Homeworld 1 & 2 Remastered

[+JonathanRL 973]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/244160/

 

The Hype is Real!

[+RAVEN 414]

I really like Homeworld 2, but if it requires Steam. I'll pass.

[jeanba 1,915]

Let's wait for Gog ?

[+JonathanRL 973]

Considering Gearbox Software owns the licence and release most of their stuff on Steam, I am afraid GoG.com is not going to sell them.

[+YEYEYE 170]

Initiating hyperspace jump!

[jeanba 1,915]

I put it in my wishlist, I'll be warned if the price drops significantly (say 10 €)

[MrGoTime 20]

Oooo that's good news. I loved the first one. Never had a chance to play the second. The opening mission or two of the first one is one of my memorable gaming memories. The cut scene gives me chills! Unfortunately, I too will probably wait for a sale or price reduction. 

[jeanba 1,915]

Oooo that's good news. I loved the first one. Never had a chance to play the second. The opening mission or two of the first one is one of my memorable gaming memories. The cut scene gives me chills! Unfortunately, I too will probably wait for a sale or price reduction.

Warning spoiler :

I remembered having explianed a friend who could not go "very far" in the first one that he had to save the planet first !!!

Yes, I am one of the most devilish video game player of the world

[+Dave 2,318]

I have 79 games on Steam. Never been a problem. Why do some people hate it so much? What am I missing?

[MrGoTime 20]

I'm with you on this one Dave. I think it's that folks don't actually own "the game" with steam. If Steams servers suddenly went down and the company closed its doors, there's a lot of concern that the games may be lost. At least that's my understanding. 

 

I personally use steam quite often and enjoy how accessible it makes my games. Plus, I reallllllly like the prices. 

[Emp_Palpatine 501]

I tend to avoid Steam at more or less all costs...

Actually, I have quite a few concerns : 

- You don't own the game. I.e. no exe or whatever (IIRC). Gog gives you exe. You can use them and install them whenever wherever you want.

 

- There are definitely a few things that bothers me in Steam agreement terms, like the whole "we can switch your account whenever we fancy"

 

- I am an oldschooler. 

[FastCargo 412]

Okay, for once I can say this:

 

I WAS THERE BITCHES!!!

 

Now I've got that out of my system...

 

Gearbox was present in a big way at PAX South 2015.  Makes sense, being that they are based in Plano TX.

 

The one panel I wanted, nay, HAD to attend was the Homeworld: Behind The Scenes panel.  This is where Gearbox showed off the HW Remastered collection.

 

They showed the difference between the original and remastered editions of HW and HW2 (all of which are included), plus actual gameplay from several Player vs CPU matches.  I emphasize, it was actual, real time gameplay, not recordings of such.  As a scene demo, they showed the intro of HW mission 7...The Garden of Kadesh.  I recorded video of it...but frankly, it doesn't come close to doing it justice.  Not even a little.

 

What made me very hopeful about this is the original designers of HW were there, the guys who were once Relic Entertainment, who eventually formed Blackbird Interactive, working on Hardware: Shipbreakers...which is now Homeworld:Shipbreakers.  Yep, they have been folded back into the HW universe (which, apparently, was the 'bones' of Shipbreakers...).  And you could tell the affection they had for their original product.  And how much they wanted to work to get the remastered version right.

 

Dynamic shadows, damage textures with bump/spec maps, weapons with dynamic lighting, all sorts of other graphical advancements.  The music, voices, background 'sky boxes', etc, have all been redone.  Most of the original voice actors were rehired to record dialogue.  The UI for both Remastered editions looks like a hybrid between HW and HW2, but seems to be thinner and sleeker.

 

I haven't been this hopeful for any 'new' game in a long time.

 

Having said that, Gearbox's record recently is uneven.  They've had some great ups (expansion packs for the original Half Life, Brothers In Arms franchise, Borderlands) with some downs (Duke Nukem Forever and the Aliens: Colonal Marines debacle).  They really can't afford to screw this up.  In some ways, this represents an experiment.  Taking an old game, and simply bringing it into the modern age, while leaving the original gameplay intact.  Most other times, it's been a reboot (Doom3), or remake (Black Mesa), or remastering of titles that weren't that great in the first place (Rise of the Triad and Shadow Warrior).  How many of us love the idea of a modern X-Wing, or Strike Commander.  Keep the gameplay and story, but bring it into a modern engine.  Time will tell if what we say we wanted will translate into sales.

