Earth Defense Force 4 (EDF 2025)

Disappointed in how Insect Armaggedon spent more time trying to be a serious game instead of balls to the wall crazy?

Well the Japanese have you covered.

No word on release date in the US, assuming it gets localized.

I really hope the bring this states side, I got the last one on steam and the only bad thing is I can't find anyone to coop with. The trailer started slow but the vehicle section came up and I was sold, really hope we get it.
Hit me up if anyone wants to coop the last one.

EDF! EDF! EDF!

Bah, I traded in Insect Armageddon because I didn't think anyone would want to co-op it. :/

I really want this one to be stateside though. Insect Armageddon locked away too many weapon upgrades and didn't go nearly as batsh*t crazy. This one looks to take the crazy to a slightly new level.

The upgrades in IA are absurd and take 300 hours to unlock, but I was happy as hell they released an EDF game on PC.

Just read that this one is also coming out in the west. Not PC though which normally would make me sad but I got a ps3 now so

Edit: Reading about Insect Armageddon, apparently it was a spiritual sequel made in the US which explains a few things.

Day one purchase if it's made by Sandlot. 2017 was Jankily Delicious and Insect Armageddon was OK but lacking the soul of the other one.

Reaching North American shores in February 2014 for PS3 and Xbox 360. They're going to try and bring the DLC with it over time, too.

Yay!

So who is getting it and for what platform? I'm not sure if I'll want a co-op shooter or fantasy RPG by February, but thus far I'm leaning towards getting EDF on Xbox 360.

Since we have no 360 in the house anymore (this is what happens when your gf's ex is no longer deployed or in the military) I'll be on PS3.

I'd prefer to play it with the 360 controller but I've no real issues getting it on PS3 either. I'd just like to be where gamers are, though I don't have the means to voice chat on PS3.

You don't have a USB headset/mic? I got one to use between my PS3 and my PC.

Though if the PS3 is near a computer, we can always do what my friends and I used to on Xbox Live: just use Skype.

Feel free to get it on 360, I'm sure I'm the lone voice for PS3. Wish I could get it on PC instead...

I think I'm in on PS3. Amazon has it for $43.19 with free shipping. Can anyone beat that?

I will be purchasing this game for PS3 the weekend of release, but not on release day. Once I get it, though, you can bet I'll be up for however many player co-op.

Got it. PS3. Killed some stuff. Got weapons. Good times.

Chris, your PSP is coming. I swear. Stupid weather and life. And forgetting.

Heh, awesome.

I'm going to go through my game collection and see if there's anything I can cull, that I won't really replay or ever get to. I have a feeling there are some that I won't mind getting rid of, though who knows if any of them will truly contribute enough to grab EDF 2025.

I'm hoping my copy shows up from Amazon before the weekend. Also on PS3.

Well after a few hours of play I'm really happy with the game. They took a few of the good things from the disappointing Insect Armageddon, such as the different classes and ability to rez teammates, and went more in the direction of 2017 - especially the way guns are unlocked, which I really didn't like in IA.

The improvements over 2017 are subtle but stand out to fans, small things like the fact the bugs can now be dismembered add to the chaos - the new big spiders in particular are fun to kill and see them flop around and limbs go flying. Environment destruction is improved, buildings are destroyed in a more detailed manner, its possible for chunks to be taken out of a building yet the remainder still stands. And while we have always enjoyed sending bugs rocketing into the sky, now your character can be sent ragdolling across the city by errant explosions. It's hilarious. Graphics and animations are of course improved overall but still retain that simple clean (some will call it "bargain") look.

Obviously I've barely touched the surface of the weapon unlocks, but this is great stuff, EDF 2017 was the kind of game you could always pull out for a reliable good time, that game literally lasted me years, then my son got old enough to play with me and added even more to the replay. I can tell 2025 is going to be in our rotation for a long time to come.

I still wish they'd brought the active reload from IA. Otherwise I had a hell of a fun time playing yesterday.

OK, so, Amazon only just shipped my copy and even though I paid for free USPS shipping (which usually takes 1-2 days) they sent it FedEx (which usually takes the maximum estimate). Unless FedEx has gotten better since I last used them, looks like I won't be getting mine until the 28th. At 8PM.

