Chromehounds Content Pack Coming - $0

[MSUStud911]

1up (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3152247) reports that on July 19, Sega will be releasing a free content pack for Chromehounds via Live Marketplace.
The pack includes two guns, an assist part and a new color pattern for the mechs. The pack comes free, according to FromSoftware and SEGA as a "thank you."

SEGA and FromSoftware have made the decision to offer the pack free of charge by way of a thank you to HOUND pilots around the world. As you may know, we experienced some tricky server-load problems right after launch, and we hope this will go some way to saying thanks for sticking by the game.It's like a drug dealer giving away the free first taste.

[torrefaction]

Come on baby...Your first try is free.

[fitbabits]

This is excellent news! And it's refreshing to know that From and SEGA are making amends for the earlier server problems by offering free content...

[F3nyx]

It's like a drug dealer giving away the free first taste.Or a poop dealer giving away free colon swabs.

[TDiddy]

Customizing my many mechs is eating up way too much of my time. Between this and Battlefield, my gamerscore is going to go up very slowly and I really don't mind. DAMN THIS GAME IS FUN!!!!

Oh, and PGR3 is also slowing my gamerscore from rising. Cat and Mouse mode is insanely fun! If you haven't turned on PGR3 in a while, you have to so that you can try this mode out.

[ÜberJumper]

It's too bad the single player game is the most horrendous piece of shit I've ever had the displeasure of experiencing.

Multiplayer on the otherhand, while suffering from a few of the single player portions flaws, is fucking amazing.

Yes, I base this on playing the Chromehounds tutorial and attempting to figure out what the hell they wanted me to do in the first single player mission. YOU LOST ME AT HELLO FROM SOFTWARE, AT FUCKING HELLO.

Damn you, damn you all to hell.

[CylonLord]

This game has impressed me SO much. The fact we get free stuff on top of that is icing on the cake.

[Wyrm]

I have yet to get online with this one. I rented it to see how it was, and while I do like controlling a giant mech, the single player is so fucking weak, I'm really glad I didn't go buy it right away. I'd have taken it back without trying the multiplayer just because of how it played.

That, however, will not be the case. I'm going to stick it out, finish all the single player "missions" (some of which are so easy, it's retarded). I keep having problems, like, they sort of outline what to do, but they dont exactly let you know what you're doing, so I failed the easy ass mission because the instructions were unclear.

Oh well, I suppose I should give the online a shot, but I want to at least be able to claim I've completed the "training" (why not just call it that?) and then join up with a good squad. Plus, I dont really know anyone who plays, so should I just join the EvAv squad?

[Intruder]

I have yet to get online with this one. I rented it to see how it was, and while I do like controlling a giant mech, the single player is so fucking weak, I'm really glad I didn't go buy it right away. I'd have taken it back without trying the multiplayer just because of how it played.

That, however, will not be the case. I'm going to stick it out, finish all the single player "missions" (some of which are so easy, it's retarded). I keep having problems, like, they sort of outline what to do, but they dont exactly let you know what you're doing, so I failed the easy ass mission because the instructions were unclear.

Oh well, I suppose I should give the online a shot, but I want to at least be able to claim I've completed the "training" (why not just call it that?) and then join up with a good squad. Plus, I dont really know anyone who plays, so should I just join the EvAv squad?


If you don't play online, you are honestly not even playing the same game, that is how different it is.

[bone_matrix]

I have yet to get online with this one. I rented it to see how it was, and while I do like controlling a giant mech, the single player is so fucking weak, I'm really glad I didn't go buy it right away. I'd have taken it back without trying the multiplayer just because of how it played.

That, however, will not be the case. I'm going to stick it out, finish all the single player "missions" (some of which are so easy, it's retarded). I keep having problems, like, they sort of outline what to do, but they dont exactly let you know what you're doing, so I failed the easy ass mission because the instructions were unclear.

Oh well, I suppose I should give the online a shot, but I want to at least be able to claim I've completed the "training" (why not just call it that?) and then join up with a good squad. Plus, I dont really know anyone who plays, so should I just join the EvAv squad?


It would have to be Squad 3. You don't need to finish the training either. It helps to understand the game, but multiplayer is a different beast. If you don't act as a team, you are screwed. Definitely try online.

