Steel Battalion Comments by Martin Taylor

1st post.

EDIT: I've always wanted to do that.

My mate here in the office preordered this and it was delivered yesterday. Will be getting his opinions at lunchtime. And probably going over to his house to have a go later on this week. :-)

OT: just one thing about optimus prime:

"A member of Ohio's 5694th National Guard Unit in Mansfield legally changed his name to a Transformers toy. Optimus Prime is heading out to the Middle East with his guard unit on Wednesday to provide fire protection for airfields under combat."

http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_fullstory.asp?id=3828

That's very nice MORBO, but... :)

Oh god, oh god, oh god..

that means I've got just over 2 days left with the current GF before she dumps my skinny white ass for buying this.

Peej

Why should she dump your thin white donkey? It's you and your sorry pale arse she should be dumping!

/me wonders when everyone stopped speaking English

Sorry Otto, you are of course right...!

Peej

Yeah I am right but I'm also a blimmin' pedant and annoying to boot. :)

I picked this up last night, and so far I have had great fun with it. I have never really played a mech game before (apart from Mech Assualt) and so it took me a while to get used to it, but I think I'm getting the hang of it now. There is a fair bit of skill involved with coordinating everything you have to do and my leg got a bit sore pressing down on the accelerator from where I was sitting but it is the coolest gaming experience I have had in a while.

Here are some photos of the box :
http://www.p2thepowerofm.com/crap/sb1.jpg
http://www.p2thepowerofm.com/crap/sb2.jpg
http://www.p2thepowerofm.com/crap/sb3.jpg
http://www.p2thepowerofm.com/crap/sbcube.jpg

There seems to be a disembodied hand in that first shot! And did you get a free Cube with it? Cool packaging, btw. :-)

Feckin' heck, Bradley. Were you arrested carrying that thing around town?

Looks cool though.

Yeah I am right but I'm also a blimmin' pedant and annoying to boot. :)

Let me, peej: right again, otto. :p

Thanks jaa. Oh by the way, I set fire to all your games, you don't mind do you?

heh

Heh, that is one of my flatmates lazing in my chair. One of my other flatmates went halfies with me on it and at that time I was waiting for him to come home for the unpacking. The cube was there for a size comparison. Unfortunatly the batteries on my digi-cam have run out and my other flatmate who's camera I borrowed for those shots had left by the time we had assembled it. We did however build a fold away table for it at the weekend.

The guy in GAME was so pissed off. They had only gotten three in and he hadn't managed to get one of the preorders.

They had only gotten three in

That's probably all that they could fit on the truck!

Nah, just send me a proof so I can claim their value from my insurance company... And then run away. They'll go after you with Bush/Rumsfeld persistence...

.::: I got mine yesterday. I've only played two missions yet (this weekend will be entirely devoted to SB), but the controls are pretty easy. It's great fun as of yet, but the pop-up is seriously annoying at times.
I've got two pics of the controller and the pedals if you would like to see them; http://www.cyhwuhx.com/mt-static/archives/000021.php

Then again by now everybody has seen those I suppose. ;) If the online add-on disk is reality I can't wait though. Xbox Live and Steel Battalion seems like a very good idea imo.

Same score as Edge.

"Same score as Edge."

Even Edge can't be wrong ALL the time! :)

Oh crap I am so going to get dumped over this..

Peej

GamesTM gave it the same as well...

pjmaybe wrote:
'Oh crap I am so going to get dumped over this.. '
But that might mean she doesn't come to the meet...
I was looking forward to looking at her baps! ;o)

Fraid so Al, you'll have to make do with Blerks!

Peej

Boooo!! :o(

you'll have to make do with Blerks!

Make do with my what? :-)

"£129 could have probably brought u a cube with metriod prime and zelda. i suppose each to his own."

But I already own a cube and Metroid and have paid for my soon to be with me US copy of Zelda. So nah nah ner nah nah

Still waiting for Amazon to ship this, grr. So, the game got 6/10, I reckon someone should review the packaging, it looks excellent and big enough to live in which should please PJ seeing as he'll be kicked out in a few days.

Baps, Blerk, Baps.

Just broke the news to her...she's not happy...

And yep it's an ultimatim..."Either SB goes or I go..."

Peej

And remember, it won't just be her, but her two chums as well.....

Baps, Blerk, Baps.

Uh... if you're looking forward to seeing my baps then you're gonna be pretty disappointed. If only because I won't be at the pub meet. :-)

As for the ultimatum... well, you can always get another g/f. But there's only one Steel Battalion!

Tell her she can be your co-pilot as long as she gets a uniform.

Tell her there are 3 joysticks of choice with the game and would she like to have a go...

"Tell her she can be your co-pilot as long as she gets a uniform."

That'd get me a slap...!

"And remember, it won't just be her, but her two chums as well....."

Now when you put it like that, the best joystick in the world...even one with total force feedback and all the blinking lights you could stick on it couldn't equate to those...

OK I'll do without it then...

(cue: cheers, officer and a gentleman-style scene of Peej walking out of GAME carrying other half instead of SB...other half takes off Calgary Flames baseball cap and sticks it on her own head. EG collective vomit copiously into anything concave...)

