gebbie
03-13-2008, 03:04 AM
http://media.teamxbox.com/games/ss/1949/1204171231.jpg
Last year’s Battlestations: Midway came out to somewhat mixed reviews after an incredibly long gestation period which included multiple moves to different publishers. Once Eidos actually released the game, it seemed as if many gamers didn’t really know what to do with it. It was a WWII flying game crossed with a naval tactics simulator that let the player switch freely between all the units he was commanding on a large and dynamic battlefield. Perhaps the learning curve was too steep, or World War two games are just a little played out for most gamers right now. But there was a significant portion of gamers (including yours truly) who really dug the game, appreciated its well-blended approach to including action and strategy equally in a game, and were glad to finally be playing a WWII game not set in the hedgerows of France. Those fans formed a community and that community clamored for a sequel. Eidos listened, and is now ready to present them with one: Battlestations: Pacific.
Yes, Battlestations: Midway took place in the Pacific theater of WWII as well, but that game had you playing an Allied-centric campaign up until the turning point of the war. Now the developers at Eidos Hungary want to finish the war, taking you all the way through to the end at Okinawa and final victory for the Allies. Or does it? One of the biggest new features of Battlestations: Pacific is the new campaign told from the Japanese side. So now not only do you get to be the one attacking Pearl Harbor, but you can change the entire outcome of the war based on how you play. But just think, if the Japanese would have won, would we have ever had Godzilla or Astroboy? Just something to think about.
http://media.teamxbox.com/games/ss/1949/1204171233.jpg
Crusing the friendly skies.
According to Lead Designer Botond Szalacsi, goal number one was to listen to the community and get their input. And one of the biggest things requested by both them and a lot of Battlestations: Midway reviewers, was a campaign where you controlled the Japanese navy. This brings up an interesting quandary though – what happens when the Japanese win? The whole story of the war in the pacific after Midway is one of the Japanese on their heels, fighting the Allies tooth and nail, one island at a time through the south pacific. So how do you turn the tide? According to Mr. Szalacsi, they have at least three game designers on the team who are ex-history teachers, and the campaign for the Japanese is based on their actual plans for the war found in historical documents. You never know when that paper trail will come back and bite you.
Another major new feature is the inclusion of ground troops into the mix. In the original Battlestations, you controlled surface ships, submarines and aircraft, all at the same time. Sometimes you encountered enemy ground troops, usually holed up in an island fortress or gun emplacement, and shelled them from afar. Now, you’ll have some of your own troops to command, though whether you’re doing that on an individual, squad or platoon level remains unclear at this point. Eidos is staying tight lipped on the subject at the moment, but we do know that landing troops amphibiously as well as by parachute will be possible in the game, and that they will do things like capture buildings and gun batteries.
Aside from those major enhancements to the overall experience, Eidos Hungary is adding in a ton of other new content to keep fans happy. Twenty-one new units, including the rocket powered kamikazes known as the Ohka (another big request from the community) and early jet aircraft will make appearances too. There are twenty-eight new missions spread across the two campaigns, American and Japanese, plus five new multiplayer modes with scalable maps so you can customize your multiplayer game for the number of people and units you want to control in it.
http://media.teamxbox.com/games/ss/1949/1204171182.jpg
Technically, we haven’t even seen Battlestation: Pacific running yet, but based on the screens and the fact that the developers are listening intently to what their fans want get us excited for the next wave of information to bomb TeamXbox in the near future.
[team xbox (http://previews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1886/Battlestations-Pacific/p1/)]
Last year’s Battlestations: Midway came out to somewhat mixed reviews after an incredibly long gestation period which included multiple moves to different publishers. Once Eidos actually released the game, it seemed as if many gamers didn’t really know what to do with it. It was a WWII flying game crossed with a naval tactics simulator that let the player switch freely between all the units he was commanding on a large and dynamic battlefield. Perhaps the learning curve was too steep, or World War two games are just a little played out for most gamers right now. But there was a significant portion of gamers (including yours truly) who really dug the game, appreciated its well-blended approach to including action and strategy equally in a game, and were glad to finally be playing a WWII game not set in the hedgerows of France. Those fans formed a community and that community clamored for a sequel. Eidos listened, and is now ready to present them with one: Battlestations: Pacific.
Yes, Battlestations: Midway took place in the Pacific theater of WWII as well, but that game had you playing an Allied-centric campaign up until the turning point of the war. Now the developers at Eidos Hungary want to finish the war, taking you all the way through to the end at Okinawa and final victory for the Allies. Or does it? One of the biggest new features of Battlestations: Pacific is the new campaign told from the Japanese side. So now not only do you get to be the one attacking Pearl Harbor, but you can change the entire outcome of the war based on how you play. But just think, if the Japanese would have won, would we have ever had Godzilla or Astroboy? Just something to think about.
http://media.teamxbox.com/games/ss/1949/1204171233.jpg
Crusing the friendly skies.
According to Lead Designer Botond Szalacsi, goal number one was to listen to the community and get their input. And one of the biggest things requested by both them and a lot of Battlestations: Midway reviewers, was a campaign where you controlled the Japanese navy. This brings up an interesting quandary though – what happens when the Japanese win? The whole story of the war in the pacific after Midway is one of the Japanese on their heels, fighting the Allies tooth and nail, one island at a time through the south pacific. So how do you turn the tide? According to Mr. Szalacsi, they have at least three game designers on the team who are ex-history teachers, and the campaign for the Japanese is based on their actual plans for the war found in historical documents. You never know when that paper trail will come back and bite you.
Another major new feature is the inclusion of ground troops into the mix. In the original Battlestations, you controlled surface ships, submarines and aircraft, all at the same time. Sometimes you encountered enemy ground troops, usually holed up in an island fortress or gun emplacement, and shelled them from afar. Now, you’ll have some of your own troops to command, though whether you’re doing that on an individual, squad or platoon level remains unclear at this point. Eidos is staying tight lipped on the subject at the moment, but we do know that landing troops amphibiously as well as by parachute will be possible in the game, and that they will do things like capture buildings and gun batteries.
Aside from those major enhancements to the overall experience, Eidos Hungary is adding in a ton of other new content to keep fans happy. Twenty-one new units, including the rocket powered kamikazes known as the Ohka (another big request from the community) and early jet aircraft will make appearances too. There are twenty-eight new missions spread across the two campaigns, American and Japanese, plus five new multiplayer modes with scalable maps so you can customize your multiplayer game for the number of people and units you want to control in it.
http://media.teamxbox.com/games/ss/1949/1204171182.jpg
Technically, we haven’t even seen Battlestation: Pacific running yet, but based on the screens and the fact that the developers are listening intently to what their fans want get us excited for the next wave of information to bomb TeamXbox in the near future.
[team xbox (http://previews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1886/Battlestations-Pacific/p1/)]