Spring engine review

[GamerGit]

Hayhay!
I'm the editor of a new gaming news blog, and we've recently written a Spring review, it can be found at http://giftsfromagaminggod.blogspot.com/

Just wanted to get feedback from you guys, to see if it was 'on the mark'

Thanks

-Gamergit

[Pressure Line]

i only skimmed the article, but it seems you did a BA review, not a spring review.

no mention of the half-dozen other major projects that are mostly complete although unreleased (SW:IW, S44 - although I cannot fault you for not reviewing these, a mention should have been made) or the ones that have been released (Gundam, KP, PURE) and probably various other ones that I'm not up to date with.

[KingRaptor]

To clarify, Spring is an engine, not a game in itself. What you have reviewed is the most commonly played game (actually a mod, but that's quibbling at this point), and your review should have made that clearer.

[Google_Frog]

You reviewed the game Balanced Annihilation which runs on the Spring Engine. It's probably got the worst graphics of the games that run on the engine.

The default UI can be replaced with Lua Widgets that are more useful and look much nicer. Actually a lot of great customisation can be done with Lua and Uikeys but that wasn't mentioned at all.

[AF]

Ironically the one screenshot of spring you used is XTA and it was made before spring was initially released, back when only the SYs and a select few had access. The UI has changed since then, afterall that was 2005, and it is almost 2009 now.

[knorke]

wow this is probally the first picture ive EVER seen of spring
I think it was posted as "image of the day" on flipcode. I think there wasnt even a online-lobby (or we didnt knew about it) so we used spring.exe to play 1v1 over lan, often with 10k/10k start

[TheBigPK]

But regardless, with a simply huge library of maps, mods and even different games altogether (Kernal panic for example) it's almost certain you'll find something you enjoy.

Oh look! lol

[pintle]

if blogging use spellcheck

[GamerGit]

if blogging use spellcheck

MMmhm, working on that xD you notice it all AFTER you've posted it, obviously.

[zwzsg]

Kernel Panic

[imbaczek]

MMmhm, working on that xD you notice it all AFTER you've posted it, obviously.

That's what spellchecker plugins are for

[KDR_11k]

Kernel Panic

Carnal Panic! With moar pronz!

[SwiftSpear]

Thanks for the exposure Git. As you can tell, the spring comunity isn't always a simple place.

I empathize though, it's difficult to review an engine. You generally have to pick the flagship title... So with UT you'd acctually be reviewing gears... but in this case the "flagship title" harbors a fair bit of internal disdain.

You could use a little more editing for spelling and grammer, but a great review none the less, thanks!

It always gets me when people say they consider us the best RTS out to date. The gaming industry is a dog eat dog world, and it's great that a bunch of random dudes can create something so powerful and fun. There's still alot of work left to do, and our guys will keep on chipping away at it, but it's a great project one way or another.

[tombom]

It always gets me when people say they consider us the best RTS out to date. The gaming industry is a dog eat dog world, and it's great that a bunch of random dudes can create something so powerful and fun. There's still alot of work left to do, and our guys will keep on chipping away at it, but it's a great project one way or another.

cool, i'll say it again: i haven't looked at a spring game in a while and i specced one yesterday and i loved it again. it's just so amazing, the engine is kind of like the DF of rtses, except actually learnable, with all the awesome physics and stuff and the sheer variety of things you can do and all the cool mods and ...

[Pressure Line]

Thanks for the exposure Git. As you can tell, the spring comunity isn't always a simple place.

I empathize though, it's difficult to review an engine. You generally have to pick the flagship title... So with UT you'd acctually be reviewing gears... but in this case the "flagship title" harbors a fair bit of internal disdain.

well its not that, but saying "i reviewed the spring engine, it has excellent TA based gameplay and units" while making a single mention (that i missed on my first skim through) that there are alternatives to *A is extremely misleading.

[Forboding Angel]

Grrr, and you used a really fugly ass map to boot. Try using "Center Rock" by Icexuick. It is absolutely stunningly beautiful.

Lobbys != lobbies

Lobbies = plural = win = ding

[zwzsg]

Grrr, and you used a really fugly ass map to boot. Try using "Center Rock" by Icexuick. It is absolutely stunningly beautiful.

