Fans of Moon Basing and Space Exploration have been bitterly disappointed on the reality and game front for decades , in the 60s a nice Irishman spoke about going to the moon and other planets as well as doing the other things , 1999 came and went and there was no Koenig commanded Eagle Lander operated Moon Base , as I was promised as a child , in the 80`s the Purple one sang about the cost of sending people to the moon [His best album] and lo a couple of decades later one of his fans now in the Oval office withdrew all funding for sending people to the moon . But all is not lost :
Get to Steam and download this gift from NASA, a free sim of what Moonbasing would be like .......yeah really !.... You have to consider with all the drastic NASA budget cuts whether there is a bit of reverse psychology going on with this release ,a salvo from NASA to their old funding source ? As it is to make the sim accurate , i.e not science fiction , all you need to do is replace the flags/insignias/astronauts with those of India , China , Russia and or Japan and or if you are a follower of William Gibson Rastafari . The reality is space travel and bases such as this if they are to involve USA input will require , cooperation with other now emerging space powers as well as private enterprise ,so roll on the Mega Corps ! Until the Vulcans arrive and Cochran wakes up from his latest alco fuelled stupor but in the meantime you can follow the now fading dream of going to the moon and other planets ,with this awesome free gift from NASA
check out the absolute awesomeness below and write to your congressmen now people for better training in languages that you will need to travel to the moon with [Chinese Hindi Russian Rasta etc] or a better way to fund NASA .
NASA itself should seek private funding, after all 12 million people pay money every month to waste time on just 1 MMORPG , Millions more are slave to PSN and XBOX Live . Why not get these people to subscribe to NASA and have their names written in history as pioneers of space exploration ! Instead of casting x on y with z for 2000 AP , you could actually be funding the future of man , Sony got gamers to contribute to science with Folding , PC users already contribute to SETI , so how about evolving this to allow actual funding of NASA and International Space projects removing the government funding shackles altogether.
Moon Base Alpha is of course just one awesome free Space sim , you will of course be familiar with zero gravity simulation walking/fighting in your home/school playground /college dorm,and
for those less dedicated there is the excellent ORBITER , totally free and constantly updated , very handy if you find yourself on a Space Shuttle and the pilot has just discovered an allergy to the in flight combo meal or turns out to be some James Bond villain from the 80s .......
for those who collect games involving the final frontier:
That's no mod ..... it' a Space Combat Opera TACTICAL MMO RPG ....
Hey there fellow Freespace, Wing Commander and X-Wing veterans , the game seen in the above 5120 by 1600 images and Joojoo tablet video below, is not one of those excellent free mods we have been playing longer than both Battlestar series runtime combined .It is the view from my Star Fury , doh ! it is the view of my Colonial Viper Mark II , though it would be nice if someone could give Babylon 5 the same treatment ... OK .. notice the browser tabs? Battlestar Galactica Online ,the game that you see thegameveda playing on pc ,joojoo and Toshiba Libretto in this article ,is a space combat opera MMO RPG fans dream girl /guy of a game , all running through a humble browser window , with detail and speed that will enchant fans of the series ,as well as gaming veterans that understand space opera does not refer to Teutonic or Italian weight challenged warblers falling off cliffs as the curtain goes down ..(breathe).. No , "Space opera" is one of the grandest pc genres , your grandpappies carpal tunnel syndrome and super strength grip come from years of making things go boom clinging for dear life to road drill vibrating Forcefeedback pro joysticks and memorizing 109 keyboard controls , with epic multiple choices leading to branching epic cut scenes revealing branching epic back story plots and endings. And all this came on around 12 cdroms , 10 DVDs or 50 floppies and required several thousand dollars to run! With Battlestar Galactica Online you can do all that with ONE finger , from a browser! Yes ...really ...there is no Big Box , map ,novella or key chart...revolutionary!
