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Petroglyph's 8-Bit Armies / 8-Bit Hordes/ 8-Bit Invaders

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Four days left until 8-Bit Invaders is released, seen in the Steam page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/531680

 

I might get it for Christmas, along with 8-Bit Hordes, if the price is right. I know what Petroglyph is doing doesn't look great, but it's better than nothing of another RTS game I would want to play for.

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I finally get to play some 8-Bit Invaders and the only thing new in that game is how Petroglyph developed a global conquest mode (similar to C&C3 Kane's Wrath) known as the Multiverse.

 

Also instead of Victory! A Winner is You!, they even copycat the world ending quote from Super Mario Bros...... Victory! Thank you! But our leader is in another planet!

 

Come on, Petroglyph. :facepalm:

Edited by PurpleGaga27

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a global conquest mode known as the Multiverse.

 

Victory! Thank you! But our leader is in another planet!

Shouldn't that be "our leader is in another universe"? What is the point of invoking the multiverse concept if it's just multiple planets, other than to inject a science fiction feel into an empty shell of a game?

 

As an aside, I am really weary of the whole multiverse trope. It is basically an overused deus ex machina in fiction and is often presented as if it has some sort of valid scientific backing (which it does not).

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Also instead of Victory! A Winner is You!, they even copycat the world ending quote from Super Mario Bros...... Victory! Thank you! But our leader is in another planet!

 

Come on, Petroglyph. :facepalm:

 

I thought the victory text was hilarious! A great use of particle effects too. That's just my opinion.

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So how is the game? I havn't bought it yet but it would be fun to fend of the aliens as one of the modern day armies. I love have 8-bit armies, hordes and invaders are all compatible with each other and that you can play a fantasy faction against a sci-fi faction or whatever.

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The latest 8-bit Invaders isn't that bad though.... but like Hordes and Armies, the gameplay is still pretty rushed.

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Sounds like Petroglyph is doing what EA couldn't do. Instead of C&C Arena, there will be 8-Bit Arena as well as 8-Bit Armies: Arena. But what's the point of developing 8-Bit Armies: Arena when you can have the F2P version of 8-Bit Arena? I find that confusing. What's the difference other than free versus cost?

 

And yeah, it took a little while for both Armies and Hordes to finally get to play against the Invaders.

 

Coming soon, I'll bet Petroglyph will merge Armies, Hordes and Invaders into one huge 8-Bit game, along with Arena of course.

 

One thing still has yet to hit YouTube and the Internet, where can I listen to the rest of Frank Klepacki's 8-Bit Invaders soundtrack?

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I never wanted to buy the soundtrack since I just want to hear samples of them. I couldn't even find samples in the iTunes store.

 

But ah well, I guess I have to resort back to Final Big or OS Big Editor to extract the MEG files since all 8-Bit games use the format.

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8-Bit Armies will be made available on digital stores and retail in the summer of 2017 (winter for this side of the world) for consoles and its going to be released as a retail box for PC.

 


 

SOEDESCO collaborates with Command & Conquer™ veterans on console debut of 8-Bit Armies™

 

Publisher SOEDESCO is working with developer Petroglyph Games™ on the digital and boxed console debut of 8-Bit Armies. They will also release a boxed PC-version of the popular RTS. 8-Bit Armies will be available in digital console stores and retail in the summer of 2017.

 

Watch the trailer here:


Download press assets here: http://ow.ly/qmr8308NH4u

 

The Petroglyph team has a rich history in the development of AAA strategy games, with the executive staff and many team members being veterans of Westwood Studios™, the creators of Command & Conquer. Since Petroglyph was established it has released various RTS classics, such as Grey Goo™, Universe at War™, and Star Wars: Empire at War™.

 

Accessible for new players
8-Bit Armies is the latest RTS from Petroglyph. It commemorates the first Command & Conquer games with its accessible gameplay mechanics while providing a fun and timeless art style that introduces new players into the genre. A unique console controller scheme makes it easier than ever to build bases and command large armies without complex button memorization.

The boxed and online console version of 8-Bit Armies will include the game and the ‘Guardians Campaign’ DLC.

 

Features

  • Jump right in with easy to understand modern military units and structures
  • Play cooperatively or versus the AI choosing from multiple difficulty options
  • Use classic RTS Base-Building mechanics to construct the ultimate HQ from which to attack your foes
  • Explore a variety of locales, destroying everything that gets in your way with devastating superweapons
  • Two campaigns with a total of 40 single-player combat missions for many hours of gameplay
  • Join your friends to play 12 co-op missions against a variety of AI opponents
  • Gather up to 8 online players to team up in one of the dozen multiplayer/skirmish maps

 

http://soedesco.com/soedesco-collaborates-with-command-conquer-veterans-on-console-debut-of-8-bit-armies/

 

Must they use the Command & Conquer name to promote it though?

