HAZE

[KnackChap]

HAZE

 

Developers:Free Radical

Publishers:Ubisoft

Genre:FPS

Player(s):1-4

Platform(s):PS3,Xbox360,PC

Relaese Date:nov 07 PS3,Q2 08 Xbox360 PC.

 

 

Haze, the new AAA shooter from Ubisoft and Free Radical, puts players in the boots of a new recruit in the privately run Mantel army. Set in the year 2048 in a world where Governments have outsourced military operations to Private Military Corporations (PMC), you play a newly enlisted soldier seeking fulfillment and thrills by fighting for a good cause.

 

As the leading PMC, Mantel Global Industries offers a high-tech arsenal of vehicles, deadly weaponry, and on top of that a performance enhancing bio-medical support known as Nectar. As a result, Mantel troopers are the most feared by terrorists, dictators, and the corporation’s political enemies.

 

Your conflict begins in a war-torn country where you have been sent to fight a vicious rebel faction, the Promise Hand. At first glance, all is well, but things quickly begin to look a little strange…

 

 

Key Features

 

* Impeccable FPS credentials: from the developers of the critically-acclaimed TimeSplitters series and the publishers of Far Cry and Ghost Recon® Advanced Warfighter™. Free Radical and Ubisoft have proven their ability to create innovative platform-defining FPS titles.

 

* Become a Mantel Trooper and fight the merciless guerrillas of the Promise Hand with the most advanced gear, the fastest vehicles, the deadliest weapons – and Nectar, Mantel’s battlefield-optimized performance-enhancing medication.

 

* Boost your fighting abilities with Nectar, empowering Mantel troopers with fighting abilities such as Nectar Focus, Nectar Foresight, Nectar Perception and Melee Blast. Using these skills, troopers are able to detect and avoid imminent danger as well as deliver powerful attacks in close quarters.

 

* Mature and compelling storyline. A tightly integrated storyline makes Haze an immersive narrative experience as well as a cutting-edge shooter.

 

* Cutting edge gaming technology featuring the Disparity Rendering System™ shaping the players’ views of the world on and off Nectar. Haze also features an entirely streamed experience with no loading times between levels.

 

* State of the art multiplayer modes. Fire up your console for online battles and choose from a variety of online modes including furious 4 player co-op action!

 

 

Official website

 

 

IGN preview

The story of Haze is based around a conglomerate called Mantel, a pharmaceutical/weapons/you-name-it company that has its fingers in everything from the water we drink to the shoes we wear to perhaps even the air we breathe. Mantel even has its own private army which it uses to help quell the constant civil uprisings commonplace in this not-too-distant future.

 

One of Mantel's most advanced, and perhaps unstable, technologies comes in the form of Nectar, a serum that its soldiers use to heighten their senses. This ties directly into Haze's gameplay as you're able to tap into the Nectar tank on your back at any time and get a number of sensory boosts. Your aiming will be increased with a bit of lock-on help and enemies will stand out from the environment as glowing figures. Coolest of all though is the foresight that you'll gain that will warn you of incoming dangers. For instance, when a grenade lands near you you'll see a distortion wave emit from its location a second or two before it goes off, giving you just enough time to back away and at least lessen the damage, if not avoid it entirely.

 

While using Nectar certainly gives you an advantage in battle, it is not to be abused. Overdosing on the substance will cause you to become confused and automatically fire at anyone in front of you, and your vision becomes distorted to the point that friends and enemies alike look the same. This isn't just a downside for you as your teammates can overdose as well, and should they begin firing upon the rest of the squad, interesting gameplay scenarios open up. Do you fire back and try and minimize damage to your entire squad, or get out of the way until they calm down and hope your men do the same?

 

But it's not just aggressive use of Nectar that can cause you to overdose as rebels have learned to take advantage of it as well and use it against you. Nectar grenades will increase your intake, and a honed shot can puncture your tank and flood your mask with the gaseous drug.

 

Aside from the setup and Nectar elements, details on the story are rather sketchy. We do know that the story touches on how there really are no "good" or "bad" sides to a war, but rather differing views. We also know that your character has rather interesting visions from time to time where your surroundings will change slightly as the screen changes to black and white. The reasoning for this is hinted in the latest trailer on our video page, which you can check out right here, though we're still in the dark as to what the visions actually mean.

