tachyon: the fringe Preview

<p>Tachyon: The Fringe<P><br>Tachyon: The Fringe comes to us from Novalogic, creators of games such as, Delta Force and Armored Fist. With Tachyon, Delta Force 2 and Armored Fist 3 all to be released soon, Novalogic looks to have an impressive bunch of games out there.<br><br>The Galactic Spanning Corporation, referred to as GalSpan, is looking to broaden its horizons outside the solar system. GalSpan, a leader in military and commercial products within Sol space, is eyeballing a region of space known as The Fringe. "The Fringe represents a vast region of untapped resources. GalSpan sees the growth potential and believes now is the time to set up extrasolar mining operations."<br><br>There is one slight problem with GalSpan's plans. The Fringe has been colonized by the Bora and they don't like the idea of having their homeworlds mined. The Bora colonists left the solar system over 100 years ago and in an act of defiance and disregard of the governments rules and regulations on space colonization they did not request the proper charter for such colonization. "Recently several legitimate corporations have expressed interest in obtaining claim rights to various sectors of Fringe space, including those inhabited by Bora. Representatives from Bora responded by asking the Sol government to officially grant its claim. After several months of deliberations, the Sol government has decided to refuse the concept of "squatter's rights"."<br><br>Now enter Jacob Kyle Logan. Jake Logan is the main character here. Call him a contract pilot, a mercenary, whatever, basically he's just your typical badass with a pilot's license. The voice acting for Jake Logan is done by Bruce Campbell. Bruce Campbell, in case your one of five people who don't know, is the star in the cult classic series of films The Evil Dead. <br><br>This game is about as non-linear as space sims get. You choose which mission to accept and which side you will fight on throughout the game. <br><br>The interface within the game is nice and simple. No complicated menu screens or HUD displays. You start out in the space station where you have your four basic interfaces. Personnel, latest news, jobs and ship bay. The jobs area is obviously where you find available work but it is here that you may also choose a wingman to enter into the foray with you. The ship bay, again pretty obvious, is where you'll find the different ships you may choose from, you can also upgrade weapons and equipment, etc. Not flying for the military does have its disadvantages as you don't readily have all the latest, greatest, weaponry and craft at your disposal. It's there for you but you have to earn it. To earn money you must accept and complete the missions that are available.<br><br>The HUD displays of the various ships are nicely designed. They contain all the information you need and never clutter the screen. You have your requisite radar, speedometer, shield and laser power indicators and weapons displays. You also have a nice 3-dimensional picture of your target. The target viewer can be used to get the proper angle of attack when going up against the big boys, and when I say big, I mean BIG! The capitol ships in this game are huge, not to mention the colossal space stations. The enormous size of the capitol ships and space stations put size in good perspective.<br><br>The graphics are a sight to behold. I happen to be running with a 3DFX VooDoo 3 3000, but in an interview with PC Gamer, Mike Maza, producer of Tachyon, stated, "It's got excellent 3D hardware support for effects like colored and dynamic lighting, but we've also taken care to make sure it works well and looks very good in software-only mode." I don't know about the software only mode but with graphic acceleration this game is gorgeous. In one mission you are flying through some sort of gas cloud or nebulae in search of spy drones. Once you locate them you decide it would be a good idea to take out the ship they're coming from. The clouds look amazing as you fly through them, reminding me of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, "I will chase you round hell's.....", Trekkian slip, sorry. After you destroy the spy drones and a few attack bots you go after the source. You lock onto the frigate and are guided to it by green arrows telling you if you're to the left, right, etc. This is where you use the 3-dimensional display to position yourself to come up behind this big mamma. It slowly appears out of the clouds and when your just about on top of it, there it is, right in your sights. Never approach a capitol ship from the side as I did the first time. They come equipped with many, many laser cannons, just waiting to get a piece of you. The first thing you need to do against any ship is knock out its shields, then go for the kill. It's not as easy as launching a couple of missiles up its tailpipe either. Not only do capitol ships have a multitude of laser cannons but they also launch support fighter craft at you. The lighting effects are beautiful as laser fire, missiles and explosions are everywhere when you get involved in intense dog fighting. Star Wars never looked so good.<br><br>The sound quality is excellent. It is the most dead on accurate 3-Dimensional sound field I've heard in a pc game. Finally, the potential of my Soundblaster Live and expensive Altec Lansing speakers are realized. When in a dog fight, you could almost fight with your eyes closed and do pretty good. Kudos to the sound team for making the immersiveness of this game complete.<br><br>Those gamers looking for an incredible on-line multiplayer experience, look no further. Tachyon will be supported by Novaworld, Novalogic's on-line gaming service. Over 100 players can battle it out within a single on-line universe. Tachyon will also feature Voice-Over-Net capabilities. Novaworld is a free service and each member can register their own call signs to be used while logged in. Some of the multiplayer options will be; deathmatch, teamplay, capture the flag, co-op missions and more.<br><br>The beautiful graphics, incredible 3-Dimensional sound, epic space battles and nice FMV cut scenes along with nicely done voice acting, lend a very cinamatic feel to the game. With Homeworld and Descent Freespace 2, Tachyon will have its competition but from what I've played<br></P> <br /> <P><a href="mailto:mailto:newberryr@aol.com">Robert A Newberry</a></P> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <p> <p>  <br /> <br /> <br />