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Command your forces, Conquer the world! It's worth noting the CnC reference, definitely. It didn't need to be in the title though. This will be good for their business, I hope they get into the newsletters and get good promotional coverage.

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Retail box, Petroglyph? I would buy the 8-Bit Armies/Hordes/Invaders collection in one retail box, not just 8-Bit Armies. I think it's a little too late to go for a retail box after a somewhat successful digital release for one game, but it would be better if they release an all-in-one 8-Bit game.

 

Talking about misrepresenting C&C veterans, most of the ex-Westwood guys in Petroglyph don't work there anymore.

Edited by PurpleGaga27

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Retail box, Petroglyph? I would buy the 8-Bit Armies/Hordes/Invaders collection in one retail box, not just 8-Bit Armies. I think it's a little too late to go for a retail box after a somewhat successful digital release for one game, but it would be better if they release an all-in-one 8-Bit game.

 

Talking about misrepresenting C&C veterans, most of the ex-Westwood guys in Petroglyph don't work there anymore.

 

I think it's farcical that it now comes in a box; but from a business perspective 8 Bit Armies does have an amusing yet cool cover, which is worth showing off in stores. Surely it will be an all-in-one? It'd be ridiculous to release it with less content. My friend's son who's about 14 years old would know better than to buy a boxed version, if it had less stuff :P

 

edit: oh yeah by the way, Tropico 5 is only ~5GB but it comes on a 50GB Blu-Ray disk, they didn't make many copies though. I asked EB Games a couple of years ago and only one store was stocking Tropico 5 in my city ... a few months after its release. Expect 8 Bit Armies to be seen in some stores, but it will be a novel item I suspect :)

Edited by jeffnz

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I've reached the point where I buy games partly because of what studio makes the game. In the past I'd buy whatever seemed cool, or whatever seemed popular - now I'm buying based on what studio, and I don't care too much about what the intellectual property is. Petroglyph knows that buying intellectual property is stupid, and trying to make IP "successful" isn't something that's done consciously, it just happens, people like it or they don't (up to fan reactions). 8 Bit Armies has been pretty cool so far, I've owned it for < 24 hours. I'm re-playing missions in the Renegades campaign, because I want to achieve the silver objectives and unlock stuff for the load-out. That's a feature that would have suited Tiberian Sun - nothing's more dull than having to train some soldiers and build a few basic structures at the start of a game. Unit spam is very important in 8 Bit, it's so easy to queue 30 tanks and send them into the enemy base. Resources are gathered very quickly, things build quickly, so it's mostly a case of doing stuff - don't stay still. In CnC3 some buildings are very expensive and sometimes I found myself short of credit. In 8 Bit there is no such thing as being careful with your credits.

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I've reached the point where I buy games partly because of what studio makes the game.

A mindless follower.

 

In the past I'd buy whatever seemed cool

The correct way, assuming you are doing more than judging a game by its box art.

 

or whatever seemed popular

Baa!

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Pretty much the summary of everything wrong with today's gamer wannabes.

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Today's gamers? That's how people bought games before information was easily accessible online.

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It's not like gaming magazines and information on back covers didn't exist back then, though. The late 90s did have their own share of Internet info as well, from news sites to fansites (this being one of them).

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I had to disagree, Jeffnz. This is what Westwood Studios should have done in the 1990s. I'll bet most C&C players aren't really tempting to play 8-Bit games unless they have other good RTS games to play with.

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Eventually they'll invest in a larger project but it'll be a few years away yet.

 

Update: I haven't yet reached the half way point for the main 8 Bit Armies campaign ('Renegades') but I'm making good progress. I've also played the first few missions for Deathsworn and Lightbringers. Petroglyph went crazy with the particle effects in these games, when a building is destroyed it falls into chunks/blocks and it looks really cool. The Renegades campaign is slightly annoying because I'm still unlocking things. I forgot the name but there was a mission that took a long time* to beat and it took dozens of waves to finally overcome the enemy . It was a snow mission and I must have played it all wrong anyway, I should have expanded my base toward the middle where the resources were.

