Quick Look: EX: Natural Selection II

This looks like boring garbage.

The way he jumps all the time as alien. Does this have the shitty source engine stuff where you gain speed as you jump?

When i was a kid i played original Natural Selection and Science and industry mods but i was forced to play hockey and football. I loved coming home to play the games and I hated the sports. I cant wait for the NS2 release.

@Sarx: I think some of the aliens do

These guys seem to be big fans of James Cameron's Aliens.

@Sarx said:

The way he jumps all the time as alien. Does this have the shitty source engine stuff where you gain speed as you jump?

Did you miss the part where they said it's Unreal Engine 3?

I'll look into this one.

@simkas said:

@Sarx said:

The way he jumps all the time as alien. Does this have the shitty source engine stuff where you gain speed as you jump?

Did you miss the part where they said it's Unreal Engine 3?

Did you miss the part where they said they had their Lead Programmer by the name of Max develop their own engine for NS2? It's called Spark.

NS reminds me of Gloom for Quake II. That was my favourite mod!

This looks pretty rad, especially the power outage mechanic. I'm not too hot on the commander though.

@Sarx: The fans wanted it to be kept in so it was, I enjoyed it as a mechanic in the first NS.

Usually people who couldn't use it effectively hated it, and I'll admit it is a little alienating to newer players or people who don't understand skill based movement, but being able to air strafe makes games so much more fun and raises the skill ceiling significantly. Just if you didn't know, air strafing is what gives you that speed boost in the air and it lets you have full air control when you're jumping. It's kind of weird to implement into your play style, though, so most people don't take the time to learn it.

I happen to love it and stuff like strafe jumping in Quake. I actually really wish the genre would go back to the age of fast paced arena shooters with skill based movement, but unfortunately we're stuck in the modern military shootan generic phase because people don't want to take the time to learn interesting movement tricks and get tired of getting beaten by better, more experienced players. Everyone just wants to be instantly good at FPS games, which is why CoD and crap like that is popular now. Unfortunate.

@Sarx said:

The way he jumps all the time as alien. Does this have the shitty source engine stuff where you gain speed as you jump?

Did you miss the part where they said it's Unreal Engine 3?

It's nice to see Brad bringing the beard back.

@Sarx said:

The way he jumps all the time as alien. Does this have the shitty source engine stuff where you gain speed as you jump?

You gain speed as a skulk when jumping off walls at certain angles (and within a certain time period after hitting the wall). You don't gain speed when jumping normally, but lose any excess speed over time when you're on the ground. This extra speed goes down slower when in mid-air.

So walljumping gives you speed, while regular jumping helps maintain it. It makes you a harder target to any marines you haven't spotted, too.

Wasn't really interested in this game but I have to say: This looks pretty awesome

This looks really cool. Totally never knew it was like an RTS, way more interested now.

I dropped my preorder on this the day it was announced but haven't really played any of the alpha/betas. I feel bad now, looks like the community really mattered on the dev process! Either way, looks great, I gave my free 2nd copy on steam to my friend who introduced me to NS1 back in the day. Looking forward to launch!

This QL needed more generator humping

@Arx724: Thank you for your concise and thorough explanation. Gaining speed by walljumping and maintaining it by staying in the air sounds like a fun system that keeps immersion intact (unlike ye olde strafejumping for everyone)..

@Mcfart said:

I was deep into NS1 6 years ago, and my only response to this is: wtf?

Aliens have a commander now? Marine Commander isn't the glue holding the team together? They just distilled the uniqueness of the teams. I'll pay $2.50.

I don't think you know what distill means

I really liked Battlezone 2 when I was younger, this looks pretty cool, also the guys sound really awesome.

This was cool. The devs are very enthusiastic too.

Awesome. I played so much of the original mod for HL1, this brings me back. They're some pretty cool people working on that mod.

never played the first, but this looks kinda cool

I like the PoV; it's better than the "zombie hands" of most visible protag FP views.

I'm not gay, but Joey Famelli is one attractive human male.

FUCK YES!

The original Natural Selection is dear to my heart. Bought NS2 as soon as I could give Unknown Worlds some money for it <3

@Mcfart said:

I was deep into NS1 6 years ago, and my only response to this is: wtf?

Aliens have a commander now? Marine Commander isn't the glue holding the team together? They just distilled the uniqueness of the teams. I'll pay $2.50.

