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A 2006 Ps3 Game That Is Basically Gundamwarrior: Mercenaries


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#1 PHAROSMJD

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Posted 12 August 2019 - 05:05 AM

Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire is a ps3 game from 2006. The game itself had technical problems and ran like **** on the console itself, however with the RPCS3 emulator if you have a beefy processor you can run the thing better than the console could. I managed solid 30-40 fps with a Ryzen 1700.
Pics of my RPCS3 settings:
https://i.imgur.com/kLGFHNX.png
https://i.imgur.com/swYqW57.png
For controls I used a wired 360 gamepad, in RPCS3 I select XInput for player 1 and it worked immediately. Keep in mind you are not restricted to the preset button layout options given by the game, you can move buttons around in the emulator if the presets don't work for you.

The version I played was actually the European version, Mobile Suit Gundam: Target in Sight [BLES00034].


So why I'm posting about this game? Well if you are like me, you might have already played every Mechwarrior, Battletech, Earthsiege, Heavy Gear, and whatever mech videogame there ever was on PC. Multiple times. And the hunger for big stompy robot single player action remains. I'll try just about anything at this point, maybe you will too.



Plus, this is the closest a Gundam game has ever got to Mechwarrior:

- Lumbering, heavy feeling mechs instead of the usual snappy hyper fast ground level fighter jets of typical japanese mecha archetype.

- You are just another pilot using standard mechs, not the chosen one using a plot armored gundam of ultimate destiny.

- Localized damage system with damage affecting performance for every mech limb, the hud has a mechwarrior-style paper doll for a damage readout. Which is rare for consoles, even Armored Core games use just a single HP bar. You can even lose only the hand, and the arm still works for melee.

- Customization, simplistic but still there. Revolves around upgrading aspects of the mechs, selecting a specialization, and picking a main weapon.

- Requisition costs for mechs, upgrades and pilots (paid in req points gained by performance in missions). In the Zeon campaign you are straight up identified as a Mercenary Unit. In the fed campaign you are a Special Operations unit.

- You get to pick which missions to do and when to do them up to the date they expire.

- Combined arms scenarios with not just mechs but tanks, APCs, helicopters, and conveniently slow jets and bombers. Sadly, no infantry to step on.

- Limited ammo, most missions have a resupply camp or truck in the map (can be destroyed by the enemy).



And a few things not featured before in mechwarrior:

- Fatigue system for pilots. Constant missions without time to recover wears them down.

- Repairs, upgrading and delivery of requisitions takes time. Passage of time is measured in days, and 1 day passes when you do a mission or choose "next turn" from the inter mission menu. (yes I know this is in battletech I'm talking mechwarrior)

- Melee combat. Some mechs just punch (and kick when missing its arms or hitting a downed mech), others have dedicated melee weaponry like axes, swords, lances, others might have integrated claws.

- Mechs with shields can actually put their shield up in front of them. Shame you gotta stop, but at least strafing from left to right puts the shield in the way of incoming fire. And using a two handed rifle puts the shield front too!

- Wading into water slows you down if its above ankle height, unless the mech has a traversal gimmick (hover legs) or adapted for underwater use (marine type).


Not everything is positive, tho:

- The game lacks polish, it was rushed to be a ps3 launch title. This is why it runs like crap on the ps3 itself.

- Very few maps that are reused constantly (still more than MWO had at launch, lol).

- No urban map, closest thing is a map featuring a few blocks of ruins. Though, these and every other building is destructible with either attacks or walking into them, demonstrating the same cutting edge technology shown in MW5.

- A few Occasional visual glitches, not sure if due to emulation or present in the game itself.

- No option for first person / cockpit view, other than the snipe scope.

- Even though most mechs have working hands you can't pick up other mechs dropped weapons. Or rip their arms and bash them to death with them. Or wield a tree. Damn, I need this feature so much.

- 2006 console graphics. However, if you have been replaying the old mechwarrior games you probably won't care much.

- Annoying menu navigation, FFS why can't I set a main weapon just once instead of it being set back to default every. single. mission. FFS why can't you just display all available missions in a single screen.

- Constantly repeats the same radio voice overs every time you kill something ("Arrrggghhh!" "Nooooo!"). I set it to japanese, since not understanding them kinda mitigates it, lol.

- No feedback to squad orders. Not even a pip. You press the button, it actually works but no visual or audio indication other than the squaddies doing the thing.

- No narrative or characters to speak of. There is an intro movie, an outro movie, and in between the state of the war is told by text and some tidbits on the briefings. Tho, for some (like me) no characters is better than bad characters.




Game tips, ignore in case you enjoy figuring out everything on your own. BTW, I suggest muting the music volume in the options and using your own.

​​​​​​​- Game is hard, gets harder if your cpu can't keep up the framerate. Try lower difficulties first (in particular easy if doing Zeon campaign, their mechs are crap). Missions might start simple and short, but will eventually get tougher and require multiple visits to a resupply point.

