As a fan of Natural Selection, one of the most popular Half-Life mods, you've had a tough go of it, having to wait eight full years for a follow-up to your beloved blend of FPS and RTS. You've heard about the four playable alien classes, each with their own unique abilities, that will battle it out with the weapon-savvy Marines. You've heard about how the dynamic environments will evolve over each map. But you've been living off a trickle of information, and you now find yourself positively parched.
Well, allow your friends at Joystiq to provide a gigantic canteen full of Natural Selection 2-centric refreshment. Not only do we get to reveal that the closed beta of the game will finally launch tomorrow, we also get to pass on the good news that gaining entry is as simple as being among the first 10,000 to pre-order the game. (Those who have already pre-ordered are in.)
...What's that? Your thirst is still not slaked? Well, how about a new exclusive trailer, featuring the teleporting Fade class, that we've placed after the jump? Drink, friends! Drink!
@maaax Because every game out there today is Totally two unidentical teams with different mechanics so that each side plays completely different with one person in charge of development and building stuff..
So let me get this straight, the Hydralisk/Tyrants have an ability to cloak/teleport and the space marine has only 3 shots and is out of ammo with his shotgun. This game seems balanced already!
Thanks unknown worlds for shitting on your Pre-Order Alpha buyers. When the alpha was released it wasn't even playable. Users were unable to even login and try a product they paid $40 for (including myself). Now, if you had preordered for only $20 you can play the beta? WTF?!? Really?
This game isn't ready for Beta and won't be for at least 2-3 months. Fix your server side and network lag issues for the umpteenth millionth time.
Side Note: I love this game and its just not living up to the hype that we've been following for YEARS!!! I should have bought 8 copies of the beta preorder instead of 4 alpha copies.. Fooled me... oh i've lost count..
If you preordered before the alpha here are the prices: SE Alpha - $40 Standard Beta - $20
If any of you had played the beta you would know its not ready, not even a few months away from beta release. UWE is rushing this, are they low on cash?
@kronikwisdom You do realize that the special edition you ordered allows you to access everything, alpha, beta, pre-launch, everything right? Or did you not read everything when you blindly clicked the order button for the special edition? Also, if you have been following this as much as you say you have, you would know about the constant updates saying how they are limiting the amount of regular edition customers that will be able to participate when the beta launches whereas before they were not even going to have access until the last minute. Pay attn and you wont make urself look stupid anymore.
@kronikwisdom The logical reasoning to be listing it as beta would be, maybe they want/need a bigger pool of playtesters? The game has made some great improvements and who cares if its listed as beta or alpha? Its not getting released until its done...
@kronikwisdom I hate to pile on the hate for NS2, but I have to agree. I was Constellation back in NS1 and I'd love to see this game do well, but that's just now how it's looking right now.
The alpha at this stage is *unplayable*, but these issues remain unaddressed in recent updates. In fact, the dev team has been making updates about gameplay, weapon balance, etc etc without seemingly knowing or caring that the game is *unplayable* outside of a LAN.
Before we get ahead of ourselves with adding weapons and new buildings, can we make sure that players can, like, move around and shoot stuff? Seems pretty basic, but we don't even have that. The lag problems surrounding this game are *immense*, and IMHO nothing on the code should be done until this is completely resolved.
I can have a ping of 50 and still be unable to hit squat, and in fact my shots don't seem to place until a good half second after I fire. Player movement is also incredibly jerky, which combined with the laggy hit detection means you just *can't* shoot anything.
This is *not* beta-ready, it's not even really alpha-ready IMHO. It would seem to me that switching away from Source was a colossally bad idea - UW just doesn't seem to be able to get their netcode right.
@kronikwisdom Also, I was always under the impression that the alpha was for die-hard long-time supporters to whet their appetites. This is also why I haven't really complained about the alpha till now - it's dangerously not ready for prime-time, but that's not the point.
But now they're moving to beta? No, god no. This game is *not* ready for mass consumption. Not in the least.
@potato You and kronik seem to be completely oblivious to what "alpha" means in game testing. I'm sorry you were fooled into buying into the game early while it was still in an alpha state, but for future reference, 'alpha' pretty much means "virtually unplayable, barely working, testing-only build." Next time, anticipate only problems. Alpha tests exist purely to stabilize the software, and not for customer enjoyment.
@potato You and kronik seem to be completely oblivious to what "alpha" means in game testing. I'm sorry you were fooled into buying into the game early while it was still in an alpha state, but for future reference, 'alpha' pretty much means "virtually unplayable, barely working, testing-only build." Next time, anticipate only problems. Alpha tests exist purely to stabilize the software, and not for customer enjoyment.
