[Column] Warhammer 40.000: Eternal Crusade: Looking Forward to the Beta

SBFord

After the recent release of a gameplay video from Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade, the anticipation of the beta has only gotten keener. Read on before heading to the comments to chat.

Fast forward a few months to November. In only six months we are now seeing the first gameplay footage of the Eternal Crusade. My favorite thing about these videos is when teams say; please understand it is pre-alpha footage. Okay, that instantly lowers my expectations a bit, but for all of us who work in games, I am just excited to see the video anyway.  Then out of nowhere appears this amazing video of a chaos warrior running around a battlefield tearing up Dark Angels. Bolter fire, chain swords, jump packs, every single element that makes 40K what it is appears in under one minute of video. Any fan would be pleased.

Read more of Garrett Fuller's Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade - Looking Forward to the Beta.

orbitxo

aside TSW , this game (crusade)  puts a smile on my face!

 

Ozmodan

If they are entering Beta with this game already, it portends nothing good.  Can't have much content with the little time they have had it under development.  Going to be alot of disappointed Warhammer fans.

Wanay

Not saying I am not looking forward to the beta and general progress of development of Wh40k:EC myself, but because the beta will start probably in the begining of 2015, the title of this article seems a bit praecox...

Chrisbox

That looked pretty sick when he chainsawed the space marine, can't wait until its actually textured!

Synns77

Well over a year before we have any chance of even beta testing, too early for the hype so this game is well off my radar yet, get 2014 out the way then I might start getting hyped and that is if it even looks any good by that stage. 

blackthornn

ummmm, I haven't played Spacemarine on multiplayer, but ummm.....with the execute button indicator flashing on screen and all, that looks like they were playing Spacemarine to me.

 

Same engine and controls or was that guy actually playing SM and saying it's EC????

 

if there's mention of this in the vid forgive me, my headset is blown out right now so I"m audioless

miguelcaron

Dear Crusaders,

We have decided on a NO Marketing Firewall between Devs and Fans and even had some fans show up, unannonced in our studio whom we welcomed in and even had them play with our prototype. So what we have shown you is Pre-Alpha footage of an internal prototype we did in less than 10 weeks with the initial Core team of 10 dev we had (the team is a lot larger now).

Being compared to a full launched Game like SpaceMarine that had multi-millions $ budget is a GREAT compliment but please remember this prototype was ONLY for internal test on our combat Mechanics.

On our forums, the fans wanted to see it..... so we showed it. If you want to know more about the WHOLE game, please come meet us in our forums or in the next Twitch/Reddit AMA we are doing tomorrow.

We have a true bi-directional communication with our fans and some of their suggestions are already in the game hence the hype perceived even if we have yet spent any marketing $.

THERE IS ONLY WAR

Regards

Miguel Caron

Studio Head and Executive Producer

Behaviour Online

freakishbean

Behold Miguel in all his awesomeness. Always with ya boss.

loulaki

i like their direction : )

akkedis86

It is looking good, interresting decision on the aiming, more of a third person shooter approach. I suppose that could scare some people off.

Would someone be able to substitute gunplay with melee abilities/autoaim abilities entirely I wonder?

-----------------------------------------

Edit:

Thanks for the clarification below, well done on the personal touch and interaction, it is really appreciated.

miguelcaron

Dear Crusader, Eternal Crusade is not a 3rd person shooter. Its a Massive Combat RPG with equal balance between Melee and Range depending of your Race and 40K class.

Regards

Miguel Caron

Studio Head Behaviour Online

xanthmetis

anyone have a link to the what happened on twitch today would love to see it...

axeldi

Ditto. Couldn't make it. 

irpugboss

AMA was on Twitch, here is a link with a video embed:

http://battle-brothers.net/home/m/1897695/article/1906999

VeneratedTankred

The developers are not only trying to break a record for the most players on a battlefield, they want to bridge an MMO across PC and consoles on one server! I wish them all the possible ease they can have in this endeavor. I know I'll purchase the game ASAP having 2 years of anticipation ahead of me!

daltanious

Agrrr ... what is that damn targeting recticle doing on screen? Ah, one game LESS to look forward to play. Before discovering tab targeting will not be used I was barely wait for release ... now .. meh.

Waizer

Tbh the footage was not great... but I know exactly what it is. Alpha footage and gives us an indication of what the game will look like and that is all

 

I am very excited about this game still, and the fact that they showed us what the game's mechanics play like is a nice little treat, but that's not the best part about this video being posted.

The fact the exec producer came here to make a comment show that they are listening to us, the fans, and that is perhaps the best thing to come from this. So many times I have seen companies ignore us guys and it has ended in disaster, glad to see these guys are so involved with us and actually give a damn about what we think and want to see.

EndoRoboto

Excruciatus exterminatus

xevier77

I guess to me. I was hoping for a more tactical version of space marine.  More cover, easier ways to die by running out in the middle.   I would also like block mechanics and such for melee.  On table top marines die fast to strong fire power. You never see 1 single marine kill 5 guys.   I just think if they make you a super hero to start off with where do you go from there.  You already have everything.

TheCrow2k

Personally I didnt find the PvP combat in space marine too abrupt, melee could kill you quick if you werent paying attention to vertical threats, the only thing that made combat abrupt was the 1 shot kills of meltaguns which was a game balance problem.

 

Glad the combat mechanic looks like its the same as Space Marine though

irpugboss

Pre-Alpha footage, Looks like a great start. I am all for such an open development process and community interaction.

asmkm22

Originally posted by Ozmodan
Going to be alot of disappointed Warhammer fans.

Most Warhammer fans are used to dealing with Games Workshop, so disappointment is pretty much standard.

xanthmetis

Originally posted by krage

AMA was on Twitch, here is a link with a video embed:

http://battle-brothers.net/home/m/1897695/article/1906999

thanks for link

xanthmetis

my major issue with this twitch tv is the way it was run.  I had a lot of trouble understanding what they were saying.  It may be more beneficial if they have a smaller group of ppl and not talk over each other.  eqn does it right in their videos.  I also found the questions being read were so fast I never knew what was being asked.  Understandably, part of the problems  is our differences in accent but I think if there were smaller amounts of people speaking and trying to understand the message would be easier to understand.  The other development videos I had to listen closely to the people speaking, but could understand them in the small one on one groups.  Also, there was   a lot of unnecessary banter the muddled up the message as well.  I am not trying to be a jerk just want to hear the msg pretty excited about the game.

Carnage2K4

Originally posted by Ozmodan
If they are entering Beta with this game already, it portends nothing good.  Can't have much content with the little time they have had it under development.  Going to be alot of disappointed Warhammer fans.

So... you read "pre-alpha footage" and the assume they are going into beta... I think you may need to evaluate your ability to read English.