Thursday 23 December 2010

What we know about Starhawk

If I could only have one PS3 game, I'd have to choose Warhawk. Given it's over three years old, visually it shows it's age, plus it is solely a multiplayer game, it might seem an odd choice. That fact remains, I've had more fun playing Warhawk than anything else.

Rumours surrounding the sequel have been with us for a long time, and seem to be heating up - so here is a summary of what we know, littered with personal opinion as is traditional on U3S!

The name: Starhawk

Sony trademarked the name Starhawk around April 2009. That is all we know, it's not necessarily linked to LightBox Interactive (Dylan Jobe's development house, broken off from Incognito, responsible for Warhawk expansion packs etc.).

Is it a sequel?

Rumours are plentiful, I've been Googling this morning and the only verified source is Dylan Jobe's carefully selected comments on Twitter. So vague are these I won't repeat them here, but they do not state that the project LightBox are working on is indeed a sequel, a "Warhawk in space", or any other details whatsoever!

So what do we know?

It is clear that Dylan is passionate about his project and will not release information until ready to do so. There have been no leaks, so he's also running a nice tight ship. Best of all, he says we deserve games which are not rushed. We do, I'm happy to wait for one.

Via Twitter he refers to aiming to please fans, that's where the sequel rumour comes in. More interestingly he states they are developing "new and exciting stuff".

There is reference to mission design, some take this to imply a single player campaign - hmm, not necessarily...

So, we know just about nothing.. what do we want then?

Well, the balance in Warhawk is incredible, it's possible to be strategic to succeed, or skillful, or gain strength from teamwork, or on occasion a bit of blind jamminess! All these please!

I could bang on about how nice Warhawk vehicles are, how sweet a well timed mine or grenade is, how funny a man on man knifing runaround can be, how satisfying a thoughtful switch to a rocket launchers to take out a deadly tank or warhawk is, I could keep going. Enough said, just don't take the best of these out without putting twice as much back in.

The ability to quickly jump in on an official server 32 player romp, or find two or three likeminded folk for a little deathmatch - whatever you want to find, a tweak on the game filters and join in the game you want. To this day (three years later) the matchmaking (or perhaps lack of) is pure perfection, perhaps by virtue of not trying to be perfect!

The range of game options, map selection etc. is nice, the ability to set up a host game and even play on it in online split screen is just so perfect. Essential for the next one.

Good headset support, reasonably easy muting of idiots too.

So, I've listed only things Warhawk already has, as for the rest? Honestly, anything is OK! I want a modernised Warhawk with great new maps, without massive changes. Put it in space, back is the Warhawk world, between the two, anywhere - just don't go backwards on anything which was right before, it all needs a really good reason to justify something coming out.

What if it's completely different? Great, bring it on!

I like to think they know this at LightBox, one day, hopefully soon, we'll find out.

8 comments:

  1. never played warhawk, but you certainly seem excited about this one mate.

    kinda surprising that's there's been so little news after 3 years. You'd think a little more info would slip through the net.

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  2. You must! Not everyone seems to take to it, it can be frustrating for n00bs, but that is not you pamigo! I don't think the demo is available anymore which is daft as servers are still full of players even after all this time. If I've convinced you (or anyone) to get it, message me and I'll be happy to give the guided tour.

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  3. Get it for a tenner http://video-games.shop.ebay.co.uk/Sony-PlayStation-3-/117562/i.html?_nkw=warhawk

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  4. I love that game, one of the best I have up to this day. Easily in my top 8 games for the PS3.

    War hawk is home to possibly the greatest thing you can do (in terms of skill and ass kicking) in a game. I've only done it a few times, but everyone of those times where I've shot down a speeding War hawk out fo the sky with a Tank has been gaming bliss.

    unfortunately none of my friends play it anymore.

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  5. Warhawk.. one of the few online games that didn't piss me right off, so it must have something going for it.

    may have to dust it off and give it another go sometime this festive holiday time.

    just thought, i played it online when the only people who had PS3 were dedicated first dayers, and not a bunch of snotty cunts who blagged the systems off their parents.

    Fall of Man used to be a good laugh online too.

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  6. @tone LOL, the demographic is OK if you pick the right servers,

    Resistance was good but once dropped I didn't go back to it, Resistance 2 I've not played.

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  7. Warhawk is also my favourite PS3 game. It's been a while since I played it though. I hope that Starhawk really does see the light of day.

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  8. @tone: Yeah, that summer in 2007 was fucking awesome for Resistance. Before Insomniac added the global servers it was full of day-one UK PS3ers. I think it probably gave a lot of people their first taste of online gaming too.
    It's funny I never really got into Warhawk too much, but my GF was a massive fan, and I used to quite enjoy watching her play.

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