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Six Minutes Of Looking At Six Days In Fallujah

Let's leave the controversy at the door and see what kind of shooter Konami and Atomic are working on.

No longer a valid cover point.
No longer a valid cover point.
Last week we all watched the announcement of Konami's new shooter Six Days In Fallujah, which promises to drop you into the middle of the current Iraq war's bloodiest battle to date. At that time, you probably either voiced your displeasure with the game's setting--or called the people who did so "pansies." Since then, I've seen a brief, very hands-off demo of Six Days In Fallujah, so let's leave political correctness at the door and just talk about what kind of game this is, shall we?

What kind of game this is, of course, is a third-person modern military shooter with Middle Eastern level design and--judging by the way the screen desaturates when you take damage--a recharging health system. Use-of-ongoing-conflict-as-setting aside, you didn't have to be a huge Call of Duty 4 fan to predict that's the style of gameplay developer Atomic would be going for.

For all their realism, though, Call of Duty and other shooters on the market take place in mostly static environments. But Atomic Games' Peter Tamte rightly points out the degree to which real modern warfare truly decimates an urban environment, and in the interest of preserving that fact, the team has created an engine in which almost all of the game's level geometry is fully destructible. During the demo, Atomic commented that Six Days will change the way you're used to playing cover-based shooters because you'll no longer be able to trust any of that cover to protect you, at least not for very long.

And that's the first really intriguing thing I've heard about how this game will play. The destruction isn't over-the-top action-movie stuff, but instead seems to cover a broad spectrum of intensity. Firing a grenade launcher at a wall won't blow the entire wall apart, but it will chip away enough of it to send any enemies behind it scrambling for protection. The destruction seems to come at a price; the frame rate in the demo I saw dipped severely in a few places. But you expect that sort of thing to improve over the course of development, so I can't condemn the performance just yet.

More importantly, if destructible environments give Six Days in Fallujah a unique identity in an overly crowded genre, the technical hurdles will be worth surmounting. As for the subject matter, how you feel about that is purely a matter of taste.


Brad Shoemaker on Google+

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Brad

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Edited By Brad
No longer a valid cover point.
No longer a valid cover point.
Last week we all watched the announcement of Konami's new shooter Six Days In Fallujah, which promises to drop you into the middle of the current Iraq war's bloodiest battle to date. At that time, you probably either voiced your displeasure with the game's setting--or called the people who did so "pansies." Since then, I've seen a brief, very hands-off demo of Six Days In Fallujah, so let's leave political correctness at the door and just talk about what kind of game this is, shall we?

What kind of game this is, of course, is a third-person modern military shooter with Middle Eastern level design and--judging by the way the screen desaturates when you take damage--a recharging health system. Use-of-ongoing-conflict-as-setting aside, you didn't have to be a huge Call of Duty 4 fan to predict that's the style of gameplay developer Atomic would be going for.

For all their realism, though, Call of Duty and other shooters on the market take place in mostly static environments. But Atomic Games' Peter Tamte rightly points out the degree to which real modern warfare truly decimates an urban environment, and in the interest of preserving that fact, the team has created an engine in which almost all of the game's level geometry is fully destructible. During the demo, Atomic commented that Six Days will change the way you're used to playing cover-based shooters because you'll no longer be able to trust any of that cover to protect you, at least not for very long.

And that's the first really intriguing thing I've heard about how this game will play. The destruction isn't over-the-top action-movie stuff, but instead seems to cover a broad spectrum of intensity. Firing a grenade launcher at a wall won't blow the entire wall apart, but it will chip away enough of it to send any enemies behind it scrambling for protection. The destruction seems to come at a price; the frame rate in the demo I saw dipped severely in a few places. But you expect that sort of thing to improve over the course of development, so I can't condemn the performance just yet.

More importantly, if destructible environments give Six Days in Fallujah a unique identity in an overly crowded genre, the technical hurdles will be worth surmounting. As for the subject matter, how you feel about that is purely a matter of taste.


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giyanks22

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Edited By giyanks22

Sounds cool...I don't like the setting, but Im liking the destructable cover

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LiveOrDie1212

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Edited By LiveOrDie1212

need to see this game in action

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bwooduhs

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Edited By bwooduhs

Im actually looking forward to this.

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Binman88

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Edited By Binman88

In my opinion, the game does not look all that promising. Modern Warfare was almost perfect in gameplay and graphics - I don't know if I'd be keen to play a similar game, in third person, with sacrificed visuals due to the demanding destructible environment effects.

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delta_ass

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Edited By delta_ass

Yes, because real US Marines fought from an out of body experience in Fallujah.

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Edited By killdave

no

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Ineedaname

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Edited By Ineedaname

The destructive cover system is just making me think of Battlefield bad company and red faction, it's not all that new, although I do like tactical based shooters if you get a decent group of people, so here's hoping this is a good game.

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xFRIGx

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Edited By xFRIGx

I know that a lot of people are hurting from the war in Iraq but the fact is its a real conflict, just like playing a world war 2 game, it is an interesting concept worth exploring and could make for some entertainment. I am really looking foward to some advancements with this, however I hope it doesn't follow suit of most japanese games and start to relay terrible story that is convoluted, like the well known metal gear solid 4. Which is related because it is a Konami game

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TheHBK

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Edited By TheHBK

Lets go get us some terrorists.

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Edited By sjschmidt93

There was a very nice conversation about this on Listen UP on Friday, and, it kind of opened my eyes and made me realize that this game just... won't work. Simple. It's won't work.

