experience; one that will have you thinking long after you finish it.

"I can't say too much about it even at this stage, but it asks questions and raises issues that are worth debating long after you've finished the game," said Derek Littlewood, team leader for the game. "Visually, Haze will certainly set a new benchmark, but we believe it will also set a precedent for the quality of writing that we believe should exist in the next generation of games."

"There's more to HAZE than meets the eye, and there's certainly more to Mantel too. In fact, every aspect of the game holds a surprise, secret or twist - the storyline, the gameplay, the graphics. Nothing is safe!"

Free Radical is also adamant that your experience will be seamless, allowing you to drift from one area of the story to another, without the hassle of navigating menus and breaking your immersion.

"It's a completely seamless experience - no loading screens, no missions select screens," Littlewood added. "This was a core aim from very early on in the project, because we're trying to create a realistic, immersive game world - and there are no loading screens in real life, my friends!

"We wanted to give the player a real sense of continuity throughout the game, so rather than simply jumping from one location to another, you'll catch a ride in a Mantel vehicle to get there instead. Think of it as a road movie through a war."

De har inte gått ut och sagt att spelet är PS3-exklusivt, dock att PS3 är deras "lead-platform". Det kommer alltså att släppas till PS3 först, men förmodligen senare även till 360+PC. Men spelet verkar riktigt bra ja

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Ja det är antagligen en tidsexklusiv titel, det verkar snart vara standard bland 3:e partstitlar.

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Det har ju varit utannonserat ganska länge annars, men det här kanske är första gången du såg/lade märke till det  ?

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Redigerat av Unregisteredf64a5233, 24 May 2007 - 01:27.

Screenshots i 1080p. Undra vilken upplösning de siktar på?

» Klicka här för att visa spoiler - Klicka en gång till för att dölja den... «

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Måste säga att det är härligt att se ditt intresse peaka för spelet nu när det har blivit (PS3 exklusivt). Det har ju varit utannonserat ganska länge annars, men det här kanske är första gången du såg/lade märke till det  ?

Man skulle nästan kunna tyda rubriken (exklusiv, istället för tidsexklusiv) som flamebait, men äh.. jag låter dig "komma undan" 

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Men du nappade i varje fall. 

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Men det är ju nu ganska nyligen det har börjat visas en del från spelet som t.ex screenshots och videos.

Men du nappade i varje fall. 

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Jag hoppas 4 player co-op som de pratar om inkluderar split screen.

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Jag hoppas 4 player co-op som de pratar om inkluderar split screen.

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Redigerat av Unregisteredf64a5233, 25 May 2007 - 11:46.

Ok, och det måste väl gå offline också va?

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Ser ut som en dålig Crysis ripoff.

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Redigerat av Unregisteredf64a5233, 25 May 2007 - 16:42.

For us, the biggest draw was Haze, the latest first-person shoot-em-up developed by Free Radical Design, a Nottingham outfit formed by some of the team who developed the legendary GoldenEye for Rare Software, who have more recently received acclaim for the TimeSplitters game and the excellent psychological action-adventure Second Sight. They’re basically the guys who proved that you can do top-notch fps games on consoles – not just the PC.

Haze – hurrah – will be ready in time for Christmas, and will be a PS3 exclusive (at least for a while – there is an Xbox 360 version in the offing, but it won’t surface until some time next year, and the PS3 is the lead platform). Which will claw back some bragging rights about Xbox 360 owners going on about Halo 3.

You play Shane Carpenter, a soldier employed by the private army run by the shadowy Mantel corporation, a company which pretty much runs every aspect of the near-future world in which the game is set. As Free Radical’s scriptwriter Rob Yescombe put it: “Your hair-gel, your microphones, your laptops – they would all have been made by Mantel.” But the company’s main businesses are its private army/arms manufacturing wing, and its pharmaceutical wing.

