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Geek Culture / Star Wars Empire At War

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Fallout
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Joined: 1st Sep 2002
Location: Basingstoke, England
Posted: 18th Mar 2006 11:23
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Just out of curiousity, has anyone played Star Wars Empire at War. I'm not a big RTS fan, but if someone can pull out something a bit more unique, I'd definitely give it a go. I was particularly interested two hear about its 2 player campaign mode, where two people can pretty much play through the whole game in multiplayer, on opposite sides of the force.

Anyone got any juicey gameplay feedback?

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Darth Vader
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Location: Adelaide SA, I am the only DB user here!
Posted: 18th Mar 2006 13:37
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Okay I have the game and it is brilliant!! Although thats coming from a Star Wars geeky fan and an RTS junkie.

Graphics
Well polished good looking weather effects and it all runs under a nice 64mb video card. They are really quite nice I would give them 8/10

Sound and Music
Creme de la Creme. Maybe I said it wrong but again the star warish music track make this game all the more great. Sounds are quite true to their movie buddies so you won't be dissapointed, the only sound lacking feature is that the heros voices are not the actula actors. This is sad as Obi-Wan sounds a little like Christopher Lee, but then again Alec Guiness is dead. Sound gets 7/10

Gameplay
Okay this is really good sort of your rome totatl war galactic map were you can enter space or land battles. The range of units is shockingly small and I do hope they bring out an expansion with a lot more units. The cinematic feature is a new feature that has entered RTS's as far as I know. What it does is take all the GUI away and bringing you closer to your units fighting the battle, on land the camera angles leave much to be desired but in space ahh... its like watching the movies again! . Heros have an important part to play and they each have their own special abilities which is great. 9/10

All in all it is a great game maybe I am over rating it but I think it is great. Oh and the multiplayer is great and you are correct to say that you can play the galatic campaigns over the internet and a LAN

Hope this helps let me know if you get the game!

When in Trouble with anything visit here your number one stop for help
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Fallout
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Posted: 18th Mar 2006 16:17
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Thanks for the run down mate. Much appreciated. I've been reading reviews and watching movies of it sinse. It looks good, but I've heard some bad things about it too. Me and one of my housemates are looking for games to pick up when uni is finished, and this one sounds like a good two player affair.

I'll let you know if I pick it up.

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Killswitch
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Location: School damnit!! Let me go!! PLEASE!!!
Posted: 18th Mar 2006 17:52
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I played the demo, and I hated it. The space fights were pretty darn good, but the on-land action was horrible.

~Heed my word hobags: Jism~
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Xander
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Location: In college...yeah!
Posted: 20th Mar 2006 21:42
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I have the game, and I love it. I was addicted for about a week, couldn't stop playing until I beat the campaign for the first time.

Here's my computer's specs:
32 MB Radeon 9600
1.6 ghz intel centrino
512 MB RAM

I have the graphics turned up a little over halfway, and it looks pretty. I wish I could max them out, but I prefer a better frame rate. My computer's specs aside, the graphics are very nice. True to the movies too, although the people are a little goofy if you zoom in too much...

I like the setup of the game very much. You don't have to bother with resource collecting, you make money based on how many planets you own in campaign mode, and just build mining facilities in skirmishes. And to deploy your units you bring them down in drop ships on the designated drop points, a nice system if I say so myself.

I agree with Vader, I like the abilities of the heros. Makes for some very interesting scenarios, such as Chewie's steal vehicle ability. I especially like Darth Vader's crush vehicle ability...

I can't say much about the multiplayer, cause I haven't played it yet. My buddy down the hall has the game too, so I'm sure we'll play some time.

I would recommend the game, especially since I believe the price has dropped to $40 already...

Xander Moser - Bolt Software - Firewall
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Darth Vader
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Posted: 21st Mar 2006 02:48
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If fallout gets the game then bolt, fallout and I can have an online mulitplayer game!

When in Trouble with anything visit here your number one stop for help
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Bizar Guy
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Posted: 21st Mar 2006 04:59
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Quote: "I'm not a big RTS fan"

Off topic here, but I find that extremely funny, considering that you yourself have an RTS you're making that's stickied in the wip...

I don't have the game, but I imagine is the space battles are anything like the Homeworld games then it must be good.

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Fallout
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Posted: 21st Mar 2006 11:00
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haha. I was surprised nobody else noticed that. No, in all seriousness, I don't think RTS games are very good. I haven't seen any innovation in them in a long time. I think they're boring, tedious, mathematical clickers, where one unit v one unit has the same outcome. Hense my skepticism on this game, and I why I asked for a few opinions.

ODF is a uni project. With an RTS, in my opinion, it is easier to achieve a professional look than say an FPS. I'm trying to prove DB can make something really professional, so I went down the RTS route, cos I thought it was obtainable, not because I like RTSs. Somewhat bizarre, I know, but you've gotta make sacrifices for uni - especially the final year.

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Torsten Sorensen
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2006 05:14
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I have the game, and I like it. I don't want to post any coments, or anything like that right now, but... I'm not in the mood.
All I can say, is the space battles are much better then the land battles, but don't last as long.

Your signature has been erased by a mod because it's larger than 600x120...
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Van B
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2006 12:09 Edited at: 22nd Mar 2006 12:10
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I hate space battles, they're always so similar and fiddly, like Star Trek games from years ago - the basic formula is still the same.

