Firefall Message Board

When we last left promising yet embattled MMO-shooter Firefall, things had taken a turn for worrisome. Its PVP mode had gone down in flames, and CEO Mark Kern was given his walking papers/flying jetpacks at the end of 2013. Even with a solid core concept and admirable ambitions, the game had spent years tumbling all over the place in a wishy washy development cycle, and there was no “end” in sight. Meanwhile, Kern’s departure signaled that change was afoot, but was it good change or a turn for the worse in an already twisty saga? Well, now we at least have something concrete to go on: Firefall has secured another $23 million in funding, and it will finally launch for real this year.

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The Firefall forums recently updated with the news that the PvP aspect of the game is going to be shut down, pending a rethink. Bossman Mark Kern explained that the PvP aspect was attracting just 3% of the playerbase, and therefore action had to be taken, with a focus on the PvE game: “People want more content, fewer bugs, and more polish on these world systems. For these reasons, we have made the tough decision to suspend PvP and take the system offline so that we can rethink it and relaunch it. PvP is an important part of our game, and we want to get it right.”

Have to admit that, well, I played a bunch of Firefall PvE, and never looked to the PvP. Hopefully they can figure out a way to get it sorted.

Red 5 Studios will suspend the Player vs. Player (PvP) elements of Firefall at a "near future point" to focus their resources on improving the game's Player vs. Environment (PvE) aspects, CEO Mark Kern announced on Thursday.

Kern explained that Jetball, Firefall's "last big attempt" at a PvP mode that was designed for eSports, was fun but didn't "attract many of our players (less than 3% PvP in Firefall)." Kern described PvP as an important part of Firefall and said that the studio will "regroup, rethink, and deliver the best PvP system we can."

Kern said the studio's most immediate efforts will focus on PvE, as players want "more content, fewer bugs and more polish." Although Kern did not have a date for the suspension of PvP, he said it will eventually return to Firefall "when it's ready."

Stage two of the open beta for free-to-play, first and third-person-shooter MMO Firefall will focus on "expanding the world," an announcement on the game's website revealed last week.

While the beta previously focused on surviving attacks from the Chosen, a mysterious species that doesn't seem keen on the existence of humans, stage two of the beta turns the tables and places humans on the offensive. Players will work to expand the inhabitable portions of New Eden by fueling machines that repulse the Melding, an ominous cloud that the Chosen seem to originate from. The more Firefall's player base works to power the machines, the farther the Melding will be pushed back, revealing "more playable space with ARES missions and dynamic events."

Chosen outposts will be revealed as the Melding recedes, the defeat of which will convert the warfront into a "full zone and a new story-based instance will become available to pursue, unlocking the next chapter of Firefall." The more a player helps push back the Melding, the greater their reward will be. Avid players will earn "rewards and commendations" and statues of their avatars in the warfront's to-be-established capital, leaving the king of the leaderboards to name the city itself.

Firefall's player base will then collectively vote for which warfront to unlock next. Previously obtained warfronts that are neglected will be subject to Chosen counterattacks, "shutting down that warfront entirely, at least for weeks on months."

Those looking to join the fight against the Chosen and compete to name a digital capital something undoubtedly appropriate can do so here.

Red 5 Studios went to a lot of trouble to make some real-life outfits based on their online shooter Firefall, so it's understandable they went and made a live-action trailer for the game's impending public debut. It's just a shame that it...yeah. On the bright side, Firefall is now in open beta! It's not technically out, but as with most multiplayer online games these days, that's pretty much the same thing, albeit in this case you should know that large chunks of the game are yet to be completed, as it's a constant work-in-progress.

Here’s a fun Firefall fact: everyone on RPS has access except John. For a while it was funny to chat about the game in front of him, talking about the fun we had gliding all over the lumpy land, dropping into battles against the giant bugs that roamed the cartoon landscape, setting up Thumper parties in the middle of nowhere. But eventually it just became awkward, so we stopped. The good news for him, and everyone else, is there’s no longer a barrier of entry into Firefall: the free-to-play MMOFPS combo today dropped into open beta, so everyone can join in. There’s a ridiculous live-action trailer to celebrate this fact.(more…)

If you search the RPS archives for the phrase “Firefall open beta,” you’ll get 17 trillion results. That is not an exaggeration (well OK, maybe slightly). It feels like Firefall’s been running scattered open beta weekends since the dawn of time, but now the real deal is nearly upon us. Soon, any man, woman, or child will be able to strap on a jetpack and lord their airborne superiority over lowly giant ground bugs – bitter acid tears pooling in their subcutaneous emotion sacs as they shudder with quiet jealousy. Also on the docket: expanded story content, which you can see in action after the break.

