Hah! D3Publisher has quietly updated the official EDFIA website with screens, videos as well as pre-order info through GameStop and yup… Facebook and Twitter links. Go take a look NOW and sign up if you’re a fan!
Color me impressed. Vicious Cycle is so far, doing the EDF name justice. Yeah, I miss the retro-futuristic visual style of the Sandlot-developed games, but what's here is updated nicely with faster gameplay, better animations and that nice sense of stuff going *BOOM* the EDF games all share. My minor gripes: MORE and more varied voice comments would be nice.Trying to replicate the cheesy charm of the older games doesn't quite work with the more “serious” style EDFIA is going for. Also, a few more enemies on screen in later gameplay movies would be nice just to see what the engine is really capable of. I'm not quite getting that “Eek! Overwhelmed” feeling found in the crazier missions from the older games. I guess we'll have to see what's what when D3Publisher updates us with new movies and screens, right?
Video # 2 is below the jump, by the way.
So far, so good and a LOT of changes in the visual style from the older games. That's a nice new controllable mech from one of the game's loading screens above. The two gameplay movies I'll post later show off much better character animation and some nice visual effects, but I do miss Pale Wing's cute getup and the bigger, slower moving shiny Hectors. That and a few other things (such as seeing more enemies onscreen in future builds), but overall, I'm excited at how well the game is looking with quite a while to go before its Spring 2011 launch. More EDFIA updates as they come in – stay tuned…
This EDFIA teaser packs in 38 seconds of suspense while lending itself to as few minutes of questions. If it’s created using the upcoming game’s engine, I like the elements not found in the Sandlot-developed EDF titles such as the flames coming from buildings, exploding vehicles and blowing debris. That giant metal spider is a great touch, as are the redesigned spider models and better animation from those screaming civilians. OK, I’m sold – just get me some actual gameplay footage along with full details on all the game modes and I’ll be even more giddy.
In only slightly shocking news (well, to some of you out there – I predicted this a few weeks back), Earth Defense Force series creator Sandlot is not involved in the development of the upcoming Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon. Instead, D3 has announced that veteran developer Vicious Cycle (Dead Head Fred, The Return of Matt Hazard) has taken on programming duty for the upcoming third-person shooter set for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as a Spring 2011 release. The company's Vicious Engine is quite a versatile one, so I'm expecting the game to be a more than worthy expansion to the groundwork laid by Sandlot.
Breaking down the announcement piece by piece, let's start with the cover art:
Excellently done and it's nice how it's a riff on the cover to EDF 2017 (I see flying ants or wasps are back in the mix – yes!). So far, so good…
As for the developer… Even if you've never heard of Vicious Cycle, I'll bet you've probably played some of their games…
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 