As you may have seen earlier in the week, Husky Hog and I both got to experience paintball of the virtual and realistic (and painful) kind.
When I received the invitation for the NPPL Championship Paintball 2009 preview event, I was really cynical about the idea. Why would I want to play a paintball videogame when there are games like Halo 3 or Call of Duty 4? However, after experiencing what real paintball feels like and then playing the game, it made me realize the appeal of the game. Hit the jump to check out my impressions of NPPL Championship Paintball 2009.
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The preview night started off with us playing real paintball with members of Team Dynasty helping us learn the ropes. It was my first time playing the game, but I quickly learned my way around thanks to Team Dynasty’s coaching. Team Dynasty worked very closely with Activision to ensure that players experience a genuine paintball game. So you know you’ll be getting a legit experience, especially since they’re currently the number-one paintball team in the country.
For those of you that have been living under a rock for the past few decades, paintball is a game where two odd-man teams have to take each other out with paintball guns. Paintball has become extremely popular over the years, with the game being turned into an international sport.
Players will get to play as members from official teams and take teams through the game’s career mode. You’ll be able to customize the stats for players, pick their gear from a selection of over 110 pieces of licensed products, and customize every aspect of the paintball gun. Everything about the Markers (the paintball guns) will be upgradeable. The Call of Duty 4 weapon modeling tech is even used to create realistic Markers.
The game is an FPS but doesn’t have the same feel of traditional FPS games. Players can switch which side they’re holding their gun on the fly and can run, dive, slide, lean and do everything players can do in real life.
Paintball is a team sport and the multiplayer features are where the game really shines. The game will support up to 14 players online (with bot support for all of you who have no friends) and it’s extremely important to communicate with your teammates. Prior to the start of a match, you can look at the Breakout Planner to discuss your team’s plan of attack. The Breakout Planner is an overhead view of the map you’ll be playing on, similar to the play screens from Madden games. Communication really is key; otherwise, your entire team might be thinking the same thing and just go straight to one cover spot, which will make everyone an easy target.
People can cheat when they’re hit to avoid getting taken out of the game. When a player gets hit, a circular gauge pops up on the screen with a fast-moving tilting bar. The top and bottom of the gauge are red while the very left and right center of the circle are green. You have to stop the bar right on the green; if you do it right, your character will just wipe the paint off of himself and keep going. It’s pretty hard to nail this right, as the bar is moving pretty fast. If you are taken out, though, you’ll have to wait until the next round to play. But you can float around the map and move anywhere you want. Plus, you can still talk to your teammates, so you can basically be a spy and tell your teammates what the enemy is doing.
NPPL CP 09 also has a custom field maker, where players can create any type of field they wish to make. Fields can be taken online to share with other NPPL players.
NPPL CP 09 will really appeal to people that already play paintball in real life. The game is pretty solid and I would recommend it to anyone, but I think people who play the real game will really appreciate and enjoy NPPL 09 a lot more.
NPPL Championship Paintball 09 is published by Activision, and will be out on November 18 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PS2, and Wii (with Wii Zapper support).
Contest:
7:43 PM on 11.13.2008
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Not to bag Paintball as a sport, I actually love doing paintball as much as it hurts when you get it, but... why make a shooting game about a "shooting game", so you can pretend to pretend to shoot and kill the other team.
Am I making sense? It's just odd.
Because its fun and competitive, and if you are a paintballer you can still have the fun of paintballing without the physical exertion it can cause, as paintballing is usually a weekend event for those that do it and this way they can relax and play it.
[sarcasm]Also god forbid grandma buys a grandkid this xmas time and they actually are suprised enjoy it, and then start playing paintball and get some excercise.[/sarcasm]
also is this a US release date, its not showing up on my usual pre order sites cheers jim.
Also, I got a DS paintball game in my Christmas stocking last year or the year before. Very crappy game but was fun in short bursts.
As a gamer I am not excited.
Mixed feelings are mixed.
This game looks pretty cool BTW.
Out of curiosity, what class did you take on how to use a real carbine?
Was it from Magpul?
There are many types of paintball the one simulating war is woods-ball. There is some of that in the game.
Speed ball however (in the game also) is the actual sport of paintball. Its not a game of war, but more of a game of tag, except more intense. Its really fun once you get into and its an expensive sport. One reason to buy the game. In speedball you have to learn a lot of stuff like snap shooting, running and gunning, sliding diving. May sound easy to you but it's not. Its very fun to play and some people might not understand this.
Hopefully my post will help you all to understand paintball a bit more, if not sorry I'm not good with explaining things.
Paintball video games are REALLY fucking stupid. If you want to play paintball, GO OUT AND PLAY IT!
And i love how they only make video games about fucking speedball...the gayest form of paintball. honestly, speedball is so bullshit and sanitized when compared to how paintball started, that it shouldn't even be considered real paintball.
Paintball was originally conceived as a wargame...playing a war video game is one thing, because real guns aren't toys, but playing a video game about fake war, that's just as easily done IRL, is just retarded.
I apologize for flipping out, but every time i see a new paintball video game, i get the urge to go make out with a bear trap.
"Speed ball however (in the game also) is the actual sport of paintball. Its not a game of war, but more of a game of tag, except more intense. Its really fun once you get into and its an expensive sport. One reason to buy the game. In speedball you have to learn a lot of stuff like snap shooting, running and gunning, sliding diving. May sound easy to you but it's not. Its very fun to play and some people might not understand this."
Speedball is actually a rather recent development. Paintball started in the 80's, speedball, as we know it now, didn't show up until like 95/96...I personally can't stand speedball....the lazy-ass "spray 'n pray" play style is just...stupid. When i started, we played in the woods, you made your shots count, and you didn't fire unless you were reasonably sure you could hit what you were shooting at. That takes skill, being able to empty half your hopper in a couple of seconds doesn't. speedball's a waste.
@ Iroquois Pliskin:
though I tend to agree with what you said about the making your shots count and the "spray n' pray" ways of speed/airball being a waste and the whole liking woodsball better thing, but it still takes quite a bit of skill to play speedball. I mean, there's a reason that if I were to go up against pro speedballers I'd end up getting bunkered/hit pretty quickly ..and its not just because they shoot so friggin fast.