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Thrusting and athletic jetpack MMOFPS Firefall will be offering you another free go on its carousel of skill-based combat delights on Friday June 7th, which will see the start of the game’s last event before the fireworks of its July 9th open beta. I’ve rather enjoyed the limited amount of this game that I’ve played so far, so I am deeply interested to see what the ramping up to a full open beta will mean for it. If you haven’t checked it out yet I would recommend doing so.(more…)

I’m hoping that Firefall‘s co-op PvE focus will prove to be the antidote to my months spend exploding dudes in the purely-PvP Planetside 2. I checked out Firefall’s closed beta some months back, and very much liked what I saw, and I also met some of the team last summer and was impressed by Scott “Tribes” Youngblood’s take on it all. I think this game could well be a Rather Big Deal indeed.

Come July 9th, you’ll be able to decide for yourself. That’s when the open beta will commence. I’ve jammed the latest gameplay trailer below, because that’s what I do.(more…)

Someday, Firefall will come out. Maybe. Or perhaps it’ll forever lurk in the bug-riddled shadows of beta, only emerging on weekends for a refreshing hover about town. For now, we can only hold out hope for the former, but at least take solace in the latter, given that the gravity-loathing MMO’s penciled in the whole of humanity for a quick flying lesson this weekend. Get an idea of what you’re in for – set to music that suggests you’re both flying and winning a gold medal in every Olympic sporting event at once – after the break.

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That other MMOFPS, the one with jetpacks and PvE, is starting to open up for testing. Firefall will have three open beta weekends, starting this weekend, where anyone and everyone is invited to leap in and try the game for themselves. Red 5 explain: “These Beta Weekend stress-tests will be completely unlocked with no keys required – allowing everyone to participate in the Tribe’s Closed Beta push. Additionally, each 48-hour weekend will incorporate a community unlock, exclusive contest and unique theme to teach new players what Firefall is all about.” I’ve been dropping into the closed beta in the past few months, and I’m very excited about it – more so after chatting with Scott ‘Tribes” Youngblood at Gamescom last year. I really think they know what they’re doing with this one.

Jetpacks vs giant alien insects footage below.(more…)

Firefall, Red 5 Studios rather fancy jetpack MMO (one of the project leads is the excellent Scott Youngblood, who worked on the original Tribes games) is heading for some beta weekend plans. They explain: “Firefall’s upcoming Beta Weekends are scheduled Nov 30-Dec 2 and Dec 7-9. These are North American and European 48-hour stress-tests with players encouraged to find bugs, test various features and help the developers improve the beta by providing feedback.”

You can sign up here, with the now-traditional pre-order “founders” pack option alongside it. Recent video below for motivational beta-sign up purposes.(more…)

Firefall. Among the made-up words I’ve met in my many travels, it definitely stands out as quite, er, aggressive. I mean, there’s fire and falling involved. Both tend to perform their designated actions in fairly short order – leaving behind little question as to what happened and usually also some form of smoking crater. And yet, for all that, Firefall the game is taking its sweet time en route to release, polishing up an extended beta with no intentions of going live (or even into open beta) until its good and ready. But now, you can at least drop in for a brief stay in Red 5′s colorful world of shooting and looting. And by “drop in,” I mean never actually touch the ground for more than three seconds at a time, because jetpacks.

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#humor There is nothing more mundane in the world of video game marketing than the bullet-point announcement. Unless the game's developers go to the trouble of kinda realising this, and dressing the "news" up as an excuse to make a neat little video where everybody who works there gets to pretend they're about to give the new guy a sexually-transmitted disease. More »

Red 5 Studios is once again showing off its open world, free-to-play MMO Firefall (currently still in closed beta) at PAX, and the newest bit of content included is a set of in-game stores, allowing players to purchase items and features via microtransaction. Firefall lead designer David Williams promises the developer won't "sell power items or content areas to players." Instead, Firefall's item stores are all about aesthetic and convenience items, things that players can use to customize their character's look, or have some fun in the game world.

