Spec Ops : The Line - I love the smell of sand in the morning

[Sir-Ominous]

Now that trailer has got my attention.^^ looks awesome

[echo]

Pretty long trailer with a studio tour and some extra gameplay bits. It's shaping up well, just hope the framerate is better in the final version.

[echo]

Download the Spec Ops: The Line Demo Now!

We just released the playable demo of Spec Ops: The Line on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3!

Spec Ops: The Line is a third-person modern-day shooter set in a Dubai wrecked by a massive sandstorm. Sound awesome? It is. Not convinced? Watch the trailer, and download the demo to try it yourself!

Probably check this out sometime today or tomorrow and let you guys know how it is.

[Zoop]

No love for PC? :(

[Acinixys]

No love for PC? :(

Preordered this for PC yesterday. Thats love, right? :3

[Toxxyc]

Preordered this for PC yesterday. Thats love, right? :3

He means "no love" as the demo wasn't released on PC. I got a sad too. Wanted to see the DX11 graphics of sand. And more sand.

[FreddyAintDead]

This is 2K's first proper entry into the military shooter genre (I don't think Max Payne counts). The majority of their marketing for this game has been focused on the game's story and how it tells that story.

Please, 2k, please. You bring us Bioshock and GTA. Please don't pull a Homefront. After all their marketing and hype of the story, if this game turns out to be a five hour long campaign with a large focus on online multiplayer, it'll seriously kill the hope that the few of us have left for games like this.

[echo]

Firstly:

Spec Ops: The Line for PC - Demos, Requirements, and DRM, oh my!

Good news PC gamers: today I have answers to your many questions about the PC version of Spec Ops: The Line!

You want to know when PC demo is coming? June 12th.

You want to know what form of DRM Spec Ops: The Line will be using? That'll be Steamworks.

You want to know what kind of rig you'll need to enter sandstorm-ruined Dubai? You've got it:

Minimum:

OS: Windows XP SP3
Software: Steam Client
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 Equivalent
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Hard Drive: 6 GB free
Video Memory: 256 MB
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS/ ATI Radeon HD 2600XT
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible

Recommended:

OS: Windows Vista/7
Software: Steam Client
Processor: 2.4 GHz Quad Core processor
Memory: 3 GB RAM
Hard Drive: 10 GB free
Video Memory: 512+ MB
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX/ATI Radeon HD 4850
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible

Other Requirements & Supports: Initial installation requires one-time internet connection for Steam authentication; software installations required (included with the game) include: STEAM Client, Microsoft Direct X, Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable, Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable

I played the demo yesterday and in short it feels like a marriage between Gears (gameplay) and COD (Guns and setting) but you get that Apocalypse Now feeling that they set out to get. I enjoyed it, and while my fears of technical shortcomings, like framerates ect, were allayed it just doesn't feel that wow to me.

Positives:
It's solid as a third person shooter and is aat least fun to play. Shooting is fun, cover works and there is enough variation (Sniper, closer quarters etc) to keep things interesting. The premise and detail of Dubai is astounding and the vistas they show you are really pretty.

Negatives:
While it plays smooth, it looks a little icky. It may be because I was siting really close to the TV (My batteries need charging) but it looks worse than most games.

It just feels like just another game. Nothing new or exiting. Just shooting and hiding.

Finally, and this is a big one, GET SOMEONE ELSE THEN NOLAN NORTH TO VOICE YOUR CHARACTERS FFS! I don't have a problem with the man, but Nathan Drake shouldn't be shooting people in Dubai. It's really jarring, because it sounds exactly like Drake.

[Toxxyc]

Those requirements are pretty wicked actually. Love them. May just take an extra look at this game due to them. It doesn't happen often these days where a new game being released has recommended specs that my PC beats. YAY!

[blesner]

PC Demo out now! http://store.steampowered.com/app/50300/

[ZoRPA]

I'm guessing this demo is going on the next NAG disc.

[Acinixys]

Bumping because this releases this Friday.

Do you think the "moral choices" will be black/white, or will they branch out into a few gray areas?

[echo]

Review scores all up in here

CVG: 8.0 - The thoughtful philosophy can go AWOL when the guns come out, but at least when they do, the fun doesn't follow.

Digital Spy: 4/5 - Spec Ops: The Line lacks innovation or polish in its gameplay, but makes up for it with a story that genuinely has impact and meaning. Whilst the ending is a bit limp, the overall narrative raises serious questions about the duty of a soldier, and how far that goes. Whilst the multiplayer does not quite hit the same heights, this is still a shooter that stands on its own and is not afraid to show the ugly side of the Call of Duty dream.

VideoGamer: 7/10 - Yager should be admired for its bravery and effort in building something different - this could so easily have been an entirely generic shooter - but it just doesn't have the fundamentals to back up its grand ideas or the confidence to go completely off the wall and truly stand out from the crowd.

