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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Bungie co-founder Alex Seropian earned his pedigree when he helped found the company that created Microsoft's hit game series Halo. He left Bungie to found a new studio called Industrial Toys, and earlier this week the firm revealed its latest project: a sci-fi first-person shooter called Morning Star for iOS.

morning_star_banner.jpg
In a blog post on is website, the company says the game is a "complete re-imagining of the sci-fi shooter for touch."
If you get the newsletter, you know we've been banging away on R&D with nailing down a satisfying control scheme, developing really cool and interesting gameplay systems and weaving an outrageous story with awesome characters. [...]

Our totally unreasonable goal is to completely change the expectations core gamers have for their mobile games, and with that comes a bunch of dialogue about what we're doing and whether it's gonna work or not.
The game is slated for release in Spring 2013.

Article Link: Bungie Co-Founder Announces New iOS First-Person Shooter, 'Morning Star'
 

Yamcha

macrumors 68000
Mar 6, 2008
1,825
158
Looks awesome, too bad I don't own an iPad =P.. Hoping it'll come to the Mac App Store eventually..
 

pgiguere1

macrumors 68020
May 28, 2009
2,167
1,200
Montreal, Canada
I don't know how much of a "complete re-imagining" the gameplay will be, but the theme, storyline and visual style certainly don't feel like one.
 

Chaos123x

macrumors 68000
Jul 8, 2008
1,698
34
Isn't Morning Star another name for the devil or lucifer?

I hate these trailers that show a whole bunch of cgi cut scenes but barely any game play footage.

Graphically it looks a lot worse than games like Infjnity Blade or Rage HD.
 

macuserx86

macrumors 6502a
Jun 12, 2006
622
3
I don't know how much of a "complete re-imagining" the gameplay will be, but the theme, storyline and visual style certainly don't feel like one.

I'd settle for a "complete re-imagining" of the input/controls. Soft "joysticks" overlaid on the screen make for a horrible FPS experience. Hopefully they'll find a way to make the input more intuitive for touch devices. Infinity Blade (although a very different game) has always been my gold standard for touch-centric game input.
 

Earendil

macrumors 68000
Oct 27, 2003
1,567
25
Washington
If Alex can instill any of what made games like Marathon and Myth unique into this game, I won't care that the graphics aren't top notch. Gaming, especially first person shooters, has lost a lot of depth over the years with this focus on graphics instead of gameplay. Graphics are a part of gameplay, but the "great games", the ones that people played for years and years after it was released, and their graphics were relegated to second rate, or third rate, those are the games that were (and are) awesome.

Bungie knew how to create those kinds of games once upon a time, and while they tried with the Halo series, I think Microsoft sucked a bit of the soul out of them, and gave them constraints that didn't allow for their style. I'm interested to see what influence and talent Alex has at his disposal.
 

CindyRed

macrumors member
May 26, 2011
77
0
The "re-imagining" will be millions of iOS users like us re-imagining how much better this game could have been without touch controls... sigh.
 

Dr McKay

macrumors 68040
Aug 11, 2010
3,430
57
Kirkland
So they wanted to break free of Halo and do their own thing, and then release a trailer that until 90% of the way through it could have been a trailer for a Halo prequel.....
 

Earendil

macrumors 68000
Oct 27, 2003
1,567
25
Washington
So they wanted to break free of Halo and do their own thing, and then release a trailer that until 90% of the way through it could have been a trailer for a Halo prequel.....

You might want to go check out wikipedia info on Bungie and Alex Seropian.

Bungie its self was created in 1991, producing many games prior to Halo.

From Seropian's own wikipedia article
"In 2004, Seropian left Bungie and created Wideload Games, with the goal of streamlining game development. Wideload's small core development team worked with outside contractors to produce Stubbs the Zombie and Hail to the Chimp. Wideload was acquired by Disney in 2009. As part of the deal Seropian became vice president of game development for Disney Interactive Studios, a position he left in 2012 to start a company focusing on mobile games."​

Seropian hasn't been a part of Bungie for almost 9 years, but was with Bungie for the first 13, those being the golden years of Bungie. And since when was "Space" not a common background for science fiction stories? It's about the story, not the setting...
 

roosta

macrumors regular
May 1, 2005
150
13
las vegas
still hoping for sequels to oni and pathways into darkness.

