Star Wars: Empire at War *MUST read if you like Star Wars...*

[Richdog]

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

Ahem, sorry there I was having a moment to myself... I have just received my issue of PCZONE through the door and on the front cover was a Star Wars scene...

Expecting some sort of usual Lucas re-hash of something I opened up the hallowed pages and in it is a world-first on a new game coming out... Star Wars: Empire at War.

Avoiding the tragedies that were Episode I and II this is the original, pure, untainted Star Wars. We have Imperial AT-AT's and AT-ST's striding the battlefield, with Rebel Snowspeeders doing their best to trip them using their harpoon cables. Squads of stormtroopers and Rebels clash... tanks and huge lasers blow chunks out of the battlefield.

This is a true 3D RTS on a massive scale... the graphics are lovingly recreated and immensely detailed, with the ability to zoom in and out of the action at will, as well as rotate the angle to what you want... basically the same as the excellent camera in Dawn of War, except in this one you can zoom out far further due to the larger scale.

Now the best bit... we have... wait for it... SPACE BATTLES! Yup, you can now also fight it out in space, i'm talking gigantic Imperial Star Destroyers vs graceful Rebel Calamari Cruisers trading laser battery fire while squadrons of A-Wings, X-Wings and Y-Wings vie for superiority against overwhelming numbers of Tie Fighters, Tie Interceptors and the deadly Tie Bomber. Add to this enormous space stations which must be successfully assaulted and you have what will be the defining space battle experience, i'm talking Homeworld... except better. And it's Star Wars.

Well people I hope i've just built up a bit of hype over this game, i've just done a Google and you can find not a sausage on this game on teh intarweb http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourc...+empire+at+war it really is that hot off the press

You can count on this being one of the biggest games of 2005, and a dream come true for anyone with the sense to realize the awesomeness, genius and pure magic that is Star Wars.

I'll add pics as soon as they become available, but as I said from these screens I have here on the page... it looks amazing.

WOOT!

[TiG]

I can only find bits and pieces to say its been announced and a small developer unit had been picked to work on the game. If you forget hyping the game now tho and you may be less disappointed when it sucks.

TiG : Star Wars Game Sceptic

[Richdog]

The only Star Wars games that have been crap are the obvious movie tie-ins and the rushed releases.

X-Wing, Tie-Fighter, X-Wing Alliance, Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, KOTOR, all these were amazing games. Believe me you have to see this one, it's obvious a LOT of love is going into this game, it just reeks of quality. The only thing it has in common with Force Commander is that it is classed as an RTS.

Also just learned it is being designed by Petroglyph, a team made up of true RTS pro's who designed the C&C games.

I'd put £100 on in the bookies that this is going to be a winner, it just oozes quality.

[TiG]

All i'm saying is that just be careful with believing hype, Its a small company with 20 employees, Just started up, and sure it has an impressive list of games where its employees has been involved. But i see nothing newer than 2002 on their site.

I'm not sure i'd agree that Jedi Knight and KOTOR fall into the category of amazing games and i'm just saying till you've got something tangable that you can actually play with, i've found RTS games to be a wait and see product.

I mean how many good RTS's have we had in the last 2 years?, In my own opinion i believe it to be 2, Warcraft 3, and Dawn of War. The way you describe the game gives me the impression that they are trying to do EVERYTHING.

Three different engines?, Planetside battles with normal "tanks", space battles with different "tanks" and assaulting a space station.

All have different scale and to make all of those good, all will require time, lets hope they get enough...

TiG

[Richdog]

lol I know what you're saying, but as for it being a small company, it has the near-unlimited funds of LucasArts behind it

And i'm quite surprised you call DOW one of the best RTS games out in 2 years, it was good but nothing special, and certainly not very tactical, lol.

Rome: Total War? Rise of Nations? Now those are good RTS games.

And Jedi Knight, sequel to Dark Forces was a seminal game, a true classic of it's time.

I don't buy games before i've seen a lot of reviews and opinions, so it's not like i'm going to go out and buy it without thinking, i'm just enthusing as a Star Wars fan who has been gaming fo over 15 years. Besides, if no-one got excited about games the world would be a boring place.

[TiG]

Erm Dawn of War is ace, and the best tactical game out there, you can't rush with Terminators as if i build marines with rocket launchers i'd eat them, nothing in the game is the master in terms of unit. The resource points is an excellent thing to wage war over, you can't sit in base and build to your hearts content, you have to play the war on the battlefield. Thats why its the best RTS game in recent time imo...

Rome Total war isn't RTS, not by a long way. RTW is a turn based strategy game, thats where the real struggle lies, balancing cost of expansion against fighting wars on many fronts. And yes its an excellent game, but its not an RTS, never has never will be. Reason for that?, well when i can win battles of 700 men against 2500 then it says to me that either the AI is crap or it can be beaten with simple strategies. Horseman > * in RTW, 6 cavalry groups + 4 strong infantry groups and you can pretty much beat anything put against you.

I personally thought Rise of Nations was crap, and like you i've been playing for ages too, can remember upgrading my 486sx25 to a 486dx2 66 and finding the money to pay £125 for an extra 4mb of ram to play the original C&C.

Hehehe, Lucas arts may have a lot of money, but don't bank on it providing huge resources to put behind a developer house. They provide the "license" i'm sure it will be down to the guys to build a decent game. And in my experience 20 people isn't a lot when it comes to developing something as complicated as a full blown game, with potential ports to PS2, Xbox etc...

TiG

[utdmleach]

Weren't Valve originaly a small company when they released Half-Life?

[Bunjiweb]

people seem to thing good games need blockbuster movie budgets.... not so.

[Richdog]

Aye, I remember the days when ganmes relied solely on amazing content. The first time I played Monkey Island I nearly wet myself... same with Dune II, that was a golden era in gaming... *nostalgic sigh*

Problem nowadays though mate is that with new technologies and engines, games take a lot longer to develop and code, hence the need for a bigger budget and more time spent on them. As we've seen from the likes of EA, this doesn't necessarily indicate a good game.