Recently we've brought you some coverage of IronFall, a third-person shooter from developer VD-Dev that's making its way to the 3DS eShop. It's a project with plenty of ambition, including a goal of running at a silky smooth 60 frames-per-second.
While screens and bold declarations have brought some interest to date, the studio has now released a technical demonstration video to show off the graphics engine for this title in action. It aims to highlight key features that will help the title stand up as one of the most graphically impressive on the 3DS.
You can check it out below and, certainly, it shows some impressive effects and scenarios. Here's hoping the actual game in development will meet expectations next year.
[source gonintendo.com]
Comments 87
I'd buy it just to run around the environments in the demo. Spring is a long time to wait, but if that means it will be even better that the demo, I'll gladly be patient.
Here's to hoping it'll be a grand ole time.
This looks damn amazing, and one of the only e-shop games I'm exited for.
It deserves a physical release too in my opinion.
impressive visual but i hate these other-the-shoulder views so bad :/
what happened to the good old centric third-person view?
i hope the graphic engine will be seen in other games too
Wow, N64 owners will be so jealous
Seriously, what is the point of a game designed to look great on 3DS? It's always going to be overshadowed by games on other platforms.
For me, this kind of game needs online multiplayer. But, with it pushing the 3DS hardware so much, I doubt it would be possible to deliver a satisfying experience.
I would much rather the devs focused on delivering a fun FPS to a 3DS market sadly lacking of such.
Cool I loved Gears of War and it looks like it plays the same.
Finally get to see their awesome work on 3DS. Now waiting for Shin'en's trailer fir their Wii U games.
Looks visually impressive
Though I don't usually say this, I'm interested in this game by graphics alone. I mean, this is miles ahead of what I had thought to be the maximum possible graphics/processing power of the 3DS...and we're only 3 years in! They managed to pull of some graphically impressive DS games after nearly 10 years; and on 3DS we've already got this? I'm very optimistic about where the 3DS is heading!
Gears is totally an inspiration for this. I love it! I hope we get a great online mode to go with this game, but I'm totally satisfied with a good single player experience too.
I'm hyped for this and hope it's a 10/10 or 9/10. Even though it will realistically be like a 7 or 8/10. There's always room for improvement and I want to support these devs for doing what no one else is on the system.
Hell, I would take a Metroid Hunters if Nintendo made it, but since it's not, then I will gladly invest in making this the flagship shooter on 3DS.
My god, those graphics look amazing for 3DS standards. Given how much they are pushing the hardware, I hope its gets a physical copy. I don't know if my memory card can hold such a game.
I'll buy it, the 3ds need a shooter so bad. I'll be waiting for this, I hope it gets a physical release.
I expect it will be a short but sweet eshop title with a reasonable pice in a hope that other companies will buy and use the game engine for much bigger retail titles.I dont mean this in a nagative way, the engine looks amazing and as im a fan of the over the shoulder gears of war shooter style game rather than first person shooter games I cant wait to see how this evolves, I just imagine that with so much effort going into the engine that the game may be a little shallow. Still excited though!!!
@Gioku
You said it, man. This is amazing.
So, @ThomasBW84, do you know if will this video or another be on the eShop anytime soon?
I hope it plays and controls as good as it looks.
Am I the only one who thinks this looks kinda dull?
I mean, yeah yeah, its got the power, hooray!
But... Is it just gonna be a 3rd-person cover based shooter?
I don't care how it looks, I don't want a cover shooter. If its gonna look good, it can be unique too, right?
I'm not gonna condemn it right now or anything (because you known its just early stuff), but just because the 3DS doesn't get many 3rd person shooters doesn't mean making a bland one will fill the void.
mourns over MML3 and EX Troopers
I hope there a multiplayer because this game is looking awesome and would be nice for some replay value, but if I had to point out something bad it would be that firing the machine gun has a steady light like a flash light and not static.
Graphically impressive, and I'll need to see gameplay, but my initial impression is that it isn't for me. Which is fine; I'm sure more people like shooters like this than what would appeal to me, so I will fault nobody for targeting them.
Gears of War clone with no online multiplayer? No thanks.
This is indeed very impressive! These guys are doing a marvellous job.
