Star Wars: Empire at War demo out tommorow

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2006-01-20 06:03pm

InnocentBystander wrote:Yes, but Warlords has PLENTY of it's own flaws, awful, awful flaws.

Treu, but which is worse? Gameplay flaws? Or SW-Acurracy flaws?

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-01-20 06:03pm

Kamakazie Sith wrote:Stark some of the bad things you listed were on my post as specifically demo.

Also, you have to remember that this is an RTS. Where enough soldiers with rifles can destroy tanks given enough time.

Looks like you dislike RTS games in general.....

Also, does anyone have a link to warlords?

Crippling the AI should make it slow, not make it do completely bonkers things. Unless the enemy simply has no cap AI at all in the demo, which may be the case.

However, most of the issues I have with the game (it's non-SWness, it's lame graphics, and the awful, awful ground combat) are *not* demo-specific. Saying 'it's an RTS standard' doesn't make it less stupid that a few dozen riflemen can destroy a vehicle immune to light artillery. Sorry, I was looking for a SW game, not a vaguely SW-themed RTS.

Warlords has problems - I'm not really a fan - but at least EJ realises that CRVs have four large, four small guns. EaW doesn't even make that distinction. And of course Warlords looks better, has tactical hyperjumps, proper scale, etc.

Ace, I like SH3. Really. And Singstar! Erm... Oblivion will be good? I'm fading here...

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-01-20 06:05pm

Stark wrote:
Ace, I like SH3. Really. And Singstar! Erm... Oblivion will be good? I'm fading here...

Just to drag this slightly off topic... What was the last game you had NO game ending critique?

Temjin · Post by **Temjin** » 2006-01-20 06:07pm

InnocentBystander wrote:Yes, but Warlords has PLENTY of it's own flaws, awful, awful flaws.

Like the fact that I can't even play it. Unlike this game, though.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-01-20 06:08pm

Crossroads Inc. wrote:
InnocentBystander wrote:Yes, but Warlords has PLENTY of it's own flaws, awful, awful flaws.
Treu, but which is worse? Gameplay flaws? Or SW-Acurracy flaws?

Preformance flaws. Massive flaws there. But overall its okay from what I understand.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-01-20 06:09pm

Crossroads Inc. wrote:
InnocentBystander wrote:Yes, but Warlords has PLENTY of it's own flaws, awful, awful flaws.
Treu, but which is worse? Gameplay flaws? Or SW-Acurracy flaws?

Uh, how about the fact that Warlords is a beastly inefficient mod which turns hardpoints (good thing) into something awful and terrible. It lacks balance, runs like a beast. Of course, it is worlds better than this game, but that's not saying much.

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2006-01-20 06:16pm

Well, if ye ever wished to comment about it to a represenative, ye can doso directly a the RELIC mod forums

http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=71184

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-01-20 06:26pm

Ace Pace wrote:
Stark wrote:
Ace, I like SH3. Really. And Singstar! Erm... Oblivion will be good? I'm fading here...
Just to drag this slightly off topic... What was the last game you had NO game ending critique?

You mean something so crap I stopped playing? Ummm... SH3? Quake 4 was fun until I got to a boss I couldn't beat. I liked Evil Genius more than most people, I think. I can't think of anything particularly amazing that's come out on PC lately. I play the 2006 WWE game though, so how high can my standards really be?

And yes, Warlords has some quite serious issues. However, EJ at least *tries* to be a SW game. I don't agree with many things in the game (like the inclusion of so many CRV-level ships, the WEG loadouts, etc), but I enjoyed it more than EaW. And it's made by amateurs for free, which is a major distinction.

Losonti Tokash · Post by **Losonti Tokash** » 2006-01-20 06:30pm

Crossroads Inc. wrote:
InnocentBystander wrote:Yes, but Warlords has PLENTY of it's own flaws, awful, awful flaws.
Treu, but which is worse? Gameplay flaws? Or SW-Acurracy flaws?

You're joking, right? I could care less if the Star Destroyers are perfectly to scale or if the sensor towers are shield generators if the game is fun.

Kamakazie Sith · Post by **Kamakazie Sith** » 2006-01-20 08:34pm

Ace Pace wrote:The tutorial so far is so boring I'm just slugging through, the ground combat so far was so unintresting I tried activating cinematic mode, but it felt like someone had no idea what Zoom was used for. Space...I can't even pinpoint what but it just plays wrong.

Maybe this is all problems of the demo, but so far it sucks ass.

The strategical aspects however are very nice.

I don't remember a tutorial that was fun. SH3 tutorial was boring as hell.....

However, I have to agree with you about the Cinematic mode.

Kamakazie Sith · Post by **Kamakazie Sith** » 2006-01-20 08:39pm

Stark wrote: However, most of the issues I have with the game (it's non-SWness, it's lame graphics, and the awful, awful ground combat) are *not* demo-specific. Saying 'it's an RTS standard' doesn't make it less stupid that a few dozen riflemen can destroy a vehicle immune to light artillery. Sorry, I was looking for a SW game, not a vaguely SW-themed RTS.

Fair enough. I don't think the graphics are that bad, in fact I think they look good for an RTS. If this was a simulation, then I'd say they're bad. However, this is a strategy/RTS which means there will be certain concessions.

Ypoknons · Post by **Ypoknons** » 2006-01-20 09:04pm

InnocentBystander wrote:Uh, how about the fact that Warlords is a beastly inefficient mod which turns hardpoints (good thing) into something awful and terrible. It lacks balance, runs like a beast. Of course, it is worlds better than this game, but that's not saying much.

