Chapter 978: A Different RTS Game

The download speed of the official platform was very stable and download progress was steadily increasing, but it still required some time.

Qiao Liang took a can of Coca Cola from the fridge and sat in front of his computer, thinking about playing something to pass the time. However, he could not help but check the progress bar for updates every once in a while.

“I feel like I’m dreaming about ten years ago…”

Qiao Liang still remembered that his family had spent a huge sum of money to buy a computer when he was in primary school. The screen was very small and the CPU was very big. There was also a small water pipe speed of less than 100K on the internet. Even looking at the webpage and adding pictures was very slow. What’s more, it was limited in traffic and time. If he did not pay attention, the time would be over.

At that time, Qiao Liang had to calculate carefully every time he went online. Once he searched for strategies online, he would jot them down in his notebook. Then, he would play standalone games that he could not pass.

Later on, his speed increased a little with the broadband. Qiao Liang began to download games online. At that time, he could download games with a speed of a few hundred kilobytes. Sometimes, he had to download more than ten gigabytes. At times, he had to download a few or even dozens of hours.

Qiao Liang’s mood at that time was exactly the same as it was now. Every now and then, he would check the download progress.

Once the game was downloaded, he would install it excitedly. Then, he would enter the game and see the beautiful CG… That would be the most beautiful moment.

At that time, Qiao Liang had to fight with his parents if he wanted to play computer games. He was always on tenterhooks, afraid that he would be scolded if he was caught.

However, he played too many different games after he became independent and became a UP Master. No one cared about him playing games anymore. Instead, he no longer felt excited.

He would often forget to play the game after buying it, or would never pick it up again after playing it.

It had been a long time since he had experienced the feeling of joy after downloading a game.

However, for some reason, he suddenly had this feeling again!

At this time, it was very similar to the nervous and expectant feeling when he had secretly climbed up in the middle of the night to play on the computer in his study room without being discovered by his parents.

Mission and Choice had finally been updated with Qiao Liang’s eager mood!

However, Qiao Liang noticed that even though the update had been completed, it was still downloading at the back end.

That was because the current tens of gigabytes of content were the basic content of the game, including the game itself and the two or three plot images at the beginning.

In order to ensure the best viewing effect and the quality of all the images could not reach the level of movie theaters, but they were basically of super high-grade blue ray quality.

However, this also meant that the film took up a lot of space. It was almost the same as the game itself.

The production team deliberately separated the two downloads in order not to let players download too much content in one go. Players could start the game early by downloading the later videos at the back end.

During the game, the video of the plot would be downloaded.

There were no changes to the ‘Mission and Choice’ icon after the update. There were no changes to the game’s details page either. It was still the original advertisement with a sense of age, like a breeze, and a few very awkward slogans.

Qiao Liang even suspected that if some players had started an automatic update, they would not have realized that Mission and Choice had such a huge update if they did not look closely.

However, this made Qiao Liang look forward to the game even more!

Qiao Liang calmed himself down and entered the game.

The originally trashy ‘Mission and Choice’ did not have any opening CG. After entering the game, it was a very rough title image. There were only a few simple options like starting the game, loading the game, setting, and so on.

On the other hand, after entering the first chapter of the game, they had only placed a picture that could be called a PowerPoint. He used a few lines of words to briefly introduce the background story before entering the game.

This attitude was very perfunctory and ridiculous even in that era. The games in the same period were all mosaic style, there would still be many CGs in the title and film after all.

In fact, games like Fantasy Battle were already very good at CG back then. At that time, it looked very amazing and even surpassed new games that were released several years later.

However, the updated Mission and Choice had become completely different!

After the black screen and a few logos, a pair of tightly shut eyes appeared on the screen.

The pair of eyes were tightly shut, but one could tell that the eyeballs were moving rapidly. His brows were slightly furrowed, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, as if he was experiencing a terrifying nightmare.

Qiao Liang was stunned.

“Isn’t this CG level too high?”

“He’s no different from a real person!”

Qiao Liang had seen some AAA games with huge investments in CG. The pores on their faces could be seen clearly.

However, he had never seen anyone who knew this much!

The next second, the camera zoomed in and Qiao Liang saw the man’s face.

“…Isn’t that Lu Zhiyao!”

“This isn’t making it realistic? This is real! This is not CG, this is a movie!”

Lu Zhiyao flipped over and sat up in the hibernation capsule which opened automatically on the screen. Qiao Liang instantly understood. No wonder it was so realistic. This was not CG!

“In other words… Boss Pei put the movie in the game?”

“Doesn’t that mean that I bought the game and got the movie for free?”

“Or is buying the tickets to the movie equivalent to buying a free game?”