 

As far as opinions on Steam goes, it is like anything else.  Steam is DRM, and it can have its own issues.  In practical terms, it's pretty non-intrusive, and there is something to be said for the convenience factor.  I don't mind Steam, but if I can get a game DRM free (like GOG.com), I do prefer that option.

 

FC 

[Skyviper 1,101]

I have 79 games on Steam. Never been a problem. Why do some people hate it so much? What am I missing?

 

 

 

I'm with you on this one Dave. I think it's that folks don't actually own "the game" with steam. If Steams servers suddenly went down and the company closed its doors, there's a lot of concern that the games may be lost. At least that's my understanding. 

 

I personally use steam quite often and enjoy how accessible it makes my games. Plus, I reallllllly like the prices. 

 

That's the thing .. right there. If the servers are down you're screwed. Origin for instance taught many that lesson one day several years ago with Battlefield 3. They shut down and no one could play there game.

 

That and certain areas have sorry internet connection so Steam based stuff is pointless. Viewing content is one thing spending 13 hours downloading it is something else.

 

Not to mention that if some people are like me. If I drop $20-$40 on a game ... you bet your ass I own that copy and I'll be damned if you do whatever you please with my money without my say so.

I still own Homeworld 1 and 2....on disc. This looks promising. I'm glad they're doing it and it makes me want to fire them back up.

[FastCargo 412]

People have a fundamental misunderstanding about Steam. It is not an ALWAYS connected situation for single player games. Steam (and games using verification with Steam) work just fine offline. Yep, no internet connection needed after initial installation.

 

FC

[+JonathanRL 973]

 

What made me very hopeful about this is the original designers of HW were there, the guys who were once Relic Entertainment, who eventually formed Blackbird Interactive, working on Hardware: Shipbreakers...which is now Homeworld:Shipbreakers.  Yep, they have been folded back into the HW universe (which, apparently, was the 'bones' of Shipbreakers...).

 

Indeed. One of the first things Gearbox did was to say "Hey, you want it to be Homeworld?".

Considering how similar the atmosphere was, it was clearly the best chocie and I can see it being tied into the finding of the Guide Stone on Kharak.

[MrGoTime 20]

People have a fundamental misunderstanding about Steam. It is not an ALWAYS connected situation for single player games. Steam (and games using verification with Steam) work just fine offline. Yep, no internet connection needed after initial installation.

 

FC

 

I can see both sides, but from my experience, I've never had any issues playing my single player games offline. There are some games on there where you can find .exe files online that essentially make it so you don't need steam anymore. 

[+Dave 2,318]

All my games I have been able to play offline no problem with Steam. 

[Do335 382]

Wow, I've only tried homeworld while in college, and it was sure an epic game, and it's reputation sure was out there, like man it's homeworld!

 

But... I just can't seem to like it. The user interface control, like camera orientation in 3D world, was a bit awkward. IMO for a resource gathering RTS, a good UI is a must for I have to feel comfortable with its controls.

 

Maybe it's just an RTS with a bit of steeper learning curve, and I did get blown away by its epicness... Gonna check this new one out.

Edited January 28, 2015 by Do335

[Do335 382]

so, dug out miraculously intact HW2 CD, installed, patched, win7 edits fixed, started campaign. Went til mission 7, completely pwned by carrier spamming AI.

 

nop... still can't like it. It must be the hardest game in history, comes down to a matter of beating mission scripts. Or i'm just lacking the RTS multi-tasking/micro-managing genes.. dunno.

[Do335 382]

well, i kept going and finished it. And did some skirmish battles. Now i can somewhat see why it's liked but the RTS fans.

 

Also.. completely open modding. some of the big mods are epic. but i'm modding it myself so to be aware of what changes are applied.

[FastCargo 412]

It's funny you mention the UI...because most folks opinions are the UI is still one of the cleaner and more intuitive UIs in the genre of space themed RTSes. Having played several other games in this specific genre, I tend to agree.

