Section 8: Prejudice (Jul 8, 2010 prototype)

Section 8: Prejudice (Jul 8, 2010 prototype)
Build date Jul 8, 2010 Dump status Released Dumped by The Swarming Dark Released by CVLT OF OSIRIS File release date July 13, 2020 Origin BD-R Dump method DiscImageCreator Game Section 8: Prejudice System PlayStation 3

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A prototype/prerelease build of Section 8: Prejudice for the PlayStation 3 from 2010-07-08 (about a year before the PlayStation 3 release, and about ten months before the Xbox 360 release).

Notes

Due to being such an early prototype, it is extremely unstable. The most notable bug is that every second time you launch the game, it will hang at a black screen instead of showing the Timegate logo. When this happens, quit the game (by holding the PlayStation button on your controller) and launch it again. The multiplayer modes do not seem to be usable at all, even the Offline versions.

The cut scenes are animatic style placeholders where almost all characters have Captain Corde's face. The opening refers to the game as "Section 8: Bloodlines". Voice acting is all placeholders, and seems to be performed by one or two of the devs, sometimes using voice FX to try to sound like it's not all the same people.

The story told in the prototype's cut scenes was almost entirely removed before the game was released. In this version of the story, the Earth is populated by a militarized, eugenically enhanced "PureBorn" warrior race. Captain Corde's childhood memories of his grandfather show him being told that he is the guardian of his bloodline, that he is the top of the food chain, that he should never apologize or hesitate or he will become the prey instead of the hunter, and that setting entire forests on fire is good because it's nature's way, and will somehow make stronger trees. There is a B plot in which some of Earth's Senators have sided with Orion's Spear.

Probably someone finally realized that story and dialog was a little too "Third Reich from the Sun: Rise of the Space Nazis" because all of that content was given the axe. In the release build, the only remnant of the early story version is that General Salvador tells Corde "we were bred like you", and that the Spear was "the imperfect prototype". There is no direct mention of the USIF or Section 8 being the products of eugenics or genetic engineering. Corde's grandfather is referenced briefly, but never pictured. The B plot regarding the Senators is gone completely. A little of the cut scene dialog was used for the game's trailer, but not in the game.

The game disc contains a very large amount of content, including test material. Most of the campaign mode is playable, and the test material designed for campaign mode is also playable. The campaign will freeze in several locations. In most of these locations, reset the console, launch the game, wait for the black screen, quit the game, launch the game again, then resume the campaign to proceed.

The campaign levels in this build follow the same general progression as in the final version, but are named differently (prototype vs. final):

• Level 1: "Uninvited Guests" vs "Answers"
  • may freeze when ordered to meet up with General Stone
• Level 2: "First Strike" vs "Into the Breach"
  • we haven't found a way to play more than a few seconds of level 2 in this build
• Level 3: "Vanguard" vs "Deadwood"
  • the player steals an ARM hover bike instead of a Section 8 bike being deployed
  • may freeze after finding the hover bike, but restart the game to continue from that point
  • the ARM commander in the prototype is named Nave instead of Thorne
  • many placeholder characters/armor in this early version of the level
• Level 4: "Tip of the Spear" vs "Stormfront"
  • very, very early version of this level, most details have not been added
  • freezes when the USIS Nevada crashes into the planet
    • the Nevada never crashes in the release build
• Level 5: "Recovery" vs "For the Wicked"
  • we haven't found a way to play any of this level
• Level 6: "Impending Doom" vs "Beasts"
  • partly playable, but freezes near the first checkpoint
• Level 7: "Project Dawn" vs "Devolved"
  • we haven't found a way to play any of this level
• Level 8: "Into the Breach" vs "Prejudice"
  • fully playable
  • will freeze in a few places, but can always restart the game to continue
  • some of the Crimson Guard enemies are still called "Elites" in this build
  • the fight with General Salvador is extremely basic compared to the final build
  • opening radio chatter refers to General Salvador as General Ripke

The Bink videos used throughout campaign mode can be viewed by decrypting the ISO using PS3 Generator Tools. Several don't seem to be accessible from within the game itself:

• CREDITBG.BIK
• CUT03.BIK
  • tells more of the cut content story
• CUT08.BIK
  • tells more of the cut content story
• E3BUMPER.BIK
• LOADINGSTATIC.BIK
  • original "Section 8: Bloodlines" title screen
• TER02_OUTRO.BIK (same video as CUT03.BIK, but no sound)
• VS01_OUTRO.BIK
  • ends with a title card for "Section 8: Rearmed", maybe the cancelled third game, or an even earlier title for this one?

CUT05.BIK is missing from the disc.

Open the Unreal debug console using the ~ key. We have not tested all of the commands, but here are the most useful we've discovered:

• god - toggle god mode
• setcampaigninfo # #
  • skip to campaign level
    • very useful given how unstable this build is
  • first # is level number 0-7
  • second # is "ordinal"
    • 0 is the start of the campaign level
    • 1 (maybe other #s) will sometimes place you in map areas that are not usually accessible, such as setcampaigninfo 0 1
  • these work, others might not:
    • setcampaigninfo 0 0
    • setcampaigninfo 0 1
    • setcampaigninfo 2 0
    • setcampaigninfo 5 0
    • setcampaigninfo 7 0
• open MAPNAME
  • these worked for us:
    • open arc03_base-campaign
      • loads level 3 midway through
    • open arc04_base-campaign
      • loads level 4 from the beginning
    • open des03_base-campaign
      • loads level 8 from the beginning
    • open lav03_base-campaign
      • this is an unfinished part of level 5 or 6
      • freezes after moving beyond the starting area
    • open ter03_base-campaign
      • this one is the second part of level 1
      • freezes around the time the first checkpoint is reached
    • open ter03_scripting-campaign
      • this will play the intro movie, then place you in a broken map that displays the text "PATHS NEED TO BE REBUILT"
    • open test_aiambush-campaign
    • open test_aiassault-campaign
    • open test_aiperformance-campaign
    • open test_arenacharacter-campaign
    • open test_arenavehicle-campaign
    • open test_basic-campaign
    • open test_camcombat_base-campaign
    • open test_cinefire-campaign
    • open test_speedtreeboards-campaign
    • open test_vehiclecombat-campaign
    • open test_vehiclemovement-campaign
    • open test_weaponaccuracy-campaign
  • we tested a few of the other map names that don't have -campaign and they all caused the game to freeze on the loading screen, but there were too many to test them all
  • some of the test maps will enable extra console commands, like ce ally_all
• completecampaignlevel
  • should proceed to the next campaign level
  • use this in level 1 to see a few seconds of the drop into level 2 before the game freezes

This prototype was found on a BD-R. The disc image is presented as a 1:1 copy for accurate historical preservation, which means it is encrypted with the default keys for PlayStation 3 prototypes. The ISO in this release can be burned to a physical disc, and it will boot on a PS3 Test. This is the only guaranteed way to run this release, because it's the only one we've tried ourselves.

Decrypting the ISO may be necessary to run the prototype on a system other than a PS3 Test. Because it is encrypted with the default keys, to decrypt the ISO, use the Decrypt function in the ps3chk.exe utility which is included in the PS3 Generator Tools collection. No IRD file is required.

Screenshots

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Origin

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  Disc front

Acknowledgments

Thanks to The Swarming Dark for preserving and sharing this rare artifact of gaming history!

See also

• Original release page on Archive.org