Quick Look: Velocity 2X

@thecynicaldave: Love her animations in the on foot sections, really makes me want a metroid style game starring her.

@thecynicaldave: hey thanks for sticking around here and answering questions. obviously futurlab are good people :)

@thecynicaldave: So this game is ridiculously fast. Are any of you guys speedrunners, or speedrunning fans? It seems like this game was designed to be played as quickly as possible.

@drew327: Takes some getting used to, but naturally people expect cross to be the jump button. Once you have bombs and the rifle unlocked it should feel a bit better :)

@homelessbird: We are not, but we love what that community can do. The speed comes from James' love of muscle memory controls, like in Street Fighter. You don't have time to think, your hands just do it and it feels amazing.

We teamed up with some speed runners last weekend and had a race to level 20 of Velocity Ultra on PC (it's like 2x but only the top down parts). It was great fun and something we'll get involved with again given the chance.

Yeah, I just spent the past 30 minutes playing and am finding that I like this game a lot more than I first thought I would. I find my self fudging the controls quite a lot, though, and that's the most frustrating part for me. I'll get used to it, eventually. I'm not a fan of the rear touchpad on the Vita, but I think this game could make great use of it for teleporting and even the right-stick shooting mechanic in the platformer sections. I find the square button to be the better teleport method for me because reaching for the screen with my thumbs feels awkward. It'd be great if touching the rear pad would bring up the cursor and tapping square would teleport. or just use the back touch the same as the front (tap to teleport).

Velocity Ultra is awesome. Can't wait to play this.

Loved this game so much. I just find it crazy that they translated many of the Quarp Jet's mechanics to platforming and it still feels like a perfect fit for that part of the game.

Didn't know anything about the Velocity universe until the end of August, when the folks at Speed Runs Live and the cool dudes at FuturLab threw a race of a portion of Velocity Ultra for PC - a race I placed quite well in. Since then I've played that version to 100% completion, and this game looks like a more polished extension of that experience.

I really can't recommend this series more - it's really fun to play, and allows players the ability to play the levels as fast (or in Ryckerts, ass-bleedingly slow) as they like. Despite its autoscroll shooter roots, there's a lot more substance here. Thumbs up!

Dan doesn't seem to grasp the boosting mechanic in the ship sections. I had the same problem. You gotta boost to move forward.

@thecynicaldave: I had no idea what this game was going into it, but I downloaded it anyway since it was free. I played a little bit of it today, and I gotta say, it's a hell of a lot of fun! Great controls, great sense of speed, and a good solid challenge. Real nice work!

@thecynicaldave: Let's act like that's not sarcasm, and say yes. Ha ha. No, but I would love that, even if it isn't happening. The art and soundtrack, even down to gameplay to a certain extent, remind me of Tron actually, which is why I brought it up, and I like what I played of the game so far, so perhaps you could do something with it, though preferably something worthy of being in canon. Alright, wishful thinking. I'll stop there :P. As some have already said, thanks for answering question and replying to comments in general, that's pretty cool.

@onekillwonder_: Great stuff, glad you're enjoying it so far :)

@thecynicaldave: Hi Dave. Did you guys want to incorporate side-scrolling levels from the start? Or did you start on a different game and decide to merge it with the ship stuff? Or halfway through development did you guys decide to try something crazy and new?

Basically, what's the genesis/inspiration of a completely different gameplay style in a sequel?

@csl316: I'll let James (FuturLab's creative lead, director, overlord) answer that one fully, but it was always planned from the start of the project. In this blog post (http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2014/02/07/new-velocity-2x-trailer-and-update-so-far-so-good/) you can see some of the concept art.

There's a ton more of it here if you'd like to see how the game developed: http://velocitygame.co.uk/velocity-2x/ekastv_2-kodimmt7diev9/

I'll ask James to give an answer tomorrow (well, later today, it's somehow already 1am here!) and get it on here asap :)

The art reminds me of Transistor, really clean. Looks awesome especially the on foot stuff. Gonna try this out just for that though the rest looks neat as well.

@thecynicaldave: Awesome, I'll check out those links!

You might not have gotten the Quick Look of your dreams, but it sure as hell sold me on the game! Can't wait to get back home and play it.

Heard nothing about this game til it came out, decided to try and it and I am pretty hooked, which is saying a lot cause I haven't played many video games lately. The look is nice, but the pretty tight limits on the gold speed medal are what has me keep going back.