 

Screens

trailers and videos http://www.gametrailers.com/game/2682.html

 

Reviews

IGN-

Gamespot-

1UP-

Gamespy-

CVG-

[rad2689]

now this is presentation.

nice work kc

[rad2689]

Haze: The Dirty Side Of Combat

The overlooked goodness of Nectar

 

SPOnG took a few moments to chat to Haze developer Free Radical today, and we've gathered some tasty combat details about the upcoming shooter.

 

For all the attention Haze is getting, its combat system is getting a mite overlooked. Rob Yescombe, screenwriter on Haze, goes so far as to describe it as “two games in one box”, but all the attention's being focused on the creepy narrative.

 

Free Radical tells us:

 

 

“With a separate set of skills and abilities for both opposing forces, the single player campaign will play like a high-tech shooter when you’re with Mantel, looking very much like a video game – with fading bodies, and no blood, before switching to a pared-down, more realistic experience once you change sides. Then, free from Nectar, you can expect to see all the blood, gore and general warlike suffering that your heart desires. One might even call it a commentary on videogames themselves…"

 

 

It must be said, SPOnG does love a meta-commentary on the nature of gaming.

 

The abilities of the Mantel soldiers, with their nasty druggy ways, have already been discussed by Free Radical, but Mantel's opponents, The Promised Hand, have been a tad neglected. Here's the rundown according to Free Radical:

 

Weapon Steal

Get close enough to a Mantel soldier, and you’ll be able to punch him in the face and grab the gun right out of his hands. Seeing as they’re so damn tough, it’s the perfect way to even the odds.

 

Play Dead

This one’s really interesting. When the Mantel guys are using Nectar, it censors their view of reality – so they can’t see any blood or death. That means that when they kill a rebel, the body just fades away. So, by pretending to be dead, you’ll disappear, just like any other corpse in a videogame. Then, when the Mantel soldier turns his back, you can jump to your feet and plug one in the back of his head.

 

Scavenge

As a rebel, you’ll be able to recalibrate ammo from different weapons to fit yours. So, if you happen to find a minigun but it’s out of ammo, you can fix ammo from, say, a pistol to fit that gun instead.

 

Traps

You can bury grenades under the earth, to leave a nasty surprise for anyone on your tail.

 

http://spong.com/article/13427/Haze_The_Di...f_Combat?cb=874

[KnackChap]

[CarbonCore]

The evolution of FPS...

[KnackChap]

HAZE progression Report

http://blogs.ign.com/HazeGame/2007/08/16/63577/

[SchizoidFreud]

Fighting Asymmetrically HAZE

 

Given developer Free Radical Design's history of crafting rock-solid first-person shooters -- and FPSes with some of the most addictive, fluid multiplayer combat on consoles -- we were a little surprised to see so much of the focus as of late go toward the storyline of their upcoming PS3-exclusive (well, for the rest of the year anyway; gotta love the new definition of "exclusive") shooter HAZE. We're not downplaying the shooter aspect by any means (in fact, we dug it when we first got the details just a few months ago), but seeing as games like TimeSplitters series on the PS2 and the much-revered GoldenEye on the N64 are held aloft as benchmarks for their respective systems' multiplayer experience, we wanted more info on just what they were up to for a next-gen shooter.

 

 

Derek Littlewood and Rob Yescombe over at Free Radical are clearly psychics. Or maybe aliens. Probably alien psychics, in fact, because no sooner did one of us wonder aloud if we'd learn a little more about things did the both of them give us a call to give us the rundown on their Asymmetric Combat. Getting the skinny while rushing to pack for an event isn't exactly the best way to digest the info that was blasted as us in rapid-fire fashion, but it was more than enough to get us excited for what the team is working on.

 

At the core of the multiplayer experience is a basic rock/paper/scissors system that helps leverage the strengths of the Nectar-addled super-solider squads of the Mantel Corporation's private army against the soldiers of the resistance (for those not in the know, leading man Nick Something starts out on the former side and switches to the other during the course of the game), but gives the more agile, adaptable resistance fighters more than a few tricks of their own to even things out.