[JazGalaxy]

I don't like the idea of new content added in heavily online games. That suggest that you can't be competitive unless your wallet is competitive. It's a bad trend to start.

[captainstrombosis]

It's...it's free...

*Edit* It's just like expansion packs but in little bites. It's a good thing. I understand where you are coming from. But I can skip a shitty game, save 60 bucks, then spend the 60 bucks on this game. Just pick and choose. If you don't like this game enough to invest in the content. Then you probubly don't like the game enough to play it long enough for the content to matter.

[fitbabits]

I don't like the idea of new content added in heavily online games. That suggest that you can't be competitive unless your wallet is competitive. It's a bad trend to start.
This is free content, though. Free, as in zero dollars and zero cents.

[GrinR]

I don't get the complaining about the single player. I'm going through the missions and frankly it's plenty fun for me. What exactly is the problem? They're too easy??

[Dr Quincy]

I don't get the complaining about the single player. I'm going through the missions and frankly it's plenty fun for me. What exactly is the problem? They're too easy??

No, I think its that the game is fundementally boring.

[Heretic Machine]

No, I think its that the game is fundementally boring.

Then you shouldn't of bought a tactical mech sim.

[ÜberJumper]

Or that they paid no attention to how easily it should fucking be to navigate your hound.

No nav markers.

No easy to use compass.

No targets marked on the HUD.

No objectives list.

Music that puts you to sleep.

Horrible voice acting.

Stupid little people firing at you.

Buildings collapsing but leaving no debris.

Tanks and other vehicles that just vanish when you destroy them.

Having to "capture" Network access points to stay in touch with other mechs on the battlefield?

It's just... bad. Horribly, horribly bad.

[Dr Quincy]

Then you shouldn't of bought a tactical mech sim.

See it doesn't feel like a simulation and it doesn't feel tactical. The simplicity of the in-game interface and the limited in-game mechanics make it feel deeply arcadey. You zoom you shoot, you stafe you shoot and then you walk for miles and miles until the next bowt of strafing and shooting. Tactical mech sims are Mech Warrior and... to a degree Steel Battalion (though once you dispense with the ridiculous controls it too is rooted in a more arcade sensibility).

Bolting on a massively deep customisation section to a game that is fundementally shallow does not make for simulation and does not make for tactics in the minute-to-minute sense other games do.

[Wyrm]

Yeah, he's right, the most glaring flaw is the fact that your radar is almost 100% useless.

[Intruder]

Yeah, he's right, the most glaring flaw is the fact that your radar is almost 100% useless.


Ohh contrare. The Sonar is of great use, you can use it to lay in ambush and wait to spring it at the right time, or corrdinate movements when the Cmdr isnt present or busy elsewhere. Just today our groups relyed heavily on the Sonar.

[dr_wily]

See it doesn't feel like a simulation and it doesn't feel tactical. The simplicity of the in-game interface and the limited in-game mechanics make it feel deeply arcadey. You zoom you shoot, you stafe you shoot and then you walk for miles and miles until the next bowt of strafing and shooting. Tactical mech sims are Mech Warrior and... to a degree Steel Battalion (though once you dispense with the ridiculous controls it too is rooted in a more arcade sensibility).

Bolting on a massively deep customisation section to a game that is fundementally shallow does not make for simulation and does not make for tactics in the minute-to-minute sense other games do.


hah reminicent of zelda wind waker..

snap!

[t3g]

This is what I am talking about. Game developers are actually thanking us for buying their $60 game and giving away FREE content on Live. Kinda reminds me of the days of the original Xbox when companies like Ubi would thank us for the support by giving away Ghost Recon content. I kinda miss those days.

Fast forward and every $60 game wants to charge you at least $5 for content that should have been in the game to begin with. Of course since they are greedy and corporate, the days of free Ubisoft content are gone and they want to charge us $15 for DLC. Jerks.

[Zacharai]

I really can't disagree with any of the criticisms brought up, but... I am definitely enjoying it. I'm not going to go so far and say it was worth the $460 I paid for it, but I knew I was going to get a 360 at some point anyway.

Hopefully I'll join EvAv III tonight or tomorrow.

[ÜberJumper]

t3g:

Or maybe it's to generate some positive press for their game's single player portion sucking so hard?