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So they wanted to break free of Halo and do their own thing, and then release a trailer that until 90% of the way through it could have been a trailer for a Halo prequel.....

why not, the marathon series could be considered a prequel to halo.
 

mac98aop

macrumors member
Dec 21, 2010
38
56
Marathon, we miss you!

I hope this new concept incorporates elements of Marathon. Halo was enjoyable, but so, so repetitive. Kill it all, and quickly.

Marathon had complex puzzles to solve, amidst the shooting spree. Most of them were counterintuitive and so clever to try and work out, requiring many failed attempts. Who couldn't love running through hot lava as your body shield depletes, only to find the hidden switch that could only be activated by a grenade as if you got any closer, you'd never make it back before the door closed!

Come on, bring back some of that gameplay PLEASE!
 

Dr McKay

macrumors 68040
Aug 11, 2010
3,430
57
Kirkland
You might want to go check out wikipedia info on Bungie and Alex Seropian.

Bungie its self was created in 1991, producing many games prior to Halo.

From Seropian's own wikipedia article
"In 2004, Seropian left Bungie and created Wideload Games, with the goal of streamlining game development. Wideload's small core development team worked with outside contractors to produce Stubbs the Zombie and Hail to the Chimp. Wideload was acquired by Disney in 2009. As part of the deal Seropian became vice president of game development for Disney Interactive Studios, a position he left in 2012 to start a company focusing on mobile games."​

Seropian hasn't been a part of Bungie for almost 9 years, but was with Bungie for the first 13, those being the golden years of Bungie. And since when was "Space" not a common background for science fiction stories? It's about the story, not the setting...

still hoping for sequels to oni and pathways into darkness.

----------



why not, the marathon series could be considered a prequel to halo.

When Bungie left Microsoft Studios they said they wanted to branch out from Halo and try new things, different things. But this trailer has the same style as Halo, heck you see a similar logo to the UNSC at one point with "UMSC" under it. It has the same look and feel as Halo. It was like Halo with another skin.
 

palmerc2

macrumors 68000
Feb 29, 2008
1,623
683
Los Angeles
I think this would be perfect for AppleTV

I just am not a fan of touch controls for a game like this, would be better if it were on the big screen and a 3rd party released a controller.
 

joeracke

macrumors newbie
Sep 29, 2012
3
0
When Bungie left Microsoft Studios they said they wanted to branch out from Halo and try new things, different things. But this trailer has the same style as Halo, heck you see a similar logo to the UNSC at one point with "UMSC" under it. It has the same look and feel as Halo. It was like Halo with another skin.

This isn't Bungie.
 

Earendil

macrumors 68000
Oct 27, 2003
1,567
25
Washington
When Bungie left Microsoft Studios they said they wanted to branch out from Halo and try new things, different things. But this trailer has the same style as Halo, heck you see a similar logo to the UNSC at one point with "UMSC" under it. It has the same look and feel as Halo. It was like Halo with another skin.

You missed the point. Bungie is not making this game, and the guy that started the company that IS making this left Bungie the same time the first Halo was released. It also looks like a half dozen other highly rendered CGI things.
 

MacNewsFix

macrumors 6502a
Oct 27, 2007
653
0
Twin Cities
This looks like a pretty ambitious endeavor. I wonder if it will run on my iPad first gen....or at least not make it burst into flames. ;)

Furthermore, I'd love to play Myth on an iPad! Integrating Airplay for playing on the big screen would be pretty cool, too.
 

blesscheese

macrumors 6502a
Apr 3, 2010
698
178
Central CA
WRONG. He "earned his pedigree" because of the Marathon series, the best ever game trilogy for the Mac.

I agree, the lead in to the article is absurd...Bungie was making great games wayyyy before Halo (I'm thinking Marathon *and* Myth). I'm guessing the writer is some teen/young 20 year old who doesn't have any idea of anything that happened pre-XBox. And on MacRumors, no less!
 
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