PS3HEN Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque® Updated Demo Released

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jamesbond

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Fursan_al-Aqsa_on_Steam.png


Since Steam will take a long time to finish reviewing my game, before it can go live there, and since the demo is finished, I don't see a reason for not releasing it, so you all can enjoy this new demo and have a sneak peek of what awaits you on the full game, which is coming, finally, in December 2021.

This demo can be downloaded from itch.io, Game Jolt and IndieDB:

https://nidal-nijm-games.itch.io/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque (access this link using the itch.io desktop app and click on install to install the Windows version)

https://gamejolt.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/573682 (the Windows version is a standalone installation)

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/downloads (the Windows version is a standalone installation)

IMPORTANT: FOR PS3/XBOX360 YOU MUST SET THE VIDEO RESOLUTION OUTPUT TO 480p 16:9 ON YOUR CONSOLES CONFIGURATIONS MENU (also set on your TV the image aspect ratio to 16:9) OTHERWISE THE GAME WILL CRASH!!!

Please download, play, leave a feedback and wishlist my game, as it helps me too much!

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About the Demo:
This brand new and updated demo of Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque® contains 3 Game Modes (Campaign, Challenges and Multiplayer), alongside 6 Maps, so you can all enjoy it and have a sneak peek of what awaits you on the full game, which is coming, finally, in December 2021.

In this demo, for the sake of making things easier for the players, all the missions are opened by default, but on the final game you need to accomplish the previous mission to be able to play the next mission of the Campaign.

ScreenShot00002.png


The first Campaign mission is basically a tutorial for players to understand the basic game mechanics, specially the Bullet Time, which I, personally love it, as I made it very similar to Max Payne. The second Campaign mission, is where the action begins. Retro shooters, specially Goldeneye 007 fans out there, will find too much similarities to the game, which ARE NOT MERELY COINCIDENTAL :D

ScreenShot00020.png


The Challenges mode, I made something very similar to, let's say, Metal Gear Solid VR Missions, on which the player must complete some specific tasks to earn a ranking badge according to his performance. The Challenges mode will keep people entertained playing Fursan al-Aqsa, even after finishing the game's Campaign, because the player will have to conquer all badges, and, something very cool, is that, both the Campaign mode and Challenges mode, will have FULL SUPPORT TO STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS!

ScreenShot00023.png


About the Multiplayer mode, this is something I am very proud of it, because I think it revives the Golden Era of Split-Screen Multiplayer! Due to technical limitations I won't be able to add Online Multiplayer support for Fursan al-Aqsa, so it will be Offline Multiplayer.

MP2.1.1.png


This Multiplayer mode makes more sense for the console version of Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque®, but even the Steam version does support local multiplayer. However, you must have 2 Xbox360 USB Controllers connected to your PC, before starting the game. But ANY USB GAMEPAD will work if you use the Xbox 360 Controller Emulator, which can be downloaded for free from their official website (https://www.x360ce.com/).

By the way, I will release, in December, 9 Campaign Missions, with full Steam Achievements Support, and some Multiplayer Maps.

In the first FREE update for my game, I will release the Challenges Mode, with many missions. I will use the same Campaign Maps with many variations, and some new Maps. Also ALL the Challenges missions will have FULL Steam Achievements support, and by the way, the Challenges missions achievements will be HARD to unlock :D

In the second FREE update for my game, I will release some new Campaign missions, alongside some new Challenges missions, all of them with FULL Steam Achievements support.

As these new updates will take a lot of time for making, so, after I finish these updates, I will still decide if I make more free updates, or some cheap paid DLC's for my game, with brand new content. I plan to make some new missions, real missions and battles which indeed did happen in Palestine, real missions from the Palestinian Resistance, not fictional missions like these I am making now.

My final words:

After many years of intense work, dedication, too much love, passion and sleepless nights, finally, my journey with Fursan al-Aqsa is coming to it's peak.