[Akeldama]

Complaining about the COMBAS points shows a lack of understanding for the tactical nature of the online game. Vying to control the communication network is one of the things that makes the online matches so much fun. e.g. The nervousness when working as a scout and going out of range of talking to your team. Yes it seems a little odd in single player, but many of the gameplay decisions blossom when you're playing online.

[Achilles]

Complaining about the COMBAS points shows a lack of understanding for the tactical nature of the online game. Vying to control the communication network is one of the things that makes the online matches so much fun. e.g. The nervousness when working as a scout and going out of range of talking to your team. Yes it seems a little odd in single player, but many of the gameplay decisions blossom when you're playing online.I agree, if you leave the COMBAS range it’s very troubling. You can’t support or be supported by your team because you can no longer talk to them. If you find their base, your team won’t know where it is, if you find 2 enemies, you can’t call for help (even if you’re not a scout you don’t want to go 2 on 1). Unfortunately they don’t have an indication for when you’ve just left COMBAS range that I’ve been able to find.

My biggest complaint about the game so far is the absolute instability of trying to put together a 5-6 player match. To get everyone into one against actual humans is a minor miracle, and then once you’re there you can spend 14 minutes waiting for the opposing team to ready, before they eventually abandon your game and you end up playing a ‘VS Computer’ anyway. Also their network connection “meter” is either a circle, square or triangle, none of which are helpful for figuring out what the network quality of the game is.

Their UI also takes too long to navigate, and just in general there are a lot of little UI issues everywhere.

Other than that the game’s great, I’m certainly having a good time playing it. And the few games that we’ve had against humans have been really good, though we’ve gotten destroyed in the last couple I was in. I've got many gripes about the single player, but it gives me equipment for multi so I can't complain too much.

[JazGalaxy]

This is free content, though. Free, as in zero dollars and zero cents.


Free now, sure, as a "thank you to fans" which means that, if it's free as a thank you, then ordinarily it would NOT be free. Meaning in the future, it's not going to be free.

[TrackZero]

Nice. A 3 page thread and noone pointed this out:

"Chromhounds Content Pack Coming - $0"

It's spelled Chromehounds!

[shnastybiznastic]

No nav markers.
There are plenty of nav markers in the single player game, not every mission uses them, but then not every mission is supposed to play out in a pre planned way.

No easy to use compass.
It's right down there at your sonar, buddy.

No targets marked on the HUD.
I tried to come up with something to say to this, but I have no idea what you are complaining about. Are you complaining that you can't see bogies on the nav screen? Are you complaining about not having enemies highlighted by your HUD when you look at them?

No objectives list.
Wah. You may have to listen to the instructions and remember them. Boo fucking hoo.

Music that puts you to sleep.
I didn't like the music either, but no game has good music these days, I don't see how you can play any game at all if you don't have the werewithal to put on some Wu Tang and mute the BGM.

Horrible voice acting.
What exactly did you not like? I think this is like the music thing. No game has good voice acting. How do you even play any videogame?

Stupid little people firing at you.
How is this bad? Did it bother you? I thought it was a nice touch.

Buildings collapsing but leaving no debris.
Except for the big fucking pile you have to walk over.

Tanks and other vehicles that just vanish when you destroy them.
A valid complaint. It would have been nice to have some smoking wreckage here and there.

Having to "capture" Network access points to stay in touch with other mechs on the battlefield?
First of all, I like this better than every other game, where they just have a magic communication field. Second, did you read the story or listen to the in game exposition? It outlines why you have to do this. I would think gamers would be happy to take a more active role in something that forces teamwork.

It's just... bad. Horribly, horribly bad.
Well, I won't disagree and say that the single player missions are some last standing bastion of story and length, but they are quite literally, a training ground for the multiplayer. I hate the fact that games can do this, but they are, and the real game is the online portion.

[fitbabits]

Nice. A 3 page thread and noone pointed this out:

"Chromhounds Content Pack Coming - $0"

It's spelled Chromehounds!
One page if you're clever.

Oh, and it's fixed. Thankee. :)

[Watership]

I don't get the complaining about the single player. I'm going through the missions and frankly it's plenty fun for me. What exactly is the problem? They're too easy??

They're not jump in happy go lucky fun. It's seems sorta like work to some of the Mechassault crowd. The only part I found labour intensive was the command stuff, which is a little hard to do via the controler in my opinion.

