The Outsider

[Steve O B Have]

I would just like to pass on my gob smacked amazment at the artwork that has gone into this game - simply stunning. Well done guys (and gals) you have set the bar well high!!!!

Just quietley, if this is the kind of feel the E4 might have, I personally think you are on to a good thing! Simply stunning!

 

[David Braben]

I would just like to pass on my gob smacked amazment at the artwork that has gone into this game - simply stunning. Well done guys (and gals) you have set the bar well high!!!!

Just quietley, if this is the kind of feel the E4 might have, I personally think you are on to a good thing! Simply stunning!

You're very kind.

We do indeed plan that E4 will benefit from the work we are doing on Outsider.

 

[Kyris]

I have to agree Steve. It is the most beautiful games I have seen since Oblivion. It says 'next gen' I take it that means X-Box 360? or will there be a PC version?

 

[rioshin]

I have to agree Steve. It is the most beautiful games I have seen since Oblivion. It says 'next gen' I take it that means X-Box 360? or will there be a PC version?

I do hope for a PC version... I'm not sure if I'll buy a PS3 or X360 at all - unless the prices come down quite a lot.

 

[Steve O B Have]

I do hope for a PC version... I'm not sure if I'll buy a PS3 or X360 at all - unless the prices come down quite a lot.

Agreed - would be a def buy if it was on PC.

as an aside, is it just me or does Jameson bare a passing resemblence to a younger Deniro?

 

[Steve O B Have]

The Outsider Premise:

The Outsider is a high-tech thriller played out against the backdrop of a living, crowded city based on present-day Washington DC and its environs including the CIA HQ at Langley, Andrews Air Force Base and Newport News Naval Dockyard. As a CIA operative the player has a mouth-watering ****nal of technology, combat talents and weaponry available to him. A shocking opening scenario wrongly makes him Public Enemy Number One in the eyes of the media and the public at large, but leaves many different ways to proceed: to wreak ultra-violent revenge, to turn the tables and exploit the shady organisations he is mixed up with for his own ends or crusading to clear his name.

Sounds cool - I wonder if there is any chance for any more info? Anything like, is it first person or third person? Is there going to be a GTA like player interface with the opportunity to employ vehicles to your use? Weapons? Character interaction?

From a personal perspective, I currently have no intention of buying a PS3 or a 360 and as such have a vested interest in the game being available for the PC, what are the possibilities for an eventual port?

 

[VR jefranklin18]

From a personal perspective, I currently have no intention of buying a PS3 or a 360 and as such have a vested interest in the game being available for the PC, what are the possibilities for an eventual port?

No chance, I would say. Just look at some of the attacks made by people made regarding Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, I think Frontier will move more towards console development. DB has said he prefers it: plug it in, switch it on, it works everytime.

Personally, I'm going to be getting a PS3. It looks as if it is going to be a good system and I have bunch mates to play online with. I just hope that Frontier are developing for it.

 

[Steve O B Have]

No chance, I would say. Just look at some of the attacks made by people made regarding Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, I think Frontier will move more towards console development. DB has said he prefers it: plug it in, switch it on, it works everytime.

Personally, I'm going to be getting a PS3. It looks as if it is going to be a good system and I have bunch mates to play online with. I just hope that Frontier are developing for it.

I guess that I will eventually be getting one as well then but not at £500... unless some cunning chap comes up with some way to emulate a PS3 legally.

 

[chihiro]

Not just the graphics that look interesting about the Outsider ...

Although the graphics do look stunning, I have to say I'm more interested in this:

"... by abandoning the prescriptive, mostly linear story .... and replacing it by simulating characters motivations in an immersive, dynamic world and storyline. This gives the player genuine freedom to change the story outcomes ..."

How do you encode complex character motivations? That seems to be a bigger challenge for computer RPGs than graphics. But then I've played a lot of tabletop RPGs so maybe I'm a bit biased ...

c;y

 

[Vikinger]

I really hope they make a PC version also.

Ive invest a fortune into my computer and i refuse to buy a console.

I think a PC game will last longer than a console game.

Its hard to near impossible to do any modds to a console game. And therefor people buy it, play it and then shelf it.

A pc game that can be modded will have a larger community, eaiser to patch, easier to expand.

Just imagine if Elite would have been a consol game. My guess is that the game will be forgoten in 6 months coz the lack of community and modd options.

just my 2 cents why it should be a PC Version also.

Vikinger.

