Quick Look: Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor

Sorry to hear the game doesn't work. I was hoping it would.

And by the way, when it comes to tank rounds:

HE = High Explosive (better against infantry). It's packed with explosives and designed to explode on impact.

AP = Armor Piercing (better against armored targets). It's solid shot fired at high velocity designed to pierce the target armor by kinetic energy alone.

HEAT rounds are different then either of those, and probably not used in this game. They're designed to be used against armor targets, but they pierce the armor not by hitting it hard, but by weakening it with an extremely high temperature shaped charge on the front of the round that super-heats the metal of the armor.

Reviews for this have been brutal. It was pretty funny how Brad started this Quick Look off then :)

This makes me sad. I remember seeing kids playing this at PAX East and Kinect looked like it was working like a champ. It was really, really shocking actually. Hand goes up in real life, and - voila! - the hand onscreen went up and pulled down a periscope. It looked awesome when it was working.

The Kinect is like the Wii remote. It's time for Microsoft to upgrade to their Wii Motion Plus, then. Hopefully the Xbox Next will have a Kinect that actually works.

wow!! was really looking forward to this, comes out friday here in UK. Do you think because of the bad reviews that they will be forced into a major game update. also fucked off theres No competitive multiplayer, which would of appealed to the Hardcore gamer. i wont pick this up, will wait until i see it cheap somewhere.

Kinect < Virtual Boy

Here's Arino from GameCenter CX playing the original Steel Batallion and interviewing the creators: http://youtu.be/g9B3gCX9iVI

Brad's tactic of standing in front of the larger enemy and shooting it in the face doesn't seem to work too well.

In other news, the game seems nearly unplayable. Kinect is (as almost always) an unnecessary handicap.

yeah... when i demoed it at PAX east it was disappointing...

confirmed

@MuttersomeTaxicab said:

@Nasar7 said:

The main reason he gives for not liking the game is the difficulty. Too repetitive, plodding, and unforgiving. In other words, for being more sim-like than arcadey. It should always have been obvious that this game would stay true to its sim roots rather than play like transformers. There are so many conflicting reports on the quality of this game but if that's all that's "wrong" with it, I'll enjoy the hell out of it.

I don't know. Brad also mentions that he played the original Steel Battalion with a reasonably positive tone, but he then talks about how it was mitigated by the fact that the controls were right there and you weren't fighting the technology to just get shit done. But you're right. I had fun with the demo, in spite of the janky kinect baggage. It seems like this is the kind of crazy that I'll enjoy.

It seemed to me that he said "did anyone actually like the old SB game?" .. hehe.

Don't get me wrong, I believe him when he says that the Kinect interface ruins it. I trust his technical evaluation of the game. I'd much prefer the original crazy controller.

It sucks that every mech game these days has to be arcade-y. Even great looking ones like Hawken. I want to shell a city from three miles out for an hour, coordinating with a team during a siege. Basically, I want a new Chromehounds :(

D...D...P!

Well, looks like it's time to return this on amazon before it even arrives.

If this had controlled well and also been like Gun Griffon on the Saturn, I would have been okay with it. You don't need to make it this complicated, it's clearly too much for Kinect to handle. Gun Griffon is also super arcadey jump in and run/boost a mech taking down enemies game that's quick to play and get into, quite possibly more so than recent Armoured Core games.
 
 But even if these controls had not been universally "WTF" for people, we'd still be looking at a game really not worth the $60 tag, but maybe half at best. Jesus christ Kinect. Half a billion dollar launch campaign and the only people laughing are the people playing Dance Central games which are awesome, and Microsoft, all the way to the bank.
 
(Yours truly, a lover of mech games ever since Walker on the Amiga)

Fuck video games

@SomeJerk said:

If this had controlled well and also been like Gun Griffon on the Saturn, I would have been okay with it. You don't need to make it this complicated, it's clearly too much for Kinect to handle.

But it's Steel Battallion. It's supposed to be complicated.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Steel_Battalion_controllers.jpg

The Kinect controls worked well enough for me. The real issues are you can't see out of the mech well enough & standing still even for short lengths gets you creamed.