“Er… that doesn’t seem right.”

“That doesn’t matter. However, if we mix the movie with the game, there would be a problem with the plot, right?”

Qiao Liang had played many games before after all. He was instinctively a little worried when he saw how the game and movie were combined.

In fact, there were indeed some companies overseas that had used live-action filming to create game CGs, but that had been around for some years.

What’s more, most games companies did not use this method after that. Since it did not become mainstream, it meant that there was a problem with this method.

For example, the plot of the game was divided. The plot of each chapter might be divided into more than ten parts. They were not closely connected. They would choose the most exciting parts of the plot to make CG.

As for the middle part, it could be filled with game content.

However, the plot of the movie had to be coherent. It would naturally conflict with the game plot.

“Perhaps they intercepted a part of the movie’s plot?”

“However, this is quite a waste. I keep feeling that it might be difficult to deal with the details.”

“It would be acceptable if it was an ordinary gaming company that was not particular about the details. However, Tengda has always been a perfectionist. Boss Pei would not allow such a small flaw to exist.”

“Or is there a better solution?”

The plot was very exciting and Qiao Liang did not have much time to think about such nonsense. These thoughts only flashed through his mind for a moment before being temporarily sealed.

The high-definition E-Sports display and game earphones might not be the most perfect viewing experience, but they were definitely not bad.

Qiao Liang was quickly attracted by the plot of the game.

CGs in other games were basically meant to be used as adjustments. The reason why they were limited by funds would not be long. It was mainly to let players enter the state of mind as soon as possible.

However, the plot of Mission and Choice was obviously very long. It was not a short segment of the plot, but a complete story.

After Qin Yi accepted the position of commander, AEEIS introduced the various functions of the control panel to him, including the observation ball, touch screen, the surrounding holographic images, and so on.

After Qin Yi officially started the operations, Qiao Liang’s computer screen switched to the game screen seamlessly.

Qiao Liang realized that he had naturally taken over Qin Yi’s role without the title of the game, the plot chapters and story outline.

AEEIS’s voice continued, but this time it was directed to the players.

AEEIS did not directly use words such as “mouse”, “keyboard”, “controller”. Instead, it vaguely said “turning perspective”, “choosing troops”, and so on. This was to prevent players from acting.

Instead, a simple icon appeared on the screen. For example, when a mouse was needed to choose a unit, a simple mouse shape and arrow would appear on the screen, which was outlined by white lines. It would hint players to do the relevant operations.

The entire UI was almost identical to the UI in the movie. The freedom of view was also very high. The entire scene would seem bigger after closing in even though it was completely incomparable to the holographic image in the movie, compared to other games that locked on to the God’s perspective.

The plot of the first stage was very simple. It only guided players to get used to controlling the game’s perspective and watch the simulation of the Alliance Fleet’s defeat after encountering the Zergs.

After the game ended, it switched to the movie seamlessly.

The scene that was originally controlled by players became a movie scene. It displayed the content in a grander way.

However, they were freer to act in the game. What’s more, they took much longer than the movie. Thus, they did not feel that the plot was repetitive. Instead, it strengthened the impression that the plot had in players’ hearts.

What followed was the second plot and actual combat, the third plot and actual combat…

Qiao Liang realized that Mission and Choice seemed to be different from other games.

In other games, it was mainly based on the game’s content. Plot CGs were inserted into the game’s content and played an embellishing role.

On the other hand, ‘Mission and Choice’ was actually a story plot movie that connected the beginning and the end, connecting the entire story. Instead, the game’s content was interwoven into embellishments.

The difference between these two methods was that the former gave people a very strong sense of closure. Every chapter and checkpoint was actually more separated, and the connection was not very natural.

Some of the new stages of the game had to be loaded and read bars. That was even more unfriendly to players.

However, ‘Mission and Choice’ made people completely unable to feel the gap between the chapters.

This was similar to how many plots were used to create AAA games.

Traditional methods were to read bars during the transformation of the scene. However, these plots would be directed to AAA games to make the players’ experience more coherent. They would do some special treatment during the transformation, such as the collapse of the tunnel, the protagonist crawling in a narrow cave, and so on. At this stage, if they read the contents of the scene at the same time, there would never be a reading screen.

On the other hand, Mission and Choice had obviously done the same. Plot films were being played between the two stages. The next stage had been completed while gamers were watching the movie.

The connection between the film part and the game part was perfect through the ingenious arrangement of the plot. It did not give players any abrupt and unnatural feeling.

He might not have come into contact with the real combat part, but the gaming experience at the beginning made Qiao Liang feel that this new ‘Mission and Choice’ was definitely completely different from all the RTS games before!