Chromehounds

[Neo Wrighter]

Not many have heard of this title (or ever will for that matter.) It was an Xbox 360 exclusive game that I personally enjoyed.It was a -bit- hard to learn at first, but one gets used to the controls and to customize the mechs. To go against the (Shadow of the Collosus scale) big bosses. It was made by the same guys who made the Armored Core series (that I despise since, unlike Chrome Hounds has an automatic Aimbot hampering online gameplay to those who like to jump around the screen as if they are having repetitive hand seizures, fewer customization styles and a lack of proper realistic physics. No skill involved.) And to top it off they marketed it to Sega, who kept the MP services up until last year, then dropping it, getting several hundred troll threads in their forum. (Way to go. Too focused on Sonic now are we Sega?)

The game on its first days alone exceeded the bandwidth for MP three times over, the servers died just like the Reach beta that followed. And this was back in '06. The game could have done better if it had been advertised more.

I guess this thread could be banned for aforementioned problems. I just wanted to voice my concerns to a wider gaming community who might have played the game.



Come on Sega. At least open the servers again, for a week, and put an add-on package. People will come back. And if you want to not take care of the servers anymore give it to the fans. Like Halo 1 for the PC right now. At least twenty games are being played with full servers.

Let the players have a chance you overweight game companies.

 

[The Long Road]

Ah I loved Chromehounds! My Defender will introduce you to a rocket DOOM!

-or it would, if the servers hadn't been shut down. It would be so great if they gave servers to players or reopened some of the servers. Given that interest in the game is so rock-bottom for now, it wouldn't even need to be the full server capacity.

 

[Blackhol]

Chromehounds was on of my favorite games back in like 07. Sadly not many people played it.

 

[Jasper Jeffs]

I played Chromehounds, it was pretty good. I liked the huge world map, clan system and customisation, I had never really had that much before when I played it at the time. One feature I loved though was that when you die, you're not simply put into spectator mode, you are made a tiny little soldier, and you get to run around shooting a crappy assault rifle in third person. You do no damage, but it's quite awesome to be able to stand underneath a mech, three times the size of a house, and just shoot at it before it inevitably crushes you. I have some good memories from that game, my mech was an absolute clusterfuck and I didn't really understand any of the mechanics, so I'd always be in a mech that moved 1 MPH, with far too many fucking shields. T'was fun.

I'd say they should bring it back, but I don't play it any more, I remember it being quite popular, at least with Japanese people, who used to rape the shit out of me. That does indeed suck though, seeing as it's practically multiplayer only and I can imagine some kid getting it for his birthday, going to play it and seeing "cannot connect to server" on his screen.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

I liked that game. I played it a bit, think I still have it, but the disk decided to stop working for me >.>
Only played online a few times, seemed fun. A shame it is gone now, though. It was pretty much deserted by the time I decided to try the multiplayer >.>
I may have to try to play it again, see if it wants to work... I need a good mech game, similar to the Battletech ones (or at least like MechAssault, with added customisation).
Kinda regret not getting into it when it was still busy, and things were lively.

 

[Neo Wrighter]

Sega, Resurrect this old zombie with a patch!

 

[Private Custard]

Boosters nearly killed that game online. Entire clans of fast, wheeled vehicles that were exploiting certain holes in the programming......until patched.

It led to some amusing counter-mechs though. I wish I could find the pictures, but one of them was a giant heavyweight with no weapons, just radar.......and a 100ft wide stack of heavy shields with 'fuck boosters' painted across the front in massive white letters.

Everyone else just hid behind him!!

 

[SirDoom]

My favorite 360 game, no question. Although I see why it didn't keep a large fanbase for long.

What do you think of when you think of xbox live? COD, Halo, and other games like that? Spawning, running straight into the action, and killing right off the bat? Being able to lone-wolf it and still do a lot of damage if you were good?

Chromehounds had none of those things. Alone, you were weak. A sniper can't one shot an enemy unless he's loaded down with snipers and the enemy had a small exposed cockpit. A soldier could get in a fight with another that lasted several minutes before one of them finally fell. A heavy gunner could hardly move at all, much less charge straight into battle. Before the part system, it was even impossible to talk to your own team without either a commander or completing a secondary objective (Capturing those radio towers).

You had to work together at all times, often avoiding the enemy altogether until you took a tower of theirs to cut off communication. This is the exact opposite of what you expect of xbox live, which is why it had such a small but dedicated fanbase.

(Oh, and it wasn't just "put in disk, start shooting" either. You could spend quite a while customizing your hound before battle. As a matter of fact, if you didn't spend at least 5 minutes here and there to build a good one, then upgrade it as you can, you were at a huge disadvantage.)

Long story short- It was the exact opposite of the typical xbox live experience, and I loved every bit of it.
---

...and the worst part? Even though the multiplayer campaign servers (or at least some of the necessary data) were hosted by Sega, the free battle servers were entirely user-hosted. There were free battles going on days, even weeks after the game shut down. But Sega disabled the interface to get to them as well, killing one part of the game that they could have let stay alive. Now, all we're left with is a pathetic single player mode, a tutorial for the multiplayer mode that no longer exists.

 

[MasterOfWorlds]

I liked Chromehounds. I had a scout/sniper model guy with some machineguns and rocket launchers for those particularly nasty heavy armor or up close and personal guys.

 

[Viral312]

This Game lead to one of my personal greatest moments in gaming... The map with a huge river running right down the middle at night.. 6v6 and cant barely see a thing... I rode a quad-legged sniper with 6 sniping cannons that match, slow machine but if i saw you you died. when i got to the top of my hill the battle still hadn't yet begun, My team commander gave the all clear and we waited... scouts creeped across the river on hover hounds waiting to run into an ambush that never happened.. a flare goes up and all hell breaks loose. artillery shells cover the hillside across the river and the enemy returns fire... This battle wasn't the greatest i've ever fought in a game, not by far.. but easily the most beautiful.. the explosions in contrast to the dark of night was stunning, i shot at the flash of enemy fire most of the fight, every once in a while the silhouette of a scout crossing the river would grab my attention. the entire experience was just.... Unforgettable