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RHCPfan24

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Edited By RHCPfan24

Looks a bit better. I wonder how the press is going to handle this one actually...overreactions I am sure.

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Jackel2072

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Edited By Jackel2072

you know i have never really enjoyed the middle east setting ever. its kind of boring. give me WWIII fighting in downtown Manhattan! now that sounds like a good setting!

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Alphazero

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Edited By Alphazero

Needs more Nazi hose.

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Al3xand3r

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Edited By Al3xand3r

So what of the survival horror and documentary aspect? They forgot ALREADY? It's just a more realistic Bad Company (yet third person?)? Yay :S

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Jared

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Edited By Jared

Sounds good but it will take one heck of a final game to compete with the current / future COD games.

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borgmaster

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Edited By borgmaster

only way for this game to come out with any kind of taste is to be ultra-realistic and documentary style, which won't happen, so oh well.

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MordeaniisChaos

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Edited By MordeaniisChaos

LOL...


CoD left realism behind after 2, and that was hardly realistic. Sorry, as much as I loveyou guys at GiantBomb, CoD is NOT realistic in the SLIGHTEST. It doesn't even pretend to be. Its an arcade style shooter.

And how many times have we heard the whole "watch what you use for cover, cause it might not be there for long" speech? I want to see that, I do, but I HAVEN'T. I wish developers would stop that. The closest to that I've seen is Red Faction, and thats not even a game where cover s a focus at ALL lol.

But, I would love to see a GRAW style game with destructable enviroments. GRAW 2 was incredible.

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Edited By MrKlorox
Brad said:
"During the demo, Atomic commented that Six Days will change the way you're used to playing cover-based shooters because you'll no longer be able to trust any of that cover to protect you, at least not for very long.

And that's the first really intriguing thing I've heard about how this game will play."

So.... you're intrigued by something you've already gotten familiar with while playing Bad Company? Except the twist is that you're stuck to the cover by a redundant "cover system" instead of freely moving from cover to cover?

Nothing about the gameplay seems new, yet.

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Edited By LaSpaceTuna

I guess we can look forward to this being as preachy as most Japanese games? :(

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giyanks22

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Edited By giyanks22
"I know that a lot of people are hurting from the war in Iraq but the fact is its a real conflict, just like playing a world war 2 game, it is an interesting concept worth exploring and could make for some entertainment. I am really looking foward to some advancements with this, however I hope it doesn't follow suit of most japanese games and start to relay terrible story that is convoluted, like the well known metal gear solid 4. Which is related because it is a Konami game."

It's like a WWII game lol...WWII happened over 64 years ago. I doubt anyone who fought in the war plays the games, and if they do they probably suck at it, because old people suck at video games. There are people on this site that are being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, so i don't think they like the idea of playing a "game" for entertainment...based on there life threatening experiences taking place now.
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spilledmilkfactory

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political correctness aside, i don't predict huge success for this game. it looks fairly generic, and much too unrealistic imo. political correctness not aside, i think that a game based on a recent battle in an ongoing conflict should be much less "arcadey," and should kick the regenerating health to the curb and go for a more full spectrum warrior feel. but that's just me.

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MeatSim

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Edited By MeatSim

Again, at least there trying something new instead of space marines or WW2.

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Edited By LiquidPrince

I still don't like the concept.

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Edited By Kinarion

I find this less revolting than the Dante's Inferno video game, but that isn't saying much.

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lamegame621

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Edited By lamegame621

I don't really see how this is that much worse than 'America's Army' , a game made by the US ARMY!

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Edited By Jedted

The title sounds like a movie or something so hopefully that's a sign that it'll have a cinematic story.

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Edited By Rapture

Hope the story telling doesn't get too japanese

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Edited By meteora

Seems like another Battlefield: Bad Company to me; except more realistic. Meh. I need to see some actual gameplay to judge the game.

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Edited By Al3xand3r
Rapture said:
"Hope the story telling doesn't get too japanese"
Wat? Why would it get at all Japanese?
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Edited By TwoOneFive

sounds like SOCOM with regenerating health and more destructible stuff. 

This could be very good...or very bad. 

Oh, and we can all dismiss the idea that this will be a realistic game now. Regenerating health is the most ridiculous thing ever. In HALO it makes sense since you are playing as a super soldier with a super suit. In Resistance it was cool because half the game you didn't have it, then when Nathan Hale was infected, he gained the ability to regenerate his health, so that was cool. But in COD4, you might as well  believe you are playing as John Rambo, or the fucking Robocop. It makes no sense for games like that to have regenerating health. 2
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Edited By digital_sin

That truck's license plate still totally and clearly says Dubai on it.

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Edited By freakydude20

you people need to get over your problem with regen health. yes realistic games are cool but you are still playing a video game. even if it had a regular health system after one shot you would really be out of the fight no med pack is just gonna fix you up. and if there was no medpacks at all and we were just one shoted all the time what fun would that be? and as for the setting i am a soldier myself and have been to iraq and i am happy to see a game out of it. and i hope it is very succesful.

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Edited By Media_Master

I'd like to see some footage

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Edited By Jimbo

How about this, you die once and your game never works again.  Or better yet, the controller explodes in your face!  Realism is overrated.  I think it should be handled with a degree of accuracy and sensitivity though and Regen health in particular isn't a very tasteful choice.  Better to force your squad to deal with the casualty before they can move on (like Full Spectrum Warrior for example).