Witness the power of this fully operational Browser powered MMO
BGO runs thanks to the power of Unity and the cloud: Most impressively Battlestar Galactica online runs in a browser , with simple yet elegant controls , you can control the combat with a mouse , you can if you have a netbook or tablet handy take your Apollo, Kara Thrace or 6 obsession everywhere you go . And controlling the game entirely through your magical touch screen device (no not that one...) you can play the entire game with one finger!
Beedi Beedi Beedi ..What a body.. Buck!....
For a Beta Battlestar Galactica Online is very advanced and stable , the only slow down I noticed was at the fleet hub on the first day , this seems to have gone through optimisation and is faster now, but hey that is what a Beta is for! . The in game engine is surprisingly detailed and fast , all the missions including the impressive Cylon and Colonial/Human intro missions , which involve the Galactica it's fleet , and a Cylon Basestar are impressively fast , whether playing at 5120 by 1600 on a desktop , 1366 768 on an ion powered joojoo (below) , or a dual screen libretto playing 1024 by 1400 across 2 displays! ... the three machines I have tested the game on so far .
a joojoo with a 12.1 inch 720p touch screen display perfect for arm chair Battlestar Galactica Onlinage!
Wilma or Ardala? White spandex or horned helmet? Great MMOs start off with great obsessive compulsive decision making , minute details like the number of indentations on your chin , or the number of chins on your chin . Battlestar Galactica online lets you mess with stuff like this but it has something more :
Now that NDA shackles are off , thegameveda can reveal the single most game shattering Gods damn ,heart breaking dilemma that all Battlestar Galactica Fans are going to face on booting up the game in a browser (impressive). The cool thing is how in forcing you to make this decision the game immediately transfers your love and adoration the TV series into the creation of your avatar and his/her place in the games virtual telling of some lost chapter in the Battle Star Galactica saga.
Of course there is really nothing that deep going on , what it comes down to is who you fancy more:1. do you adore Kara Thrace's Starbuck , if yes you will pick a human character , she will lounge around in front of you giving you advice on missions .. calling you nugget in her Bogart/ Ghost Valkyrie manner.... 2. If however you are obsessed with the Cylon frame that comes with 6 , then you know you need to be an evil God seeking Cylon Machine ... and you probably cannot wait to utter "by your command " to 6's text prompts ..on the Cylon Basestar...who will you let go ? remember to let her down gently ......Of course you can also have your Cylon cake and eat it , just click on the Cylon tab when you log on and follow 6 ,8 and all your other favourite toasters on their journey.
What you should take home is that Battlestar Galactica Online hooks you into it's universe better than other Scifi based rivals. No watching Vader's shuttle take off and land whilst a gathered audience dances with their pets ... no Battlestar Galactica online connects you to the main characters directly:
Here I am getting a jolly good talking to from Apollo and Starbuck in the rec room of the Galactica..
stop looking at her cards! screen cap at 5120 by 1600
the same scene captured on the Joojoo looks like this
still with the staring at her cards?
this is what it looks like on a joojoo in your hands
nominee for best use of a chair in a video game ever
and here I am with the old man in the CIC
I know what you are thinking am I about to pull a Grace Park on the old man.....
Galactica Hangar
Walking round a Cylon Basestar is none to shabby too :
First lets begin with setting up one's toaster :
and then lets go visit with 6 on the Toshiba Libretto :
meeting 6 : screen cap from Toshiba Libretto (portrait orientation) nominee for best use of a table in a video game ever
and here it is with the Libretto in the vertical book orientation , surfing the Battlestar Online website in one screen whilst playing with Cylons in the second screen.
If you go to Za'Ha'Dum ....
On mission : there are many types , the thing to note is Bigpoint have a game here that is just as majestic as all those X Beyond the Frontier games , you know where you stop in awe and survey the beauty of space .. Battlestar Galactica has many of those moments , in fact you may find yourself wishing for more moments of peace to explore : check out some 5120 1600 shots of the an early Colonial mission
Not such a bad pilot myself....
