Here's Konami's Martin Schneider introducing the company's new IP, Birds of Steel: %26ldquo;For far too long, first-person shooter fans have been tied to the foot soldier point of view, but we aim to bring the seat-of-their-pants skill and daring of dogfighting and aerial combat to a wider audience.%26rdquo; He's got a valid point: first-person shooters do tend to focus on ground-based combat %26ndash; whereas Birds of Steel offers wartime combat, based in airplanes, whose %26ldquo;flight%26rdquo; will be %26ldquo;simulated%26rdquo; within the game's action sequences. We need a name for such a genre. Watch the trailer and see if you can find one.
Alright, so Konami's rhetoric may overplay the freshness of the title %26ndash; a console action game? Set in WWII?? %26ndash; but the publisher looks to have IL-2 Sturmovik developers Gaijin Entertainment crafting a title that's more tailored to console platforms than many previous games, with earlier titles offering direct-to-video versions of the three-keyboard behemoths available for PC. To this end, the game will feature a matching system for deathmatches, online co-op, and a balance between real-world and fictional battles, which point toward an experience that'll hopefully be more streamlined than simplified. In which case, they're welcome to use that one in promotional materials.
What do you think of Konami getting into the FPS scene? Do these shots do it for you?
May 26, 2011
Latest edition of Namco's flight series out on October 11
