Quick Look: 8-Bit Armies

I can't seem to click on any videos whatsoever on this site right now. weird

edit: oh right, it's my adblocker. this is what happens when i clear my cache and stuff

Kirov reporting. All the maps looking like they're just skirmish ones is kinda odd, but this looks nice otherwise.

Huh. It feels like this turned up out of nowhere and it's really scratching my latent C&C itch (like Dan and Drew). I'm going to need to buy this!

16 bit armies with CD quality audio is going to be even doper

Excitedly, "it's the same!"

"Yep, it's fantastic."

Man, video games are fucked.

I'm holding out for the 64bit version by Nintendo where the blocky characters and constant fog is perfect for the system's limitations.

Im with Dan: down with symbolic naming!

Every time I see "applewood bacon" I think theres entire orchards going into the smoker.

The 'it's not really 8-bit' thing is my new favorite type of video game pedantry. It has eclipsed 'it's not really a Rogue-like.'

Great game, they will also release a fantasy version of it.

But does it have

Language is descriptive, not prescriptive.

Yah it's really silly. We all know by now what is meant by "8-bit styled." For someone to stand up and say "thats not 8-bit thats obviously 16-bit" is the epitome of whats terrible in videogame culture. If you're describing a game in the wiki, absolutely the difference matters. When you're describing a game in general to someone, it's common shorthand for "it's like a retro styled game, it looks like pixel graphics but it has modern flourishes."

I don't really get the bolded part. How is that "the epitome of whats terrible in videogame culture"? Anyways, I'm with you to an extent, but it does get rather silly when you just put that label on something that has a voxel art style. Like, it's not even the "retro pixel 8-bit or 16-bit-ish" style. It's okay that words completely lose their original meaning, but at the same time I think putting the 8-bit label on something like this is really dumb.

Anyways, the game looks cool. Think I'm gonna buy it.

This looks fun, are u gonna do a Nioh QL?

I know it's not a big deal, and I don't care too much about the naming. I'm just curious about how they decided on naming it that way, when they are well aware that there's nothing close to being 8-bit in this. I mean, if this was made by a group of youngsters, with little to no nostalgia or experience with actual games of that era, I would totally understand them calling whatever retro graphics 8-bit. But Petroglyph Games is formed by veterans of the industry, and I would think they if any should be better at naming a game like this.

But hey, I'm no game developer. Maybe they know something I don't. Maybe they know that naming something 8-bit when referring to retro is more appealing to a broader audience. Which at the same time is weird since this game looks like its targeted audience would be those who enjoy old school RTS games.

I want to play this game with Dan.

That MP match. Went exactly like I thought it would.

My sister called Don't Starve Together an 8 bit game the other day and I almost had a heart attack.

I don't know why it matters so much to me that so many people seem to misuse the term these days.

They should do a LAN party of this on UPF.

Or Red Alert. Or Red Alert 2!

What I would do for a real new Command & Conquer.

The art style makes it look like it's one of those Crossy Roads clones. Shooty Guns.

I think the artstyle is pretty ugly, which is more of a bummer when you consider how good looking voxel games these people have previously put out - Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 still look pretty damn amazing to this day, and with the 8-bit title in mind, I would've preferred if they had gone with Dune II style sprite art instead of this semi-Minecraft-y mess ... but damn it's still my favorite game of the year so far, and probably my favorite RTS since Emperor: Battle for Dune.

Frank Klepacki's music is pretty damn amazing as always too.

Oh, and I had the exact same feelings as Drew towards the C&C series, C&C 1 and Tiberian Sun are the definite high points for me, never really got into Red Alert.

21:30...

Wonderful game but... I'm just sick of (random number)bit look games. >_<

@amyggen: maybe I phrased that poorly. I just mean that for a lack of a better term it's a real nerdy gamer thing to nitpick.

Mannn, 8-bit being basically used to describe an aesthetic is weird, though if the look lets them iterate quick then boy am I 500% for it.

I wholeheartedly agree with this!

Nerdy nitpicks are what we do around these parts!

@amyggen: not in MY house you don't!

The unit select sound is totally the rugrats pacifier noise right?

