Warhammer Battle March?

Laonar

It says it was released yesterday, I looked everywhere but to no avail, never found it. Anyone got any info on this game?

bloodyroarxx

Laonar wrote: »

It says it was released yesterday, I looked everywhere but to no avail, never found it. Anyone got any info on this game?

It's a port of the awful PC Warhammer RTS, and I think they added in Greenskins. The core gameplay was what was awful so unless they changed it stay far far away.

Pej

It's not that bad. I'd suggest reading a couple of reviews of the PC original Warhammer: Mark of Chaos. If I remember the original scored ~6-7/10 from most reviewers but if you're a huge Warhammer fan I'm sure you can tack on another couple of points for the sake of fan service. It plays a lot more like the tabletop game than, say, Dawn of War does. Oh, and yes. it was released yesterday as scheduled but apparently not everyone has it yet. My brother picked up a copy of it at Gamestop yesterday and he lives in the sticks so it shouldn't be too hard to find.

Klyka

I saw that on the shelves yesterday and was all "WTF a WARHAMMER game for the 360???".

Then I realized it was a port of Mark of Chaos, put the box back and asked the clerk if I could wash my hands real quick.

Pej

Oh, and "Battle March" is actually an expansion pack for Mark of Chaos. It adds some new units for each army and a couple of new armies - Dark Elves and Greenskins. It also adds some new skirmish maps, modes, a new Dark Elf single player campaign and some other general improvements and fixes. The 360 version includes both games. If you're a huge fan of Warhammer FB or FRP then it is probably worth looking into. If you're just a curious RTS fan I doubt it'll do much for you.

Cherrn

Is the core gameplay really that bad? I've always been told that it was incredibly buggy and unfinished on release, which is why no one likes it. Now that all the bugs are presumably fixed, and they've added more armies on top, is it really still shit? Compared to Dark Omen, that is?

Pej

Reviews of it weren't really *that* bad. It got a few 8s and near abouts and its average on gamerankings looks like its 74%. I think one of the reasons people didn't like it (other than all of the bugs) is that there is a lot less going on than in most RTS games - there's no base building or resource management really and there's not a ton of control over individuals, only larger units. Like the table top game you essentially build an army (pretty much however you want) before the game starts then you spend the entire game strategically moving those various units around the board, attempting to flank and gain positional advantage over your opponent, and picking the best specific units for your own specific units to go up against. I'm sure for a lot of twitchy, micromanaging RTS gamers it was pretty damn boring.

Cherrn

It can't just be that, though. People loved Dark Omen, and, to a lesser degree, Shadow of the Horned Rat, and they were like that as well.

I've *never* heard anyone say they like this game.

MiSTieOtaku

There's no way I can explain where this hate comes from. I got the Mark of Chaos game and played it and had a lot of fun.

I suppose it might have to do with the fact that the game is a bit more faithful to the tabletop version and isn't like a normal RTS with base building and resource management which, as far as I know, RTS fans are real sticklers for.

bloodyroarxx

I was turned off when the first or second mission told me to flank some riflemen, WHICH WAS IMPOSSIBLE so they just picked out at least half of my army. I did this multiple times with the same result, that's when I uninstalled and gave it to goodwill.

Santa Claustrophobia

Mark of Chaos is okay. But it's far from being the pinnacle of RTS gaming. Good for a (budget priced) diversion. Probably interesting for fans of Warhammer who like the settings but might not be crazy about how deep the rabbit hole really goes. The expansion adds some extra races to that.

For the PC, it's not terrible...


Avoid the motherfucking 360 port. Avoid it like the plague. Avoid it as if you were shunning the new kid at school. Avoid it like you would a streetwalker who leaps out of the alley in a skeevy part of town and offers you a freebie because she's bored. Avoid it like you would avoid something which is very bad and worth avoiding.

Fiatil

I think my problem is I was expecting Warhammer: Total War, and got nothing even close to that awesome.

Pej

Santa Claustrophobia wrote: »

Avoid the motherfucking 360 port. Avoid it like the plague. Avoid it as if you were shunning the new kid at school. Avoid it like you would a streetwalker who leaps out of the alley in a skeevy part of town and offers you a freebie because she's bored. Avoid it like you would avoid something which is very bad and worth avoiding.

I'm pretty curious about what you've heard about it or experienced with it that makes you say that as I was planning on buying it tonight. So far I've not heard anything too bad about it other than the controls being a bit overly complicated (as they sometimes are in consoles strategy games.) Apparently online play works quite well and that was the main thing I wanted it for.

Santa Claustrophobia

Pej wrote: »

Santa Claustrophobia wrote: »

Avoid the motherfucking 360 port. Avoid it like the plague. Avoid it as if you were shunning the new kid at school. Avoid it like you would a streetwalker who leaps out of the alley in a skeevy part of town and offers you a freebie because she's bored. Avoid it like you would avoid something which is very bad and worth avoiding.

