Battlestations Midway MP demo

[John Beaulieu]

Tried this one out just now - a quick go turned into over an hour battle, with everyone dropping out apart from me and one other guy on the opposing team ... took a few minutes to get to grips with switching between your various ships/planes/airfields and shipyards but once you work them out its a charm

for example, jumped to the airfield to launch a few dive bombers, then switched to a battleship i was using to attack his battleship, switched back to the dive bombers and set them to dive bomb that battleship, then switched to a sub that i had trailing him - let the bombs drop then fired a few torpedoes before raising up and finishing him off with my deck gun... bloody great :)

can see this game being this year's Chromehounds - looking forward to the full game and getting into some battles with NTSC-uk peeps

[eastyy]

is this a simulation or a more action game ?

[John Beaulieu]

its a rts combined with an action game - you can take control of any available unit whenever you want and play the game like its a ww2 vehicle shooter (vehicle being big ****ing ships and aircraft ;))

[fallenangle]

I'm just hoping the single player game is decent - I've been following the game's development for years and the longer its gone on the more it sounds as if its geared towards multi-player/online.

[chopemon]

this wasn't on my radar till i watched the play through video and i was amazed at how awesome it looks

i shall be on this tonight and hope it's good enough for a purchase

[GODZOOKI]

i hope it's good enough for a purchase

Its not, its a steaming turd of a game. :ph34r:

[Jusatsushi]

Care to elaborate?

[eastyy]

cool sounds a bit like that pc game battlezone

[PeteJ]

cool sounds a bit like that pc game battlezone
I was about to post the same!

What modes does it have? And I presume each player in a big match can jump about into whatever they want?

[GODZOOKI]

Care to elaborate?

Ok, entered a game with agianst my friend over live. I sent out my Planes and ships, all units got blown up within 10 minutes. Left me with **** all to do but cycle through loocations of my base, waited 30 mins for the game to end, it didint end so i switched my 360 off and then back on and deleted the pishy game. :mellow:

Can i have the 40 minutes of my life back please!!

[John Beaulieu]

in 30 minutes you couldn't work out that when you go to each of your bases and press the right bumper it brings up options for which units to send out next - airfields have 3 different types of aircraft (fighters, bombers and torpedoe planes), shipyards have a shitload (not even sure how many but i tried out a few battleships and submarines).

at airfields you can have 3 different units in the air at the same time, though you need to keep cycling their landing and launching so that they remain topped up with weapons and repaired - shipyards you can launch 2 different ships at once (not sure how many you can have active at any one time - i know you can have 6 air units active at once).

in over an hour game I was recycling units and sending in new units constantly - the aim of the battle was to destroy all the enemy bases so that they had no new units to send into the battle

[Kotatsu Neko]

I had a quick play on this and was really hoping for a Crimson Skies type dog fight fest. Sadly it seems more focussed on strategy and the dogfighting is pretty dull. The ship stuff is tedious in the extreme and there are so many buttons and controls to learn with absolutely no tutorial it took me a good 5 minutes just to figure out how to start.

Shame as I almost had this pre-ordered. What I would do for a proper Crimson Skies sequel...!

[John Beaulieu]

Sadly it seems more focussed on strategy and the dogfighting is pretty dull.

A game which has been designed, advertised, previewed etc etc etc as a new breed of RTS seems more focused on strategy ...

You do realise that RTS stands for Real Time Strategy don't you?

[Kotatsu Neko]

A game which has been designed, advertised, previewed etc etc etc as a new breed of RTS seems more focused on strategy ...

You do realise that RTS stands for Real Time Strategy don't you?

Thanks for the sarcasm John.

Yes I knew it had strategic elements, I just didn't realise it was virtually the sole focus of the game. The videos I saw a while back were purely of dogfights.

[ExtremePabs]

I downloaded this and played it last night and you are right some pointers as to how to get started would have been handy but once sorted I really enjoyed this and it could be a blast on live with some mates, definitely a purchase for me!!

[fallenangle]

Yes I knew it had strategic elements, I just didn't realise it was virtually the sole focus of the game. The videos I saw a while back were purely of dogfights.

It has rather been sold on the dogfighting and other direct combat elements. All the screenshots I've seen over the years have made it look more like a familiar WW2 based Pacific theatre flight/naval combat game than the original RTS hybrid it actually is.

