10 Second Preview of�

Independence War 2 : Edge Of Chaos
(200MB+ magazine beta)


Sean's Preview:

Take one part FreeSpace 2, a dash of Elite, a pinch of Sacrifice (?!), stir vigorously and you get I-WAR 2 from Particle Systems. Why Sacrifice ? Well IWAR2 has THE most gorgeous 3D graphics I have seen to date since playing Sacrifice on my rig. What else do you get ? High quality cutscenes, excellent voice acting, and a spacecraft HUD to die for. Players of the original IWAR will remember the virtual bridge that panned between control stations. IWAR2 does away with this with an elegant command interface that pops up in the middle of your HUD using the joystick HAT switch. Out of the cockpit you will enjoy a crisp clear starfield, colourful spacecraft, boiling suns, and space stations teaming with traffic.

You can tell Particle Systems has really made an effort to make IWAR2 accessible to the newbie as well as hardcore IWAR fanatics. The intertial propulsion system has also been left as is in I-WAR2 but seems to be far more controllable now.

Weapons fire has been beefed up - one of my two favourites are the gatling gun and the mining laser. Wait till you see the shield hit effects on your ship !

One problem I had with this beta was the horrific clipping problems with ship graphics. Whether this is a function of my graphics card and driver I do not know. One point I have to mention is that this beta ran totally smooth on my two year old gaming system. I can't wait for the full game !


Publisher: Infogrames
Developer: Particle Systems
Genre: Space combat simulation
Requirements: PII 300, 64MB RAM, DirectX8 & 3D accelerator
Recommended : PIII 800, 128MB RAM & 3D accelerator with TNL
Played on : PIII 550, 256MB RAM & nVidia TNT2U clocked to 166/200

Links :
http://www.independencewar.com/
http://www.edgeofchaos.net/
http://www.particle-systems.com/


PS. Apologies to Mark and Tom for plagiurising their 60 Second concept. {g}

Sounds good. What's weird is that this game was nowhere to be seen at E3. Who's publishing it? Ubi Soft? Infogrames?

Infogrammes. Isn't it almost done? That would explain why no E3 appearance right?

I was playing the demo with my newly aquired GeForce3 and it looks amazing. 1024x768x32 with Quincunx AA smooth as can be. I am having some serious compatibility issues with the IWar2 demo and Win2k but it is beta so that is to be expected.

BTW, if anyone wants to know if the GeForce3 is worth it, it is. The QAA is very nice but the most underrated thing about the card is the improved anisotropic filtering levels. Rune at 1600x1200x32 with 64-tap anisotropic filtering is a religious experience. My wife even remarked how good it looked. And I have played through almost the entire game with it this way (long damn game). Frame rates average about 40 with mins of 28ish. If you think about what the card is doing that is astounding.

Other highlights are the Nascar Heat demo running at 1280x1024x16 with QAA and 64-tap anisotropic filtering. Still pinned the benchmark (won't go any higher than 60). Damn does it look good and I don't even like Nascar. :)

Obligitory Q3 number 155 fps at 1024x768x32 with everything turned up. Trillinear and no FSAA. I used to get 100ish with lower textures on my GF2 GTS.

All of this on a 1Ghz Athlon rig 256mb, yada yada.

I will likely need a CPU upgrade next since I don't think this one is pushing the GF3 very hard. AXIA Athlon you are mine. :)

-- Xaroc

bah, geforce 3 at 350 bux... that can get you TWO 1.33/266 amd cpus with some change! yeah i hear its a good card...but cmon 350 bux is a little high (and thats with a good deal too, its still pretty much over 400 everywhere...)

But Ill admit the kudos this card gets makes me jealous! but i'll wait... by winter expect geforce 3 Pro and Geforce 3 GTS...all clocked a lil faster...bah!

etc

Considering I paid $350 for my GeForce 2 GTS when it came out I think this is a pretty decent deal. Hell the GF2 Ultras were $450(!) when they came out and brought no new technology to the table.

I always find it funny how people say they are going to wait for the next card that is faster. Well you are going to be paying $400+ for that too. It isn't like they are going to lower the price for the faster one. Just look at the GF2 Ultra. :) If they follow the same strategy you will be looking at $500 for the GF3 Ultra in 6 months. They might also offer an MX version as well (probably same time period) but I would rather skip every other card and have a full version than get every cheaper version.

Oh and the biggest factor in my descision is I get to actually use this thing for the next 6 months before those come out. :)

-- Xaroc

Hell I am using a TNT2U and IWAR2 looks fabulous - I can't even begin to imagine what it must look like running on a GeForce3. Wait a minute - maybe it is better I don't know ! {g}