Peej

Hoorah!
/looks forward to pub meet ;o)

pj keep up the battle!!! just tell her youre in training, . p.s. CALGARY FLAMES are an awesome franchise (last canadian team to win the stanley cup I believe, and a great city ! ). I can't find steel battalion after having sent mine to the u.k. christmas time (hoping more will come). Hopefully we'll get more word on the live expansion disk.... hey krudster dropped the ball there, he had the euro live guy at his mercy and didn't ask about the live expansion... add-on disk!!!!!

Don't you get Devastator, the big chunky robot the Constructicons merged to build?

If you cross Optimus Prime with a JCB, I mean.

Wow B.O.B. IS BACK!!! hi B.O.B. what are you playing at the moment???? I'm having fun with enclave!!!!
I have this big robot guy that was like 2 1/2 feet tall that came out before transformers (forgot what it was called!) has pointy yellow futuristic horns! quite cool!

Thanks for the words of encouragement Jimbo. Dead right about Calgary (got family out there and it's a bloody cool city. Why haven't we got malls like that!!!) and the flames are a good team.

Steel Battalions though - gotta find a copy first!!!

Peej

Flames sux. Sen4t0rs 4ever!

seantors, hahahahahah they need to actually get out of the first round of playoffs (not to mention get to the cup), something the flames have done in the past (if not recently). Still senators are fun to watch, lots of talent indeed... hockey=fastest game on earth

... but, lets be honest, it's pretty pants, the AI is too scripted and the gameplay is on rails, the graphics are nice but lack polish. the main selling point is the big f-off controller and the game is just an 'extra'

But by messing it up, you accidentally made a funny quote, namely this one:

Official Xbox Magazine
"... but, lets be honest, it's pretty pants"

;-)

Register and you can edit/remove posts

...anything to convince yourself the cash spent on the xbox and steel battalion were cash well spent or am I wrong?

your argument about all AI being scripted is true, but in most games the AI is aware of its surroundings and can adapt, scripting in games like Halo simply gives the AI a choice of actions which it picks depending on the current conditions, in Steel Battalion they all do exactly the same thing, every time, no matter how you approach it.

"...anything to convince yourself the cash spent on the xbox and steel battalion were cash well spent or am I wrong?"

Anything to convince yourself that something you can't afford must be "pants", or am I wrong?

Obviously, you're an Xbox hater, too, which helps explains your level of jealousy. I have all the consoles, and I have an extended family to share them with. The Xbox gets tons of love around here. Great console.

Yes, I suppose it's possible that I logged 150+ hours in Steel Battalion in a desperate attempt to justify it's cost, but considering that $200 is pocket change, and that I have had a great friggin' time playing it (I'm playing it today), I'm not too worried about it.

"but in most games the AI is aware of its surroundings and can adapt"

The AI does this in Steel Battalion, too, just not very well. It has trouble navigating around obstacles, it will fire into a mountain side or into a friendly back, if it can't figure out what it's next objective should be, it goes into a holding pattern (walking around in circles). This is hardly news, it's mentioned in every Steel Battalion review. Fortunately, Steel Battalion is much more than the sum of it's flaws.

"scripting in games like Halo simply gives the AI a choice of actions which it picks depending on the current conditions in Steel Battalion they all do exactly the same thing, every time, no matter how you approach it"

Halo's AI is great, but it also does "exactly the same thing, every time". Almost all game AI's do. Though previous games have seen some pretty sophisticated AI (like the infamous "reaper bot" that would actually learn Quake levels during a session), Halo's beasties are 100% predictable. Hit a grunt and any friends within a certain range will 'see' it run away, to come back a few seconds later. Hit a jackal and he'll dodge and return fire. Hurt him and he'll take cover and come out a few seconds later. Hurt him bad enough and take cover and stay (hide). Hurt him even worse and he'll charge you in a suicidal 'rage'. It's richer, more interesting behavior, but the same every time.

In Nude Maker's defense, writing AI routines to control a VT is far more difficult that writing AI for a grunt. Still, the AI *is* really bad at certain things -- fortunately the gameplay is balanced in full light of that fact. For instance, my favorite missions are the ones where it's you vs dozens of enemy mechs. If the AI was truly sophisticated, a VT under attack would call out for help to nearby units, which would result in 20 VTs converging on you at once. Instead, the VTs are pretty much self-contained, isolated, and attack only if they can see you, allowing you to control confrontations more carefully. Enemy VTs certainly *are* dangerous, they are just as well armed as you, they have FFS just as you do, they can use chaff, they can dodge -- if you're not careful you will be dead very quickly. So it's not like the AI is *totally* retarded, resulting in a bunch of sitting ducks. The AI gets criticized because of the stupid things you see your *teammates* doing, but this really doesn't impact the gameplay that much.

you make your point very well, i have to agree with you.

my problem isnt that the game is bad, as such. its a very fun title. but i still think the main selling point is the joystick, if the game was sold by itself for £40 i doubt i'd hold it in high regard, which was sorta my point.

i must be the only person who liked the instant death if you dont eject in time, can't wait for the online sequel.

i pick on the AI because it demolishs any realism the joystick creates, i turn the lights down, whack up the volume, get the table infront of the couch to transform my living-room into a VT, then all my team-mates get stuck behind buildings. pah!

/Subscribes Kieran to a load of porn sites.

Job done.