Nex Machina (Housemarque, PC, PS4, Twin Stick Shooter)

[DenT4F]

Housemarque owns the IP for Nex Machina, that's why they can make a PC version.

Also, an official release date was just announced, June 20th (PS4 and Steam).

[G3n3raL86]

Day 1 for me, it looks, plays and feels really cool and fast:)

[HydrogLox]

The latest I've heard is "this summer (when it's done)".

Also, an official release date was just announced, June 20th (PS4 and Steam).

Given the history with the progression of Alienation release dates:

• 2015
• 2016-03-02
• 2016-03-23
• 2016-04-26 (actual)

I suspect that the "when it's done" projection is the most reliable. (PSN UK 2017-06-20, PSN US 2017-12-31)

[clippa]

I think they mean it this time. Steam is showing as 20th June - http://store.steampowered.com/app/404540/Nex_Machina/
They must be confident that it'll be ready in time because they were saying "when it's done" during the beta and then they publicly named the date on may 19th - https://www.housemarque.com/nex-machina-release-date/

[MJR]

Yeah, the lead programmer told me yesterday that the launch date is definitely on 20.6; he is hoping that they can ship before that date, but that remains to be seen.

[kid aphex]

I wish this was coming out for OSX.

I really "need" a PS4.

[HydrogLox]

I wish this was coming out for OSX.

What's wrong with Bootcamp? If you restrict yourself to just Steam and the games you are currently playing the partition wouldn't have to be that large (An OSX version wouldn't necessarily address the limitations of the underlying hardware anyway).

[BubbaMc]

How is it guys? Is the PC version locked at 60fps?

I wont be able to fire it up until next week, very much looking forward to it though!

[clippa]

Framerate is uncapped. Haven't played it yet but the beta was amazing. Game of the year, easily, I can't see anything coming close.

[Necronom]

Played for about an hour after work...I absolutely love it!
After the twin stick sequences in Nier Automata I was really craving for a proper arcade style twin stick thingy.
Feels like I'm in heaven now...neon bullet heaven

[Remembrance]

After the twin stick sequences in Nier Automata I was really craving for a proper arcade style twin stick thingy.

That's all I needed to hear.

Nier left me with the same itch. Bought.

[BubbaMc]

Game is getting glowing reviews. Can't wait to play it next week when I get home!

[kid aphex]

When I started this thread, I really figured I'd have a PS4 by the time this game came out...

[Mischief Maker]

Just got this off GOG. Was going to post about it in off-topic but I guess the bosses get shmuppy enough.

I have played many, many robotron clones but this is the closest any of them have come to feeling like the original. Eugene Jarvis' influence is definitely felt here.

The voxel graphics are cool but they make my GPU work up a sweat.

You get an invincibility dash, pick up superweapons with a cooldown, and accumulate five upgrades before the game starts spitting out score multipliers. In my initial run I was seeing as high as 35x so while the game is very forgiving in terms of lives it's brutal in terms of scoring.

Levels are handcrafted and chock full of secrets.

There are a zillion special ways to score in this game...

Spoiler

...from rescuing all the humans in a quick chain to taking out a complete wave of centipede-esque fliers to hitting dash at the right moment at a level's end.

Mouse aiming eschews floating crosshairs for a close-in relative pointer that works much better than I would have expected and simulates the feeling of an analog twin-stick setup surprisingly well.

Overall I'm happy.

[Pedro Lambrini]

I'm still trying to get my bearings with the game but I'm really enjoying it so far.

The graphical style is nice (I'm a sucker for voxels). It is a little hard discerning any real differences between the different enemy types - they all look quite alike. Perhaps, once I've played it more I'll start to see their 'personalities' a bit easier.

While the music has a cool cheesy cybery vibe, I can't say there are any real stand out tunes. That's a bit of a shame. For me, a game like this could really do with its own anthem. Still, that seems to be the way of modern soundtracks... an underlying style but few real tunes.

The controls are tight. I haven't tried KBAM yet but my DS4 couldn't be any more responsive.

I'm loving all the little secrets. It's refreshing to play such an energetic game that encourages exploration rather than just blasting from one arena to the next.

All in all, best tenner I've spent in a while.

[bigbadboaz]

Thrilled to see how well the game is being received.

I'm also currently PS4-less, but have plans to get another one during this year's holiday sales and this game is at the top of the play list.

I really hope they're going to reach a similar level of quality with Matterfall (sidescroller), which launches later in the year. That game was announced first, and it seems like it got pushed to the side when Machina + Jarvis became a thing.

[Durandal]

Levels are handcrafted

This alone sold me on the game

It's almost a rarity these days.