So it's perhaps understandable that some people might not have realised this. Whether this is the cause or not I have read, on other forums, that a fair percentage are not exactly impressed by what they've seen from the demo.

BTW Does anybody here know if Warship Gunner 2 (PS2) is ever going to get a PAL release?

[Mardigan8]

All this discussion is really getting me excited about this. I was hoping it woud be more focussed on the strategic elements of warfare with the unit control just an option and that is just fine with me. Taking controls of certain units for that extra bit of precision but controlling most of the game via the battle interface sounds perfect.

A problem with the recent Star Trek legacy (other than it being more combat based) was that you couldn't just view what a ship was doing if you moved to it, you had to take control. Does Battlestations allow you to move the camera, etc around a unit as if you are controlling it BUT just let you watch it carry out the commands you have already set it? This would be great for viewing key battles rather than getting caught up in the individual unit manouvres and stuff. Something that was sorely alcking from Legacy. Every time you moved to a different ship it sould stop what you had told it to do from the battle interface and wait for you to move it... please tell me this works better in Battlestations.

[Yoshimax]

Think Johns right to call this Chromehounds 2007 - it's going to be a very marmite title and I can see people picking it up thinking it's something it's not.

Played with Nige/Sol and a few others yesterday - You just don't release a demo like this without some kind of tutorial or instructions it beggars belief - Yes, the walkthrough video is handy in a tutorial-type way but not everybody will have seen it.

I had, but still was very confused then had a shot as "shipyard guy" and everybody was telling me they'd been just sat looking at a shipyard - took a good 10 mins to figure out I could launch ships ><

I was right up for it, now I'm not so fussed - In my minds eye it was going to be Carrier Command Online but I shoulda known that pipe dream will have to keep for another day.

Mardigan - Regarding "control" I'm sure if you just let go of the stick the plane/boat/whatever will simply revert to what it was doing before you took over.

Four things I adored :

The way planes crash (especially if you *just* clip a battlecruiser or similar.

The bubbles from the back of a submerged sub.

The noise when you put a plane into a dive

Seeing the little people going about their business on the big boats.

[Mardigan8]

Four things I adored :

Seeing the little people going about their business on the big boats.

One thing I know I will adore...

Shooting the little people as they go about their business on the big boats :D

[chopemon]

i just had a quick and thoroughly enjoyed it

nice to see something coming out that isn't a straight shooter and has more strategy behind it

to everyone thats confused by it (due to be being no tutorial) download and watch the level walkthrough video off live, it explains all the controls and stuff and how to do things

they should have released a single player level rather than a multiplayer with no tutorial but this is definitely a preorder :)

[shuurajou]

Ok, entered a game with agianst my friend over live. I sent out my Planes and ships, all units got blown up within 10 minutes. Left me with **** all to do but cycle through loocations of my base, waited 30 mins for the game to end, it didint end so i switched my 360 off and then back on and deleted the pishy game. :mellow:

Can i have the 40 minutes of my life back please!!

Looks like you don't know how to play the game. Download the walkthrough and read IGN's guide. This game has a very steep learning curve.

The game has a lot of depth, there are many bases, which can send out different types of units, each unit has a configurable weapon. Certain weapons work well against other units. You can change which units you send out (e.g. 2 torpedo bombers and one fighter to escort). If you choose to pilot any vehicle, be it boat, or aircraft, it is very enjoyable. The map screen allows you plan out strategy and have your other units carry out your bidding whilst you control one - you can switch on the fly.

I think this is definitely going to be worth a buy. The only thing I will say, is that the games are quite long. It's not something you can sit down for a quick 10 minute blast, you need to give yourself an hour at least.

[DavidHolliss]

Not exactly first play, but VG+ today confirmed the USA version is region free :)

[Goemon]

IGN review is up (including vid)

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/757/757297p1.html

Good score, altho slightly conflicting closing comments...

[chopemon]

if i wasn't using my reward points at GAME, i'd have ordered the region free version. who will be online with it next weekend?

be interesting to see how many copies it sells

[Mardigan8]

I may pick this up as things are quiet on the game front right now, plus I do like the look and feel of the game from the demo.