I hear lots of forum bitching like: "Bring me a real mech game like MechWarrior." and this game IS like mechwarrior, except without lasers and the ability to leap 2 miles with jump jets. Even the narriative style reminds me of PC mech games. No cinematics seems to piss people off however.

[RandomViolence]

If you haven't tried the online portion, then you really shouldn't judge this game. Fuck what you think are poor game mechanics, when you've had to draw off a more heavily armed enemy force in urban combat to allow your scout to sneak behind their base and bomb the hell out of it, then you'll become a believer :).

[Flatpicker]

Chromehounds arrived at my place on Friday.
Unfortunately, I had to work over the weekend so, I just started it Sunday.
It feels MechWarrior like, so far I like it.
The sonar is reminiscent of the Stackpole Kerensky novels and what Kai Allard Liao uses to take on the Dragoons.

Jumpjets are missed, but I can live with that.
It's slow paced and seems to turn off people who are used to anime style bots.

Free addons? I'm there.

[Expugnare]

Uberjumper, read the intro in the manual. This game is set in a time of intense solar flare activity, hence having to capture short-range communication towers.

I am actually enjoying the single-player like GrinR. Though that may be skewed because I had low expectations.

[swillw]

I didn't enjoy the single player, but the multiplayer is well worth it. The community are really freindly and helpful some guy gave me sheds loads of cash to build a new mech - sweet!

[Shifter]

Free now, sure, as a "thank you to fans" which means that, if it's free as a thank you, then ordinarily it would NOT be free. Meaning in the future, it's not going to be free.


Wow sometimes folks here are so negative. If you want free user-created content, get a PC. Until then if a console developer chooses to employ their costly man-hours to give you free shit, be grateful!

[ÜberJumper]

There are plenty of nav markers in the single player game, not every mission uses them, but then not every mission is supposed to play out in a pre planned way.

There's no way that I saw to set my own nav markers on the map. There's certainly no way for those nav markers to show up on the Hud so I don't have to look down at the stupid small map in the corner. Oh wait, from what I recall, nav markers don't show up there either.

Does the mini-map show you what grid you're in?

The nav system is amatuer at best, and leaves me wondering if part of the backstory is that anyone with brains in the game world's military establishment was killed. How can anyone not realize how important a good navigation system would be for these beasties. Just smacks of poor game design.



It's right down there at your sonar, buddy.


Yes, the completely inaccurate compass, set in a square minimap. Have you ever done ANY navigating by compass before?

It all comes back to how USELESS the HUD on these expensive combat robots are. Is there upgrades to the HUD you can purchase that don't make it so ineffective and information-lacking? THAT would be a neato element to introduce.

Hud should have a hell of a lot more info on it. Known targets, nav points, grid location (ala GPS coords), friendly units, known buildings, distances, etc.

That reminds me, why is artillery so HORRIBLE to aim? Maybe someone can clarify it for me, but why isn't there a far simpler targetting system for it. Can Arty hounds go into arty mode where they can set the grid location they want to target with their arty rounds then start pounding away?


I tried to come up with something to say to this, but I have no idea what you are complaining about. Are you complaining that you can't see bogies on the nav screen? Are you complaining about not having enemies highlighted by your HUD when you look at them?


HUD, obviously. Minimap and sonar would be helpful as well.


Wah. You may have to listen to the instructions and remember them. Boo fucking hoo.


Yes, boo hoo that a modern game doesn't have a common and useful feature that many other games have.


I didn't like the music either, but no game has good music these days, I don't see how you can play any game at all if you don't have the werewithal to put on some Wu Tang and mute the BGM.


...


What exactly did you not like? I think this is like the music thing. No game has good voice acting. How do you even play any videogame?


Just something to add to my litany of complaints.


How is this bad? Did it bother you? I thought it was a nice touch.


Any hope of this suspending any disbelief at all and making me think I'm in the cockpit of a giant combat robot was immediately dispelled when there are poorly displayed human dots with white flashes indicating gunfire running around like idiots.


Except for the big fucking pile you have to walk over.


Because the big fucking pile looks silly.


A valid complaint. It would have been nice to have some smoking wreckage here and there.


It's a pretty sparse world, but our 360's should have the ability to render some wreckage client side.