He didn't. He copied one of the oldest screenshot from Spring's website screenshot section (so old it's not there anymore). But I agree that Icexuick maps are stunningly beautiful.

[Google_Frog]

Grrr, and you used a really fugly ass map to boot. Try using "Center Rock" by Icexuick. It is absolutely stunningly beautiful.

He didn't. He copied one of the oldest screenshot from Spring's website screenshot section (so old it's not there anymore). But I agree that Icexuick maps are stunningly beautiful.

Yea, too bad it's ruined by all the type maps.

[TradeMark]

what the fuck is indie game?

i have a picture in my head that indie games are made in breakfasts and played once and then threw into a trash bin... correct me if i am wrong...

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... ie%20games WTF IS THAT, ARE WE EMOS?

Balanced Anahliation

rotflmao anahilation XD

that review sucked indeed, old screenshots etc, and why the fuck did you link at your blog front page instead of the real Spring review page?

looks like you just wanted to get more visitors on your blog by this stupid review...

[panzeriv2]

HAIZ PEAPLE TODAY IMMA REVIEW SPRING!!111!!!

Hello people.
Today I'm going to review the Spring engine and the games created with it.

The Spring project, or the Spring engine is a 3D RTS engine, created by the Swedish Yankspankers (!?).

Ok. First things first.

THE ENGINE.
Spring engine, as aforementioned, is a 3D RTS engine, inspired by the 1997 game Total Annihilation. The engine features a FPS perspective, support to up to 5,000 units, realistic physics and stuff like that. Spring could also support Lua scripts. Spring could also be run on most modern low-end computers. (perhaps even the Aspire-One?)

Most of Spring's mods are played on a multiplayer lobby, either being TASClient or SpringLobby.

Spring's engine is not very cool, though. Though extremely flexible (could be used to build a RTS or FPS game), the engine is missing several key features. Namely, the Fog-of-War thing is not very good, if enabled at all. For those people with lousy computers, do NOT enable fog of war, because it "eats" alot of performance.

Being mostly designed for multiplayer games, there is limited support for single-player games. The AI that comes with Spring are stupid, often building useless units like atomic bombers and un-armed scout ships as their navy. Also, the default interface could also being not very user-friendly, though this could vary in different games.

Even the installation is confusing! Alot of new players have no idea what to select to install, as the installer actually downloads files from the internet. At least the installer is portable, at only 20+ MBs in size, but could end up as large as 3 GBs.

Ok, let's proceed on to the games.

THE GAMES.
Spring is an engine, it runs on mods. (modifications or modules) Without mods, Spring is just a useless program for the end-user.

1. P.U.R.E.
NO. It is not that Disney game featuring about ATV and stunts. P.U.R.E. is an acronym for Purify, Unify, Reclaim and Exterminate. P.U.R.E. is a RTS set during the future, where you lead the Humans or an evil AI (yes, AI) called the Overmind. The story is not exactly interesting, though. It is the first "actual game" for the Spring engine. It has a main menu, some 57 different units and 2 unique sides. The user interface is new, though actually features alot of clutter. The game is also featured on ModDB. Currently, it is in the release candidate stage.

2. Complete Annihilation
A Total Annihilation (TA) based mod/game. Most of its units are independantly produced by players. It is one of the most Lua-extensive mod/game for Spring currently. The mod/game is mostly criticized because of its huge download size, which is about 57 MBs, even bigger that the core Spring engine!

3. Balanced Annihilation
Also a TA based mod, Balanced Annihilation, as the name suggests, is very well balanced. Most of its units are from TA, though, making you to legally own the game TA to play this mod.

4. Spring: 1944
A World War II-based game. Not much is known at the present time, either than the game will feature a territory capture feature, ammunition and is currently in a closed beta phase.

4. Star Wars: Imperial Winter
A game based on Star Wars. As the game is currently in a closed beta phase, not much is known about the current progress, either than the game will feature a better interface and hundreds of unique units.

Overall, Spring and its games are pretty cool. Despite having lousy installation prosedures (evil Spring developers), terrible fog-of-war and stuff like that, Spring could definately stand-out from most games because of one thing: it is freeware. Yes, you saw right. Freeware. No cost at present. Games made using the Spring could be commercial, but most of the mods/games are freeware.

Further information about Spring could be found in forum or in the FAQ section of the Spring website.

I'm guessing this is a better review.