posted
At least if the internet has anything to say about it.
So, has anyone bought "Empire At War"? I've been playing a bit after I got this dreadful cold, and it really grows on you. The learning curve is a bit longer than in other strategy games, you have to work constantly in fortifying border planets, space fleets and garrisons when doing the main campaign, while at the same time developing new tech to keep up with the rebels, but I just bagged Sullust in a very strange and worringly satisfying way.
What inspired me to make this thread was the way it went down; when I moved in on Sullust I assumed no fleet would be present because the planet icon was grey (unlike enemy-red) so I only sent one Victory class star destroyer. Once there, I noticed the Nebulon B Frigate and three corvettes coming at me, pumping out fighters to throw at me. After an intense shootout, my smoking SD, with its TIE wings expended and all but destroyed, was declared winner.
I thought that was the end of it, but sadly enough for the rebels, they had sent in a small fleet of transports to Sullust, perhaps to fortify the ground base in case I did what I just did.
So one (now repaired) star destroyer and three wings of TIEs and bombers against ten panicking rebel transports with useless tanks and soldiers in them.
What's funny is that you can press spacebar during land- or space-battles for a random cinematic, letterboxed camera view of the unit you've indicated. So I pressed it a few seconds before the last rebel transport got its final volley from my SD, this is what it looked like;
Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
Is this game similar to Rebellion? That's my only question. If it is I'm headin down to the computer store!
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
posted
In the commecial for the game, Vader looks like the Hulk in a Darth Vader costume. Really cheesy there.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
I'd say this game is what Rebellion should've been. EaW is similar to Rebellion in that space/landbattles, for instance, can be decided instantly or fought through. The basis for choosing the winner seems a bit strange, as I lose many more units that way than if I fight myself, so I never do that. The plaent conquering is the best part, straight after I've conquered a planet in both land and space, I build a space station in its orbit and suddenly I have capacity to build four more Star Destroyers. There is a unit cap determined by your amount of space stations, barracks and planets.
Jason: The only thing I thought was low-tech was his cape, which doesn't flap in the wind like modern games with "rag-doll" game engines, but then I thought about the work load algorithm for 200 flapping coats/pony tails/robes in a large land battle and suddenly that cape doesn't look so bad.
But it is possible that the commercial you saw, Jason, didn't have the effects-dial turned up to max. If you lower the "Geometry Detail" in video settings you get a big performance gain but the characters look like LEGOs. No offense, Jeff.
Also, they didn't skimp on the sound effects in this game. Everything about the saber is there, for instance, from ignition and shutdown to different swing-sounds and blaster-blocks.
There is a few irritating things with the galaxy mode, like if you double-click a planet to zoom in on its resources, and the clickable field around the planet is overlapped by another one next to it, you zoom in on the planet next to it instead. I hope they'll fix it in the next patch.
Also, the cinematic mode seen in these screens, totally random. It stays on the unit you've selected for maybe five seconds, then shifts to another character/unit, usually not even participating in the same fight, ignoring the chance that you maybe chose the first unit for a damn reason. It's like a one-armed bandit, you have to do it five times until you get something interesting.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
Hey now, everyone deserves one chance at redemption, you heartless you.
As it happens, I'm fulfilling my end of the story and just tractored Leia's corvette into submission. I even used Vader's personal TIE to shoot out her engines first, or my Imp-SD wouldn't have caught up with her. tHEY R slow3r tHAN m0145535 iN J4nu4RY.
Registered: Aug 1999
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
What other Star Wars games have you guys played? I've played quite a few and they're all for the most part very well made. Here's the list
#1 The game that got me hooked both on Star Wars and video gaming in general: TIE Fighter. BEST GAME EVER!
#2 X-wing: Wasn't quite as polished as TIE Fighter but still excellent.
#3 Rogue Squadron 64: It was alright, I didn't much care for it
#4 Shadows of the Empire. Good Game
#5 Dark Forces: Kicks Ass!
#6 DF2 Jedi Knight: Kicks even more ass!
#7 Rebellion: Took me about 2 years to completely learn the game but it's still a really good one.
#8 Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast: Disembowling stormtroopers is fun!
#9 KoTOR: Awesome Storyline and a huge plot twist. Great Game!
#10: KoTOR2 TSL: Gave me a collossal headache. Also the storyline is kinda ripped from Jedi Outcast. And a serious Bug midgame
#11 Battlefront: One of the best games recently made.
#12 Battlefront 2: Pretty much same as the old one. But the Hero's didn't make up for the omission of several of my favorite maps. Space Battles are cool.
#13 Jedi Knight Jedi Academy: Cool Tie-ins to the books and other games.
#14 Episode 1 Racer: Fast paced racing action. And the fact that you can play as someone other than whiney little Annie is a definate plus. My favorite was Neva Kee. That little dude sounded like a psycho.