First of all, I like this better than every other game, where they just have a magic communication field. Second, did you read the story or listen to the in game exposition? It outlines why you have to do this. I would think gamers would be happy to take a more active role in something that forces teamwork.


Don't care, stupid. COMBAS towers make a horrible gameplay addition. You're telling me that these robots running around don't have the power to boost through some simple solar flare radiation? I call "game design element added in at the last minute that's really poorly thought out". Want a cool gameplay element? Thrown in some ECM and ECCM modules for the hounds. What idiot figured it'd be a bright idea to leave these COMBAS towers alone? Can I at least blow them up in MP?



Well, I won't disagree and say that the single player missions are some last standing bastion of story and length, but they are quite literally, a training ground for the multiplayer. I hate the fact that games can do this, but they are, and the real game is the online portion.


The Multiplayer looks like it's got a lot of great gameplay elements, but it's still lacking because of a lot of the single player features.

[Shifter]

Even so, it's still fun to blow shit up in giant robots.

[Goronmon]

Don't care, stupid. COMBAS towers make a horrible gameplay addition. You're telling me that these robots running around don't have the power to boost through some simple solar flare radiation?They make a horrible gameplay addition in your opinion. Personally, I think its a great gameplay addition.

And seriously, I hate it when people bring up "realism" comments in games that aren't supposed to be realistic to current day standards. You're driving around a mechanized robot war machine thats the size of an apartment building and you're complaining that aspects of the in-game communication don't make sense? Give me a fucking break. Its makes the game more challenging. I'm all for challenging.

And about the artillery. Its supposed to be fucking hard to use numbskull. What would even be the point of any other RT if you could pick a spot on the map to shell with any accuracy whatsoever without any spotting whatsoever. Teams would just be 6 mechs with long range artillery bombing their opponents base, hoping for a win.

[ÜberJumper]

Goronmon:

As an ex-military signaller/radio op, stupid crap like radios always working or always not working pisses me of. The combas thing sticks out as ridiculous to me.

As for Realism, any game we play is obviously not realistic (especially military ones). It all comes back to the whole thing of people not being afraid of the bullets (and the whole magically respawning after you're dead thing). That being said, games like chromehouds, slow paced games, with more of a military sim theme to them than action adventure need to pick a side of the fence and stick to it. They can't be simmy and completely goofy at the same time.

Going with the realism thing, artillery/indirect fire weapons are never "easy" to use. However, once they're setup and targetted, they're largely accurate. They should be time consuming to setup and tear down, but once setup they should be able to pick a target and fuck it up. Is artillery easier to use than some point and shoot, by guess and by golly, type weapon in Chromehounds? Did I miss how it is to be used? Why is the aiming system so silly? Why not have a better mechanic for it.

Playing chromehounds, we're in these fantastical combat robots that are technological marvels, yet the interface for using them is horribly inefficient. It's like having a car where the pedals are slightly out of the range of your feet, the steering wheel on the door rather than the dash, and the in dash DVD navigation system is showing the streets of a country your not in.

It pisses me off because it's got so much potential, yet is so poorly designed!

[Goronmon]

Playing chromehounds, we're in these fantastical combat robots that are technological marvels, yet the interface for using them is horribly inefficient. It's like having a car where the pedals are slightly out of the range of your feet, the steering wheel on the door rather than the dash, and the in dash DVD navigation system is showing the streets of a country your not in.Its more like having a car that you control with an Xbox 360 controller. ;)

My point is just that at some point, the game has to sacrifice some realism for fun/uniqueness. In the end, Chromehounds is about mech-to-mech combat. Meddling with wierd radio issues may make it more realistic or simlike, but it would detract from the main purpose of the game, IMO.

And back to the artillery. The way I look at it is this. Artillery in Chromehounds is pretty damn mobile. To counteract this advantage, they had to make it difficult to aim properly. Else you would just have every mech running around with a gigantic turret sticking out from it.

[ÜberJumper]

I'd have prefered it if the artillery required a setup time to use properly, and once setup was slow to aim.

They so could have made a game out of artillery itself.

[Expugnare]

I'd have prefered it if the artillery required a setup time to use properly, and once setup was slow to aim.

They so could have made a game out of artillery itself.
The problem with this is there would be a team of six, all artillery and just rain fire on all enemy bases from the start, eventually destroying the main base.