I'm pretty curious about what you've heard about it or experienced with it that makes you say that as I was planning on buying it tonight. So far I've not heard anything too bad about it other than the controls being a bit overly complicated (as they sometimes are in consoles strategy games.) Apparently online play works quite well and that was the main thing I wanted it for.

Think about it for a moment... It's been said that Mark of Chaos was a simplfied RTS set in the Warhammer universe. Personal opinions aside, it wasn't hard to play or complicated in any usual sense. So why are the controls for the 360 port overly complicated? Sure it's a console port of an PC RTS title and some things get lost or shuffled around awkwardly.

The 360 port will look exactly like the PC game... Only in high definition... And without the precision controls that KBAM offer games like this.

Oh, and take a look at the list of achievements. They're particularly heavy on multiplayer. Does anybody expect there will be a large community on Xboxl LIVE for Battle March multiplayer action?

EDIT: Don't let me stop you from spending your money. But C&C3 kind of set the standard for how RTS games on consoles should work. And Battle March isn't C&C3...

Rent it first, if you can. Then wait a month or two. You'll see price cuts eventually.

Mustachio Jones

I don't get the trend of taking a game that was mildly successful or didn't-do-so-hot on PC, port it to the 360 or PS3, add a bit of content the PC will probably never see, and have it sell even worse.

I guess because the difficulty to port : money gained is in their favor. Honestly though, it's unsettling the necromancy they've been committing with these sorts of things. There wasn't a sequel or expansion that was publicly recognized for a reason.

brynstar

I sort of had fun with the PC version. If the 360 control scheme doesn't suck, it might be a fun game.

Evil Multifarious

Fiatil wrote: »

I think my problem is I was expecting Warhammer: Total War, and got nothing even close to that awesome.

this is exactly the problem.

this game tried to be the same style of game as Total War but failed to really do it properly. when i played it, units had no mass, there was no real flanking because everyone just ganged up into a big goopy battle, units could move right through each other, and every fight ended up just being a big melee in the middle where whoever had the best/most troops won regardless of maneuvering or position.

Morskittar

Mark of Chaos was absolute shit with a lot of potential.

Evil Multifarious wrote: »

this game tried to be the same style of game as Total War but failed to really do it properly. when i played it, units had no mass, there was no real flanking because everyone just ganged up into a big goopy battle, units could move right through each other, and every fight ended up just being a big melee in the middle where whoever had the best/most troops won regardless of maneuvering or position.

A very accurate summary; the lack of flanks, true manoeuvering, friendly fire, collision detection and everything you find in this type of RTS made the game a big, messy, boring scrum. In every battle. The campaign was also completely linear and basically just a fancy map to a series of barely related battles. The game is nothing like most RTSes, has none of the depth of the TW games, and has almost nothing in common with the tabletop game from a tactical standpoint. WFB is all about movement, position, and timing. MoC was all about... picking the best troops and running straight forward.

Still, the visuals, sound, and parts of the story are pretty cool, and the gameplay isn't completely horrible. Just not very tactical. These things were invalidated in MoC by the ABSOLUTE SHIT UNFINISHED CODING that crashed, wouldn't update, froze, ran poorly, and was generally complete garbage. If Battle March runs better, it might be worth buying in a few months from a bargain bin.

The best part in the game were skaven voices. I wish I could find the files on the PC version.

GoodOmens

Fiatil wrote: »

I think my problem is I was expecting Warhammer: Total War, and got nothing even close to that awesome.

To be fair, that much awesome is illegal in 49 states and 128 countries.

widowson

GoodOmens wrote: »

Fiatil wrote: »

I think my problem is I was expecting Warhammer: Total War, and got nothing even close to that awesome.

To be fair, that much awesome is illegal in 49 states and 128 countries.

Bumped for agreement.

After the WTF awesomeness of Dawn of War, Mark of Chaos was too bland. No sync kills, boaring boss duels, too much like tabletopect.

And don't get me wrong; I love GW tabletop games, and have spent waaaay to much on them with the obligatory pile of unpainted models, but when I want to play tabletop, I'll play tabletop.

Magic Pink

I picked it up and it's ok. It takes a lot more strategy then what I'm used to in RTSs but the HUGE problem is they don't actually list all the controls in the manual or what the various control icons mean. They don't even list them completely on the in-game help sheet. The only way to find out is to run the 45 minute tutorial again and even THAT doesn't tell you what everything does.

Otherwise, it's a fun game, especially if you like Warhammer.

Fiaryn

widowson wrote: »

GoodOmens wrote: »

Fiatil wrote: »

I think my problem is I was expecting Warhammer: Total War, and got nothing even close to that awesome.

To be fair, that much awesome is illegal in 49 states and 128 countries.

Bumped for agreement.

After the WTF awesomeness of Dawn of War, Mark of Chaos was too bland. No sync kills, boaring boss duels, too much like tabletopect.

You can't possibly have played tabletop at all if you think Mark of Chaos played anything like it.