There's a few others that I've rented but since I havn't played through them I can't really say whether they were good or bad. Star Wars Starfighter and Clone wars to name a couple
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
quote:Originally posted by Nim: Hey now, everyone deserves one chance at redemption, you heartless you.
As it happens, I'm fulfilling my end of the story and just tractored Leia's corvette into submission. I even used Vader's personal TIE to shoot out her engines first, or my Imp-SD wouldn't have caught up with her. tHEY R slow3r tHAN m0145535 iN J4nu4RY.
All I can say is "Thank God the japanese did not get creative control over the game..."
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
I don't know, the japanese were pretty good at shipbuilding and refining during the 19th century, they would probably be good at realizing the star destroyer design. Invented the bulbous bow, they did.
Also, repressed patriarchal dominion realized through rape dream. Like the stereo, they didn't invent it but they refined it into an art.
But is it really what the japanese are like, or is it what a few influential designers and authors/cartoonists started and which has since snowballed (no pun intended) into a cultural phenomenon, a la Dallas for the States? Was it there in the 50's? 60's? Is the US occupation to blame for their sick games?
(I'm studying anthropology right now, that's why I'm asking)
DaBang80: That's a nice list. I have to disagree on Sith Lords, I got around the bugs with patches and forum tips (like how to not get stuck in the arctic temple) and I was sufficiently satisfied with the improvements (more force powers, double invetory sets for quick switch and the new saber upgrade features) to forget the fact that they cut out so much from the intended content. And the ending was unsatisfying, unless they had released the third part 6 months later, which they didn't.
About Jedi Outcast; the first time I got to meet another lightsaber wielder (at Bespin, yellow leotard guy up in the wind-shaft walkways), I cut his sword arm off at the bicep after two moves, while he was diving over my head. I more or less just held the saber upright and he jumped over it while I swung. That was the defining moment for me, against which all future SW-games with sabers in them were to be measured. I hope they do another JK title. To think what they could do with physics like in Halflife 2. For once some Sith Lightning that actually looks and sounds like in the movie. And more variables in physical character creation. Short and stocky, tall and wiry.
Anyone remember that Myst-ripoff in 2004? You could design a character and even shape the dimples in the cheeks, and decide hair color from a 32k color map. It sucked storywise but the char creation was the best I've ever seen.
Registered: Aug 1999
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quote:But is it really what the japanese are like, or is it what a few influential designers and authors/cartoonists started and which has since snowballed (no pun intended) into a cultural phenomenon, a la Dallas for the States? Was it there in the 50's? 60's? Is the US occupation to blame for their sick games?
(I'm studying anthropology right now, that's why I'm asking)
oh...this one cant be blamed on the US (or anyone else) wanting to see teenage schoolgirls raped by bizarre-o tenticle things. Lot's of those stories involve gender-swapping and hermaphrodite characters- not gonna be popular in the states. I think it's a social repression thing: much like how the women with the most voracous sexual appitites seem to have gone to catholic school (all three of the dominatrix's I know were sent (as girls) to strict -private- chatholic schools run by nuns).
Just my opinion, of course: let's hear from the folks living in Japan!
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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I can well imagine influential japanese samurai and generals going to geisha houses to be put in bibs and cribs to take the pressure off of all the constant stout posturing, but western businessmen and leaders do that too. It seems like it metamorphed in Japan during the 1900's, though. I'll bet one of Bush's ancestors are involved in some capacity, what with them having their fingers in so many pies.
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
I did get past the temple bug in Sith Lords with patches and forum tips as well. The prestige class was kinda neat too. I still think the first KoTOR was the better game.
Just got EaW and played through the first tutorial. It's looking like a fun game. I'm gunna go play some more.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
posted
Well, I know we were responsible for some of it. Gen. MacArthur didn't like pubic hair, so it was his mandate that it not be shown in printed materials. That caught on. He wanted to do right by the American soldiery who made up the occupying forces, so pushed to have the age of consent lowered to what it now is (I think it's 14 -- Masao? Confirmation?).
And of course, we really screwed them up by nuking them. How many animes feature at least one nulear-like explosion...?
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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MacArthur encouraged shaved beaver? Well I suppose less chance of lice and stuff. This is news to me, though. And Sweden's legal sex limit is 15, but not for 15-year olds to do people over 18, I think, only other pre-18:ers.
Da_bang80: The tutorials are very detailed and helpful, the best I've ever received in a PC game, in fact, and that's saying a lot.
Just a word of advice, if you're doing the main campaign next, don't expand your system of controlled planets and hold out on the "plot-critical" missions (which eventually raises tech levels) for too long, or by the time you get the really fun units most of the game will be over.
The opposite, rushing through the plot and missing out on the large-scale conquering, isn't very likely, though. Often the script puts the next "plot" mission well behind enemy lines, so that you have to fight your way to it, building armies and fleets just to take the 3-4 planets between the target and your nearest outpost. So Petroglyph has really thought things through, it seems.
Also, I have a newfound respect for Mon Calamari warships.
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