Control is great , the simplest space combat mmo rpg controls I have yet to come across , you can pilot the ship in the style of your favourite space jock or click on controls to autopilot fire and manoeuvre , all the rpg aspects , menus and options are all available from the main screen.
Trying the game out on a maxed out gaming PC is most impressive as expected , but would not impress Katie Sackhoffs Starbuck , which is why I decided to play the game on some tablet pcs , oh yes running Windows of course , you are not going to see this running on iOS or Android platforms ....yet..
What you really need for this game is a fairly fast Internet connection , more and more AAA games are going to be cloud based and you may have the fastest gpu cpu combination but what really powers the game , a browser based game is the speed and stability of your internet connection. I played the game on wireless 50 meg connection , on a desktop with dual screen setup for 5120 by 1600 and an nVidia Ion /Intel Atom powered Joojoo tablet, and finally a Toshiba Libretto W100 ( Cylon's dig Librettos....)
The interface of Battlestar Galactica Online is surprisingly suited to touch screen tablets , it is way more satisfying touching a target, touch/slide weapons and speed controls and interface , the menus are sleek and simple , all accessible from one screen , and as the ship can be controlled by the right mouse button it is possible to play the game without a keyboard , you just hold your finger down and drag where you want to go , or move your finger around the screen to rotate the view . Pinch to zoom also works . It may not be the most efficient way to play the game , but I can tell you it is just as revelatory as the first time your Force Feed Back Pro jumped into your hand as you entered Hyperspace in Xwing Alliance.
You can form squadrons , fly with wingmen , everything a nugget could need has been catered for.Just remember if you are on EU server it helps if you are fluent in over 6 million forms of communication....
Check me me playing the game below , filming with one hand because I lost my tripod! , first on the joojoo and then on the Libretto
trying to take on the Cylon Tyranny with 1 finger and a Fusion Garage Joojoo
Cylon night time operations on the Toshiba Libretto :just me and 6 vs all mankind ....
Toshiba Libretto Dual Screen capture can you spot my raider? NB it is not the giant Basestar !
the 8 sided dice bit : the dice are hidden, the rpg experience and skill upgrades are made from the main game screen with ease ,whilst you fight and die and die again your experience purchased skills develop. So eventually you will fight and win!
The story... it is too early to tell how good the story will be, but you are going to have a lot of fun living in this game universe ,so much in fact that you really may not be paying attention to what's supposed to be going on. There's a beautiful Battlestar Galactica sandbox to mess around with here and for a significant amount of gamers averse to traditional mmorpg grinding the draw will be playing in a sandbox filled with Cylons and Humans and ....????
No Gods darn Daggits in my game ....
Another stand out feature of Battlestar Galactica Online is the absence of pets , specifically a Daggit pet ,just like the new series , I was worried after setting up my human character , who naturally by the time I finished , turned out to be Dirk Bennedict old series styled , that the next screen would ask me to name my pet Daggit , thank the Lords of Cobol the developers of the game , like the developers of the new series , did not go the staple virtual pet way that demeans many a great Sci Fi MMO , Star Wars Galaxies online ....you it is..I mean ..... But hold on, a pet Centurion , or a 6, 7, 8 ... that would be another matter altogether.
When 900 years you will reach... At the beginning of this article I joked about how we used to have to spend 1000s on hardware to play games like this .The greatest achievement of BGO is bringing a full AAA pc game to launch through a browser , a game that you can see in this article happily runs on an ion powered tablet , a ulv powered ultra portable and for those who have yet to escape their basement yes it runs superbly on your uber desktop.
For me after decades of Space Opera , it is frankly amazing to see games with this amount detail launching within a browser window , no 300 page manuals , no joysticks , and no 30gb install. An MMO that actually can be played as a space combat game , with a healthy lack of MMO staples like pets or dancing routines . With a free to play model , and a game I can take anywhere...
