Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Rictor on July 01, 2006, 01:36:51 am

Title: DarkStar One - Freelancer with bad British accents.
Post by: Rictor on July 01, 2006, 01:36:51 am

HardLight being what it is, I though at least a few people would be interested in what is perhaps the only space sim coming out in the near future, DarkStar One.

I just played the demo (a whopping 900 megs), and it's worth checking out for yourself, even if it's nothing revolutionary. My impression was

- semi-open trade/take missions gameplay world with central plot structure to keep you going, ala Freelancer.
- you have one ship which you then upgrade, ala Independence War
- nice graphics, though nothing that would put, say, X3 to shame. They're adequate and a bit cartoony, ala Freelancer.
- generic "They killed your father who you must now avenge, and there's a big conspiracy bla bla" plotline.
- combat and movement is fairly intuitive, at least for anyone with space sim experience
- from what little I've seen, the characters are generic and cliched.
- really bad voiceacting. I don't know if you Limeys really sound like that, but I doubt it.

In other words, beggars can't be choosers. Well, not if you want to eat any time soon. So get the demo (vast download over yonder (http://files.filefront.com/DarkStar+One+English+Demo/;5203119;/fileinfo.html)) and see for yourself. At the least, it's an hour and a half back in the cockpit, and in today's game market that's good enough for me.

Title: Re: DarkStar One - Freelancer with bad British accents.
Post by: Ransom on July 01, 2006, 03:22:17 am

I found it painfully disappointing. The flying is too arcadey for my taste, and the story is about as clumsily directed as you can get. There's simply no thought put into how to present characters and plot to the player, and it shows.

Title: Re: DarkStar One - Freelancer with bad British accents.
Post by: Flipside on July 01, 2006, 03:50:05 pm

Might be interesting, but I always get concerned when I see in-game frame stuttering from the Promo-video, makes me wonder how smoothly the game runs.

Title: Re: DarkStar One - Freelancer with bad British accents.
Post by: Rictor on July 01, 2006, 04:38:30 pm

It played on highest details at 1024 without problems on my mid-range system (Athlon64 3200, Radeon 9600XT, 768mb ram). I was concerened when I saw some of the posts on BluesNews, but I never had any noticeable problems.

Title: Re: DarkStar One - Freelancer with bad British accents.
Post by: Ulala on July 03, 2006, 04:39:32 pm

Looks decent. I might give it a try.

Title: Re: DarkStar One - Freelancer with bad British accents.
Post by: Falcon on July 03, 2006, 06:50:27 pm

I don't like it, Freelancer is better.

Title: Re: DarkStar One - Freelancer with bad British accents.
Post by: Tyrian on July 04, 2006, 06:35:46 pm

Hmm...Looks interesting.  I might give it a try.  I did like Freelancer, after all.

EDIT:  I've found rumors that this demo uses StarForce copy protection.  Is that true?  (StarForce has a reputation for killing computers.)

Title: Re: DarkStar One - Freelancer with bad British accents.
Post by: Ferret on July 04, 2006, 06:42:05 pm

Quote from: Tyrian on July 04, 2006, 06:35:46 pm

Hmm...Looks interesting.  I might give it a try.  I did like Freelancer, after all.

EDIT:  I've found rumors that this demo uses StarForce copy protection.  Is that true?  (StarForce has a reputation for killing computers.)

StarForce scans CD-ROMs to check if they are legitimate. StarForce drivers have been known to kill other CD-ROM drivers. Why would a downloadable demo use StarForce at all?

Title: Re: DarkStar One - Freelancer with bad British accents.
Post by: Tyrian on July 04, 2006, 06:47:55 pm

I have no idea.  I found a forum that said the demo did not use StarForce.  I'm just curious if they're right...

These are the threads:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/darkstarone/show_msgs.html?topic_id=m-1-29016063 (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/darkstarone/show_msgs.html?topic_id=m-1-29016063)

And

http://213.198.65.214/forum_DS/showthread.php?t=1176 (http://213.198.65.214/forum_DS/showthread.php?t=1176)

Any idea if these guys are right?  They say no StarForce on it.

I'm just paranoid, cause I got StarForce on my machine and am trying to get it off without reformatting my HDD...

Title: Re: DarkStar One - Freelancer with bad British accents.
Post by: Ashrak on July 05, 2006, 01:23:27 am

theres no starforc on demo nor in full game

Title: Re: DarkStar One - Freelancer with bad British accents.
Post by: Mefustae on July 05, 2006, 02:19:01 am

Quote from: Tyrian on July 04, 2006, 06:47:55 pm

I'm just paranoid, cause I got StarForce on my machine and am trying to get it off without reformatting my HDD...

If I recall correctly, there's an anti-starforce site somewhere that houses a pretty solid method of removing Starforce drivers without the need of a format. It was definitely posted here some time in the past, maybe a few months ago, so plog it into search and have a look.

Title: Re: DarkStar One - Freelancer with bad British accents.
Post by: aldo_14 on July 05, 2006, 02:44:53 am

Quote from: Ferret on July 04, 2006, 06:42:05 pm

Quote from: Tyrian on July 04, 2006, 06:35:46 pm

Hmm...Looks interesting.  I might give it a try.  I did like Freelancer, after all.

EDIT:  I've found rumors that this demo uses StarForce copy protection.  Is that true?  (StarForce has a reputation for killing computers.)

StarForce scans CD-ROMs to check if they are legitimate. StarForce drivers have been known to kill other CD-ROM drivers. Why would a downloadable demo use StarForce at all?

Because otherwise you can use the demo code as a basis to reverse-engineer & thus crack the retail executable.

Title: Re: DarkStar One - Freelancer with bad British accents.
Post by: CmdKewin on July 05, 2006, 05:10:34 am

I downloaded the Demo this night and I'll try it when I get back home after work.

But i can say something, the more Space Sims we get, the better :D

Title: Re: DarkStar One - Freelancer with bad British accents.
Post by: Tyrian on July 05, 2006, 05:00:47 pm

Hmm...I'm gonna go find that site.  Now, I'm going to download that game!

EDIT:  Found that site about 2 weeks ago.  But thanks anyway for the help!