It has been indeed a long life journey, which began, here, on this piece of paper, the first sketch I made for a game about Palestinian Resistance there in 2009, the game of my dreams, the game which, since childhood, I dreamed to make, and today, praise be to Allah, it is a reality.

fursan_al_aqsa_first_sketchup.jpeg


I confess it has been a very hard journey, full of ups and downs, I even thought on giving it up many times, but the palestinian blood in my veins told me that a true fighter never gives up. Also because the underlying message of my game is very important to be said in the Gaming World, that RESISTANCE IS NOT TERRORISM, as this breaks too many cliches, specially the cliche Arabs = Terrorists.

In this long journey I got to know many friends, from this site and many other places, and something I never imagined, is that my history with this game has been an inspiration for many other people, specially because of my other project, UDK Ultimate Engine, the homebrew port I made of Unreal Engine 3 to the 7th generation of Consoles, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

So here my dear friends, since now I am on the final phase of my game's development, I won't be too much active on these forums anymore, but I will still publish some new trailers I make for my game. My focus now will be finish these 9 Campaign missions to release my game now in December, Insha Allah.

Again, I thank you all guys and girls who are supporting me since the beginning of this project, and I thank the forum admins here to allow me to keep promoting my game here. This game now is HUGE thanks to this AMAZING COMMUNITY.

May Allah bless you all.

Assalamu Alaykum - May the peace be with you!
 
I saw that you shared two demo versions: a "PS3 HEN" and a "PS3 CFW". Any specific reason or difference between those two?
 
The only difference is that the HEN version is signed to firmware 3.xx and the CFW version to firmware 4.xx, all using the true ancestor resigner. I have done it because one friend of mine said the old demo, which was signed to firmware 3.xx did not run on his CFW Rebug REX 4.84.2
 
HEN == mini Cobra so everything that can run on HFW with HEN can run on any Cobra CFW.

Unless it's resigned with the HAN npdrm key (which would be a mistake imho) in which case the HAN patch might be needed on Rebug 4.84 whereas it might be included in recent HEN payloads.
 
HEN == mini Cobra so everything that can run on HFW with HEN can run on any Cobra CFW.

Unless it's resigned with the HAN npdrm key (which would be a mistake imho) in which case the HAN patch might be needed on Rebug 4.84 whereas it might be included in recent HEN payloads.
Thanks bro for the information.

I signed it using the true ancestor resigner, resigned to NPDRM EBOOT using a custom content ID. I am not an expert on ps3 hacking, that's a friend of mine who gave me the instructions on how to make my game run on HEN.
 
Nice intro and the game is looking good . This is a game "inspired from real facts" as they say on TV . Just to keep everything real i would drop the " Max Payne " kind of jump and replace it with maybe a ground roll , like in God of War . When you do the " Max Payne " backwards it doesn't look real at all . Neither when you jump carrying a wounded person ( this actually defies the laws of physics ) . So, keep it simple and real .
 
Nice intro and the game is looking good . This is a game "inspired from real facts" as they say on TV . Just to keep everything real i would drop the " Max Payne " kind of jump and replace it with maybe a ground roll , like in God of War . When you do the " Max Payne " backwards it doesn't look real at all . Neither when you jump carrying a wounded person ( this actually defies the laws of physics ) . So, keep it simple and real .

Thanks man for the feedback, anything can be changed/improved, and I am now collecting player's feedbacks for adding these improvements on the final game.
 
Ah, for those wondering, here is the game running on my PS3 HEN at 60 fps:


This is not the demo itself, but it is the full game on it's actual state, with the first 5 campaign missions.

Here is the demo running on my friend's Xbox 360 RGH, as my Xbox broke:

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursa...rsan-al-aqsa-updated-demo-running-on-xbox-360

And here follows another update of this project.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1714420/Fursan_alAqsa_The_Knights_of_the_AlAqsa_Mosque/

Finally, after almost 10 years working on this game, since 2009, it is finally released on Steam!

