Suit Up For The Trials of War in Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor

Looks alright

until i see how kinect can be used for a mech sim game, i remain suspicious....

I'll pass on this mech game.

Looks way too maudlin and dark for a game in which you stomp around in a stupid robot blowing up other robots, I'm getting tired of the Ace Combat trend of trying to put a humanizing story into a game in which the scale of gameplay is too large to even see people. If it's anything like the AC series, expect all of this horrors-of-war stuff to be related to you through less than half a dozen stilted cutscenes and a bunch of radio-play dialogue that runs while you are in missions.

This is looking dumber and dumber, and man. That PS2 graphics on those faces.

That mech is defying physics. It also has terrible animation. It also looks dumb.
 
I'll stick with Mechwarrior, thank you.

I really want to see where this is all going.

so, maybe game play at GDC? 

@misterleaf said:

Looks way too maudlin and dark for a game in which you stomp around in a stupid robot blowing up other robots, I'm getting tired of the Ace Combat trend of trying to put a humanizing story into a game in which the scale of gameplay is too large to even see people. If it's anything like the AC series, expect all of this horrors-of-war stuff to be related to you through less than half a dozen stilted cutscenes and a bunch of radio-play dialogue that runs while you are in missions.

I kind of agree. Operating a mech (or jet) would breed the kind of professional detachment (and even occasional morbid mirth) that you hear from AC130 crews. I mean, the horror exists in theory, but it is kind of hard to connect with it from your position. Plus, who would want to?

In the end I feel like these kinds of storylines are just there because the developers feel guilty about making an awesome game about war. So the problem is that they don't exist for our enjoyment, but for theirs, and it shows.

Edit: If anything, I'd like to see devs channel their distaste for war into something darkly comedic rather than hamhanded melodrama.

STill doesn't explain how it's gonna be controlled by Kinect. Until the reveal that, I'm not interested.

For a Mech game that was a long trailer with no mechs.

No $200 controller? No sale.

dem xbox graphics

Trailers without gameplay are USELESS...

@Humanity said:

For a Mech game that was a long trailer with no mechs.

Winner.

Steel Battalion is so much better then Iron Brigade... ;)

What a terrible-looking trailer. And animation was awful!

I will wait for Hawken on PC.

i really hope this game doesn't flop.

I still remember sitting with that behemoth of a controller on my lap, feet on the pedals, hands on the throttle and stick....

Oh, I have to hit a series of buttons (which are flashing and pulsating like an 80's arcade) just to start up the mech?

awesome.....

@nohthink: You use a regular controller in conjunction with Kinect.

No Steam....err... No Controller, no sale!!!

Double whammy. This one is doomed from the start.

You can sit the controller in front of you when you play, it'll add to the ambiance.

Well that was a shitty trailer. Yes, war is horrible, post-traumatic stress, yadda yadda... all that stuff would be more impactful if the entire time, I wasn't thinking "They must really not want to show you how awkwardly playing this game with Kinect is..."

Those faces look fucking terrible. Serious uncanny valley shit right there. Why don't they have any eyebrows? I realize the mechs are the focus of the game so I shouldn't worry if they people look like garbage, but in that case... that was a terrible move to focus on them, in that case. Show us mech action. Crap, man, those guys looked like they came out of a cheap 90's saturday morning CG cartoon.

Curious about this. From Software developing it gives me some hope, but I'd like to see some actual game play footage first.

Watch this if you want to hear more about the game. It sounds promising.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aoyqVg_C-A

Did anyone else notice capcom misspelled their own name at 2:05 ?

Joystiq has a preview and video of actual gameplay if anyone's interested.

@JetForceGemini said:

Watch this if you want to hear about more about the game. It sounds promising.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aoyqVg_C-A

Awesome, thanks for the link. This is actually looking pretty cool.

CAPCPOM!!

@l3reak said:

Those faces look fucking terrible. Serious uncanny valley shit right there. Why don't they have any eyebrows? I realize the mechs are the focus of the game so I shouldn't worry if they people look like garbage, but in that case... that was a terrible move to focus on them, in that case. Show us mech action. Crap, man, those guys looked like they came out of a cheap 90's saturday morning CG cartoon.

Yeah, especially how strong and good looking everything in the last trailer was. Either way, the game looks really promising.

CAPCPOM! Oh dear.

This makes me want a Ring of Red 2 :(

Mechs make me sad.

@Dooftastic said:

What a terrible-looking trailer. And animation was awful!

I liked the tome they were going for, but yes, both the people and the mech had very unimpressive animations. Funny how the decade old MechWarrior games puts this to shame there. Couldn't help but think of the "look at the hip movement!" line from the MW4 random PC game video as the mech's leg movements didn't seem very connected to how the upper body moved here.

DAMMIT GAME! LET ME LOVE YOU!

@aceofspudz said:

Edit: If anything, I'd like to see devs channel their distaste for war into something darkly comedic rather than hamhanded melodrama.

More of the Cannon Fodder, Total Annihilation or Brian Fargo take on war would be interesting.

@Hero_Swe said:

This is looking dumber and dumber, and man. That PS2 graphics on those faces.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that. I try not to put too much stake in graphics but this looked like garbage.

The mech walking out into the battlefield at the end looked like an armless frog. What a joke.

Phew.

What a pile of shit.

This trailer needs more fist bumps and handshakes.

Not getting the original Steel Batallion with its ludicrous controller was one of my biggest regrets of the last console generation. Now it's coming back - and I don't have a 360 or a kinect. Goddamn it. All I want is some damn first person immersive mech combat.

@fisk0 said:

@Dooftastic said:

What a terrible-looking trailer. And animation was awful!

I liked the tome they were going for, but yes, both the people and the mech had very unimpressive animations. Funny how the decade old MechWarrior games puts this to shame there. Couldn't help but think of the "look at the hip movement!" line from the MW4 random PC game video as the mech's leg movements didn't seem very connected to how the upper body moved here.

Yeah, the mech animation was just awful. It's like they never sat and thought about how a mech would actually have to move to physically work.

Controller of doom or gtfo.

The whole reason of Steel Batalion's existence was the controller. This is beyond pointless.

Not getting the original Steel Battalion with its ludicrous controller was one of my biggest regrets of the last console generation. Now it's coming back - and I don't have a 360 or a Kinect. Goddamn it. All I want is some damn first person immersive mech combat.

My old roommate had that controller.

Japanese developers trying to portray the Western European theatre of WW2 = hilariously naive.

@CatsAkimbo: worse yet, how the hell doesn't that thing fall flat on it's face? the legs are at one end of it and there's the whole VT in front. I know that walking is a fall forever interrupted but that thing would have to be flying to keep that weird CoG in check...

At least get some engineers to look at it. Mechanical ones. me.