Did Microsoft copy Descent 4 designs?

Aggressor Prime · Post by **Aggressor Prime** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 12:16 am

I was just passing through some old Descent 4 stuff when I found some drawings of the Descent 4 jump jet suit that would have been used to jump jet from ship to ship.

Then I began thinking of the new Mech Assault 2 from Microsoft. When I compared the 2 suits, they were quite similar.

Take a look:

Descent Suit 1
Mech Assault Suit 1
-You should notice the placement of rocket launchers on both.

Descent Suit 2
Mech Assault Suit 2
-These are very nice. When looking at the Descent picture, pay close attention to the suit on the upper right hand corner. The 2 suits look identical. (Tubing and Claws)

Also, remember that both games would have had / have jump jets on their suits.

Also, it suprised me that Microsoft added a cloaking devise to this game. I bet they took this from the Descent series too. But that is less likely. The suits make me much more suspicious.

Sapphire Wolf · Post by **Sapphire Wolf** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 12:18 am

Holy Crap!

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 12:50 am

So....

Most games do copy each others work. :
What sucks is that Microshaft ditched Mechwarrior 5 for Mech Assault 2. Mech Assault sucked donkey nuts and everyone knows it!!

roid · Post by **roid** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 2:01 am

i wouldn't say they copied it. there's only so many popular mech designs. their design is logical, and shoulder mounted rocket launchers are oldschool.

i think your Descent4 concept sketches are quite like other mech designs i've seen in the past. microsoft's conceptual artists have the same influences as you did.

the last pic especially bares little resemblance at all. your sketches are complex, MS's final designs are clean and paneled - that's one big difference right there.

edit: ahh now i see the tubing. but really, it's an external tube feeding into gun - hardly an original idea. any startrek fan knows external tubes like the back of his borg hand

Nirvana · Post by **Nirvana** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 5:59 am

Those mech designs MS used have probably been around since before D1... you do realize that Mechwarrior was an RPG LONG before it was a video game, right?

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 6:41 am

Those are power armour suits. I don't recognise any of them off-hand though. Probably because they're moderately new designs.

Nonetheless, the concept of battle armour with jump jets has been around in that game's universe since the Clans were introduced to BattleTech in about 1990. No-one had even thought of Descent at that time.

Finally, with a relatively limited degree of creativity possible with suits of that type... it's not really surprising to have things so similar in some instances.

Lobber · Post by **Lobber** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 6:53 am

So really, who's copying who?

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 7:40 am

btw, those designs WERE used. ... in Red Faction. Those were way early D4 art from Volition (for those who don't know.)

Nice to see them again.

JMEaT · Post by **JMEaT** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 7:47 am

Microsoft: The Evil Copier of Space Suits. For this crime, tar and feathering.

roid · Post by **roid** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 8:27 am

ahh ok Duper, when i saw the 2nd D4 concept pic i actually was thinking "hey the design of the head looks quite similar to that automated digging robot in the red-faction demo"

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 10:48 pm

Oh no, how dare someone use something even remotely like concept art! Someone call 911! 911!!!!oneoneone

Gee, they used envirosuits in the Starship Troopers TV show, lets go sue them!

OMG! Someone used a space suit in Babylon5! Lets call NASA! They obviously came up with the idea first.

Seriously, show me a recent computer game that hasn't copied off of anyone in any single way. Yeah, I thought so. There aren't any. They all copy off of eachother in one way or another.

Unix · Post by **Unix** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 10:59 pm

Whoa there killer.

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 11:34 pm

Unix wrote:Whoa there killer.

Seriously, I've seen this same arguement being made all the time, and its inheriently flawwed for the reason I stated in my previous post.

"OMG! Star Wars copied Star Trek! Lets sue!!!!"

Jeff250 · Post by **Jeff250** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 4:29 am

Did Microsoft copy Descent 4...

No, you can't copy something that doesn't exist.

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 4:42 pm

Aggressor Prime wrote:Also, it suprised me that Microsoft added a cloaking devise to this game. I bet they took this from the Descent series too.

Zounds! You're right! The cloak was one of the key innovations in Descent! It's not like any other games had such a thing before Descent.

Lobber · Post by **Lobber** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 6:27 pm

Descent did not innovate the cloak. Sorry to say.

There was a game that came out on the Amiga way back in the day that had the cloak as a researchable upgrade to your tank or plane, and that came was called "Armorgheddon."

Lothar · Post by **Lothar** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 6:38 pm

Lobber: ;) -> sarcasm

Lobber · Post by **Lobber** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 7:42 pm

Did Microsoft copy Descent 4 designs?

Did Microsoft copy Descent 4 designs?

Re: Did Microsoft copy Descent 4 designs?