Again, I ask you all to please wishlist my game on Steam, as this helps me too much.

And if you did not download the demo yet, please, download it now from Steam.
 
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@jamesbond

This forum is not a platform for political propaganda, no matter the side, no matter the cause.
We don't want to have to host heated conversations about vaccines, masks & elections, just like we don't want to have to host heated conversations about war, occupation, religion etc..

This forum will not be used by anyone as a tool to influence others politically.

In other words, we only wish to focus on gaming consoles software & hardware, not take side in international conflicts or whatever, whether we find the cause just or not.

So I must warn you about this now, if your releases & the associated posts begin to focus more on politics than on gaming & tech support, we will have a problem.

The same thing applies to any homebrew release made by anyone for political goals.
 
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First impressions...

- Second level is basically a reskin of the Sevanaya bunker level of GoldenEye, awesome.

- Any chance of being able to customize the controls? At least it would be nice to reverse the Y-axis of the R-Stick - pressing up to look up and down to look down is so unnatural for me.

- Could a Center View control be added?

- Nice weapon set (https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursa...a-mosque/news/fursan-al-aqsa-weapons-showcase), but how about a shotgun, sniper rifle, and/or magnum? These are standard shooter weapons. Also, maybe have alternate fire modes?

- Maybe have subtitles when the character speaks?

- The blood on the screen when you get hit is nice, but it stays there and it can be distracting. Perhaps have it slowly fade away, or at least be more see-through?

- Will there be bots in multiplayer mode?

Some of these suggestions may be beyond the capabilities of your engine, but hey, they're just suggestions. Bottom line, the game looks very promising.
 
I told the op that his game was impressive on temp as he's promoting it there too. my best childhood friend gave him a like in the op of it, Glyptofane.
 
@jamesbond

This forum is not a platform for political propaganda, no matter the side, no matter the cause.
We don't want to have to host heated conversations about vaccines, masks & elections, just like we don't want to have to host heated conversations about war, occupation, religion etc..

This forum will not be used by anyone as a tool to influence others politically.

In other words, we only wish to focus on gaming consoles software & hardware, not take side in international conflicts or whatever, whether we find the cause just or not.

So I must warn you about this now, if your releases & the associated posts begin to focus more on politics than on gaming & tech support, we will have a problem.

The same thing applies to any homebrew release made by anyone for political goals.

Sorry my friend.

I did not want to start any flame wars or political propaganda. I already edited my post. No worries, I will focus only on the gaming side of my project.
 
First impressions...

- Second level is basically a reskin of the Sevanaya bunker level of GoldenEye, awesome.

- Any chance of being able to customize the controls? At least it would be nice to reverse the Y-axis of the R-Stick - pressing up to look up and down to look down is so unnatural for me.

- Could a Center View control be added?

- Nice weapon set (https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursa...a-mosque/news/fursan-al-aqsa-weapons-showcase), but how about a shotgun, sniper rifle, and/or magnum? These are standard shooter weapons. Also, maybe have alternate fire modes?

- Maybe have subtitles when the character speaks?

- The blood on the screen when you get hit is nice, but it stays there and it can be distracting. Perhaps have it slowly fade away, or at least be more see-through?

- Will there be bots in multiplayer mode?

Some of these suggestions may be beyond the capabilities of your engine, but hey, they're just suggestions. Bottom line, the game looks very promising.

Hello my friend.

Thank you soo much for your feedback, by the way, I am now collecting players' feedback to improve my game more before the release.

Now on each point of your comments.