So Brad says it's not the controls that he doesn't like, and then continues to talk about how completely horrible the controls are? I'm not saying Brad is wrong, this game may be shit, but I would just like some consistency and confidence in his criticism.

Someone put this in the best of category for quick looks.

This game, like Kinect Star Wars and Rise of Nightmares, seems to be a step in the right direction with Kinect games, but nothing has delivered a great gaming experience yet due to hardware flaws. Once Kinect gets some more firmware updates and possibly a new version, I think it will be something truly great. Until then, I will only Gamefly these games and allow my Kinect to gather dust (or use it for voice commands).

@DoctorWelch said:

So Brad says it's not the controls that he doesn't like, and then continues to bitch about only the controls for the entire thing? I'm not saying Brad is wrong, this game may be shit, but I would just like some consistency and confidence in his criticism.

...where in the world did you get the idea that I don't dislike the controls?

So disappointed, I really wanted this to be great.

Diamond cutter!

This game showed immense amounts of promise. It's just too bad because it has potential, and hardware-wise the kinect is (in my experience) actually really good at sensing a LOT of stuff, but the disconnect between games using it and the inherent latency that motion detection hardware has is just way too huge for the vast majority of games to use it effectively.

@Brad: Think he's saying that controls aside you didn't touch on what made the game so bad. Issues such as level design, a.i., etc. I didn't get that but think that's what he's getting at.

@artsandrules said:

@MuttersomeTaxicab said:

@Nasar7 said:

The main reason he gives for not liking the game is the difficulty. Too repetitive, plodding, and unforgiving. In other words, for being more sim-like than arcadey. It should always have been obvious that this game would stay true to its sim roots rather than play like transformers. There are so many conflicting reports on the quality of this game but if that's all that's "wrong" with it, I'll enjoy the hell out of it.

I don't know. Brad also mentions that he played the original Steel Battalion with a reasonably positive tone, but he then talks about how it was mitigated by the fact that the controls were right there and you weren't fighting the technology to just get shit done. But you're right. I had fun with the demo, in spite of the janky kinect baggage. It seems like this is the kind of crazy that I'll enjoy.

It seemed to me that he said "did anyone actually like the old SB game?" .. hehe.

Don't get me wrong, I believe him when he says that the Kinect interface ruins it. I trust his technical evaluation of the game. I'd much prefer the original crazy controller.

It sucks that every mech game these days has to be arcade-y. Even great looking ones like Hawken. I want to shell a city from three miles out for an hour, coordinating with a team during a siege. Basically, I want a new Chromehounds :(

Yeah. It's come to the point where I don't even know what I want from a mech game any more. I kinda liked Armored Core V. (I imagine I'd like it more if I had the time to really get into the meat of the mech building stuff - which seems to be largely where the fun lives.)

But yeah, a serious-faced mech sim is something I'd totally get into. It just seems like doing any kind of mech game is a tough sell for publishers, and even then I can't fathom many that would go for a meticulous, measured approach. Which, yeah, total shame.

Controls worked fine for me in the demo. Then again kinect works better for me that it does in all the quick looks ive seen. Perhaps its the setup

The first 5 minutes watching brad pull levers and shit excited the hell out of me. But just watching the combat and hearing about the level lengths has dissapoints me severely.

This seems like the kind of game that could be awesome when given to a community of modders.

Yo. The Diamond Cutter!

At least we still have the Living Legends mod, Mechwarrior Online, and Hawken to enjoy for mech combat.

@Brad said:

@DoctorWelch said:

So Brad says it's not the controls that he doesn't like, and then continues to bitch about only the controls for the entire thing? I'm not saying Brad is wrong, this game may be shit, but I would just like some consistency and confidence in his criticism.

...where in the world did you get the idea that I don't dislike the controls?

Jeff: "All that is based on the notion of it working, and being totally functional as advertised. (referring to the kinect stuff) That seems to be the part where it goes bad?"

You: "It's not that, exactly."

I know, I know, I'm being a little harsh and nit picky for basically a one off comment. I'm just saying we trust you, Brad. If this game sucks complete ass to play there's no need to lay it on nicely, give it to us straight.