Not sure how it will play out through, I'm not really into shooters. Let's just hope that its something unique.
I just hope it's even worth playing without a Circle Pad Pro. Just add gyro controls and I'll be good.
Wow that looks amazingly graphically detailed!!! I hope it becomes as fun as it looks! I'mma be keeping watch on this one.
Cool enigine..best looking grafx of this type on 3DS.....hope they license for bigger projects.
Too bad every developer can't or won't try this hard on the graphics scale. I'll be keeping an eye on this. I liked Gears of War, and hopefully this will have online and meet the "console standard".
Graphics don't mean everything, but it is better than pretty much anything we've senn on the 3DS, IMO.
They probably figure that building a custom game engine that pushes the 3DS will pay off in the long run, considering how many systems are out there in at an above average adoption rate.
@C-Olimar "IronFall has no support for online multiplayer. We are a very small team and were working on the game since more than 2 years now, that will be too much work for us now. But if the game is a success we could start working on this features." That's what the developer said in an interview. They didn't confirm local multiplayer, but they denied online, though the excuse is only because they're a small team. So, hopefully there's at least local multiplayer.
But yes, a fun FPS for 3DS would be great. It doesn't even have to be graphically impressive (just look at Team Fortress 2, it's more stylistically impressive than graphically). As far as I know, the only FPS confirmed for 3DS is Renegade Kid's Cult County, but I'm sincerely doubting that it'll have any multiplayer since none of RK's previous FPS games ever did.
@5ony
Thanks for the multiplayer info. I hope this game sells enough for them to try hard on getting an online mode going. Even if it's DLC(reasonable priced, of course), I'm sure whoever buys this would cough up the cash to take the game online.
This is assuming the game is good in the first place, but I'm assuming it is based off of how hard they say they're working.
This is looks great, I hope it gets a retail release tho
It looks like a poor man's Gears of War.
This needs a physical release. It'll murder your SD card.
It's unfortunate that there won't be online multiplayer... Seeing all those AI moving made me think that this game's biggest draw would be multiplayer.. It looks great regardless! Definitely getting my money!
Wow that is really impressive especially when that many soldiers were on screen with seemingly little effect on performance. It's great to see a game pushing the hardware like this!
@SCAR392 Graphics are nothing without 60fps.
Or is it just youtube making it look jerky. (Dunno how to get it to use the HTML5 player for embedded videos like that).
Jagged edges (That was the main thing that annoyed me about the PS2).
I seriously want this game. There has to be a fps for 3DS done right like this!! Insta buy for me!!
Hmm, makes me wonder whatever happened to that Conduit 3DS game that was demo'ed way back when...
@unrandomsam
Understood. What is good about the tech demo, though, is that it is 60FPS, in 3D, and the bottom screen can still render just as good of graphics as the top in 2D.
This is a pretty good example of what serious developers should be trying to do on the 3DS, with regards to whatever art style a dev would choose to use, of course.
@unrandomsam
They're working on implementing anti-aliasing, so you might see those jaggies disappear in the final release.
@AVahne If they do and it is really good technically I will probably get it. (Sad that Nintendo has spoilt so many of their main games with 30fps. If they had just waited until they could do them properly the end result would be much nicer).
I'd love to see see a physical release for this, if it has a decent length story and runs without a lot of bugs, I can see serious potential. Add in multi-player and you may have Golden Joystick award for best handheld for 2014. I can't wait to play this!
definitely looking good so far..
i wonder how big the eshop title will be..
@SCAR392
No, 30 with 3D on.
And don't waste your time trying to convince that guy you're talking to of anything.
This looks awesome
Hhhhmm, visually impressive, but what about AI? That long line of enemies proved it can handle their animations on mass at least, but they were either on a set path, or just playing an animation. The AI can be a drain on processing power too, and has more of an impact on the actual gameplay.
I have my doubts that they'll be able to keep the graphics like this, that 60 fps, and have a fun AI, but a bit of a drop in frame rate won't be bad really.
Really though, it's too early to tell anything about the game.
I downloaded the video from their website OMG 60fps it looked amazing.