So, as a Mantel soldier, you get unlimited access to the wonder-drug Nectar,
which turns you into a super-soldier by heightening perception – take a hit
and you’ll be able to anticipate things like mines going off, see hidden
soldiers who are miles away, and even find your aim becomes steadier. It even
gives you a “melee blast” – a melee attack with the force of an explosion —
although, sadly, that wasn’t demonstrated. As with all drugs, there’s a
downside – if you overdose on it, you lose the ability to distinguish between
friend and foe and, indeed, the ability to control when you shoot – so you’ll
probably take out your nearby squad-mates. All to the accompaniment of some
mad visual effects.

Haze takes place over a three-day period in a war that is raging in South
America – Free Radical says there are 12 environments in the game, and we saw
a super-lush jungle, a quarry area in which you proceed in buggies and a huge
warehouse. Four people can play the game co-operatively (dropping in and out
whenever they fancy). Free Radical has gone big on the storyline (something of
a first for the company, as anyone who played TimeSplitters will testify) and,
amusingly, got people in from RADA and the RSC to do the voice acting.

Free Radical strongly hinted that, as the game progresses, you’ll find that
everything in your war is not as clear-cut as it seems – when you’re hopped up
on Nectar, everything looks bright and shiny, your fellow soldiers are
distinguished by fluorescent yellow highlights on their body armour and the
bodies of enemies you have killed disappear instantly. But as the effects of
the Nectar wear off, the enemies you shoot will bleed and won’t disappear, and
the environments take a much more monochrome, grimier look. The Daily Mail
will have fun discovering what an integral part drug-taking plays in Haze’s
gameplay.

Free Radical also promised that the game will have a satisfying online
experience – the company’s Derek Littlewood said: “You can have up to 24
players online. We do have the traditional modes like Capture the Flag, but
there’s also a narrative multiplayer mode which will change your understanding
of what happens in the single-player game.” Once again, it seems that a Brit
developer is poised to come out with a genre-defining game for the PS3 – where
would Sony be without British ingenuity?

Eurogamer: There's rumours that Halo 3 is going to have four-player co-op. Are you relishing the prospect of your kind of co-op going up against theirs?

David Doak: [Smiling] I am very happy to go up against Halo 3. They have a different agenda. We're doing something, we're bringing a lot of new things; and it's a new story. New story and new types of gameplay is our edge there. I mean, their edge is they have a juggernaut driving them along and they have an almost fanatical following. On the flipside of that, they have too change it, and they've got all the people who liked 1 and all the people who liked 2, and both those sets of people expect different things from the one that they liked. So there's an inevitable compromise there.

Tycker detta spelet verkar vara som crysis fast 70ggr bättre. Crysis har ju lika mycket story som ett kvitto.


Tycker storyn bakom Haze känns i alla fall lite originell i FPS genren.

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It's just looking at the way to best get the return on the investment of making the game. And part of that is it's a timing thing; late 2007 will be a good time to be coming out on PlayStation 3 and saying here is Free Radical's next-gen game.

Det kan väl inte finnas någon som gillar att gå upp mot Halo 3 (om de nu gör det, ska de släppas samtidigt eller vad?).

Det låter nästan lite som att de väljer PS3 först för att inte släppa samtidigt på 360. Dvs de vill vänta med 360 versionen för att inte släppa för nära Halo 3, för att undvika konkurrensen på den plattformen. Å andra sidan finns det ingen stor shooter på PS3 (om inte Killzone kommer runt omkring där) så det är enklare att sälja spelet där och bygga en ny IP som de säger.

It's just looking at the way to best get the return on the investment of making the game. And part of that is it's a timing thing; late 2007 will be a good time to be coming out on PlayStation 3 and saying here is Free Radical's next-gen game.

Sen behöver de inte alls ändra speciellt mycket på Halo 3. En nextgenversion att avsluta kampen på är väl vad de flesta vill ha.