1- The name is Bond, Arabic James Bond. Haha, I knew old school players would immediately recognize it. I plan to remake other Goldeneye 007 Maps. Next one will be the iconic Facility :biggrin:

2- Unfortunatelly, this build of UE3 PS3 has a bug which the save object function of the engine does not work for PS3, and fixing it is far beyond my limited knowledge. This engine function is responsible, as the name says, to save important settings. And other problem is that on the PS3 you cant edit ini files in runtime, whereas on the PC you can. So changing controls would work only for PC version, but even then, the UI System of UE3 is all done in flash/scaleform, and, to be honest, it is a pain in the ******, because you need to use 2 programming languages, action script and unreal script. Everything I have done was using the default UDK/UE3 stock menus, just changing things. It was a big achievement for me being able to let players, in PC version, to change the game's resolution through the main game menu. So changing controls in PS3 will not work, sorry.

3- Yes, it already has a center view, by default in the UE3 engine. You just run forward or backwards with the left stick it will reset the view to center.

4- Ah yeah, hehehe, the arsenal is trully bad ass. I plan to add 2 more weapons, which is the Sniper Rifle, and the B.F.S - BIG FUCKING SHOTGUN :biggrin:

The shotgun is done, I finished it while I was waiting steam approve my game, to relieve distress hahaha. Here is it, on all it's glory:


5- I think subtitles are not needed on my game, because the player does not speak too much, however, just like our beloved goldeneye oo7, on some cutscenes, yes, there are subtitles, like in this mission (in the end of the video):


Ah by the way, that map is a reskin of Archives from GE007

6- The blood on screen I made just like Resident Evil Revelations, which I played a lot on my PS Vita. But the blood splats go away as soon as you get the healthpacks. But it is a good suggestion, I will take a look later.

7- Unfortunatelly no, because whenever I spawned bots in multiplayer, it resulted in a bug on which the bots are added only on the player 1 team, and they use the same default player mesh. I tried a lot, and by the way, I suffered too much to be able to add the split screen multiplayer. Also I could not add a character selection menu.

This game is just the beginning. I am an approved Sony Playstation Developer, and this game will not be released officially on the PS3 because sony shutdown the PS3 Developer Portal, but sony approved my game for release on the PS4/PS5. But I need to remake this game using Unreal Engine 4:

1631400363.or.69126.png


So this PS3 Version of my game I will release on itch.io and gamejolt, as a commercial homebrew. Since all the content of this game is a creation of mine, there is nothing wrong in a legal point of view, by selling a homebrew game. It's like those developers who create commercial games for old consoles, like Super Nintendo, Nintendo 8 bits, Sega Genesis and so on.

Please, if you use steam, download my game on your steam account, wishlist it and share with your friends also, as this helps me too much.

Cheers.
 
Very good effort. I saw first time a devoloper developt real game with discontinued seventh generation consoles. I hope you can turn ideas into reality in your mind. I tested PS3 version. I think control scheme must be changed. Aiming and shooting is very hard. You can use Call of Duty scheme's. L1 for Aiming, R1 for Shooting, L2 for flashbang, R2 for grenade and R3 for knife kill. By the way, very different perspective for any war game.
 
Very good effort. I saw first time a devoloper developt real game with discontinued seventh generation consoles. I hope you can turn ideas into reality in your mind. I tested PS3 version. I think control scheme must be changed. Aiming and shooting is very hard. You can use Call of Duty scheme's. L1 for Aiming, R1 for Shooting, L2 for flashbang, R2 for grenade and R3 for knife kill. By the way, very different perspective for any war game.
Thanks bro for the feedback and for the compliments.
 
2- Unfortunatelly, this build of UE3 PS3 has a bug which the save object function of the engine does not work for PS3, and fixing it is far beyond my limited knowledge. This engine function is responsible, as the name says, to save important settings. And other problem is that on the PS3 you cant edit ini files in runtime, whereas on the PC you can. So changing controls would work only for PC version, but even then, the UI System of UE3 is all done in flash/scaleform, and, to be honest, it is a pain in the ******, because you need to use 2 programming languages, action script and unreal script. Everything I have done was using the default UDK/UE3 stock menus, just changing things. It was a big achievement for me being able to let players, in PC version, to change the game's resolution through the main game menu. So changing controls in PS3 will not work, sorry.

