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A few years ago, I watched a trailer on IGN for an upcoming (back then) sci-fi video game.

I distinctly remember the trailer's story: there was a military testing a new FTL drive on one of their spacecraft. Unfortunately, the test failed, and the ship was on a collision course for Earth, specifically a city in South America (I believe that the city in question was in Brazil, though I don't remember the name). The impending crash would result in the deaths of over a million people, so the ship's captain wanted to take advantage of a maneuver that would allow him to crash the ship into the ocean. This maneuver would save the city that they were going to crash into, but it was extremely risky, as it had a low chance of success and a likely chance of crashing into another South American city that had at least twice as many people as the first city. Still, the ship's captain wanted to try the maneuver, and was even insistent upon it, but the other military commanders that he was communicating with strongly advised against it for the above reasons. At the last second, the captain decided not to risk the maneuver. As a result, the ship crashed into the first city.

Sadly, I did not have the foresight to write down the name of this game, so I did not really follow up on any subsequent news or reviews. I more recently became extremely interested in various sci-fi strategy and simulation games (such as X-COM, Xenonauts, Endless Space, the currently-upcoming Oxygen Not Included, etc.), so I wanted to look this one up. Can anyone identify this game?

To anyone who attempts to answer: if any of this sounds familiar to you, please provide a link to the trailer if you can find it (despite my best attempts, I have been unable to locate it).

Further information: Based on the details that I remember from the trailer, I'm pretty sure that it was a strategy game; I believe that this trailer was released at least two or three years ago (for the life of me, I cannot remember the specific year, or the approximate time of year that I saw it, I just know that the trailer was new at the time); and I believe that the game was a PC-exclusive. However, I'd like to also state that some of the information above could be incorrect, as it's entirely possible that I am misremembering something, or I may be inadvertently mixing up details from different games. I will certainly know the trailer if I see it again.

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  • @Adamant Possible. The name sounds familiar, but I don't know that series very well. May 15, 2017 at 23:52
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    In the end it barely even mattered which city it crashed into, if the trailer is to be believed. :)
    – Adamant
    May 16, 2017 at 0:05

1 Answer 1

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Firefall (2014)

According to the Wikipedia description:

The Firefall is an event that takes place in 2178 after an asteroid predicted to be a near miss gets caught by the Moon’s gravity and crashes into Earth. The catastrophe plummets mankind into a dark age known as the Nine Year Winter and many large governments, including that of the United States, collapse. During the dark age, scientists discover a new substance called Crystite from the asteroid fragments. Found to be a powerful energy source, Crystite fuels the reconstruction and a new golden age of mankind.

Despite the seemingly unlimited potential of Crystite, mankind wanted more and followed the trajectory of the Asteroid to Alpha Prime, a star system in Alpha Centauri. With the first massive loads of Crystite arriving from Alpha Prime, the governments of Earth, unified under The Accord, began construction of the Arclight, a warship that achieves faster-than-light travel by folding space in a process known as Arcfolding. The purpose of the Arclight was to prevent a potential revolt on Alpha Prime that would cripple Earth’s economy due to mankind’s reliance on Crystite. As the Arclight began its first attempt at faster-than-light travel in 2233, its large engines rips a hole in space that allows the Melding, an extra-dimensional energy storm, to emerge. Unable to complete the Arcfold, the Arclight crashes outside of Fortaleza, Brazil. The Melding engulfs most of Earth with the exception of areas near and surrounding the wreckage of the Arclight, now used as a base by The Accord, with its engines being used to keep the Melding at bay.

We’ve got the elements of FTL travel and a ship crashing into a city in Brazil here.

The trailer that you watched was probably this:

It mentions what the question calls “a likely chance of crashing into another South American city that had at least twice as many people as the first city,” a.k.a Rio de Janeiro. At the last moment, the Captain decides to hit Fortaleza instead.

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  • That's the one! Thank you. May 16, 2017 at 0:09
  • Would be worth noting that the game's servers (as it is an MMO) are now shutdown as of July 7th
    – Mart10
    Jul 12, 2017 at 17:44
  • Video link is dead.
    – Rand al'Thor
    Sep 26, 2020 at 21:28

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