For some reason those graphics gave me a flashback to Tank-tics.

What I associate with Petroglyph is units that take too much damage to kill and attacks that don't feel powerful. Kinda the opposite of C&C where things melt surprisingly fast.

As far as the style, I'd call it 4 bit, it's like running a VGA at 640x480, sharp lines and very few colors.

This looks pretty cool. I'd love for it to be on Mac though since I don't have a PC. Oh well, I'll be content in watching this.

If you always wanted to play TA but never did. I think better option would be to just play Supreme Commander 1 now.

You can build ridiculous amounts of units in it. It even has one faction with this huge tank! Also build multiple nuke silos... and the nukes are pretty awesome!

I want this game. It has such a nice clean look to it.

I REALLY wish they didn't call it 8-bit.

Just bought this after watching, I havent played RTS games in years and my video card came with ashes of singularity, feel like this will ease me back into the genre better.

I get a little sad sometimes when people remember the first C&C, but not Dune II.

As far as this game goes, I am Soo tired of the Minecraft aesthetic, but this seems a nearly true return to form for the original RTS. Dan's glee is infectious.

something also reminds me a bit of the Advance Wars look.

Also, penguins can't live in igloos. Igloos are from the northern hemisphere, penguins are from the southern hemisphere.

Kinda like the art style except for the infantry. Wish they had more detail, or looked more different.

Grey goo is deaad already?

This looks fine, but if it doesnt do anything new, why wouldnt i stick to the c&c games?

That'd be pretty great.

Not a huge fan of the artstyle in this game, but it has reignited my urge to replay RA1/2 for the nth time (I played RA2 a ton years ago. Those cutscenes are practically burnt into my brain)

Is it done, Yuri? No, comrade premere. It has only begun. <cue Kirovs and Hells March 2>

Do I hear some Klepacki here?

@humanity: Yeah, I can think of worse things in video game culture, especially online. :/

As a big C&C fan, I find that this game looks fucking awesome. I want the game to do well so Petroglyph does a sequel that is bigger and better. I would like a proper campaign that is on the level of at least the first C&C (mission objectives, map design, etc), and a second faction.

Well, this video got me to fire up Origin for the first time in about a year and re-download a bunch of C&C games. I know what I'll be spending a good chunk of my weekend doing now.

@hatking said:

Remember the 70s-90s, when people made original games randomly sometimes? And it wasn't all just leaning on established genres and retreading nostalgia? Good times.

@stordoff said:

You guys are going to make me replay RA2/Yuri's Revenge again. God those games are so good...the Apocalypse Tanks looked so much more badass.

(Be one, with Yuri)

@existence: Are you referring to the "it's not 8-bit" conversation going on here?

Language is neither, descriptivism and prescriptivism are both valuable approaches to language study. If what you're saying is that we shouldn't fight the "8-bit" terminology, I agree, but it's a bitter pill to swallow. For me, it's the term "third person" as opposed to "over the shoulder" or whatever. Even as a dyed-in-the-wool descriptivist (with the degree to prove it!) saying a specifically third person view isn't third person drives me batty.

Sorry if I've put words in your mouth.

Yeah, and I hate being "get off my lawn" guy, but there's something kind of depressing about a couple of game critics(?) waxing on about how good a game is that just knowingly capitalizes on nostalgia and brings pretty much nothing of its own to the table.

@hatking said:

This is also a complaint I generally level at Nintendo. I like their moxie and everything, but for every 1 Pikmin or Splatoon they come up with, they make about 25 games that are falling back on a good idea some dude had back in the 80s/early 90s. I digress.

Totally with you. I'm also a big believer in old games. I don't love the culture of 'latest and greatest' that exists in games. Anything older than a six months might as well not exist. That doesn't exist in other mediums. I watch movies from before I was born, why can't I play a game that old? It's weird that it's preferred to see the same thing churned out over and over instead of something new and unique or the original thing as it existed.

Then again, to each their own. I love playing outdated stuff. Currently a good friend of mine and I are playing through Alan Wake and she's totally in love with the game. I guess I'll just continue beating my drum, and hope enough people agree that the weird stuff continues to exist in some form.