TimeShift alters past, demo phases into Xbox marketplace

by Alexander Sliwinski { Aug 30th 2007 at 6:30PM }

We checked with Ziggy, and she says there's an 85% probability that we didn't know about this. We're sending in Al to make sure this isn't a mistake, but a TimeShift demo has phased into Xbox marketplace. The game is available to demo well in advance of its Oct. 30 launch.

The demo for TimeShift seems like your standard FPS fare. The location is a City 17 Half-Life 2 dystopia with propaganda blaring through the city, you have Max Payne meets F.E.A.R. powers -- except you can reverse time a little as well. One utterly obnoxious oversight is that you can't actually alter scripted history in the game. There's a scene very early on where a guy screams, "I don't want to die!" A soldier then caps the guy in the back of the head. If you reverse time, you can't kill the guy about to shoot him -- no matter how many bullets you put in his head. If you stop time, you can't take the gun out of the shooter's hands. If you slow time, you can't put your body in front of the bullet. The poor man will always die. Maybe they should have called the game TimeScript.

[Thanks Gage]

Tags: fps, sierra, timeshift, vivendi

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

rc @ Aug 30th 2007 6:34PM

Quantum Leap reference? I love you.

Stupidiot @ Aug 30th 2007 6:38PM

I'm not really looking for more generic FPS games at the moment, since there's so many other games on my list for this year and next. So I'll probably give this and Haze a complete miss. Right now, I'm just eager to find out more about Assassin's Creed - haven't heard anything since E3.

hvnlysoldr @ Aug 30th 2007 6:46PM

Going back into the past righting the wrongs etc.

Shagittarius @ Aug 30th 2007 6:49PM

I'll give this one a miss but I'm all over Haze like white on Wiis.

mr nimblewick @ Aug 30th 2007 6:57PM

There's something vaguely disgusting about what you just wrote, but I can't put my finger on it...

hvnlysoldr @ Aug 30th 2007 7:03PM

Cum on

mr nimblewick @ Aug 30th 2007 7:18PM

"Cum on"

Ah, I see. I didn't think shag liked his Wii that much.

Stupidiot @ Aug 30th 2007 8:00PM

AHAHAHAHA! I was just skimming through the comments and I thought that read as "shags his wii" which probably wouldn't be far off... XD

Matt B @ Aug 30th 2007 8:25PM

LMAO@HVNLY!!!

razer @ Aug 30th 2007 7:19PM

Demo hasn't even been out for 2 hours and Joystiq already found something to bash about it! Kudos on your speed! Now go home and beat your wife and kick the dog!

mr nimblewick @ Aug 30th 2007 7:21PM

Joystiq has a wife?

*throws flowers and chocolates in trash can*

hvnlysoldr @ Aug 30th 2007 7:26PM

I don't have a dog. They'd attack my parrots and lovebirds.

Stupidiot @ Aug 30th 2007 7:41PM

Don't be so sure hvnlysoldr, if you get the right dog they can be fine with other pets. Our Keeshond, for example poses no threat to the cat, rabbits or parrot in the slightest. The parrot scares everything else away anyway.

Mal F4cti0n @ Aug 30th 2007 9:20PM

Well, at least Joystiq didn't flat come out and call the game poop, which I thought it was.

So I pop out of time, wearing this crazy suit, save some resistance fighters who are getting beat down, they get up and run off to continue the fight? What, no, Holy Sh*t, what is that thing and where did it come from.

I don't know, maybe something is missing from the story b/c it is just a demo, but it seems pretty week to me.

Oh, and it wasn't fun at all either.

Psykoboy2 @ Aug 30th 2007 7:35PM

"Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home."

I think the devs of this game did just that - they had to put right what was once done wrong.

Jamie @ Aug 30th 2007 7:54PM

If you can't change things when you reverse time, then what's the point? The precedent was set by Sands of Time, IMO. It's kind of silly to make time control the focal point of your game--to the point of putting it in the title--when it's not even fully implemented.