Personally, I don't think space battles should be in a RTS anyway, it's completely unrealistic to consider 1 person in command of a fleet of space ships, most of us can imagine being little dictators when playing C&C though, like evil generals with moustaches, that's something we could actually achieve.

I don't play it, my son got it and loves it, and I did enjoy Generals, but really it's an RTS like those cheap ones in GAME, but with Star Wars glued onto it.

Every time I go to play these games, I hit a maximum unit limit, what? - did the Russians have a maximum user limit in WWII, were the Nazi's only allowed 10 U-boats... it's rediculous, let me build my freakin army of ultimate death, hang the particles just GIVE ME POWER!!!

Nah, not my cup of tea.


If your looking for a fun 2 player game that is quick to pick up and play, and is free to download too, Trackmania Nations is very addicting - designing your own tracks is addicting too. You've probably already heard of it, but if not you should check it out Fallout, right up your street.


Van-B

Put away, those fiery biscuits!
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Darth Vader
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2006 12:15
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Not everyone agrees with you Van-B and without pop caps there would be hundreds of units running around the screen consuming RAM and video RAM, as a game programmer you should know this. Is trackmania free?

When in Trouble with anything visit here your number one stop for help
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Van B
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2006 12:39
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Quote: "Not everyone agrees with you Van-B"


From Fallout...
Quote: "Anyone got any juicey gameplay feedback?"


I don't expect everyone to agree with me, but do you agree that this post is about our opinions on the aforementioned RTS game?

If so I'm just as entitled to them as anyone here, if you have something to say to me, email me, don't try and put me down in a thread like this.

Quote: "without pop caps there would be hundreds of units running around the screen consuming RAM and video RAM, as a game programmer you should know this."


Yeah, hundreds of units IS what I want. Right now it seems we get less units than in the original RTS classics, we get lots of nice graphics, but really when all 10 tanks look great all you have is 10 great looking tanks. Personally I'd rather have 100 decent looking tanks.

Thing is, the best RTS experience I remember ever, is on C&C:Red Alert on 2 linked Playstations, you could build until the PSX's were bulging at the sides, massive armies, I don't see why we can't have these massive armies in just 1 modern RTS for a change. Total War etc are in a different vein, techniques could transpose into a Star Wars RTS with thousands of clone troopers.

That's irony at the end of the day, we're supposed to be fighting an army of clones, just as long as your army of clones only needs to be the exact same size as everyone elses ehh, defeats the purpose really.


Van-B

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Fallout
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2006 13:06 Edited at: 22nd Mar 2006 13:06
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To quote myself ..

Quote: "No, in all seriousness, I don't think RTS games are very good."


lol - So I am more inclined to agree with Van here. However, I must admit, I'm more of a fan of less units that do more. That's my problem with RTSs. There's too much point, click attack, wait for mathematically pre-determined outcome. I prefer games like the Total War games where there is actually stategic skill involved.

In total war you can successfully defend against an attack from 1000 troops with 300 men. Similarly, you can lose a battle with 1000 troops if attacked by 300 men. I've done both. In almost all other RTSs, the maths defines the victory. Click on your 1000 units, click attack on the base, and win via the maths of having more health and dealing out more damage per second.

RTSs still do that! They still employ a pathetically unrealistic, limited and boring combat system, and only reward basic strategic skills, and more the ability to build the biggest force. Now Van, that might be what you wanna do - and fair play to you. I personally want to be able to smash a massive force with a small force because of my commanding skills. So far, Total War is the only series of games that lets me do that.

Sounds a bit like this is another run-of-the-mill simple maths based RTS.

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Van B
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2006 13:25
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Yeah, I agree, but that's my point .

If I want a huge massive army full of lesser units, I could go the Empire with all it's stormtroopers and fancy hardware.

Or I could go the Rebels and do more damage to these clones with less, but more powerful units, Jedi's, hero's, etc etc.

See what I mean? - Star Wars RTS should be a great scenario, but they standardise it all the time.

They could have balanced the system according to the plot and made it fair, instead they kept it easy and made both sides about equal strength and equal size. Really a Storm trooper is just cannon fodder, they should be cheap and stupid, and there should be loads of them available. It's the same with Battlefront, the units are fairly well balanced but really a storm trooper vs a Rebel is no contest, there's probably 10 times as many troopers, so the rebels should be 10 times more deadly, and in the movies they always were.


Van-B

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Fallout
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2006 14:51
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Yeah, you have a point there too. There is an excuse for unit limits, because of hardware etc. but Total War proves that with with a bit of cunning (i.e. textured plains for units in the distance), you can have thousands of units on screen at once. Mind you, if this game allows you to zoom in pretty close, then you're forced to have higher complexity units, reducing the amount you can have on screen ... but once again, there is LoD that can help sort that out.

Anyway, whatever the technical complexities are, I see your point. They're not gonna capture the starwars universe until you have storm troopers being wasted by the bucket load. What is the point in there armour anyway?!?! It clearly doesnt work!

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Raven
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2006 18:08
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Don't forget Object Instancing, through Shader or Fixed-Fucntion pipelines. Hundreds of a single object at a fraction of the cost, even less than planes in some cases.

It's how Kameo achieved the ridiculous numbers of units on-screen.

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Torsten Sorensen
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Posted: 23rd Mar 2006 01:46
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Quote: "It's how Kameo achieved the ridiculous numbers of units on-screen."

I always wondered how that worked in that game without lag.

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