In addition to the company's just-announced 'Founders' content bundles (detailed above, and currently on sale during PAX), Williams showed us some special cosmetic items available for purchase, like shaggy dreadlocks or a flashy helmet, as well as items from an in-game store called Luau Larry's. Larry will happily sell you some fun items, like a little voodoo doctor pet, or a tiki torch that plays in-game music and causes everyone around it to dance when placed in the world.

Becoming a founder also grants priority access to Firefall's current beta build - along with XP boosts, real-world items, in-game currency and more based on purchased tier. And the items in the founders' packages are set to be available on September 24, so we may hear about a bigger update coming then. Meanwhile, the current price on all three packages ($15, $37, and $75, down from $20, $50, and $100) lasts through PAX weekend.

Red 5 Studios has revealed what it's calling the "e-sports toolkit" for its upcoming free-to-play shooter Firefall, with two new modes for broadcasters and commentators to keep an eye on the action. There will be a standard observer mode, with the ability to watch a match from the top down or from a certain player's perspective, open to anyone that wants to use it. And then specially-approved broadcasters will get more options, like the ability to fly around the map, or watch different cameras from the game at the same time.

In an interview with PC Gamer, Red 5's "e-sports maven" (and former Fragdoll) Morgan Romine talks about how the developer is doing everything it can to make e-sports a priority, including tweaking classes and even the game's core attributes like movement speed. The goal, says Romine, is "to have an FPS that has the long term viability of a Counter-Strike," so Red 5 is really aiming to make observing and shoutcasting its matches accessible, and is planning e-sports events later on this year at GamesCom, PAX, and other big gamer gatherings.

Of course, just having access to more cameras won't immediately make you the next Phreak or Day[9]. But better tools are always more helpful, and Red 5 hopes that by making these tools available, more players will get engaged with its upcoming title.

I haven’t dipped into Firefall since my excursion back in April, but I think now might be the time. Yesterday’s patch has radically altered the game, as you can see in the update video below. Movement has been significantly changed, one of the classes has been dropped, a new one added. The biggest change, however, is that they’ve removed the traditional levelling system (one thing I felt sat awkwardly for the game) and instead given you experience points that can be spent on your battleframe specialization as you see fit. As Red 5 had promised at the start of this beta, they are genuinely changing the game based on how players respond to it, and I think they’ve shown some impressive responsiveness and agility. I look forward to seeing where they go next.(more…)

Red 5 Studios will be holding a Firefall beta tournament at Gamescom next week, so if you're in the neighborhood you could jump in and play in the ESL-sponsored tournament for a total of £10,000 in winnings.

Qualifying matches will be held on Thursday and Friday, August 16 and 17, after which semi-finals and finals will be held on Saturday with a final 5v5 Team Deathmatch. Players will be able to register on Red 5's own website, so stay tuned for that.

Red 5 just recently hit 500,000 registered beta users, so it can't be long now until we see an open beta and a full public release for the long-awaited free-to-play shooter.

The past few weeks have seen us take a whirlwind tour of Firefall‘s massive summer milestone update, and it’s been quite a ride. Laughter, tears, happiness, and muscular men with jetpacks have all flown freely in equal measure – but mostly, it’s wrapped day-to-day life in a warm blanket of stability. Empires may fall, stars might blink out of existence, and The Hobbit will definitely get hacked into three still-quivering chunks, but at least a reliable stream of Firefall videos gave our tiny, insular world some semblance of order. Today, however, the Recon battleframe’s here to deliver us back into the arms of cruel uncertainty with the final video in the class series – which, I suppose, is pretty fitting, given that the Recon seems to exist for the sole purpose of ruining everyone’s day.

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Oh thank goodness. My life is saved. I, of course, recently bet it on the assumption that more Firefall videos would drop this week, and became quite disconcerted when maniacally grinning mercenaries started showing up outside my house with calendars counting down to Friday. Happily, however, I’ve been saved by the Dreadnaught, who sounds like the cheeriest of fellows. Bask in his muscular, minigun-toting glory (read: a hail of unstoppable bullets) after the break.