0ldb0y @ Aug 31st 2007 7:59AM

As the post states, time reversal does not affect "scripted history," such as non-interactive events that are built into the story. You are able, however, to reverse certain aspects that will affect your ability to proceed through the game. i.e. in the demo, certain passageways are destroyed blocking your advancement, but you can reverse time prior to said blockage, freeze time to traverse the passage, and then release time to watch the passage's inevitable destruction, which is now behind you.

Overall, the time shifting was interesting, if only an evolution of the bullet-time mechanic. Controls were very loose, and surfaces and textures were very glossy, despite the rain-soaked level. I would pick this up during a game-release draught, but certainly not this fall.

hvnlysoldr @ Aug 30th 2007 8:05PM

This makes me wanting a 7 Days game. It could feature a Jack Bauer figuring out what screwed up and then go back in time and fix it.

bounchfx @ Aug 30th 2007 8:36PM

wow. borderline unplayable. Very disappointed.

control lag to high fuckin' heaven. even the menu lags when you try to input commands. and controlling in game ? TERRIBLE. almost impossible to aim.

the first demo was better

krakhead @ Aug 30th 2007 8:51PM

HALO3, HAZE, Killzone2, call of duty4, Medal of honor and many other 1st person shooters coming out this year better be serious, 'cos this Timeshift demo I just tried is serious. Let me go shift time.

feffrey @ Aug 30th 2007 8:52PM

The original timeshift you could change the past. Although the game looks a lot better, and in almost every part is better, they totally screwed over the whole time part of it. I would rather play the original that was 90% done before they re-did it all (unless the demo is radically different than the game)

Ging @ Aug 30th 2007 9:15PM

I had to knock the sensitivity down from it's default high to medium to actually manage to aim - but otherwise I quite enjoyed the demo. There are a number of nice touches, like being able to steal the weapon out of an enemies hands when you've frozen time.

I'll probably add it to the list of games to pick up, even though the next few months are liable to bankrupt me.

tmacairjordan87 @ Aug 30th 2007 9:20PM

i just played it about an hour ago and it wasn't very good in my opinion, it's like the ENTIRE game is messing with time. They forgot to make enemies react to getting hit and...well they forgot to do pretty much everything else

Mal F4cti0n @ Aug 30th 2007 9:23PM

Yeah, and it doesn't feel like you are controlling a bad ass soldier. Feels more like you are controlling a camera.

Mal F4cti0n @ Aug 30th 2007 9:21PM

here, here.

No good.

karimbus @ Aug 30th 2007 10:06PM

Those that can't do,become critics. I though the demo was awesome!

Macroy @ Aug 30th 2007 10:58PM

So I guess my theory is correct, and everything awesome DOES come out on the Marketplace whenever my 360 is at the service center.

fester @ Aug 31st 2007 12:31AM

Reminds me of that horrid BLINX game. [cough] LAG [cough] lol

NukeAssault @ Aug 31st 2007 2:31AM

I liked Blinx >_>

And this demo is way better then the first demo they released of the game. So much more refined.

BULLETS! @ Aug 31st 2007 1:26PM

hahah everyones a damn critic

first thing i noticed is that the game looked freaking great and the physics are cool. The tank thing pounds on those garbage bins, and they can even knock them over from the constant ammo barrage- nice!!! there goes yer cover!

looks pretty hardcore, and yes it seems straight shoot em up if u judge it off the first 10 mins.

but ill be damned if it aint pretty- - no goddamned brown and grey graphics here.

give it a try, i say. we already know halo and cod will blow this aint away, but that certainly dont mean its crap.

more BULLETS!

bluebillybob @ Sep 1st 2007 11:12AM

I wouldn't be so sure that either COD4 or Halo 3 wil blow this away. Graphically it will definitely hold its own, and from what I heard about multiplayer it is much cooler than either. I think it is going to be a major sleeper - don't get swayed by the hype - Sierra makes great shooters and based on the demo and the improvements in only one year, TimeShift looks like another one. The author of this "preview" seemed to have no problem with the fact that the entire BioShock demo was one big script. Sounds like bias or an inability to be objective due to hype to me....

The demo was frikkin' BAD ASS!