Quick Look: Strike Suit Zero

I was expecting a real space sim, but from what I have seen in the QL this looks more like an arcade shooter then anything else.

It defaults to a 3rd person view, that tells a lot to the level of "simulation" they are aiming to.

I will keep waiting form Star Citizen....

This is probably a very general sci-fi question, but why are space ships always made to be so aerodynamic?

Is it for the rare occasions they'll enter atmosphere? Because if it's... say... assembled in space and flies in space, the shape doesn't really matter. The sleek design could be changed to something with more bulk and shields.

I suppose it's because we still to the idea of space as a giant ocean, and space ships... as ships.

@vince_kupo said:

@NuclearWinter said:

@AssInAss said:

Was eastern-sounding music in space sci-fi a thing before Battlestar Galactica?

The composer of this game is Paul Ruskay, who did the music for the Homeworld games, which had similar eastern sounds.

The soundtrack reminded me about Yoko Kanno a bit. She did most of the music for the Ghost in the Shell franchise.

Oh yeah, don't know why that skipped my mind.

@dr_mantas said:

This is probably a very general sci-fi question, but why are space ships always made to be so aerodynamic?

Is it for the rare occasions they'll enter atmosphere? Because if it's... say... assembled in space and flies in space, the shape doesn't really matter. The sleek design could be changed to something with more bulk and shields.

I suppose it's because we still to the idea of space as a giant ocean, and space ships... as ships.

Yeah, it's most likely just an aesthetic choice. Space isn't total emptiness though, while being aerodynamic isn't of much use in terms of movement, I guess it could possibly minimize the surface area that will be exposed to head on collisions with micrometeorites and other space junk, and maybe could help a bit if the ship is passing through clouds of gas, space dust or whatever the more dense areas of space are littered with. Admittedly post-hoc rationalization, as the analogies with WWII era airplanes and battleships are pretty much the dominant idea of space warfare and ship designs in sci-fi.

That music reminded me of the Ghost in Shell movie

You can make the argument that a spaceship turning into a robot would be better than a regular spaceship, but c'mon. It’s different when it’s a woman, this is over the line, and transformers should have known better.

lol that looping music

@AssInAss said:

@vince_kupo said:

@NuclearWinter said:

@AssInAss said:

Was eastern-sounding music in space sci-fi a thing before Battlestar Galactica?

The composer of this game is Paul Ruskay, who did the music for the Homeworld games, which had similar eastern sounds.

The soundtrack reminded me about Yoko Kanno a bit. She did most of the music for the Ghost in the Shell franchise.

Oh yeah, don't know why that skipped my mind.

Jeff said in the quicklook that it "sounds like Colony Wars", I haven't played that, but it sounds kinda likely. Goa and psy-trance with a lot of sampled eastern vocal music was extremely popular around 94-99 or so, which was also around the peak of the space sim genre. I remember Wing Commander Prophecy had a Juno Reactor track in that vein in it's soundtrack, I think Eat Static's music was pretty common in games back then too, I wouldn't be surprised if they also appeared in a few space sim soundtracks.

This game is really Ace Combat mixed with Armored Core/Japanese macross games.

All the people expecting a space sim in the western style will be disappointed...also, they didn't quite figure out how to use the robot in this quicklook. Once you know what you're doing, the robot is incredibly powerful and easily the flashiest part of the game.

Space: the final frontier

Yea the robot mode was a major letdown. Maybe it get's better at some point though.

Having some fond flashbacks to Crimson Skies. But it just doesn't feel the same without art deco. Now art deco in space, that'd be something new!

That music is something else, sounds like mid 90s anime

Looks generic.

If there isn't going to be a new Zone of the Enders game then I wish at least someone would rip off that style of gameplay already. This mech moved so lamely.

The bombers called it: That robot mode? Underwhelming

@dr_mantas said:

This is probably a very general sci-fi question, but why are space ships always made to be so aerodynamic?

Is it for the rare occasions they'll enter atmosphere? Because if it's... say... assembled in space and flies in space, the shape doesn't really matter. The sleek design could be changed to something with more bulk and shields.

I suppose it's because we still to the idea of space as a giant ocean, and space ships... as ships.

And here's your very general sci-fi answer: Rule of Cool.

2min into the video. It's Gundam. A but more sci-fi design on the ships but damn, that ship that launches the robots/fighters looks identical in designe to most of the main(hero) ships in the Gundam series.

@mewarmo990 said:

@dr_mantas said:

This is probably a very general sci-fi question, but why are space ships always made to be so aerodynamic?

Is it for the rare occasions they'll enter atmosphere? Because if it's... say... assembled in space and flies in space, the shape doesn't really matter. The sleek design could be changed to something with more bulk and shields.

I suppose it's because we still to the idea of space as a giant ocean, and space ships... as ships.

And here's your very general sci-fi answer: Rule of Cool.

The last BSG series didn't subscribe to this. The main ships were just a big rectangley ovally looking thing. The little fighter ships were aerodynamic because they did indeed go down into atmosphere once in awhile. They also compromised a little bit on sound too, with muffled missile sounds in space battles.

This game isn't so bad. I'm just at about where Jeff left off. Not a bad game.

I miss Wing Commander.

@dr_mantas said:

This is probably a very general sci-fi question, but why are space ships always made to be so aerodynamic?

Is it for the rare occasions they'll enter atmosphere? Because if it's... say... assembled in space and flies in space, the shape doesn't really matter. The sleek design could be changed to something with more bulk and shields.

I suppose it's because we still to the idea of space as a giant ocean, and space ships... as ships.

There are quite a few examples in science fiction where the ships aren't built aerodynamically. Someone else mentioned Battlestar Galactica, and the Cylon Basestars are great examples (they're neuron-looking things with all these arms branching out). Firefly was also pretty good with this, as smaller ships that regularly entered atmospheres (like the eponymous ship) were aerodynamic, but the larger capital ships of the Alliance were essentially a couple skyscrapers floating around space, and were much taller than they were long.

This doesn't look bad. It just doesn't look exciting.