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September:

* Dark Messiah: Elements - 7th September (Xbox 360)
* Settlers VI - 7th September (PC)
* Brothers In Arms: Double Time - 21st September (Wii)

October:

* Naruto: Rise of a Ninja - 19th October (Xbox 360)

November:

* Assassin's Creed - 9th November (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
* Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway - 16th November (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
* Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 - 16th November (Wii, DS)
* Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction - 16th November (PC, Xbox 360)
* Haze - 23rd November (PS3)
* Haze - 30th November (PC, Xbox 360)

http://www.eurogamer...rticle_id=78000

Grymt med en veckas exklusivitet... 

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Haze – hurrah – will be ready in time for Christmas, and will be a PS3 exclusive (at least for a while – there is an Xbox 360 version in the offing, but it won’t surface until some time next year, and the PS3 is the lead platform)

Set in the year 2048 in a world where Governments have outsourced military operations to Private Military Corporations (PMC), you play a newly enlisted soldier seeking fulfillment and thrills by fighting for a good cause.

Update: A spokesperson for Ubisoft has confirmed this morning that yesterday’s release schedule was incorrect. Haze is still to be confirmed for PC and Xbox 360, apparently, so the 30th November date now slips into the realms of TBA. The exclusive PS3 date remains the same 

Haze made its debut at E3 2006 and was labeled, amongst other things, a ‘jungle shooter’ and compared to the likes of Far Cry – a full year on and it’s painfully obvious how unfair those comparisons were in every respect, from the range of environments on offer to the game’s innovative narrative line.

But despite this emphasis, the most important aspect of Haze for the team remains the core gameplay, a balancing act that Yescombe relishes: “We don’t want it to be a game where, if you’re not interested in the discussion, you won’t enjoy it – 50 per cent of audiences didn’t get that Starship Troopers was a joke. We want people to play and say: ‘This is a great game’ and then maybe they’ll get the satire and maybe they won’t. Our job is to entertain.”

Undrar varför de blurrat ut PS3-kontrollen, Shock-Axis?

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Redigerat av Unregisteredf64a5233, 09 July 2007 - 02:55.

tycker HAZE ser riktigt trist ut.Spela Timeshift på xbox 360 idag, usch vilket tråkigt spel.Påminner väldigt mycket om HAZE.

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Redigerat av h_z, 11 October 2007 - 08:47.

Provlirade lite Haze på en mässa för två dagar sedan. Var nog bland det tråkigaste och fulaste jag sett på ett bra tag. Antagligen så är det inte den slutgiltiga versionen, men fiendens AI var skrattretande. Sprang fram till en motståndarsoldat och smackade på honom i skallen med vapnet, och han bara stod där

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Redigerat av Lindholm R, 19 October 2007 - 13:16.

Today, Ubisoft, one of the world's largest video game publishers, announced that the multi-platinum selling, ground-breaking hard rock band Korn has written and recorded an original song inspired by Ubisoft’s upcoming Haze™ video game. The song will be launched to radio and video in November 2007, to coincide with the launch of the Haze video game. The single, entitled “Haze”, will be available for purchase via online music download sites.

Korn, who released their debut in 1994, has sold more than 30 million records worldwide, releasing seven consecutive multi-platinum selling albums. Their latest untitled album was released in July of this year, debuting at #2 on the US album charts and #3 on the European album charts. Lead singer Jonathan Davis has often mentioned a love for video games, including games from Ubisoft like Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six® Vegas and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter® 2.

“Gaming for me is a religion and Haze is the shit!” said Jonathan Davis. “I had to come up with a track that can hit up that kind of rush I get from the game and I think we really rocked it!!"
The deal with Korn is a first for Ubisoft and marks a new strategy of creative partnership with different figures in the music industry. “This partnership with Korn is original in the video game industry in that the song will be released and promoted as a full-fledged single, and not just as a download with the video game,” stated Christian Salomon, vice president of worldwide licensing at Ubisoft. “It is a testament to the synergy possibilities between music and video games, which often share the same audience.”