-You have 3 lines of upgrades: weapons increase ammo, range, and unlock secondary weapons and alternate main weapon systems to choose before a mission. Attack unlock weapon system specific damage boosts, Defense unlocks damage resistances against range or melee. You can also change the mech subtype and it alters some things and it's color pattern: normal (extra boost duration), Heavy (extra damage and resistance, seems to give a larger shield on some mechs), Jungle Desert and Marine provide bonuses when in that type of terrain.

-Don't go overboard upgrading the starter mechs. Upgrading weapons is super helpful to increase ammo and get more weapon options, but no amount of upgrading is going to turn the starter mechs into endgame mechs.

-Similarly, no amount of battle experience and training simulator missions will turn the starter pilots into endgame pilots.

-Speaking of training simulator missions, these can be done with mechs being repaired or modified to no drawback. Pilots also not only do not experience fatigue. You *can* use training missions as a way to pass time and get some req points instead of none. Take the opportunity to test out weapons and mechs so it doesn't get repetitive too fast. Still, will get repetitive if you try to get every single possible req point via this method.

-Some mechs are just bad, specially a quite a few of Zeon's.

-If you lose your right arm but have a shield, you can drop your shield with R3+L3 and use your melee weapon (if any) with the left arm. With the Gouf Custom, this can be used to eject the large Gatling when empty and enable the triple machinegun under it. In the Gelgoog dropping the shield is needed to use the triple rocket launcher.

-R3+L3 can also cancel a field resupply in progress, handy if you start getting shot at.

- After completing a campaign it generates a save for new game plus where you keep all your stuff, and in this new campaign run, mechs from the opposite faction gradually become available.

#2 Anjian

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Posted 18 August 2019 - 01:02 AM

You would still have dashes and jumps, however, and the audience does not necessarily like a game that moves too slow.

Similar to what you see here on Gunpla Warfare.




I'm still working out the builds for my Gundams.

Edited by Anjian, 18 August 2019 - 01:02 AM.


#3 PHAROSMJD

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Posted 19 August 2019 - 04:46 AM

Not sure what you mean, but Gunpla Warfare is most definetely not the kind of mech game I'm talking about. It lacks any feeling of weight to it, nor does it have any locational damage modeling. Meaning the avatars in play might as well be anything, there is nothing in the gameplay thats intrinsically characteristic of mechs.
BTW, heavy feeling mechs does not mean the game is slow. Since mechs in Crossfire don't absorb as much damage as the arcadey gundam games (or mechwarrior, or Armored Core), things play out faster than you might think. Specially once stronger weapons start hitting the field, those giant bazookas and beams are no joke and a single mis-timed dodge or block can have you losing a limb. Completing a mission on a limping, one arm, headless mech feels epic, tho.

Edited by PHAROSMJD, 19 August 2019 - 04:47 AM.


#4 Anjian

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Posted 19 August 2019 - 10:27 AM

I don't see how it "plays out faster". That does not have anything to do with the damage level but because of the way the mechs moves around. Gundams "dash" around. Mechwarrior doesn't dash.


Check out Gundam Battle Operations 2. Mechs dash around.




This Armored Core fight has plenty of dashing.



#5 PHAROSMJD

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Posted 20 August 2019 - 04:19 AM

View PostAnjian, on 19 August 2019 - 10:27 AM, said:

I don't see how it "plays out faster". That does not have anything to do with the damage level but because of the way the mechs moves around. Gundams "dash" around. Mechwarrior doesn't dash.

Both movement speed, responsiveness (stop/start rate, direction change rate, etc) and TTK are factors that contribute to how fast a game plays.
Crossfire plays out faster than mechwarrior not because of movement speed (light mechs in mechwarrior are faster) or responsiveness, but because you don't spend nearly as much time wittling down a target, usually you try to line up a good burst while avoiding the same. It still slower than most gundam games, being grounded and depicting proper sense of weight, which is why I said in my op that its the closest I´ve seen a gundam game ever get to mechwarrior. While Crossfire does feature boosting, its not nearly as responsive or smooth as armored core's even on the top end of crossfire's mechs.
Battle Operation 2 varies from mech to mech, as it should, and I'm looking forward to borrowing a ps4 from a friend once the western release hits later this year to see how matches with low point limits play. The top end of point cost mechs are ridiculous, but the low point stuff looks more grounded and it features some localized damage tracking (body, shield, head and legs).

Edited by PHAROSMJD, 20 August 2019 - 04:52 AM.


#6 Anjian

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Posted 22 August 2019 - 05:50 AM

A video of Gundam Crossfire.

The game appears to have good potential but it doesn't look very polished.



#7 Anjian

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Posted 28 August 2019 - 09:25 AM

Here is a Gundam game I never knew existed, might be because it was never released outside of Japan.

Note that this video is over 5 years old, so this is an old game.

51 players vs. 51 players are going at it inside a space colony.







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