Brevity
03-12-2003, 04:05 PM
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Having played through a few hours of the near-final European build, I can promise that Yager offers a lot more than your standard shooter. There's an excessive amount of quality voice over here and a deep storyline filled with several subplots. And, unlike many shooters, it's not just laid out for you to hear and see it all by simply following a line of breadcrumbs. Much of the goodness in Yager comes from exploring outside your primary objectives, finding other people in need, and uncovering hidden power-ups cleverly placed throughout each massive area.
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In both modes, the left thumbstick steers, and the D-Pad toggles between third-person, ****pit, and bumper views (you can also look left and right in any view mode). The left trigger serves as thrust and the right trigger is your primary fire for your currently armed weapon. X zooms in, for more accurate shots, Y switches weapons, B locks on to an enemy, and A uses secondary fire, if the weapon supports it. Black button performs actions like grabbing pick-ups and landing. The white button brings up a very handy map and mission information. Pressing in on the left thumbstick puts on the brakes in Jet Mode and lets you move backwards in Hover Mode. Lastly, pressing in on the right thumbstick switches between the two modes.
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The dogfighting is damn cool in Yager. Enemy ships range from giant flying carriers, to submarines, to small one-man fighters. Enemies have some smart AI and will constantly try to gain the upper hand in battle. Your flying skills will be put to the test quite often as enemy ships trail you. I've had several occasions where one ship gets on my tail and actually tries to drive me right at his buddy who's coming at me head-on. Yowch!
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The story unfolds both in cut-scenes between levels and with dialogue while in flight. You'll pass by freighters with guys who'll chatter with you on the comm. The voice-acting is pretty cool with a number of archetypal characters popping up. Throughout your travel (and exploring some of the various areas is sometimes reward in itself, because everything's so beautiful) and during combat you'll get various people piping into your comm. Some are friendlies, who will come to your aid, others are baddies who will call you out.
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The movies and screenshots speak for themselves. Yager looks fantastic. The areas of quit large and are filled with a variety of terrain. Just look at the gorgeous water. The most impressive, for me anyway, is the ship designs. One you've unlocked the many ship profiles, you can get an up close view of the detail on these ships. The design and the color variations are top notch. Everything from the small fighters to the enormous freighters look like they were designed with a great deal of love and attention. This isn't some cookie-cutter action game produced by some development factory.
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http://xboxmedia.ign.com/xbox/image/yager_031103_11.jpg
http://xboxmedia.ign.com/xbox/image/yager_031103_09.jpg
http://xboxmedia.ign.com/xbox/image/yager_031103_08.jpg
http://xboxmedia.ign.com/xbox/image/yager_031103_07.jpg
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Having played through a few hours of the near-final European build, I can promise that Yager offers a lot more than your standard shooter. There's an excessive amount of quality voice over here and a deep storyline filled with several subplots. And, unlike many shooters, it's not just laid out for you to hear and see it all by simply following a line of breadcrumbs. Much of the goodness in Yager comes from exploring outside your primary objectives, finding other people in need, and uncovering hidden power-ups cleverly placed throughout each massive area.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In both modes, the left thumbstick steers, and the D-Pad toggles between third-person, ****pit, and bumper views (you can also look left and right in any view mode). The left trigger serves as thrust and the right trigger is your primary fire for your currently armed weapon. X zooms in, for more accurate shots, Y switches weapons, B locks on to an enemy, and A uses secondary fire, if the weapon supports it. Black button performs actions like grabbing pick-ups and landing. The white button brings up a very handy map and mission information. Pressing in on the left thumbstick puts on the brakes in Jet Mode and lets you move backwards in Hover Mode. Lastly, pressing in on the right thumbstick switches between the two modes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The dogfighting is damn cool in Yager. Enemy ships range from giant flying carriers, to submarines, to small one-man fighters. Enemies have some smart AI and will constantly try to gain the upper hand in battle. Your flying skills will be put to the test quite often as enemy ships trail you. I've had several occasions where one ship gets on my tail and actually tries to drive me right at his buddy who's coming at me head-on. Yowch!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The story unfolds both in cut-scenes between levels and with dialogue while in flight. You'll pass by freighters with guys who'll chatter with you on the comm. The voice-acting is pretty cool with a number of archetypal characters popping up. Throughout your travel (and exploring some of the various areas is sometimes reward in itself, because everything's so beautiful) and during combat you'll get various people piping into your comm. Some are friendlies, who will come to your aid, others are baddies who will call you out.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The movies and screenshots speak for themselves. Yager looks fantastic. The areas of quit large and are filled with a variety of terrain. Just look at the gorgeous water. The most impressive, for me anyway, is the ship designs. One you've unlocked the many ship profiles, you can get an up close view of the detail on these ships. The design and the color variations are top notch. Everything from the small fighters to the enormous freighters look like they were designed with a great deal of love and attention. This isn't some cookie-cutter action game produced by some development factory.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://xboxmedia.ign.com/xbox/image/yager_031103_11.jpg
http://xboxmedia.ign.com/xbox/image/yager_031103_09.jpg
http://xboxmedia.ign.com/xbox/image/yager_031103_08.jpg
http://xboxmedia.ign.com/xbox/image/yager_031103_07.jpg