Hmm, maybe somebody could design an app/plugin where you could reassign/remap buttons on the DS3, or flip analog axis. That would be useful for homebrew, or even commercial games, where you couldn't change the controls to your liking.

Some other things...

- L-Stick is not analog, it's hard to be stealthy when the character is always moving at full-speed. But I suppose that can't be helped.

- If you're looking for a magnum, might I suggest the Desert Eagle? Comes in .357, .44, and .50 AE caliber. Plus, it's Israeli-made, which fits the theme.

I also noticed this little graphical oversight...

FURSAN.PNG


That "B" should probably be a DS3 square.
 
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Hmm, maybe somebody could design an app/plugin where you could reassign/remap buttons on the DS3, or flip analog axis. That would be useful for homebrew, or even commercial games, where you couldn't change the controls to your liking.

Some other things...

- L-Stick is not analog, it's hard to be stealthy when the character is always moving at full-speed. But I suppose that can't be helped.

- If you're looking for a magnum, might I suggest the Desert Eagle? Comes in .357, .44, and .50 AE caliber. Plus, it's Israeli-made, which fits the theme.

I also noticed this little graphical oversight...

View attachment 34888

That "B" should probably be a DS3 square.

Thanks man for the feedback. Ah yeah, I forgot to fix that B button, it is getting the xbox360 controls UI instead of PS3 UI. But that should be easy to fix.

Thanks for the magnum gun idea, I will look at that later on.

Now here follows some very good updates.

Fursan al-Aqsa® Demo Update - Not Very Hard Mode

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1714420/Fursan_alAqsa_The_Knights_of_the_AlAqsa_Mosque/ (the steam version will auto update)

https://nidal-nijm-games.itch.io/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque (you need to manually click on check game updates using the itch.io app)

The Consoles versions (PS3/XBOX360) and the PC Standalone version were also updated. These can be downloaded from here:
https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/downloads

updated_steam_demo.jpg


After listening to many players feedbacks, I realized that not every player nowadays are hardcore players, that the world itself changed a lot in the last 20 years, and also did the gaming world.

We live in a very different times since the days of Goldeneye 007 for the N64, the biggest inspiration for Fursan al-Aqsa. While people back then could take months to beat the game because they were usually stuck with the game until the next time their parents buy them another game, the mass availability of games of all prices on digital storefronts nowadays means that people can just play a different game if something is too hard. In other words, people will also get bored easily if the game is too hard as well, especially if they have plenty of other games waiting for them.

So for this reason I did balance much better the difficulty of the game now. It is easier, but still challenging without being frustrating. I hope to reach now also the casual players who want to try something different, an action game which anyone can enjoy, not only hardcore players.

Here follows the list of changes, which were also added to full game:

1- I improved the post process effect, increasing the image contrast and brightness a bit, so players can see better important gameplay objects, like the security cameras, healthpacks and other pickups;

2- I added a small delay for the enemy soldiers, so it takes some seconds for them to shoot at the player after they spot him;

3- Now the Health Packs restore 25HP of health instead of 15HP;

4- Now each Headshot gives the player 10HP of health;

5- On each mission the player will have a Body Armor to pickup, and it is placed always close to the player entry point of each mission;

6- I reduced a lot the opacity of the on-screen blood whenever the player is injured, so it does not distract the player anymore;

7- Now to perform the knife kills is a bit easier, but you still need to get close enough to the enemy;

8- I made the security cameras range less unfair to the players, specially that one close to the corridor under stairs;

Now I am sure the game is much more enjoyable, without losing it's challenging aspect, but at the same time without being unfair for the players, neither frustrating.

I hope you enjoy it.

P.S: My game was featured on one of the biggest gaming portals of Japan!!!
https://www.gamespark.jp/article/2021/09/10/111752.html
 
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