Edit: Also I changed the wording of my first comment because I realize it may have seemed a little too much like I was attacking you.

Aw man, how disappointing. That pretty much deflates any and all hope of something good coming out of this iteration of Kinect for me.

@DoctorWelch said:

@Brad said:

@DoctorWelch said:

So Brad says it's not the controls that he doesn't like, and then continues to bitch about only the controls for the entire thing? I'm not saying Brad is wrong, this game may be shit, but I would just like some consistency and confidence in his criticism.

...where in the world did you get the idea that I don't dislike the controls?

Jeff: "All that is based on the notion of it working, and being totally functional as advertised. (referring to the kinect stuff) That seems to be the part where it goes bad?"

You: "It's not that, exactly."

I know, I know, I'm being a little harsh and nit picky for basically a one off comment. I'm just saying we trust you, Brad. If this game sucks complete ass to play there's no need to lay it on nicely, give it to us straight.

That was a poor choice of words made under considerable duress, then. The controls are awful, the mission design is awful. It's both.

And they were so hyped for Steel Battalion as well. I remember them waxing lyrical about it on the podcast. Very disappointing. I never had expectations but for those who did, this is a car crash. At least Brad said it straight up.

<>

Jeff: "It seemed like a thing with potential every time they showed it off."

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, JEFF?

@DoctorWelch said:

So Brad says it's not the controls that he doesn't like, and then continues to bitch about only the controls for the entire thing? I'm not saying Brad is wrong, this game may be shit, but I would just like some consistency and confidence in his criticism.

He said that the game would be horrible even with regular controls. That's not the same thing as saying the controls aren't a problem. He never said the thing you think he said.

You know what, the idea of a mech that requires multiple people to make work is kinda a cool idea. I also really like the idea of all the control it should give you over the VT. Too bad it just seems like Kinect bullshit once again.

Its gonna sound like I just blindly defended the GB crew but people really just seem to nick pick and look for things to bitch about.

It's almost like you should hold down a button on the controller, which will activate the kinect. Make your gesture, and let go of the button to deactivate the kinect, so you don't end up reversing exactly what you tried to do.

@Chewii101 said:

Its gonna sound like I just blindly defended the GB crew but people really just seem to nick pick and look for things to bitch about.

no your right, thats what these trolls do, but i will say that while i love the staff sometimes the crew do deserve the shit they get.

@metalsnakezero said:

Man, this was a disappointment. I was hoping FromSoftware would be able to really make the Kinect work. At least they still make good ass Souls games.

Holy shit, From Software was the development team on this? Damn, now I really realize how much of a tragedy this game appears to be.

@Brad said:

That was a poor choice of words made under considerable duress, then. The controls are awful, the mission design is awful. It's both.

Yeah, it definitely seems that way. Sounds like even if the Kinect actually worked like it was supposed to it would still be a pretty bad game. Really disappointing coming from From (always weird to say). It would have been awesome if this were the game to finally execute on third party kinect support other than dance/party games, but maybe we'll just have to wait for a better, more able Kinect.

@depecheload: No, it was just a misunderstanding of something he said at the beginning that lead me to believe he thought the controls were okay, but then that wasn't the case at all.

21 seconds in, my heart is broke

Holy shit. This went bad quick. I mean, hearing these guys anticipate this game for a long while on the podcasts and then just to hear Brad bluntly say he hates it, I was like fuck...

Slapping us with his judgment in the very first seconds, before showing us anything, this is not a Quick Look, but rather a Quick Review.

I like opinionated (even offensive!) reviews, but I first want to see things for myself, before I get to hear the summary.

This is a great Kinect game. Please don't let the reviews get you all down. Tons of fun is to be had with this! Controls work fine if you have a good setup and everything is 1 to 1. Easily a 4 out of 5 game

There was so much hype for this game, but I was right to remain skeptical.

That looks terrible.

This seems like if it worked, it would be amazing. 

@buckybit: What would you expect him to say? "This is Steel Batallion! Watch us play it. It is a game."

loot windows need to go, take another cue from diablo.

<>