@WesFX
Well, it's their goal to achieve 60FPS with 3D on w/o sacrificing AI or the framerate. They said they may limit it to 30FPS in 3D if they have to, but it hasn't been confirmed whether that will be necessary or not.
I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything. I was merely reading what they had said in the past article. They said it runs 60FPS in 3D, but again, if they need more AI or something else that would lower the framerate, they'll limit it.
EDIT: It's not exactly set in stone how the game will run, and what it will run. It'll probably be another 3 moths before we have the full details.
Omg!!! im doing back flips right now XD
Very impressive from a technical standpoint. That engine was written 100% in assembly language. Crazy.
The part where the chimney collapses is very impressive. Looks like an OG Xbox game, perhaps even better in some regards.
Looks really impressive, but please, tell the developers to start it on 3DS itself too. Many games looks awesome on PC with emulator, but they are unplayable on real 3DS.
I'll be keeping my eye on this one. I've been looking for an excuse to finally pick up a circle pad pro. This might be it.
I have played this video (and one downloaded directly from developers website) and the presented graphic on "3DS" lags !!!
I have tried this on 3 computers + server, if it is only playback problem, but it lags everywhere.
This engine should be polished for speed, not beautifulness.
I will grab this only if it gets a retail release. I'm not a fan of digital unless its VC.
@6ch6ris6 "what happened to the good old centric third-person view?"
it blocks too much of the screen. The center is more important than the sides
And after this Game Freak tell us there was no way to use 3D on the world map because of the technical limitations... Yeah, sure.
Graphics look great! But of course this will be a very small game! If it would be a full-scale game, the file-size would go through the roof!! Why not just bringing it to retail?!
Circle pad pro support with online multiplayer and this could be a great little game that's quite unique on 3DS.
Wow! Now I can sell my Xbox! ( I only use it for GOW) If the Devs crack this on the 3ds - they will be very rich indeed!
This looks like Gears of war. it looks awesome.
i hope this game turns out to be an awesome game
I really hope they get the gameplay right. If they don't this game will become a waste.
MY EYES!!!! THAT LOOKS SO GOOD! If the finished game is half as impressive it'll be fantastic! ^__^
This will certainly fill a gap on the 3DS library: We have no decent 3rd person shooters on the system since Capcom didn't bring 3DS "Lost Planet" to the west. Looking forward the end result. Dare I say I would not even mind if something like this would be released on Wii U.
It looks visually impressive but pretty generic.
wow thats really the 3ds? o.o it surprise meevery time again what the 3ds really can
the only question is... how is the story.. if it gets a really good story i will buy it
Looks pretty amazing on graphics alone. After seeing what Capcom did with Revelations I didn't think we'd see anything more graphically pleasing... but this looks brilliant.
I'll keep my eye on this title and see where it goes from here. Hopefully the game will be as much as what he graphics look like.
no online vs? ohwell sick of vs mode on game's eniway unless its realy well done id mutch rather have a old fashiond Grate 1p Campain it'd have been nice to see Co-Op but ohwell
That's pretty cool. Even if the game doesn't do well I hope the engine gets a lot of use from other devs.
The one thing that stuck out to me was in the beginning when the character started shooting, there was no "Damage Effect" showing up...
Generally impressed with the texture quality on display.
The 3DS is quite behind the times in that department, a while the quality visibly suffers in the open area in this demo, it all still holds up amiably all things considered.
It always baffles me to see so many dumb, negative comments and hard to please people on NLife, and in the world in general, nowadays. Some countries/areas even seem to stand out, which is nothing to be proud of.
This game IS visually impressive, just as the article says, there's no debating. It's a friggin' eShop title and being able to pull this off with all the limits of both the eShop AND the 3DS is quite an achievement. So, from a technical point of view it is DEFINITELY impressive, and besides that in general as well, although it's partially up to your own taste, but not liking something doesn't mean that it looks bad.
All the criticism concerning the graphics is also very short sighted, seeing as this is still in development and therefore it's a beta, meaning improvements will more than likely be made during the coming months.