 

[Sparky]

Am i right in thinking there was a mag spread (i think EDGE) on The Outsider? As that's why i origionally seeked out this forum as it looked highly impressive

 

[Martin Smith]

Am i right in thinking there was a mag spread (i think EDGE) on The Outsider? As that's why i origionally seeked out this forum as it looked highly impressive

That's right, it was EDGE 165. I hardly ever even buy EDGE, but when I saw the cover I had to pick it up and what I read inside was like having somone describe the game I've been thinking of for so long. I'm amazed at anyone even attempting some of the things described about this game and I can't wait to see what is done with it.

I've never played any of Frontier's games but Outsider doesn't sound like anything ANYONE has done and it just grabs me. This is the kind of stuff I want to make, a game that says something aswell as entertaining. I read a gamespot interview with David B and even with the limited amout of information about Outsider I can't think of any other game that has me more excited.

Anyway, this is my first post and I just wanted to say that. To paraphrase: I'm excited.

 

[Steve O B Have]

I wonder...

David, what would the chances be of some sort of a scenery flyover movie or an ingame movie of The Outsider? I know there is a little something on the Frontier Website, but any chances of something else?

I know the answer is likely to be no, but if you don't ask...

 

[vin209]

The outsider is perhaps the most exciting prospect in game design for quite some time. Dreamfall and Farenheit are the two most recent efforts to promise this kind of narrative structure that spring to mind but neither of these completely satisfied me due to them still feeling rather constricted. They seemed to want to be movies rather than the games they are. Although i agree that games and movies share many parallels I don't agree that games should be going in the same direction which seems to be the case.

Games do not have to be linear, movies do. Offering moral choice and options based on motivation is clearly the way to go. This way each player will have a unique experience and a greater empathy for their character, even more so than in a movie or so i believe.

My final project for my BA will cover precisely this subject and indeed has been a consistent part of any game design i've put forward so far. the possibilities offered by this approach are phenominal and i'm suprised the outsider seems to be the only game following this tact.

With a bit of luck we'll start to see more of a push towards this type of thing and fewer flashier updates of tired formats.

Still i'm slightly dissapointed that this type of game should have to include guns but hey, it's what the public sems to want. My wife will only drop Grand Theft from her cold dead hands so guns don't really seem to have the avertion for female gamers they used to. That or i'm partner to a psycho...

I do have some questions that would help considerably towards my BA to do with this game but probably wouldn't get a response on these boards due to their nature. is there any way i could contact someone confidentially with these?

 

[Michael Brookes]

You can pm me with your questions and I'll see what we can do.

Michael

 

[Captain Moray Starboat]

Hope they can hurry up and finish this so they can consentrate on the main project . Elite 4

 

[Carrot]

So do I, but also like DB, I don't want E-IV rushed. It will come out when it is ready and not until. Doesn't stop me salivating at the thought though.

 

[JibberX]

First post, fan of Braben's stuff... usually pretty interesting conceptually. Really liked the RISC OS / Archimedes stuff, always tended to gravitate towards Conqueror, which was basically just tanks on a patchwork Zarch'esque landscape, with a workable control scheme... oh and Elite (BBC, Acorn and NES versions)... got burned by First Encounters badly... combination of buying it on release and having a guff PC... ah well.

Pseudo sycophancy behind, I'm really interested in The Outsider, art direction and concept fascinate me along with the reported free nature of the narative construction, I hope it doesn't turn into a FedEx game or an MMORPG a like offline affair like Oblivion felt.

I can't seem to find any decent videos of the game, and none at all "in game". If the game is a fair while down the road, then thats fine. John Jameson the great great great ... great grandfather of Commander? Thargoids behind everything?

 

[David Braben]

I can't seem to find any decent videos of the game, and none at all "in game". If the game is a fair while down the road, then thats fine. John Jameson the great great great ... great grandfather of Commander? Thargoids behind everything?

We're gradually drip-feeding info on the Outsider, but there is a short video to come soon - taken from in game graphics, but not showing gameplay.

You're right - Jameson is a distant reference to Elite - perhaps they are even related as you say!

 

[Steve O B Have]

We're gradually drip-feeding info on the Outsider, but there is a short video to come soon - taken from in game graphics, but not showing gameplay.

You're right - Jameson is a distant reference to Elite - perhaps they are even related as you say!

I really hope that there is going to be an old BBC B+ sitting dusty in a corner somewhere in the Outsider with Elite running on it or better still a PC with Frontier ticking away LOL

Ah the possibilities for fabricating a story for Elite 4s 'universe' history.