The Guardian: 3/5 - The developers at Yager have proven they can tell a great story, write interesting characters and build a unique and disturbing world to house them all in. If they can marry these assets to an experience that's more fluid and fun to play in their next outing, they'll be flat-out dangerous.

Eurogamer: 8/10 - It tries, though. It tries to do something special, and it tries to create something memorable and something strange. In Dubai itself, it genuinely succeeds, perhaps because the reality of the place is already so gaudy, so cloyingly, oppressively weird, that it provides a good hard shove in the right direction before the first bullet's been fired. There are such a lot of shooters these days, and so many tend to blur into each other if you're not careful. This one won't, however - and that's quite an achievement.

IGN: 8/10 - Spec Ops isn't about a war, protecting the world, or defeating some evil threat -- it's about you, the effects of your actions, and events that are out of your control. The sum of Spec Ops' unexpected story is an army shooter that makes killing people mean something. This, along with its thoughtful aesthetic and intelligent enemy encounters, defies the standard established by low-aiming action games. Multiplayer can't muster up the same courage, though, and while the hollow online experience doesn't detract from the single-player campaign's accomplishments, its reliance on convention doesn't do anything to elevate it.

Destructoid: 8.0 - We don't need to come to terms with killing people, because it's all fun and games for us. Not so for Captain Walker, who must find reason and purpose in his rampage. Walking that long sandy, bloody road through Dubai is one of the most captivating gaming experiences of 2012 because of it.

Edge: 7/10 - The first shot has been fired in the battle for a smarter, morally cognisant shooter. The numbers aren't in its favour and its foes are both relentless and well-armed but, if the genre has taught us anything, that's never a reason to surrender.

Those are a lot higher than I thought they were going to be. And the most surprising part is the fact that the story sounds like it hit the mark exactly like they wanted it to. Nice!

[pArkEr]

Excellent!

I've noticed that, of late, review scores have been more measured than we've been accustomed to. We aren't seeing those absurd 100/100s anymore, especially for games like Call of Duty. Problems the games may have are now properly represented in the score, even if the reviewer in question loved the game.

And the great thing about this is, lower scores now do not automatically mean the game is considered bad. A 7/10 is now seen as pretty decent, as it should be. It's a sign that our industry is finally maturing, and our media are now treating games more in line with how critics review movies.

[Acinixys]

Glad to see the FPS genre being taken forward in terms of story telling. I can only take so much KILL ALL TERRORISTS storylines.

[Ovenmit]

I dunno, to me this looks very... umm... generic.

[Zoop]

Excellent!

I've noticed that, of late, review scores have been more measured than we've been accustomed to. We aren't seeing those absurd 100/100s anymore, especially for games like Call of Duty. Problems the games may have are now properly represented in the score, even if the reviewer in question loved the game.

And the great thing about this is, lower scores now do not automatically mean the game is considered bad. A 7/10 is now seen as pretty decent, as it should be. It's a sign that our industry is finally maturing, and our media are now treating games more in line with how critics review movies.

Yeah, I've noticed this too, but not with the bigger player's games. Publisher that spend more money on advertising costs seem to still receive above ordinary review scores on their games.

[HeadTrauma]

I dunno, to me this looks very... umm... generic.

I have to agree. Honestly, it looks like another corridor shooter. And please, don't call it
a military / army shooter. From what I've seen and read here it might as well be a modern remake of (insert iD title here) with a bit of a max Payne'esque mind f*** thrown in. Just because the guy is wearing a mil uniform and called a l33t doesn't make it a mil shooter.

[Zoop]

But it's not supposed to be a military/army shooter, and I don't think anyone expects it to be either. It's supposed to be a story-driven FPS. From what I've heard, it does what it sets out to do pretty good.

[Sir-Ominous]

I just played the demo yesterday :( after months of waiting so eagerly I have to say I am really disappointed at how Spec Ops handles its action, environment and even character interaction. Having been to Dubai, I tried to look for small details but found so little. In the demo the Burj Dubai (world's highest building, MI4) and a highway board were the only things I found that I could relate to. They just place random tall buildings everywhere and expect people to believe that it's such an enthralling experience. I know Dubai has been hit by sandstorms and the once beautiful city is now a wasteland kind of, but at least try to show tiny details that people like me can appreciate.

The action aspect is purely pathetic in my opinion, you basically run from one cover to another to do the same tedious thing over and over. Cover, shoot, move on to the next cover.

And the character interaction is another part of the demo which doesn't do a lot to even try make you believe in these characters. I'm usually a fan of Nolan North, especially for his work in the Uncharted series, but here, he's really just like another random voice actor doing a bad job on a character which should have been much more deeper.

I know this is the demo and not the final product, but the developers should have at least tried to make people interested in their game, which is really one I'll want to avoid in the future.