Marine commander is still the glue. Alien commander exists because this game is NS2, not NS1. Somehow you've equated the two, despite the fact that they are vastly different roles. This is a game about map control, adding an alien commander gave the team sweet abilities that you couldn't have without the commander, and also made the team more viable for the more complicated maps.

Don't like QL Exs (especially if GB doesn't also do a normal QL for the same game) because I already have to listen to enough sales pitches elsewhere but this one was alright. The devs seemed like good guys, always feels better to support guys like this than buy some EA game or something where much of your money goes to some greedy rich fat cat executives who don't give a fuck about the community. I'm not into FPS but I'm glad to see someone out there is trying to innovate the genre, the RTS elements looked interesting.

@darkest4 said:

Don't like QL Exs (especially if GB doesn't also do a normal QL for the same game) because I already have to listen to enough sales pitches elsewhere but this one was alright. The devs seemed like good guys, always feels better to support guys like this than buy some EA game or something where much of your money goes to some greedy rich fat cat executives who don't give a fuck about the community. I'm not into FPS but I'm glad to see someone out there is trying to innovate the genre, the RTS elements looked interesting.

My thoughts exactly, the EX's do feel a little too much like an extended sales pitch. I know that its usually smaller companies doing these and its a good thing to get them more hype but its just not the same as a normal QL. By letting the company guide what we see the worst parts of the game can be skipped and we don't get a clear picture of the actual product.

This game looks awesome. I never played the original mod but this looks like my kind of game.

Man this looks great. I spent a good year playing NS1 in college specializing in being a Skulk in vents and terrorizing marines, and I think this is even better. I'm still amazed that no-one else has taken the basic idea of RTS + FPS and run with it - games like MAG tried expand beyond being a single soldier, but nothing has combined the level of overall strategy, resource collection, upgrades, and moment to moment combat like the original NS.

Also helps like the devs sound like people I wish I kept following after college and was able to support to help get this game out.

This game looks very good in it's own right, but the only thing I could really think was that this is the team that needs to be in charge of an Aliens game. Once he was inside the Exo with the flamethrower and the flashlight it was all I could think about.

Also, the lights being cut was pretty effective at setting a creepy tone, even for such a fast paced action game. The didn't skimp on the pitch black darkness like some games do.

Probably the best Quick Look EX....Natural Selection 2 looks pretty sweet ...

@Mcfart said:

I was deep into NS1 6 years ago, and my only response to this is: wtf?

Aliens have a commander now? Marine Commander isn't the glue holding the team together? They just distilled the uniqueness of the teams. I'll pay $2.50.

Way to be a shining example of the typical hyper-whinny entitled "I know better than the devs" forum poster.

Also, you don't know what 'distilled' means.

the mouth cam is awesome, considering all FPS are just gun cameras

Looks good, kind of reminds me of The Hidden

Normally, I'm a bit down on the EX's. But, honestly, I prefer Brad in the host seat while people who won't make the game look awful play.

I like Brad... I just think he's the worst gamer in the world any time Giantbomb needs him to shoot video. :)

This was driving me crazy. I kept thinking, "Didn't Giantbomb cover this already? And didn't they explain it much better last time?". I was getting my "Game journalists play games and talk over the footage" shows confused. For the record, Giantbomb, I love ya... but IGN's PC team explained this a heck of a lot better than you guys did. Back in July, too.

Yay for Joey cameo!

I was an avid Natural Selection player, so I've been following the development of NS2 from the start. It's really cool to see it come from a very niche beginning to being featured on a site like Giantbomb. Like the devs say, the RTS+FPS model seems like a no brainer, but nobody's pulled it off except NS. Very excited to play when it hits wednesday, just hope my machine can run it half decent.

Never played original Natural Selection but I foresee a future purchase of this on Steam.

This looks fucking spectacular!

I've never heard of NS1, but this looks super interesting! I like.

Brad looks like a rogue cop.

Game looks great! These guys just seem very amicable and genuinely excited. Great QL. That's how you do an EX! :)

I remember playing the early alpha versions of this game. It has come a REALLY long way.

EDIT: The Joey factoid at 9:15 is really cool too.

This looks like a lot of fun I'm a convert.

Much like Brad's beard, this game looks bad ass!

NS2 TNT puuuh-leeaseeeee.

I remember the first NS being alot of fun right up until the point people realized that if marines camped there own base they couldn't lose