From the very first mission, I feel like I fail if I don't get a gold medal on speed, and have found myself restarting a mission as soon as I make one tiny mistake. Which is not remotely a bad thing, I've enjoyed the experience and have yet to find it frustrating doing that. I think that it touches on one really nice quality, at least on PS4, that is really awesome in the game. Restarting is almost instant, meat boy style. If there was a significant load overtime I restarted a level I think I wouldn't enjoy the game half as much.

@thecynicaldave Well, this game came out of nowhere for me at least, but after seeing this QL I went straight to my PS4 to get it downloaded. Thoroughly enjoying it so far! Good job, sir!

The top-down shmup sections make me think of Major Stryker - particularly the rescuing survivors.

@thecynicaldave: Just want to say thanks to you and the people at FuturLab for this game. I loved Velocity Ultra and upon picking this up yesterday I've perfected half the levels already. Only bummer is that it's a bit weird since I love to play with the dpad and you need to use the stick or touch screen to throw telepods. It's a bit weird, but I'm sure I'll get more use to it. I also hope there's some dumb jokes in there like the coconut dodge levels and shenanigans like that. Keep on doing what you guys are doing.

Also yeah, this Quick Look was pretty painful with Dan going at a snails pace through levels. This seems totally up Jeff's alley so maybe he'll get more into it later.

Edit- Oh fucking god dammit. Literally the next level I play and you throw coconuts and crabs in my face. You win this time you jerks.

@thecynicaldave: Loved Velocity (and Ultra), loving 2X so far. <3 from London (I think it's awesome that Kai is from Brighton by the way!)

Also, Dan's an idiot!

The cross-save menu on Rogue Legacy is worded in the most confusing damn way. Fez and The Swapper get it right. "Do you want cloud [date/time] or local [date/time]?"

I love that Dan skipped the level where they explain the telepod and has no idea what to do on later levels. This is the sort of game that layers in new mechanics throughout the entire campaign, so skipping ahead is only going to result in a bad time for you.

Space Blaster Master, eh? You have my attention.

Yeah, right with you, mate. Well, Giantbomb does have its redneck moments.

That looked really boring and I'm kind of shocked GameSpot gave that a 9/10.

That platforming looks cool with the teleport mechanic. I'm surprised they didn't include some metroidvania style backtracking and maps.

If you've got a PS4 and PS+, there's simply no reason not to get this, and even if you don't have a PS4, or have one and don't have PS+, it's still a fun game and worth the asking price of $20.

:)

I shook my head seeing Dan not using boost the right way.

@skrams: haha, we'll never leave Clawrence and Coconut Dodge behind! Due to time constraints we were unable to put the thrown telepod on d-pad, because of the nature of the pad it would have required a different solution to the analogue stick (perhaps something along the lines of locking you in which ever direction your facing, then using up/down to aim). We never got back around to it unfortunately. Glad you're enjoying it though despite that! :)

@pumpkinheaddy: Haha, he's an idiot, but now he's OUR idiot. We have to support him even though he has the pallet of a child and is subject to outbursts of extreme violence (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9ORSWDwz9w) <3

I'm surprised no one on staff played the original game, since it's one of the best Vita games about.

Also Dan is finding it tough so doesn't show it off fully :{ he almost figured out the boost thing but never quite got it. You gotta try and boost through the whole level! When going at full speed this game is hypnotic and mesmerising.

So good.

Redneck seems like an odd appellation to throw at 'em. Why does the game let you skip if it is going to be a, "Bad time?"

@griffinmills: We didn't want to prevent players from proceeding if they were stuck/struggling with a level, so we allow them to skip forward. As I've mentioned elsewhere in the comments, we will look at adding Controls to the in-game options menu and maybe highlight any levels that include tutorials.

This game looks neat. Glad I've got PlayStation Plus.

@everettescott: I didn't even notice what you did at first, but I stand by what I said initially. If you have PS+, the game is free. Even if this isn't normally the type of game you play, it's different enough in many respects that there's a chance you could like it, and even if you don't like it, then just delete it off your account. No harm, no foul.

It reminds me of Legendary Wings.

This game looks really cool.

This game looked great until the very end, and then it just looked terribly designed if someone can get so stuck like Dan did.

Will still grab it on Plus though and give it a shot myself!

This is my favorite game on Vita this year :)

Also, the video does not make the game any justice, not only did they skip a tutorial without knowing, but it was a great level too!

For me the vita is the way to play the game, the touch control for the teleport is great!

Congratz @thecynicaldave and all the FuturLab team! ^^

Velocity Ultra is one of my two platinum trophies on PSN and I'm having a blast with this game as well. I feel more comfortable spamming bombs on the Vita because of the shorter analogs. :P

This plays perfect on Vita. A worthy sequel to Ultra

Whoa, this is an really Amiga-ish euroshmup. I like it!