@kronikwisdom Weird, I haven't not gotten into a game yet and managed to get through a round or at least interact with all the different elements. People have used voice chat and communicated with each other just fine and this was on day one. The problem is people inherently think things release need to work perfectly. That's why game demos and Google love their beta tags. The term is completely arbitrary so any expectations coming in are entirely moot.
Ok, so the alpha isn't playable and the issue there were not resolved so lets just move it to the beta and fix it there right? I purchased the SE-Alpha because this game has the "POTENTIAL" to be great. BUT, you can't expect new comers to the game (that purchased the SE) to stick around for these types of releases.
Bottom line - I'm frustrutated that a game with such potential has been rushed to beta when its obvious to anyone that has played the alpha there are still HUGE elephants hanging out in the room and they need to be shot.
@Ovy Try reading my post again - the community, particularly the die-hard NS1-ers expected the Alpha to be more like a tech preview than an actual playable game of any sort.
The problem is that now we're moving into beta - and none of the really major stability, lag, and client-side prediction problems have been resolved. NS2 in its current state is *not* ready for beta, not by a VERY long shot.
A beta needs to be an at least marginally playable game - and that is not at all what NS2 is like right now.
Hell, I'm a programmer by trade, I know what my alphas and betas look like, and NS2 in its current state is a PRE alpha. It's a technology demo. An alpha at least implies your core technology works - and without the ability to, well, walk around and shoot stuff, that's not a whole lot of core tech working. NS2's graphics engine is alpha-ready - the core tech works, lots of performance problems, but overall it *works*. The same cannot be said for NS2's netcode.
OR, you could support websites you care about by disabling adblock on them. maybe if more people did that joystiq wouldn't have to put ads in their videos.
I assume you meant to reply to HedonisticKai, but just in case...
I do this. Sites that have good content are rewarded with disabling adblock. Sites that abuse ads have the filters re-enabled.
Putting up with an ad that plays before a video is annoying, but tolerable. Putting an ad in front of a video to block it that must be clicked on, navigating to another site, is an abuse.
I don't know why everyone is saying this game sucks when no one has played it. This trailer isn't amazing, but no game should be judged by the hype it (fails to) create.
A LOT of you guys seriously have NO clue as to what ALPHA state of a game would mean. It is supposed to test the most BASIC of functions of the game (can I even walk around and press the jump button? does the game even have lighting? etc.). For the shear amount of hate being thrown at an ALPHA of a non-released game, you guys are proving exactly why most game devs do NOT release anything alpha-related to the general consumer/public.
As for the leap from alpha to BETA, you will most likely receive a version of the game that is MANY more milestones past anything you saw in an alpha version of the game. The NS team has always had a community-open mindset to their approach, hence why they gave people the chance to mess with their alpha build, and to get a head-start on the mod tools.
Each version of the first NS had tons more polish than the next. You simply cannot judge their progress based off an alpha build. That's like throwing lukewarm water into a bowl of ramen and expecting it to be the same as when you use boiling water.
Ok, so the alpha isn't playable and the issue there were not resolved so lets just move it to the beta and fix it there right? I purchased the SE-Alpha because this game has the "POTENTIAL" to be great. BUT, you can't expect new comers to the game (that purchased the SE) to stick around for these types of releases.
Bottom line - I'm frustrutated that a game with such potential has been rushed to beta when its obvious to anyone that has played the alpha there are still HUGE elephants hanging out in the room and they need to be shot.
As a long-time fan of Natural Selection, as a gamer who pre-ordered the Standard Edition (and would have pre-ordered the Special Edition had I been employed), and as a person who wants to see Unknown Worlds succeed, I think it's important for those considering pre-ordering to gain beta access to set realistic expectations. UWE is a small developer, so don't expect a "soft launch" like you've seen with much, much larger projects (Star Trek Online comes to mind).
Again, I want to see UWE succeed. I've seen firsthand what negative press during the beta phase can do to a game (again, Star Trek Online comes to mind) and don't want unrealistic expectations to harm UWE in the long-term.
I'm not discouraging anyone from pre-ordering, but rather asking them not to expect an immediately playable product.
So wait, if someone makes a sequel to something it has to come out immediately after the first game?
Are you sure you just aren't high off Activision's supply?
Natural Selection 2 Info
Description
Whether you play as one of the elite marine Frontiersmen or the vicious alien Kharaa, you must use unique strategies and your abilities to win. Marines form persistent squads to find and destroy alien hives. Aliens can choose a wall-running Skulk, pudgy Gorge, flying Lerk, murderous Fade or gigantic Onos that can smash through doors.
