Second Sight Gets Second Chance

Codemasters saves Free Radical thriller.

Posted by Staff
Second Sight was first mentioned nearly a year ago to the day, and it’s finally been confirmed that the game has found a publisher in the form of Codemasters. The style of gameplay is a departure for Free Radical Design, which has more than proved its worth as guru of the FPS, working on Goldeneye and bringing us its flagship Timesplitters series.

Cinematic cameras will replace the first-person perspective, and a plethora of psychic powers will replace the arsenal of traditional, projectile-based weaponry. Inevitably, expectations for this unusual psychological thriller are escalating quickly, with fans’ optimism tempered only by the fact that the game was dumped - unceremoniously - by its former publisher Activision.

Codemasters has clearly seen the potential in Second Sight and will be showing it at next week’s E3. Check here for the first glimpses.

Comments

config 7 May 2004 12:18
1/10
Oh my. Cinematic cameras! Happy Joy Joy!

I can hardly wait - jittery movement, dodgy occlusion, inability to seewhere you're going when you run around tight corners.

Let's hope the smart folks at FRD can work their way around the problems that continue blight third-person affairs like (all of) Tomb Raider.

G.
miker_CLO 7 May 2004 15:49
2/10
config wrote:

>Oh my. Cinematic cameras! Happy Joy Joy!
>
>I can hardly wait - jittery movement, dodgy
>occlusion, inability to seewhere you're going
>when you run around tight corners.
>
>Let's hope the smart folks at FRD can work their
>way around the problems that continue blight
>third-person affairs like (all of) Tomb Raider.
>
>G.

There are a couple of different camera options at your disposal, but it is smooth and usable...no jittery probs. ;)
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Joji 7 May 2004 18:02
3/10
Shame really, I was looking forward to playing it too. I have a GC, and with Codemasters not supporting GC anymore looks like I won't see this either. We all know what Codemasters are like, having canned a GC Colin McRae game when it was almost finished.

Warzone 8 May 2004 08:35
4/10
How does releasing two second rate FPS make a company "guru" of FPS? I suppose when id is hailed as such and hasn't released a good game since Doom 2 it's only fair, but maybe just because they worked on currently-overhyped GoldenEye? As if anybody bothered to check on that credential, next thing you know it's like Ritual: secondary level designer + audio guy + box art guy = "we made Duke Nukem 3D".

>Let's hope the smart folks at FRD can work their
>way around the problems that continue blight
>third-person affairs like (all of) Tomb Raider.

Wish people would remember that when the original Tomb Raider was released (before the whole Lara Croft boo-worthy fiasco) nothing - at all - could touch either the game or its interface. Somewhite like Resident Evil - notice how people started being bothered by the interface around the time of RE3?
config 8 May 2004 10:14
5/10
Warzone wrote:

>How does releasing two second rate FPS make a
>company "guru" of FPS?

So you're saying that Goldeneye, developed when the FRD guys were with Rare, and Timesplitters 1/2 are all second rate? Most would say that you're on your own there. Admittedly TS1 was too easy, but an excellent acheivement for a first gen release, and plenty of replay value. TS2 has, IMO, some of the best multiplayer FPS mini-games of any console game. I probably spent more time on those crazy games that I did completing the mission-based stuff. The AI seemed believable too.

>I suppose when id is
>hailed as such and hasn't released a good game
>since Doom 2 it's only fair, but maybe just
>because they worked on currently-overhyped
>GoldenEye?

What do you mean, "currently over-hyped"? Clearly this is your opinion, but the game has been almost universally critically acclaimed since its release in seven years ago, and it still classed by many as an all-time great FPS.

>As if anybody bothered to check on
>that credential, next thing you know it's like
>Ritual: secondary level designer + audio guy +
>box art guy = "we made Duke Nukem 3D".

That could easily happen, and a recent news story here suggests that might already be the case with Timesplitters 3. However, the stuff they have on the shelves show consistent quality.

>>Let's hope the smart folks at FRD can work their
>>way around the problems that continue blight
>>third-person affairs like (all of) Tomb Raider.
>
>Wish people would remember that when the original
>Tomb Raider was released (before the whole Lara
>Croft boo-worthy fiasco) nothing - at all - could
>touch either the game

TR has always had a crap camera, but people were too enthrawled in the first game, and its fresh new large breasted protagonist, to notice it. Plus, somehow, they managed to make it worse in later episodes. As for the interface (and I'm assuming you're refering to control interfaace), I actually like TR's controls. The analogue in TR:AoD is more than a little stinky, though.

As for RE, I've always hated the b******s "cinematic" camera angled. Silent Hill has done a better job, but I still found my fighting the camera to get an useful view of the action.

config 8 May 2004 10:17
6/10
Joji wrote:

>Shame really, I was looking forward to playing it
>too. I have a GC, and with Codemasters not
>supporting GC anymore looks like I won't see this
>either. We all know what Codemasters are like,
>having canned a GC Colin McRae game when it was
>almost finished.

Someone was smoking crack when they made that decision. Beyond Burnout 2, there isn't a decent GC racer out there, IMO.

They could have floated the GC's PR/marketing on the back of the PS2/Xbox/PC versions.

Of course, "nearly finished" is a world away from consumer-ready, and who knows what other stuff went on behind the scenes. Maybe Nintendo pissed them off. Heh.


almondVanHelsing 8 May 2004 10:59
7/10
I always hated the "door opens" cut scenes in RE games, even now with fast access it is in!

This does not help suspense, this makes me bored.

I hope this new game is more playable than RE games, I like the idea of not having guns all the time, but having psychic powers. It's like the mutant abilities in Wolverine's revenge, seeing smell and foot tracks was a cool twist on sneak and fight games.
Pandaman 8 May 2004 21:27
8/10
I haven't enjoyed a Codemasters game since "Cosmic Spacehead".

Dang it Spacehead...use the stupid teleport key in the teleporter!
scanman 8 May 2004 21:30
9/10
Alan Poole wrote:

>I haven't enjoyed a Codemasters game since
>"Cosmic Spacehead".
>
>Dang it Spacehead...use the stupid teleport key
>in the teleporter!

hey! what time is it in vanuatu? :)
Pandaman 8 May 2004 23:44
10/10
I...I'm not really from Tonga. *shamed*
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