Warhawk PS3

[toomanymikes]

Hi all
I know a few of you guys own PS3's so the question is are you going to download Warhawk? Im unsure; its cheap - £22.99 - but from what I have seen it looks like it suffers from frame rate issues. I dont have a lot of time to spend on line either, so I just dont know.
What are your thoughts?

[Sharingan]

I'm not too big on on-line gaming, so I doubt I'll be getting this. It's been getting some rave reviews, however, and is apparently selling like hotcakes. Great concept, I think, but not for everyone.

As for framerate issues, perhaps you can ask for a demonstration somewhere, or at a friend's place? It isn't an issue which has been mentioned in the IGN and Gamespot reviews, in any case, and they're usually quick to jump on something like that.

[Teho]

I downloaded it yesterday, but have barely tested it. I didn't notice any framerate issues as I was playing, but as I said I haven't tested the game thoroughly yet. But what I saw definitely seemed fun. I was planning to spend some hours with it this evening, so we'll see then.

£22.99? Then it was slightly cheaper here for once; kr 239,- which is close to £20.50. :)

[toomanymikes]

It not uncommon Teho -rip off britian strikes again! :mad:
Let me know what your thoughts are cos all my mates are non commital about buying it.

[Teho]

You may be used to thinking England being expensive, but trust me. Norway is normally expensiver. ;) I actually buy a lot of my games from amazon.co.uk instead of from some local shop. You can often get titles that are only 6 months old or so for less than £20 there, while in the shelves here you can spot two year old games still at full-price, £40 and above.

It's too bad that you can only import duty-free here if the item is worth less than £17 before tax, else I'd have bought just about everything from there.

But about Warhawk. I didn't get to play it that much yesterday either, but did try a few games. This time I watched for any framerate slowdowns, but didn't notice any. If there are slowdowns in this game, they can't be that common. I haven't experienced any lag either yet. But I haven't played any of the really huge 30-40 player games either, as they are usually all on the official servers and are almost always full. That's my biggest complaint so far actually, if you want to play ranked games and progress from your initial 'recruit' rank, you have to play ranked games on those servers and you can sit there and try to join one for ages without getting in. Hopefully that's an issue they've noticed and are doing something about.

The gameplay itself is pretty fun. There aren't that many modes to play, most you've seen before of course like capture the flag and zone control. But even in a regular team-deathmatch you can still capture bases and score that way too, aquiring a spawn point and vehicle base in the process makes this a worthwile thing to do, which is a nice twist on the usual all-out deathmatching. But though there aren't that many modes, there are many different setups to play each mode in. While the mode is deathmatching the setup can be 'dogfight' for example, meaning everyone's in aircrafts.

Also it all seems very well balanced. noone is ever quite king of the hill no matter what vehicle they're in, there's always some type of weapon, turret or other vehicle that is effective at taking it out.

And the game is multiplayer only, yes. But it doesn't have to be online, it also supports LAN games (who ever has a chance to LAN consoles?) and up to four players splitscreen. There is also a learning curve, related to controls mostly. Basically there are four basic ones you need to get used to switching between, and even then they have variations. The ground based vehicle controls have slight changes based on whether you're in a jeep, tank or turret for example. The aircraft can switch between hovering and jet mode on the fly, each being a very different set of controls which definitely is confusing before you get used to it. I ended up just starting a local game so I could experiment with the various vehicles without being bothered by anyone.

All in all I think this was worth the purchase. It's cheap, but it doesn't have many modes, not that many vehicles and not that many maps, so the price is just about right. And reviewers are giving it pretty good scores all around too, while the other hyped-up titles like Lair and Heavenly Sword aren't doing so well. So something is definitely right about this title.

[Sharingan]

About the limited amount of maps and vehicles, surely they're intending to expand that via future patches?

[Harrison]

while the other hyped-up titles like Lair and Heavenly Sword aren't doing so well.