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After giving us a glimpse of the assault battleframe’s quick-drawing, rapid-firing revamp, Red 5′s now taking a leisurely fly-by trip through Firefall‘s entire summer milestone update. The short version? No class is safe. From having their space stockings stuffed with tons of neat presents! So now we’re onto the Engineer and the not-a-Medic-anymore Biotech. Yes, they’ve renamed that one. Apparently constant use of poison is grounds for having your medical license revoked. Who knew?

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Soon, the Firefall you know and love/haven’t actually played/have never heard of and know nothing about will be gone. Like a caterpillar entering a cocoon, the high-flying MMOFPS will soon emerge from the “biggest patch in Firefall history” as a sleeker, more graceful butterfly. With a jetpack. Among many other things, that means the Assault battleframe (the separated-at-birth brother of the Warframe) is in for an overhaul. In short, it’s about to become a lot faster and get some cool new toys to boot. Watch it do assault-type things after the break, as is its wont.

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Firefall, the coming free-to-play shooter from Red 5 Studios, has topped 500,000 registered users. The game has wrapped up the first stage of its closed beta, and the studio expects to ramp up the number of beta invites as it enters stage two. Based on user feedback, Red 5 is planning a lot of changes to Firefall over the summer, which are detailed in the video above.

Meanwhile, the studio has also released the PC specs for Firefall. Check them out after the break, and sign up for the beta if you're so inclined.

The beta for jetpackin’ online shooter Firefall has been in progress for a while now, and I posted some impressions on it over here. Since then Red 5 have been busy collating feedback from players and are now getting stuck into tweaking and rebalancing the game in light of all the data and suggestions they’ve received from the community. They’re overhauling the development and specialisation of the battleframes, which will have far-reaching consequences for the kinds of choices you’ll have to make as you play, fight, and gather resources. Check that out below.(more…)

I think they should have had a go at explaining it in semaphore, but instead they’ve gone for the fashionable route of a glitzy video which shows off the space-time rip story that serves as a backdrop to Firefall’s territory-conquest alien-world crossover activities. Go take a look at that, below, and then at my preview, which is the most handsome preview you will read all day.(more…)

Red 5 are keen to stress that the current beta for Firefall – their free-to-play jetpackin’ shooter – is not one of those betas which is essentially a demo for the game you will be soon be playing, but is instead still very much a work in progress. That means my impressions should be regarded as commentary on an unfinished thing that is subject to change. That said, I’ve got a feeling this game could end up being quite significant, and – despite its clearly unfinished and underpopulated beta state – I’ve found it to be rather interesting. Read on for vital thoughts.(more…)

#firefall The cinematic intro to multiplayer shooter Firefall has just been released. And unlike previous pieces from the game, there's no shooting in it whatsoever. More »

I love this sort of stuff: Red 5 Studios talking about the world-building process within Firefall. You get to see a bunch of the tools in action as they create the game environments, and the team talk about some subtle details of how the game has been put together, like the living processes in the game, cut & pasting entire cities, and the PvP maps being incorporated into the open world. Worth a watch.

The video also teases that the beta will be expanded “soon”, so I’m looking forward to getting in on that.(more…)

I’ve been waiting for a large-scale sci-fi MMO shooter ever since the original Planetside, and it looks like 2012 will do it’s best to provide. Before I fuel up Firefall’s jetpacks, or scrawl penises over Planetside 2′s map, it looks like I’ll be dropping into Line of Defense: of all those games, it’s the first with a release date, end of June, so I’d imagine the beta form that I just signed up to will deliver me from orbit to the action a tad sooner than the others. You know what? I’ve just noticed all those are free-to-play*. I mean, I knew that all were, but lumping them all together makes it quite the thing. As is the not-at-all-MMO-but -rather-shooty Tribes: Ascend. I wonder if I’ll ever need to pay for a shooter ever again? Line of Defense trailer is herein, btw.(more…)

Here’s a sneaky way to get a hold of a lot of Firefall footage. Developers Red 5 Studios are hosting a competition for their fans, asking them to create a trailer from unreleased footage of the free-to-play shooter. So while you can totally get involved and whip out Windows Movie Maker templates, if all you’re interested in is watching 10 second clips of the game, all you need to do is download the files and have a peek.(more…)