 

Having said that, there are a couple of things that I wish the HW series could have done better (and in fact, some were done in HW: Cataclysm).

 

1) Skill levels - neither HW or HW2 have them. This seems like something easy to implement...for each level, just adjust the power of weapons, hit points of targets/your own ships, rates of resourcing. HW and especially HW2 can be daunting in the learning curve.

 

2) Time acceleration - I know HW didn't have this, and I think HW2 doesn't have it either. Thankfully, looks like the remastered versions do have it. And HW:C did have it.

 

3) Movement waypoints - HW:C implemented this and I thought it was nice...I know HW didn't have it, and pretty sure HW2 didn't either.

 

4) Wireframe LOS - HW:C did something interesting where 'boxes' would show what areas you had explored, with a smaller 'boxes' showing what areas you currently had visible. This made keeping SA a bit easier. HW2 uses 'blue fuzzy spheres' to depict this, but it's not as intuitive.

 

All of these are the minor UI complaints...nothing show stopping. The main gameplay change I would make would be in HW2...there is a bit too much obvious scripting. Such as if I take away all the resourcing, the enemy carriers shouldn't be able to spawn anymore targets, but they still do...not much, but enough to be annoying. Or if I use a Marine frigate on a non-goal target (single player campaign), I should be able to capture it...not it sitting there with a full blue bar. Finally, after the objectives are complete...I don't want to end the mission. I'd like to have time to build my fleet before the next mission starts...instead of instant ending and resourcing.

 

So, yea, the HW series did have some flaws...but not enough to make them any less fun.

 

Oh, here is what I saw at PAX South...

 

 

FC

[Do335 382]

FastCargo you apparently have more experience with the series than me as I never played HW1. Do you consider Cataclysm the best among them (or is the graphics already too outdated)?

 

My main gripe with the UI is the unit selection. Suppose I have Group 5, composed of frigates, destroyers and battlecruisers, currently engaged with enemy. Now, a new frigate has finished construction and I need to add it to group 5. To do that I have to pause the game; go back to the ship yard; carefully pick out the frigate among a plethora of other ships; shift select it and smash Ctrl-5; Unpause the game. Way too tedius and a great pace killer to the game IMO.

Red Alert 3 does this very well for example despite all its downfalls, single press a key select all units on screen same in group 5, double press the key does the same across the map. It works wonderfully.

 

Secondly the zoom out distance in normal view.. way too small. I had to play in sensor view most of the time to get a good tactical picture. Until I started modding the game and dug out the camera distance value residing in the script files and changed it, and some other camera stuff... But that's a few hours of my life away.

 

Lastly.. the mousewheel zoom, would it be too hard to implement a sensitivity setting for it on the game option UI. One mousewheel click jumps way too much.

 

But yeah.. I reckon these are mostly considered minor by the masses but I'm always anal on control ergonomics. Wish I could just use the force and completely do away with keyboard and mouses . But consider the early date of the game and the 3D space combat perhaps there're some intrinsic difficulties. I totally agree with the scripted campaign and your other points too, but not holding my breath on the remastered version as what isn't scripted nowadays?

 

Gonna give HWC a check tonight

Edited February 3, 2015 by Do335

[+JonathanRL 973]

If you are interested in the type of gameplay but want it more fast-paced, then Cataclysm is your best choice.

[Do335 382]

yeah, I'll see if it's still available somewhere. But not exactly fast paced i guess, it can be fast all the way, or step-by-step methodical all around, but not constantly pause it to do unit management...

Maybe it's like playing SF and having to take hand off the stick and hold down the mouse keys for zooming the inflight map. One ofc map the mouse keys on the stick!

[FastCargo 412]

Suppose I have Group 5, composed of frigates, destroyers and battlecruisers, currently engaged with enemy. Now, a new frigate has finished construction and I need to add it to group 5. To do that I have to pause the game; go back to the ship yard; carefully pick out the frigate among a plethora of other ships; shift select it and smash Ctrl-5; Unpause the game. Way too tedius and a great pace killer to the game IMO.

That's way too hard. I don't unpause...just select Group 5, then Shift-click on the new ship, and Ctrl-5. Added.

 

FC