PAX Impressions

In a word: Agonizing.

This game is nearly the exact game I have been longing for. It, to me at least, feels like a 3rd-person FPS dota with TF2ized classes. It is agonizing that I was only able to play 3 rounds, though I did at least win some Baconnaise. It is agonizing that it doesn't have a release date yet. It is agonizing that it will only be for XBox.

But, hyperbole aside, I'm very much looking forward to MNC (or whatever acronym people are using) is coming out. It is a lot of fun, and I can't wait to sink my teeth into it.

There are many things I could say (I've already been converted into a fanboi), but the short story is that I think the dev team did a wonderful job, they should be proud, and we should all be excited.

It's good to see that people who actually played the game liked it - it makes my anticipation justified

The devs have hinted pretty strongly that this isn't true

Boo-ya!

I saw this game at PAX over the weekend, looked great.
Unfortunately due to so pre-scheduled tournaments I didn't have a chance to try it out for myself.

It looked pretty finished to me.
When will we get an official release date?

Microsoft gets to pick the release date. You'll know when we do

I also, have become an MNC fanboy after playing it at PAX.

First impressions (I mostly played assassin):

The Good:
Overall feel was very fun and lighthearted, I was constantly laughing "Pro Tip: Never pet a burning dog."

Classes were fun, I liked the different combination of skills each of them had.

Combining the TF2 engineer and medic was a great idea, having more combat classes makes balancing a team much easier.

Lots of strategy, I liked being able to hop between the upper deck and my lane, the push/pull of the map felt really great.

Assassin was a stupid amount of fun to play. Once I really got the bomb jump down I felt very powerful.

Jump pads for flanking are a great idea, I liked being able to hop around the map quickly. I was trying to convince my friend playing tank to use them to get around the map quicker, I have a feeling this strategy will get you a ton of kills.

Respawn times were solid, I never felt like I was taken out of the action for too long.

Grapple!!! I love the grapple system, all of the animations were fun, I loved that there were unique animations for each character I was grappling.

Juice: Giving everyone their own kritz and full heal? Great idea.

Attacking the mascot: I didn't see this until the developers played after the final tournament on Sunday, but it was brilliant.

The Bad:
I didn't know until after PAX was over that there were two maps being played, I don't think there was enough visual distinction between them.

The timer on the Annihilator wasn't clear enough, I'd like to be able to check the time left from a distance.

A minimap showing your teammates would help players know when a lane is in trouble. I was pushing almost into the enemy base and didn't realize the other lane needed me (to kill Jack Bot). A teammate was yelling for help, but with all the noise at PAX I couldn't hear him.

There should be some way of healing/stopping the burning DOT without a medic, otherwise if you are low on heath you just get to wait around to die, and that isn't fun.

I didn't see any way of 'pumping up the crowd', but I remember hearing it in a video or being told it was possible by one of the developers.

I didn't feel like the visualization of being seen by another player as assassin was clear enough while still cloaked.

Overall:
The game was a lot of fun and it's great to see that you're still tweaking it and getting things right.

Previous poster is absolutely right about the two PAX maps. I didn't even realize that there were two maps until Jon and Bob told us. Maybe some simple aesthetic differences will help that, like changing the color scheme.

You guys did a great job of making each class appealing in its own way. Each class has the potential to be a serious offensive force, which is great.

What it needs? I think we all know. Lightning bolt, BOOM-SHAKA-LAKA, and 'He's on Fire!'/'Team Fire' moments, even if they're just cosmetic. Even if you can't use the phrase 'He's on Fire!', you can just replace it with Hot Streak.

Anyway, great game guys, I can't wait for it to come out, and thanks for coming out to PAX East.

Perhaps petting some sort of burning four legged animal would give your team the fire? Just a thought.

well i told you guys manny times at pax that i thought that game was awsome. i just wanted to jump on your forum and say it publicly; YOU GUYS ARE AWSOME, AND THE GAMES ROCKS!!!!!

thank you all for signing my shirt.

The shirt was easy compared to the xbox controller we signed.

Hands down, my favorite game at PaxEast.

There were other good demo's but i had FUN playing this one!

Can't wait!!!

If they had a "Game of Expo" award it would've been this game. EVERYONE was talking about it and it was the most fun I had there. The game its self, and the environment you guys had with the players and everyone around it just made it a hell of a time. Thanks again

No, thank you for spreading the word.

Absolutely my favorite game at PAX.

How good is it? I'm considering buying an XBOX for it.

Awesome! There's plenty of reasons to own an Xbox anyway.

I think it was the one game I enjoyed most while at PAX East to be honest.

One issue I have is that on the 2 or so minute count down once everyone gets juice on the final push, if it's still a draw, the winner is that with the most cash. One team could have a good game and loose because they spent more money and just barely didn't destroy the money ball while the other team sucked, just sat there and collected money. I have to disagree with that.

It's not cash on hand, it's cash earned. So you can spend away!

We are still doing some tuning on the end game. I would say that was the biggest snafu at pax so we definitely need to do a bit of work in this area.

oh, that changes things. I guess it wasn't explained enough to me in detail. Thank you.

Yes, I'll admit to boning that whole part.
In fact I've already fixed it so that when OT ends, if a team's money ball is lower health than the other team's, they lose. If the health's are equal, then it goes to money earned.

Here's an "endgame idea" in the vein you guys have been developing:

Have both moneyballs lose health over time at the end of the match. Perhaps at a rate so a full health ball will die in exactly 2:00 (or, whatever the duration of "Overtime" is.) This way you have a much more visceral sense of how close to the end it is, and the team that has more health on the moneyball will win if no one manages to get damage in.