New Squadron 42 trailer shows off its stunning graphics

[midian182]

Something to look forward to: It’s been a while since we heard much about Squadron 42, the single-player campaign element of Star Citizen. But on Christmas Day, developer Cloud Imperium Games released a new “visual teaser” trailer that shows off some incredibly good-looking graphics.

Back in October 2018, we saw a new trailer for Squadron 42 that featured some of the game’s star-studded cast: Gillian Anderson, Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, Andy Serkis, Mark Strong, John Rhys Davies, Liam Cunningham, Ben Mendelsohn, Geralt of Rivia himself—Henry Cavill—and more.

The only real news we’ve heard about Squadron 42 in the last 12 months is that it’s been delayed—something Star Citizen is familiar with—for three months. The campaign’s beta was supposed to launch in the second quarter of next year, but we’ll now have to wait until Q3 2020.

The new trailer does make the game look compelling, containing several space scenes and a few sections set inside spacecraft. We also get a look at the pointy Vanduul ships, which bring to mind the Kilrathi vehicles from Star Citizen creator Chris Roberts’ Wing Commander series.

Earlier this month, Start Citizen passed the $250 million crowdfunding milestone, and its 2.4 million backers are about to help it pass $260 million. This is despite the numerous delays—it’s been in development for around seven years—which have prompted some backers to launch lawsuits as they try to get their pledges returned. The situation wasn’t helped by a May report that looked into the problems behind the scenes.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/83316-new-squadron-42-trailer-shows-off-stunning-graphics.html

 

[Todd Sauve]

This has been delayed so many times I've lost interest in it completely. What a joke of a game ...

 

[m4a4]

Those Vanduul ships sure look nice and sleek...

 

[KingAlistair]

This has been delayed so many times I've lost interest in it completely. What a joke of a game ...

You can't build content on top of broken programming. We should know that by now.

 

[Mister_K]

This has been delayed so many times I've lost interest in it completely. What a joke of a game ...

Tech Demo*

It's an ambitious alpha, like it has always been said. This is why studios tend to keep game development quite. Nevertheless, Chris Roberts has made some iffy decisions (like poor planning pre-dev with the engine).

Anyway I wonder how dated this game will look after it's fully functioning and playable.... (if ever).

Still love the ambition, it has came a long way and created some new technologies that can be used in other games. It's not all for nothing, unless you are dumb spoiled gamer and a negative nancy that can't see past their own noses...

 

[Roddy_K]

7 years, 7 years really????? WTF???? Each clip is less than 10 seconds.

 

[Jules Mark II]

I like it. Has a certain Mass Effect 1 vibe to it.

 

[JoeBlobers]

You can't build content on top of broken programming. We should know that by now.

LoL... Current Alpha 3.8 do have more unique features than any single Triple-A released by multi_billionaire Publishers... And this is Alpha with SQ42 beta in quarters and 6 more quarterly patch adding most contents and gameplay.

 

[JoeBlobers]

7 years, 7 years really????? WTF???? Each clip is less than 10 seconds.

There are +15 minutes of game features detailed every single week plus others communication.

Alpha is 3.8 played by 1.2 million individual backers

 

[JoeBlobers]

Tech Demo*

It's an ambitious alpha, like it has always been said. This is why studios tend to keep game development quite. Nevertheless, Chris Roberts has made some iffy decisions (like poor planning pre-dev with the engine).

Anyway I wonder how dated this game will look after it's fully functioning and playable.... (if ever).

Still love the ambition, it has came a long way and created some new technologies that can be used in other games. It's not all for nothing, unless you are dumb spoiled gamer and a negative nancy that can't see past their own noses...

Dated by which metrics? SQ42 beta in 4 quarters not in a century and no game have currently so much details for both full planet (1/6th of real ones) and characters. All in 4K native.

 

[Sorileus86]

7 years, 7 years really????? WTF???? Each clip is less than 10 seconds.

Other games have taken nearly 10 years to create, example Red Dead Redemption and GTA 6. Also note that when CR *Chris Roberts* started his new company and game development, they literally had only 20 or fewer people working on the game. Now they have something like 500+ in different locations around the world, this game is also not funded by big publishers like EA, Activision or Microsoft etc, all there funding is crowd funded by the player base. If the entire game looks like the teaser when all is said an done, then I think the wait is worth it. How ever the game as it is, is quite playable with a lot more to do then most realize.

 

[Gezzer]

For anyone commenting on when the game will be released a few facts. Star citizen is actually comprised of 2 games. Squadron 42 (SQ42), and the persistent universe (PU). So while there is some shared development and resources, we're not really talking about 1 AAA game here.

SQ42 is the single player AAA game that should be completing beta by the end of 2020 or early 2021. The release will be the first of at least 3 planned releases , and will consist of a number of chapters. 28 for the first release, undetermined for anything later.

The PU is a sandbox universe (think GTA V) that is one of the things that seems to confuse a lot of people. It's what the alpha backers are currently playing and is both a development and content testbed for what will ultimately become the SC multiplayer platform and some of SQ42's assets. It's development is a bit weird.

While the PU is tagged as an alpha, most playable parts are actually in more of a beta state then alpha. This makes sense since having backers, or the public on free play events playing with flaky alpha code would lead to more problems than it would be worth. So development is often as much adding new content and polishing then it is coding the base game.

This isn't the most efficient way to build a game since new polished features can create conflicts with older features, creating a bug hunt hell that is only made worse by the fact that there is so much more code/content/polish then what would be done for a normal alpha. But the alternative would be chancing releasing updates that potentially could create all sorts of havoc, like totally hosing a players system/OS.

As for the promised but unreleased features and content, this is by design. Roberts has said that the PU will be in constant development and will never have a true release. As they continue to work on the game there will reach a point where the decision is made that the PU is stable enough and has enough content/features to do a soft launch. At that point there will be no more server wipes/resets but there's no guarantees that everything will be finished at that point.

When will the PU soft launch be? Anyone's guess on that one. I'd say at the rate their going maybe late 2021. A lot depends on how much and when resources devoted to SQ42 are freed up. But Roberts is on record as saying that the PU will continue to be developed as long as there are people playing it. Even after everything already promised is delivered. I guess you could say that SC will never be finished then.

 

[Mister_K]

Dated by which metrics? SQ42 beta in 4 quarters not in a century and no game have currently so much details for both full planet (1/6th of real ones) and characters. All in 4K native.

It is quite common for current games that strive for realism to be outdated quite quick as graphics progress. This is why games which OPT-in for high quality art style look less dated as years go by (GTA V for instance).

 

[Bamda]

Tech Demo*

It's an ambitious alpha, like it has always been said. This is why studios tend to keep game development quite. Nevertheless, Chris Roberts has made some iffy decisions (like poor planning pre-dev with the engine).

Anyway I wonder how dated this game will look after it's fully functioning and playable.... (if ever).

Still love the ambition, it has came a long way and created some new technologies that can be used in other games. It's not all for nothing, unless you are dumb spoiled gamer and a negative nancy that can't see past their own noses...

I am playing it now, what you are you talking about?

 

[Mister_K]

I am playing it now, what you are you talking about?

I don't know, it sums it up in my post (quite accurately). Care to explain what you talking about?

Also, this post is 5 months old.