These are very real innovations that Big Point have brought to the MMO table , and this is where it already stands out from Star Trek Online , Star Wars Galaxies and the ageing grindfests that are WOW and LOTRO..
If they keep this up Big Point can take on Bioware at their own game , The Old Republic and Mass Effect be warned.....
if you missed the riffs get up with your scifi with Buck Rogers , Star Wars , and the seminal Babylon 5 then you too ...misquote ...the greats... able ... will... be....
Thegameveda loves space , and games based in and around space .So it is heartening to note in these days of the last Space Shuttle (+/- NASA) we can turn our sorrow into dreams of conquering the known universe with a new breed of space fairing MMOs that are suddenly all the rage with Battlestar Galactica Online, and Star Trek Infinite Space on its way . Unlike those two the latest addition to this genre ,Black Prophecy , is a traditional 5gb plus download and install , so none of that fancy browser gaming nonsense is possible... However , Black Prophecy has threatened for a very long time to be one of the most beautiful and detailed Space MMO s ever created , E.V.E. are you listening? So if you have felt let down over the last 2 decades by Braben , Volition and the Erin Brothers , or just miss what their brand of gaming could have transformed into with today`s technology then prepare to get some well deserved Woosah with Black Prophecy:
Black Prophecy is a great way to stress test the Iconia , and requires a hefty 6gb install , unlike rival space combat MMO Battlestar Galactica online which is Unity and browser based. So how does this game which is high on graphical detail , and gpu intense , fair on the in Acer Iconia ? Lets find out
This being the Iconia naturally I have to be doing 2 things at once , surfing the official website , checking the manual whilst playing the game ...
checking the manual whilst playing the game ...
and now for some game play dual screen tablet style:
Black Prophecy is a very hardware intensive game , but again the Iconia handles it very well , and not only that you also have the second screen to mess around with ! Another MMO that runs fine on this unique tablet PC ..And a great stress test for the Intel HD gpu , one that it passes with a bang or several as you can see from the video!
It always helps to have a least one of the brothers Roberts (Chris +/- Erin) coding your space opera , Freelancer was one of the last great space combat /opera games , the last perhaps of its kind. What killed it was the switch to mouse control , which joystick jockeys found too altruistic a move . In it`s day Freelancer took half a decade at least to show up in any shape or form , and was promising to crush all hardware of the time at every show it was outed at . When it did arrive you got a pretty groovy space combat sim , devoid of the famous FMV and multiple choice branching that granted Chris and Erin Roberts free drink status in far off spaceports and wretched hives of scum and villainy ( ask your dad) across the galaxy. The half of the Roberts team responsible for FMV was off filming really really good looking people in the really real Wing Commander movie , the one with Shaggy from Scooby Doo , Buffy's husband , and assorted cast from Das Boot ( in fact the whole film attempted to riff Das Boot ), and of course that old Droog Malcom McDowell . So with the brothers Roberts split , we got a Wing Commander game without FMV in the form of Freelancer from Chris , and FMV without a game in the the form of Wing Commander the movie from Erin .
If only they`d mashed up both into one epic multimedia experience!Wait there was Starlancer ....
Any how below you can see the joojoo flexing its Ion muscles to play Freelancer space combat/trading classic , and you know I could even get used to the mouse , though you have to slow the mouse acceleration down if you want to use touch to control flight . This game will not run on 64 bit Windows 7 , so once again I find the Joojoo which runs the 32 bit version , invaluable as a gaming device .
One day Space Opera will return , ( when Volition wake from cryostasis ) till then Freelancer is another classic you need to get experienced .
For collectors check out the rarest of all Space Combat games , including Wing Commander Kilrathi Saga at thegameveda ecrater store
Particle systems made two of the finest Space Opera games ever , three counting the special edition/mission pack for the very first Independence War game . So it is with great pleasure thegameveda shows you it running on the Toshiba Libretto !
is another classic you need to get experienced .
or 