Battlestations Midway/Pacific type of game...done right by....Matrix?

[Dundradal]

I'm a big player of many war games...Close Combat, Carriers at War, Command & Conquer, etc, etc. On Xbox 360 Battlestations Midway and its sequel Battlestations Pacific are two games I play quite a bit. Battlestations Midway is done much better in many ways to Pacific (which was clearly rushed out the studio door before full testing was completed...) however the style of gameplay is amazing. You can control air (VF, VB, VT and heavy land units) and sea units (BB, CV, CA, DD, SS).

You can check out its website here

Now the studio that made the game was closed soon after its release. I think there great potential here in a game with the same style, however done with a compromise of the options found in Midway and Pacific and some more thought into it.

I know it's outside of Matrix's normal range of games...but do people think if another developer with a more keen attention to detail made another of these games it could succeed?

[bairdlander2]

nice try spambot[:D][:D]

[doomtrader]

DO you really think it's a spambot?

[sabre1]

It smells like one to me too.

[bairdlander2]

its not a spambot sorry Dunradel,there have been so many lately

[ilovestrategy]

That really doesn't seem like Matrix's style of game play. 

[Obsolete]

So, where are the hexes?

[jomni]

ORIGINAL: ilovestrategy

That really doesn't seem like Matrix's style of game play. 

We got some flight sims from Matrix so why not some action games.
Anyone tried Pacific Storm? I though it was quite good.

[TonyAAA]

You might want to check out the Distant Guns/Jutland games from Storm Eagle Studios. 

They don't model air units, but are pretty good naval sims that are broadly comparable to the Battlestations games. They have better realism when it comes to things like rate of fire, damage, or gun accuracy.

FWIW, not sure if this matters to you, but they use some of the most restrictive DRM of any PC game I've seen.

[decaro]

ORIGINAL: jomni

... Anyone tried Pacific Storm? I though it was quite good.

The graphics were good, although PS "Allies" was easier on my video card, but the logistics screen and slow pace of play in campaign mode was a deal-breaker for me.

[Dundradal]

Ouch. Definitely not a spambot. It was actually a legitimate question.

I just thought it might be an interesting avenue to think about. Edios did a fair job, but clearly the game(s) needed some work before being a game that could sell well and hold an online audience for an extended period of time.

There is still a good number of players for the original games. I play BS Pacific several times a week and don't have too much trouble finding a game in minutes.

[hgilmer3]

Eidos is dead to me after Cutthroats and Braveheart.

[sabre1]

Sorry Dundradal,

I apologize for calling you a spambot.

They do crop up around here from time to time.

[Dundradal]

Edios clearly rushed BS Pacific out the door...there are quite a few bugs (although their 1 patch did fix the catastrophic ones).

While it's not in Matrix's normal area, I thought it would be good to explore if they could or would do something like this....


And I get the spambot thing....7 posts...asking about another game title....I can assure you though that I'm real.

[DampSquib]

Never played pacific just Midway... & i had flash backs to Hostile Waters.
Good game..but you lost me as soon as you said online....never tried multi play with it.

Yeah...i know short...but that's because there are more articulate people on here than i.
Thought they might give you a better argument for or against.

Mmmm.... maybe this would work better if given over to a sim company...no?

...i looked at Distant Guns/Jutland...let's say No! and leave it at that.

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: DampSquib

Never played pacific just Midway... & i had flash backs to Hostile Waters.
Good game..but you lost me as soon as you said online....never tried multi play with it.

The multiplayer in Battlestations:Midway was really unique, it was the best part, in fact.
A really refreshing approach. Actually, I haven't seen this kind of genre mix before. In multiplayer, you actually had to jump to planes or ships, if you wanted to avoid that opponents roll over you. Still, with equal player skills, you could still use the decent AI and issue orders on the command map. The AI's bomb dives or torpedo attacks worked like a charm, very nice programming there.
That said, it was an interesting mix of RTS (no click-fest) and arcade flight/ship sim. The game could have been more successful if the devs would have created dedicated servers (players had to host, plus the netcode was buggy and had a tendency to drop people if playing with the max. of 8 players) and a tick more user friendly player lobby. Online games used to crash a lot, too bad.
I played Midway online for quite a while, but it was hard to find players. Many players had the demo only (but they could at least play 1 or 2 maps against people with full versions, IIRC).

Conclusion: Midway was a refreshing approach, with a shyteload of potential, but it looked like EIDOS Hungary was rather learning how to program AAA games than putting out solid software, and it seems that they tried to streamline (and add features to) the sequel, but some of the features were either buggy or cumbersome to use.

I'd like to see this being picked up by another publisher, but I don't think Square Enix (they acquired EIDOS) will hand over the Franchise, even though it was their decision to close the EIDOS Hungary studio.
My 2 cents

[Dundradal]

Yeah BS Midway has amazing plane AI. Dive bombers do proper nose overs, torpedo planes proper approaches...but in BS Pacific the AI is screwed. Dive bombers now glide bomb...and if you have them attack the same target twice, on the second approach the dive is even shallower than the first! It's terrible!

BS Midway/Pacific really shines in MP. I play it constantly. I've got a crew of guys that I play together with (which is important, if you know your team, you know that they've got your back)

Also, I should note that I play the games on XBox 360 and not a PC.

It is a great new "genre mix" approach that has so much potential. Hence why I brought the subject up here.