Iron Sound
12-06-2006, 07:17 PM
Hello! First post!
Some background:
I wouldn't call myself a military history freak, not for my depth of knowledge in this exceptionally brutal period of human history, but perhaps for my natural eagerness to learn and seize upon all things World War Two.
Anyway, I've been anticpating the release of Battlestations: Midway ever since I saw the first screenshots over a year ago (eighteeen months plus?).
I have jokingly referred to Battlestations: Midway (B:M from now on!) as my "new Team Fortress 2", the latter was my most sought after game for a long period of time and even prompted me to buy a new PC back in 2001 when a release was "imminent".
Anyway, the First Person Shooter has pretty much exhausted itself in the period of World War 2. However, the RTS I feel has so much more to explore in this period. Company of Heroes is an recent example of just what I mean, and regularly play it online (despite the frustrations of "dropping" and the incredibly inaccurate and buggy ranking system).
The reason I cited Team Fortress 2 in particular is due to the "Commander" role the Valve developers had conceived of, and with the advent of Battlefield 2 we saw the first solid implementation of this sort of idea. I, for one, think there is unbelievable potential with respect to this dynamic, and only DICE have so far seized on this.
B:I has exhibited some of the features associated with the Commander role, so I'm especially excited in this respect.
To be able to jump into any craft at any moment of battle, whilst simultaneously commanding from a strategic perspective, evokes fond memories of Battlezone and Hostile Waters, both action strategy games of the highest calibre.
Moving on, my gaming tastes have broadened but FPS and RTS are still my stable favourites. However, in the past two years I have intermittently been playing a MMO game called Navyfield, which launched as a beta and later on offered premium access.
It's an RTS set in WW2, and battles are fought as part of a group (two teams most of the time) with up to 128 contestants fighting it out at once. Classes range from the lowly FF which you start with, to the mighty national CVs and BBs.
The persistent RPG element (MMO) comes into it when you have to raise and manage crew to be able to access new ships and weaponry, and to maximise efficiency.
It is in an antiquated, 2d-ish engine, but what it lacks looks-wise it makes up for in historical authenticity.
The ship trees are fantastic and provoked me to go and learn about all these amazing ships I was using. On that note, there are the four major (navy) players in Navyfield: Britain, US, Japan and Germany, each with its own advantages, sometimes unique.
This is an example of a game which has made me to do research and find out about the true historical origins upon which the content is based. I simply didn’t know much about the naval war prior to playing this.
Like all MMO’s, it is a bit of “grind” to get the big things (“high level”), and even with a premium account you’ll spend weeks moving from a neutral destroyer to a national cruiser. Getting a battleship takes months, so plan your ship tree choices well if you intend to play it on and off like I do (there are options within the trees of the four nations; choosing a CV path means negating the option of using a BB, for example).
Summing up, it’s a good introduction to the history, technology and looks of the ships we are about to encounter in Battlestations. The game can be downloaded from the main site:
http://www.navyfield.com/
This site provides you will all the data you need to get to grips with the intricacies of the game:
http://www.trainworld.us/NF2/English/index.html
To return to Battlestations, it is a strategy-action hybrid that will occupy flight sim aficionados and FPS addicts alike, and it is one of my most anticipated games.
Look forward to this one people, it’s got “Dark Horse” written all over it. Just hurry up and release it already, Eidos!
No really, please don’t do this, we don’t want a boxed release to be followed weeks later by 500 meg patches, just tell those suits to back off, devs! ;)
Some background:
I wouldn't call myself a military history freak, not for my depth of knowledge in this exceptionally brutal period of human history, but perhaps for my natural eagerness to learn and seize upon all things World War Two.
Anyway, I've been anticpating the release of Battlestations: Midway ever since I saw the first screenshots over a year ago (eighteeen months plus?).
I have jokingly referred to Battlestations: Midway (B:M from now on!) as my "new Team Fortress 2", the latter was my most sought after game for a long period of time and even prompted me to buy a new PC back in 2001 when a release was "imminent".
Anyway, the First Person Shooter has pretty much exhausted itself in the period of World War 2. However, the RTS I feel has so much more to explore in this period. Company of Heroes is an recent example of just what I mean, and regularly play it online (despite the frustrations of "dropping" and the incredibly inaccurate and buggy ranking system).
The reason I cited Team Fortress 2 in particular is due to the "Commander" role the Valve developers had conceived of, and with the advent of Battlefield 2 we saw the first solid implementation of this sort of idea. I, for one, think there is unbelievable potential with respect to this dynamic, and only DICE have so far seized on this.
B:I has exhibited some of the features associated with the Commander role, so I'm especially excited in this respect.
To be able to jump into any craft at any moment of battle, whilst simultaneously commanding from a strategic perspective, evokes fond memories of Battlezone and Hostile Waters, both action strategy games of the highest calibre.
Moving on, my gaming tastes have broadened but FPS and RTS are still my stable favourites. However, in the past two years I have intermittently been playing a MMO game called Navyfield, which launched as a beta and later on offered premium access.
It's an RTS set in WW2, and battles are fought as part of a group (two teams most of the time) with up to 128 contestants fighting it out at once. Classes range from the lowly FF which you start with, to the mighty national CVs and BBs.
The persistent RPG element (MMO) comes into it when you have to raise and manage crew to be able to access new ships and weaponry, and to maximise efficiency.
It is in an antiquated, 2d-ish engine, but what it lacks looks-wise it makes up for in historical authenticity.
The ship trees are fantastic and provoked me to go and learn about all these amazing ships I was using. On that note, there are the four major (navy) players in Navyfield: Britain, US, Japan and Germany, each with its own advantages, sometimes unique.
This is an example of a game which has made me to do research and find out about the true historical origins upon which the content is based. I simply didn’t know much about the naval war prior to playing this.
Like all MMO’s, it is a bit of “grind” to get the big things (“high level”), and even with a premium account you’ll spend weeks moving from a neutral destroyer to a national cruiser. Getting a battleship takes months, so plan your ship tree choices well if you intend to play it on and off like I do (there are options within the trees of the four nations; choosing a CV path means negating the option of using a BB, for example).
Summing up, it’s a good introduction to the history, technology and looks of the ships we are about to encounter in Battlestations. The game can be downloaded from the main site:
http://www.navyfield.com/
This site provides you will all the data you need to get to grips with the intricacies of the game:
http://www.trainworld.us/NF2/English/index.html
To return to Battlestations, it is a strategy-action hybrid that will occupy flight sim aficionados and FPS addicts alike, and it is one of my most anticipated games.
Look forward to this one people, it’s got “Dark Horse” written all over it. Just hurry up and release it already, Eidos!
No really, please don’t do this, we don’t want a boxed release to be followed weeks later by 500 meg patches, just tell those suits to back off, devs! ;)