And the aim is indeed that it WILL run at 60fps in both 2D and 3D mode, as stated in this article:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/10/vd_dev_aiming_for_60_frames_per_second_for_gears_of_war_style_3ds_shooter_ironfall
I just watched this video on a 42" plasma TV in HD and there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with it, other than what can be expected from a beta tech demo, so some glitches and stuttering are to be expected, same as it is expected that they will more than likely be ironed out before the final release.
/end of rant.
No offense people, but being open minded and positive is a good thing, you should try it sometime...
It looks pretty, but if the game is no good that won't matter much. We'll just have to wait and see.
Cautiously optimistic about this one. Last time I saw an impressive engine demo I bought The Conduit I wouldn't say this has the best graphics though or am I the only one who played Resident Evil: Revelations?
@taffy Although somewhat of a let down, I still thought the Conduit was a mildly entertaining game in general. The effects on show here (IF they are all attainable in the final release) look to upstage the Conduit in just about any department, and remember: it's not even a full blown release but an eShop title, so that makes it even more of an achievement.
I'm looking forward to them being successful and making more games with this engine and maybe even start on WiiU eShop versions of the same games in HD...
@taffy And yes, Resident Evil Revelations is impressive too, although a lot is happening inside corridors/closed off rooms and there are certain tricks used. IronFall is written entirely in assembly/machine code, making them able to access more resources from within the hardware directly and this is only their first demo, so it sure looks promising if this is what they've already achieved. They now probably have a full 6 months to tweak the game and any glitches so I'm quite optimistic that it will turn out to be something interesting to say the least.
@TheRealThanos 100% agree with you there
That's very impressive! Let's hope they've got equally good writers, and decide to release physical copies too.
Damn! I thought RE: Revelations looked awesome. For a low resolution screen, this looks awesome! Imagie an OLED screen and a higher resolution on the 3DS. JEEZ!
@taffy You're not the only one who played Resident Evil Revelations
1 year later and people are still playing online
Looks promising.
@mamp For a minute there I thought you meant I would be able to download and watch on my 3DS! They should definately get this video up on the eshop.
@Volmun Which part?
Its funny if you consider, that today, mostly small studios produce the most ground braking things in the gaming industry while the big shots just sit there, twiddle their thumbs and cough up the ever same stuff over and over again.
Dont get me wrong, a 3rd person cover shooter is not the reinvention of the wheel. But look at this:
Both these guys and Shin´en push hardware above and beyond its limits with seemingly no effort compared to their miniscule team sizes. It was monolith soft, a rather small team, although with some experience under namcos wing (XenoSaga) was the one to put giants like Square and company to shame with Xenoblade. On paper, it had no chance agains the technical behemoth that was Final Fantasy XIII. In reality, it blew it out of the water in the technically inferior Wii hardware in scale, substance, content and effort. And they are about to do it again with X, as far as you can judge the game by the tiny snippets of trailers weve got yet.
Ocasionally, such a title as this is very important., even if it doesnt turn out to be the best game ever. It sets new bars for other devs to measure themselfes on. And if a multi million dollar company with huge dev teams fall so low as to release the same game more than one (Fifa for instance) while a mini dev team manages to reach new technical achievements, you know what to think of the industry as a whole.
According to their corporate site, it looks like VD-dev Games is an approved Wii U developer.
http://www.vd-dev.com/About.html
Ohhh man, this is gonna be on my priority buy list. I've been a huge Gearshead for the longest time and having a portable game that takes a lot of inspiration from it is just something I've wanted for the longest time (right next to actually having Gears on the 3DS xD)
Beautiful graphics, CPP compatibility, 60 FPS on the 3DS. Now I only hope it's gonna get a physical release so I can have a physical copy in my collection!
WOW. Umm I'm speechless.
How exciting! Can't wait for the game!
@TheRealThanos all of what you sed in #71 lol woopse thort i had added the coment nomber my bad
@Volmun no offense man, thanks for the up.
Awesome. I certainly hope they change their mind about multiplayer in the future. Heck, I'd gladly wait until Winter 2014 if that's all it'd take for online multiplayer to be put in.
What I really want to know is if or how they will incorporate StreetPass and/or SpotPass. I would assume SpotPass would be used for DLC (and maybe an online feature in the future), but I hope StreetPass would get a good looking in to.
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