Gratuitous Space Battles

[Samuel]

Has anyone managed to play the game? I keep on attempting to download the demo and it refuses to load. I have tried different sources and different computers, but no luck. Anyone have any idea what I am doing wrong and any clue as to how good the game is?

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I've had no trouble running it on both XP and Vista machines, albeit with sound issues on the older XP system (which has an SB ExtremeMusic/5.1 setup as opposed to the Vista's integrated sound/laptop speaker).

As for the game itself, it's reasonably entertaining. It's not a very complex or deep game by any means, so don't expect a lot of gameplay from it. Basically you set up what equipment you want on a set of chassis you pick from and design, then try to set up each ship's AI to be most effective. Then you hit go and watch your ships fight the enemies, see what happens, and tweak their AI and equipment for next time.

[Stark]

It's pretty hopelessly unbalanced, too; some things are basically useless and some are clearly the best of their given type. It's good for a laugh, though.

[wautd]

Has anyone managed to play the game?

Never heared of it until now but it looks pretty neat. Will give it a try soon.

[Losonti Tokash]

The UI is pretty awful, though. I played the game for about 30 minutes when I first got it and haven't touched the thing since.

[Lagmonster]

I prefer Starscape or Battleships Forever for the same general experience. Battleships Forever especially is a strangely satisfying bit of game for the purposes of building big wanking ships and then blasting them to pieces. It's like Lego, with lasers.

[wautd]

It reminds me how much I miss a decent MoO-style game (I still consider MoO II as the best of its kind). Gratuitous Space Battles may be easy to mod, but building a grand strategy game around it is something else.

[Lagmonster]

It reminds me how much I miss a decent MoO-style game (I still consider MoO II as the best of its kind). Gratuitous Space Battles may be easy to mod, but building a grand strategy game around it is something else.

At which point you're missing the whole point; GSB and Battleships forever is about exploding spaceships for the sake of exploding spaceships. It's a digital punch-me clown, not an exercise for strategic thought.

[Steel]

I played the demo briefly.

I disliked the way you could do nothing once the battle started. If that is the case, why not just autobattle? Spend 20 mins watching a screensaver... Great.

[Stark]

The guy made the game because he likes watching space battles. It's like a starship football management game.

With apallingly clunky UI the developer seriously told me is there so the game doesn't get harder to play.

[wautd]

It reminds me how much I miss a decent MoO-style game (I still consider MoO II as the best of its kind). Gratuitous Space Battles may be easy to mod, but building a grand strategy game around it is something else.

At which point you're missing the whole point; GSB and Battleships forever is about exploding spaceships for the sake of exploding spaceships. It's a digital punch-me clown, not an exercise for strategic thought.

I know the point of the game. My point was just that the battle engine itself is nice were it to be combined with an X4 game. Not sure how long this game can grab my attention but I'm giving it a shot