 

If you haven't gotten the scoop on what Nectar does, by all means, check out our earlier preview, but the gist is that is gives those who use the drug near-super-human powers; the ability to see better, detect incoming grenades, and so on. There's a flip side, though: overdosing on Nectar turns soldiers against friend and foe alike, and this is the crux of the resistance fighter's arsenal -- particularly when you're playing online.

 

For this little peek into multiplayer rundown, we'll focus mostly on exactly how those exploits work, but the short version is that by introducing more Nectar into an enemy's bloodstream, whether by coating a knife in the stuff, making a grenade out of it or puncturing the Nectar tank on an enemy's back, the OD will cause them to flip out and attack indiscriminately or just loose control period.

 

Speaking of flipping, the resistance's ability to jump and roll with a simple double-tap of the jump button gives them a number of advantages; for instance, Free Radical found that with the flips and dives, parts of the levels that were unavailable to the Mantel troops like rooftops could be traversed by the rebels. This combined with their ability to punch a Nectar troop in the face and steal their weapon in one smooth weapon gives the rebels some serious ammo -- even if they don't necessarily have the quasi-superpowers or heavy weaponry.

 

Even those weapons, however, can be used ingeniously. Rebels have the ability to take ammo from one gun and modify it in order to use any ammo type for any weapon. Not only does this eliminate the need to search for specific weapons, but it actually adds a deeper level of strategy in that the resistance squads can stick to one weapon for a given situation. Who wouldn't love a near-endless supply of mini-gun rounds?

 

It's just one example of how Free Radical is trying to build a system that allows for multiple uses; one example given was using a Nectar Grenade as an impromptu smoke grenade. If Mantel troops are bearing down on a rebel, he can duck into a narrow alley and drop a nectar grenade. Since running into the Nectar cloud would cause a freak-out, it becomes a shield with which the rebel can turn the tide and either make a quick escape or sneak in a couple of shots.

 

Don't think the rebels have all the fun, though; in fact, they're forced to use these improvisational tools to overcome the enhanced firepower and armor of the Mantel troops, but even here they can use a Mantel squad's "cleaner" view of the world against them. Troops on Nectar see things almost like a video game; enemies that die fade out slowly while in real life they're screaming and writhing around -- or they're laying motionless and playing possum until the troop passes at which point a rebel can stop playing dead and melee a Nectar tank to send a grunt into overdrive.

 

Free Radical and Ubisoft will be showing off more of the game, including multiplayer, at this year's Games Convention in Liepzig, Germany later this month. For now, though, take a peek at these new screens we managed to pilfer and watch that drool.

[Snake]

Haze is gonna be very intresting!!!...especially the abilites.

[SchizoidFreud]

^ i bet dude, fingers crossed on this one.

[rad2689]

Haze PS3 Demo Announced?

 

Could this mean PS3 Multi-player demo of Haze is announced?

"Free Radical's Derek Littlewood: We've been discussing multi-player beta, it may just end up being multi-player demo, but we are looking to do a pre-release, a playable version of the multi-player."

 

http://www.ps3forums.com/showthread.php?t=92512

[SchizoidFreud]

...and no xbox 360 demo

[CarbonCore]

It is exclusive to PS3 this year. So the answer is....NO

[SchizoidFreud]

CC uve turned a ps3 fanboy

[rad2689]

^^this reaction shows ur fanboyism towards 360 cos CC didn't reply like a fanboy

[CarbonCore]

CC uve turned a ps3 fanboy

 

I always was. Besides, my 360 is dead, so I have no choice.

[SchizoidFreud]

^ u do, the wii!

 

rad : im not a fanboy of the 360, im a fan of haze...since i dont have the ps3, i wont be able to play the demo and im left with no other choice either

 

oh and for the record, if u say "buy a ps3", i cant because of this little something called "class 10th" in INDIA

 

 

[KnackChap]

If there is any game that can give bioshock a challenge for fps goty,atleast on paper then this is it

[Ne0]

^^ nah man ! Bioshock is way more impressive than this....but if u mean - this game is "bioshock for the PS3", maybe yes.

[KnackChap]

have you played bioshock?

have you played HAZE?

then how do u know

[CarbonCore]

Bioshock may get the overall goty, but for genre awards, my money is on COD4 or Haze...or Metroid...or Halo 3. Damn, its too early to say anything right now.