That said, Warlords is a mod. While some mods have excellent balance if you take it as a bit of a rough product you can live with it because it has certain strong points - a completely 3D Star Wars experience - that no commercial product can offer. Plus it's free assuming that you have HW2.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-01-21 03:12am

Kamakazie Sith wrote:
Ace Pace wrote:The tutorial so far is so boring I'm just slugging through, the ground combat so far was so unintresting I tried activating cinematic mode, but it felt like someone had no idea what Zoom was used for. Space...I can't even pinpoint what but it just plays wrong.

Maybe this is all problems of the demo, but so far it sucks ass.

The strategical aspects however are very nice.
I don't remember a tutorial that was fun. SH3 tutorial was boring as hell.....

However, I have to agree with you about the Cinematic mode.

I can distinctly remember the Ground Control 1 and 2 tutorials being great fun, I can't recall names but I recall a few RTSes who have taken notes from FPSes on intreducing the game to players.

Lord Revan · Post by **Lord Revan** » 2006-01-21 09:37am

Crossroads Inc. wrote:
InnocentBystander wrote:Yes, but Warlords has PLENTY of it's own flaws, awful, awful flaws.
Treu, but which is worse? Gameplay flaws? Or SW-Acurracy flaws?

WHAT!!

, I mean I can live with things being inaccure compared to canon if the gameplay is good.

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2006-01-21 10:01am

Lord Revan wrote:
Crossroads Inc. wrote:
InnocentBystander wrote:Yes, but Warlords has PLENTY of it's own flaws, awful, awful flaws.
Treu, but which is worse? Gameplay flaws? Or SW-Acurracy flaws?
WHAT!! , I mean I can live with things being inaccure compared to canon if the gameplay is good.

Steady on Mate, keep in mind I've met people who'd throw a hissy fit over the tiniest of inaccuracies...

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2006-01-21 11:45am

wautd wrote:fuck this, 8 kb/sec and after a few hours I lost connection so I have to start all over again. I'm going to wait untill more links will be available

Found a slightly better link (as in 400kb/sec better) and gave it a try. Ground combat gave me a "meh" but space combat was quite fun. I think the full game will be ok. Not bad but also no classic

Post by **RogueIce** » 2006-01-21 12:03pm

wautd wrote:
wautd wrote:fuck this, 8 kb/sec and after a few hours I lost connection so I have to start all over again. I'm going to wait untill more links will be available
Found a slightly better link (as in 400kb/sec better) and gave it a try. Ground combat gave me a "meh" but space combat was quite fun. I think the full game will be ok. Not bad but also no classic

Where? The best I found ended up degrading to 15kb/s and stayed there.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-01-21 12:06pm

RogueIce wrote:
wautd wrote:
wautd wrote:fuck this, 8 kb/sec and after a few hours I lost connection so I have to start all over again. I'm going to wait untill more links will be available
Found a slightly better link (as in 400kb/sec better) and gave it a try. Ground combat gave me a "meh" but space combat was quite fun. I think the full game will be ok. Not bad but also no classic
Where? The best I found ended up degrading to 15kb/s and stayed there.

I had a completly stable overnight 100kb/s DL from Gamespot.

Noble Ire · Post by **Noble Ire** » 2006-01-21 11:56pm

Well, after finally managing to download it, I am quite impressed. Certainly, not revolutionary, but what I played, it was quite good. I really liked the interface, and the cinematic feature works very well.

One thing though, I'm kind of annoyed space fleets can't retreat. Or did I miss something (the control was not enabled)?

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-01-22 12:34am

Noble Ire wrote:Well, after finally managing to download it, I am quite impressed. Certainly, not revolutionary, but what I played, it was quite good. I really liked the interface, and the cinematic feature works very well.

One thing though, I'm kind of annoyed space fleets can't retreat. Or did I miss something (the control was not enabled)?

Really..? Well okay

The retreat button is there, but it's not enabled.
Did you play the uhm, RTS part of it? Because I'm not sure how someone would find that impressive...

Losonti Tokash · Post by **Losonti Tokash** » 2006-01-22 01:13am

InnocentBystander wrote:
Noble Ire wrote:Well, after finally managing to download it, I am quite impressed. Certainly, not revolutionary, but what I played, it was quite good. I really liked the interface, and the cinematic feature works very well.

One thing though, I'm kind of annoyed space fleets can't retreat. Or did I miss something (the control was not enabled)?
Really..? Well okay

The retreat button is there, but it's not enabled.
Did you play the uhm, RTS part of it? Because I'm not sure how someone would find that impressive...

*insert fanboy response about how the people who made this game invented the RTS genre*

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-01-22 01:18am

The retreat seems to be available only for a bit: when I play, it appears, clocks up, then disappears when you move into the sector. It doesn't come back even if you pull back to the mapedge: I imagine they'll fix that in the full version.

I actually thought the cinematic view was crap. It doesn't track anything important, it doesn't track around ships, it doesn't give you a useful view, and it doesn't jump from interesting thing to interesting thing. I had a bunch of Y-wings crippling a ship and a long-range duel with caps, and it showed me the X-wings I had at the back doing nothing. It's also the only way to see how awful the models are: from RTS-view they look fine, but up close... ugh.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-01-22 01:28am

Losonti Tokash wrote:*insert fanboy response about how the people who made this game invented the RTS genre*

Then I guess they've lost their touch.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-01-22 03:02am

I've never seen you so unsatisfied with a game, IB.

Noble Ire · Post by **Noble Ire** » 2006-01-22 04:51am

Did you play the uhm, RTS part of it? Because I'm not sure how someone would find that impressive...

I'm not what you would call a game connoisseur of games, RTS or otherwise, really. I played a game with a relatively simple and intuitive interface, interesting game play, and adequete Star Warsiness. I liked it; I can't explain beyond that.