Heavenly Sword has been getting some very average reviews, but the reviews all seem to mark it down because they don't like the style of game play, rather than saying it is a bad game. Edge for example criticized the amount the projectile weapon system is used within the game, but as it is a key part of the game I think that cannot be seen as a negative aspect of the game. So if the review doesn't like that game mechanic they are not going to enjoy the game. It's like film reviewers who are reviewing a Sci-Fi film and clearly don't like the genre.

[Sharingan]

I'll still buy Heavenly Sword, in spite of the average reviews so far - it just seems like the kind of game I'll enjoy, and that's enough for me.

[toomanymikes]

I played Heavenly Sword on demo and I wasnt too impressed - the combat seemed quite forced while i prefer more fluid playing styles like devil may cry. Saying that its possibly the most visually impressive game on the system and thats saying something! I may wait until the price drops before picking it up.


You may be used to thinking England being expensive, but trust me. Norway is normally expensiver. ;) I actually buy a lot of my games from amazon.co.uk instead of from some local shop. You can often get titles that are only 6 months old or so for less than £20 there, while in the shelves here you can spot two year old games still at full-price, £40 and above.

...

All in all I think this was worth the purchase. It's cheap, but it doesn't have many modes, not that many vehicles and not that many maps, so the price is just about right. And reviewers are giving it pretty good scores all around too, while the other hyped-up titles like Lair and Heavenly Sword aren't doing so well. So something is definitely right about this title.

That sucks about the price Teho - I thought we were bad! Would you say that it is better than Resistance fall of man online because I love that.

[v85rawdeal]

I don't think I am going to get the game, primarily because I do not get online enough to make it worthwhile.

However, that may change in the future, and I might fork out for an internet connection!

[toomanymikes]

I went ahead and picked up Warhawk this morning. First impressions are good but there are a few niggles that get to me about it:
The system of joing games is flawed - it shows up all games on line whether or not they are full, so you can spend a lot of time trying to get into a game that is already full with players. :mad:
If you download it you dont get a manual so you have to find out all the controls etc as you go. Not too good if you getting shot at from all angles but you dont know how to shoot back!
Apart from that its really good. I have only played it for about 15 mins so I will get into it tonight when my gf and child go out to visit her mum. Is it worth the money? Time will tell...

[Teho]

Yep, as I said the learning curve is mostly about figuring out the controls. You can go into the options screens to see what the controls are, and alter them if you wish. Also I thought it was a good idea to just start a local game where I could mess about and figure out how things worked. But it won't take too long before you've got it all figured out anyway, just expect to mess around a bit the first couple of games and you'll be ok.

And I agree about the games that are always full. The official european servers are almost impossible to get into! There is way too few of them, so there are never any open spots. So if you want to play ranked games, you're better off just going to the american servers instead. That's what I've ended up doing. The filter defaults to only showing servers in your own region, so you need to change that to see them. There seems to be about five times as many of them, and many have plenty of openings so no trouble finding a game to join. And I haven't experienced any latency problems being on the american servers either. The european guys definitely needs to get some more servers up asap as this is just silly.

It's hard to compare this to Resistance, I think. Its online mode is also very good, but is very different in my opinion. In Resistance you fight soldier to soldier, always. There aren't any vehicles in the online mode at all. And while its maps aren't small, Warhawk's are way bigger and much more open, with plenty of vehicles all over. They're both great fun I think, but geared towards different styles.

[toomanymikes]

Your right - I gave it a good go today and I am impressed. Ill try the american servers later because I have played no rookie ranked games yet. The controls are pretty intuitive after a few games so no complaints there. I just love the tank too - its hard enough to take a few knocks but its also able to scale heights and act like a gun emplacement.

[toomanymikes]

Just found an online manual for the blu ray disk version of the game:
http://www.us.playstation.com/Warhawk/warhawk_manual.pdf
This should help!

[Harrison]

This sounds like a great game and one I will definitely be considering once I own a PS3. :)