[silvergunner]

In my opinion the best twinstick shmup to date.Gameplay,leveldesign,music and sound fx are so great.
The seasonal challenges are a welcome addition.
Nex Machina will probably the last twinstickshooter game by housemarque,hope it`s not true

[Elixir]

I'd enjoy this game much more if there were an option to turn off effects/voxels. I get the appeal of voxels, but it gets tiring hours on end. Sent them a request.

[Zaarock]

I think they're working on a better visibility / eye strain mode, many people commented on this since the beta and it was improved a little. There's a discord channel for the game where you can post feedback.

Liked the game a lot so far, though biggest gripe is master/hero difficulty dont feel that fleshed out. Enemy patterns are the same as veteran so it doesn't feel like a full additional mode. Hero can be approached much like Master and 1cc isnt near the kind of challenge your usual arcade shmup would be regardless of difficulty setting. I bet things will only improve from here though, they sorta had to rush things for release but want to keep polishing the game.

By the way there's a TLB thats very much a shmup boss and more involved than the others.

[gameoverDude]

After playing this on both PC and PS4, I like the Logitech F310 better than the DualShock 4 pad.

I encountered a bug on the PC version where the view got obscured by a layer of unfinalized voxels. Restarting fixed that, but it would suck if it were a few worlds in. And another time, it just froze suddenly ingame.

There's a replay on Youtube of experienced level, where the player hits the multiplier cap of 100x. The multiplier penalty is forgiving- on dying, you don't lose it all, it just goes down by 3.

Out of the special weapons, I like the rocket launcher and the smartbomb (which nails damn near anything that's too close, especially the large human killer robots). RL & SB are also good for quickly opening secret exits. Detonator and Laser aren't bad. Powershot can GTFO however.

[silvergunner]

Smart bomb is the most important weapon to survive (and scoring high!)

I notice some bugs,too. Sometimes the complete sound fx are gone,happens rarely in stage 3.

Don`t get the human combo x50 trophy,

This game is going to be one of my alltime fave,love it so much.
Housemarque`s best work to date!
I´m very excited for their next game "MatterFall" ,release: August,15(!)

[Necronom]

I can confirm the soundbug on stage 3...hope it gets fixed quickly.
I can also confirm the supremacy over any other twin stick shooter What a finely tuned and super satisfying game!
I can see myself playing this one for a long time
Favourite secondary: rocket launcher and smart bomb

[bigbadboaz]

I like the Logitech F310 better than the DualShock 4 pad.

Similar layout, what do you like better?

For me, the option to use an Xbox series pad for offset sticks would be the thing on PC.

Are you able to push to 4K on your PC? Feel that it makes much of a difference to the look?

[gameoverDude]

I like the Logitech F310 better than the DualShock 4 pad.

Similar layout, what do you like better?

For me, the option to use an Xbox series pad for offset sticks would be the thing on PC.

Are you able to push to 4K on your PC? Feel that it makes much of a difference to the look?

Haven't tried the 4K. I'm quite sure my GTX 1080 might be able to take Nex Machina like that, but my monitor is 1440p. So I've been sticking with the native 2560 x 1440 on the PC one and like the result.

[BrianC]

Out of the special weapons, I like the rocket launcher and the smartbomb (which nails damn near anything that's too close, especially the large human killer robots). RL & SB are also good for quickly opening secret exits. Detonator and Laser aren't bad. Powershot can GTFO however.

I'm not too fond of sword either. Very short range and does less damage than smartbomb.

[Udderdude]

Bought it on Steam, haven't played it yet. Resogun was good, so I expect this won't disappoint.

[Mischief Maker]

Do any of the developers read this forum? Because it feels like 1.04 added some kind of memory leak. The framerate starts out smooth like at release but a few rooms in gets choppy and by world 2 the game's a frigging slideshow.

[Necronom]

Fired it up today on my PS4 after PS+ subscription expired...says Server Connection Failure in arena mode
Do the leaderboards really need PS+?! Definitely isn't the case in Resogun...

I'm not too fond of sword either. Very short range and does less damage than smartbomb.

Had the impression that the sword is quicker and knocks the bigger enemies into the other ones...can anyone confirm this?

[Zaarock]

Fired it up today on my PS4 after PS+ subscription expired...says Server Connection Failure in arena mode
Do the leaderboards really need PS+?! Definitely isn't the case in Resogun...

Apparently some server issues today, dont need PS+

Sword is bad. Hopefully they balance the weapons eventually. Some of them work poorly in the modes with return bullets. Powershot is great in other modes for score, but using the explosion around you gets you killed by return bullets right after invincibility ends unlike smartbomb which erases them.