Battlestations: Midway

[nightdagger]

I was playing the XBL demo of it and other than the stupid glitches it's a really fun game. I took out about 5 cruisers and 10 destroyers with a Konga-class about an hour ago.

[Laffertytig]

i just read a demo will be out shortly. what kinda game is this gonna be?

it does sound very arcady

[galahad]

According to their community envoy, the demo will be released on Jan 27th.

[Sonarman]

Demo
The PC demo will be released on Friday 26th Jan at 3pm GMT
at http://www.battlestationsmidwaydemo.com/

Videos
click the link below to view videos showing the game in action, be sure to watch the mission walkthrough "strike on Tulagi" video which shows the game mechanics.

http://www.battlestations.net/media/movies/

Interview with devteam
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=151833

[Laffertytig]

is this just not a replica of pacific storm? a WW2 shoot em up type game

[AJ!]

Its a mixture of arcade shoot em up type gameplay with a bit of RTS gameplay thrown in......

Its similar to PS only with huge improvments.

It will be a great light hearted pacific game to pass the time till SH4 comes out :p

[AJ!]

Has anyone tried the Midway demo yet?

Personly im not very impressed by it. The game has beutiful graphics and effects but the the whole gameplay engine is terrible. Ships are seriously boring to take control of and are so basic in controls theres no fun in using them. Planes on the other hand are great fun to fly and watch the combat below.

[nightdagger]

The 360 version is really fun but my connection is slow tonight so I keep getting kicked in the PC version.

[dean_acheson]

I can't get this to work, something about needing a gamespy account.

[BladeHeart]

Similar problem to the above.

Have installed the PC demo and do have a gamespy account that can be accessed for any other games, etc. This demo tells me that I am trying to access an non existent or obsolete account.

2 installs, same problem on both installs.

:down:

[Paajtor]

Steer away from this crap, Kaleuns!:mad:
Even Crimson Skies had more realism...:lol:

The mp-demo ran well on my system, no problems at all.
But that gameplay...it must be the worse I've ever seen in a PC-game.
There's no teamchat...wow, great feature for a mp-demo.:rotfl:

AJ is right: planes are the only fun thing to jump into yourself.
And even that fun has a short life...couldn't get the HAT-switch on my joystick to work, and so I couldn't have a look around from inside the cockpit.
Ammo seems unlimited.
Tried to dogfight...turned out that my Il2-experience brought me nothing but frustrations in this demo:
Can't use flaps.
Can't use energy-management.
Can't set prop-pitch.
Couldn't get the plane into a stall...impossible, lol.
Regardless of the dev's claimings, there is no real damage-model for them...simply hit a Zero anywhere for any given time, and down she goes.
A hit engine will smoke, but keep 100% performance untill the entire plane blows up.

I didn't even think of going in a sub.:nope:
Found 2 extra controls in the Settings...dive, and submerge.



:down:

Btw, I remembered another Eidos-game: Thieve Deadly Shadows...also an original Xbox title. It had the same quircky gameplay and limitations.

[nightdagger]

It's not meant to be realistic...

The point is to have a basic control of everything, there are actually 4 levels of depth for the subs - surface, periscope, deep, and deeper. It plays out well and having more would bring trouble with a 360 controller (the PC game is almost the exact same as the 360 version).

[Paajtor]

It's not meant to be realistic...

The point is to have a basic control of everything, there are actually 4 levels of depth for the subs - surface, periscope, deep, and deeper. It plays out well and having more would bring trouble with a 360 controller (the PC game is almost the exact same as the 360 version).
I know.
I didn't expect it to be realistic.
But unrealistic to this degree?:nope:

[Sonarman]

I think there are a lot of misconceptions about the game, a lot of people seem to be expecting a sim but it is not, rather it is a strategic action game which should be played at the "big picture" fleet commander level only jumping in when the action gets hot.

I think it is a good game but Eidos has made a bit of a blunder by releasing a multiplayer demo they would have been better releasing their naval academy tutorial section and a single player level. as:

--people are struggling to figure out the controls
--very few players are using naval tactics and are instead sending one ship out at a time and jumping aboard to fight it out when they should be assembling and deploying fleets, formations are possible in the game but no-one is using them.
--there is a repair screen for all of the ships but again no one seems to be using it due to having no training mode.
--many users are having problems configuring their firewall/routers to play the multiplayer game.


Just goes to show that releasing a demo without an adequate tutorial is not a good idea, it may cost them more sales than it brings in as users struggle to play correctly, which is a real shame as it is good fun when played to it's full potential.

Take a look at this
The excerpt from the forthcoming Prima strategy guide below gives an idea of the tactics and formations possible in the game, a look at some other units and gives a glimpse at the depth and style of play that many users seem to be missing in their appraisal of the demo. (6MB PDF but definitely worth a look)

http://www.primagames.com/catalog/promo_image/9780761554929_616.pdf (http://www.primagames.com/catalog/promo_image/9780761554929_616.pdf)

[AJ!]

What i dont like about the game is theres no way to view the fights from a birds eye view like a RTS game. Instead you are forced to view from a plane, or for the poor people who cant get the planes, a ship which is so boring to use it really failes to become a viable option.

I had great fun watching my battleships in formation shooting at the enemy while i was looking down from a plane, but actualy using the ships becomes repetative very quickly..

One thing i didnt expect from game was realism so there were no dissapointments there but the controls were so basic it seemed useless taking direct control of anything but the planes. The graphics though are great at times. The ship models are great and the crew walking about was a awsome touch :up:

[stabiz]

I`ve read nothing but bad things about this so far. Such a shame.

[fullmetaledges]

After playing this game on xbox live with 7 other people, I have to say that I've been having a lot of fun. I know that some of you are dissapointed that it is not a simulation type of game but sometimes it's fun to take a step back from hardcore simming at least I think so. I liked the fact that you can use real tactics instead of just going in and shooting everything that moves. I enjoyed taking down jap BB's with my destroyer's torps for instance. I think this game is pretty good for what it tries to do. I don't have very many xbox games because they are 60 dollars but this one is my next buy.

AJ! they do have a tactical map screen where you can order ships,subs,planes to waypoints or to attack etc.

[AJ!]

AJ! they do have a tactical map screen where you can order ships,subs,planes to waypoints or to attack etc.

Yeah i know. What i was saying was theres no in game birds eye view to watch all the action happen. in the tactical map you cant watch all the fights...

Like i said though its a very nice looking game assuming you can run it all. :up:

[timetraveller]

What i dont like about the game is theres no way to view the fights from a birds eye view like a RTS game. Instead you are forced to view from a plane, or for the poor people who cant get the planes, a ship which is so boring to use it really failes to become a viable option.

So is there ANY camera view possible at all from outside a unit?? Wow, that is disappointing if not. I like to watch the action.

TT

[AJ!]

What i dont like about the game is theres no way to view the fights from a birds eye view like a RTS game. Instead you are forced to view from a plane, or for the poor people who cant get the planes, a ship which is so boring to use it really failes to become a viable option.
So is there ANY camera view possible at all from outside a unit?? Wow, that is disappointing if not. I like to watch the action.

TT

Yeah you have to watch through a unit which is why the planes are the best part...

Has anyone in the states played the full game yet? is it any better then the demo, and are there much bigger ship battles?

Also is there a skirmish mode or a quick battle mode?

[dean_acheson]

After getting it to work, one 20 minute multi-player is enough for me....

I am not much into arcade games, even if the eye-candy is impressive.