I'm 13 missions in or so and things are finally opening up a bit. There's a longer ramp up than I expected, which means drops are pretty slow up until 11 or so.

I just got a newer Tortoise that locks on MUCH quicker. Can't wait to make huge explosions.

Oh, and reports of frame rate issues are a bit overblown. Yes, the frame rate is all over the place, but it has yet to get so low that it affects play. And that's on my clearly aging PS3.

Edit: Also, I've barely scratched the surface of the game as it ships with 80 levels and I've only been using the soldier so far.

Edit: Edit: Massive slowdown in the last level. It was worth it because I couldn't see anything and the controller was vibrating like crazy. I was shooting EVERYTHING. Giant machine was trampling buildings, which is what killed the frame rate. Kind of wish they had pulled back on the graphics a bit so the frame rate in those instances was a tad better. Still playable. Still fun.

The first one also had frame rate issues, particularly when you were surrounded by ants spitting acid.

Play an ant-hive in Inferno difficulty, I believe. You'll see.

Oh yeah, slowdown comes with the territory, but this game clearly looks better than 2017 and I can't help but wonder if they could get something more consistent from a drop in image quality. Tradeoffs.

So I'm about 25 missions in and these are my thoughts so far:

Fencer - Looks awesome, cool weapons, was definitely the class I most wanted to try out. Totally unplayable. He's way too slow to get out of the way of attacks, the shield doesn't offer enough coverage, and he doesn't have the armor to just stand there and take it. And while his oversized guns look cool, they seem to be about as effective as everyone else's except they have huge recoil, looser aiming and longer reloads. Maybe it's worth it on higher difficulties or later missions, I don't know.

Ranger - Effective but very boilerplate. I'm glad he's there but he's not terribly interesting to me.

Air Raider - I really like the concept behind this guy and I play him on as many missions as I can but since I've been soloing I feel kind of like I'm just handicapping myself. I don't use any of the air strikes since they can be blocked by buildings and the whole "credit" thing is kind of lame considering the limited damage they do. Seems weird to me that so many of his weapons are limpet guns but as soon as I found the "Limpet Splendor" and could kill enemies without blowing myself up the class really opened up to me. I think he might be more practical once I've unlocked a few more vehicles (like a helicopter maybe?) or in co-op. Just got his first mech, which feels like a disposable Fencer.

Wing Diver - OK, this makes the game feel like a game. Got tons of mobility, cool weapons, a resource to manage... Just all-around engaging and effective. I've found that positioning is extremely important in many fights and she's the only character that can actually outrun enemies. I kind of wish that all of the characters had jetpacks or that the Wing Diver could use weapons from other classes because on most missions I've played, none of the other classes cut it. Sure her armor's light but that's the one problem you can actually fix.

The Wing Diver was the class I liked to play in Insect Armageddon though I don't remember what the class was called then. Adds a nice dynamic to be able to move around more.

Played about 4 hours of co-op with some buddies last night. 1 Wing Diver, 1 Air Raider, and 1 Fencer. The classes really complement one another in cooperative play. I would fly in and aggro baddies as a "Diver" to bring them in range of the Fencer and Raider's huge arsenal or missiles and gatling guns while I swoop around and pick up the armor and weapon drops they're too slow to get :P. We all had a huge blast but I honestly can't see myself using another other class (except maybe Ranger) but my Fencer friend swears by his class choice...though he's using it more like a mobile missile platform so maybe it's all a big failure but whatever we had fun!

HORRIBLE framerate issues on a number of levels (only 15 missions in) on my 360 but that's ok I'm still enjoying it and the loot lust is great.

This game really is a sci-fi Dynasty Warriors, isn't it? Now I think I understand that fanbase a little more.

Arise thread. Playing the new 4.1 version of this on pc. It's smooth and a blast to play. At first I thought it was a bit smaller compared insect armageddon. That was just the initial levels. Some of the later once are basically b-movie alien d-day. It's fantastic. Been playing nothing but Wing Diver. Really fun class and probable the best for solo play.

Also originally I couldn't play this because it had an issue with certain cpus causing a crash. Someone made a fan patch which fixed that right up. Been playing for a 25+ missions with no issues.