 

Once I unlocked the rocket-firing helicopters and transports it was easy to go back and beat certain missions/bonus objectives on hard. You can fit 4-5 tanks into a transport helicopter. The unit voices, music and funny map props make the game more interesting. Many mission maps are like arena maps but some are more like mazes, and they have ridiculous props like penguins keeping warm in front of a fire, or skeletons in desert maps. Grassy maps have waterfalls and also mine carts and their tracks. Seeing the mine carts makes me think they are paying a homage to Minecraft, you guys probably think it's all lame but I appreciate the little details from the graphics team.

 

* I was reminded of a Dune II mission several years ago when my base was wrecked, and all I had was 2-3 palaces that produce Fremen, that mission took a few hours

Edited by jeffnz

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When I got 8 Bit Armies on GOG I got all the content including the soundtrack in FLAC format (which I will archive forever, <3 u Frank :D )

 

- So although I have Armies, Hordes and Invaders, I only downloaded Armies and Hordes to begin. Invaders is sci-fi so I thought why bother, but Hordes I downloaded and I'm glad I did because it's completely eccentric. The unit voices in Hordes is even more absurd than in Armies and I'll just leave it at that LOL. Armies surprised me with 2 female voices for units, the transport helicopter (chinook) has a voice that reminds me of Para-Medic from Metal Gear 3. And the rocket helicopter voice is what I'd call posh, it would be strange if you were to bump into the helicopter lady IRL, it's a one of a kind voice, it should have been in Team 17's Worms hahaha. Most of the voices in Armies are typical of military games that's why the transport chopper stands out - the voice is a parody in what is already a cute and laughably absurd game. I hope Petroglyph can make a proper RTS in 3-5 years time and kick EA's butt. In the meanwhile I'm finding that 8 Bit Armies and Hordes is quite difficult. The mission that I disliked the most so far was called Rotorhead. On some maps you have to attack 5 enemy bases, but the level design is very good: sometimes there is a weak point where you can attack with helicopters and wreck an enemy base by out-ranging the turrets - this is never a tactic to rely on, however. There's a mission where the enemy has 6 nuke silos, where 5 of them you can attack right away (depending on your load-out) and then there's a single nuke at another base, where I think you sneak in with the choppers - the trouble is, you'll never remember all the bloody maps so it's guess work every time! Level design is great but 8 Bit Hordes is very, very hard for me at the moment. It takes many, many waves to finally break the enemy base. I think the idea I can't grasp yet is that you need to attack with one massive force, and before the big attack you need only defend your perimeter to protect harvesters. In CnC3 I managed to beat the campaign over-and-over by harassing the enemy at every opportunity, whether my attack was "the final assault" or not, I never knew.

 

If none of you played any of 8 Bit, then Hordes is kinda weird because your "harvester" is a minecart with a guy in it, and instead of harvesting oil, you harvest from a gold mine - also you have the "crush" thing with your "vehicles" where "vehicles" means cavalry or giant monsters. The ai is really ****ing annoying and they know when to back off and hide behind an arrow tower.

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Well here's my short review of the 8-Bit game trio:

 

The 8-Bit Armies/Hordes/Invaders trio of games are fun and basic to play, just like what a typical old-fashioned C&C game would be. Sure you can nod with C&C, Warcraft and Starcraft similar material. Lots of missions, but they all lack of a better story and some maps are re-used over and over again in missions. All of those maps are playable in skirmish and multiplayer modes. Hordes is less fun to play, but playing those factions are technically no match against factions of the Armies and the Invaders in skimirsh/multiplayer mode. 8-Bit Invaders included a new game feature similar to Global Conquest Mode from C&C3 Kane's Wrath called the Multiverse and that is also no fun at all. As for the end-game messages like "Victory! A Winner is You" and "Victory! Thank you, but our leader is from another planet!" are all pathetic ways to end a mission or skirmish/mp. Voice taunts were lacked at first release and were released later on. Mods are allowed for custom music and voice taunts.

 

As for Frank Klepacki, give him good credit for making his awesome music to Armies, Hordes and Invaders.

 

My final review:

 

 

Pros: What else can you expect? It's a Petroglyph game with basic RTS gameplay but plays much quicker. Great music once again by Frank Klepacki.

Cons: Not as fun as an average C&C game, lacks stories for all factions, limited music tracks, unbalanced between Hordes and the other factions of Armies/Invaders

Rating: 73%

 

 

Edited by PurpleGaga27

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The reuse of maps hasn't bothered me yet. The detail in the maps is really good. I just started the Guardians campaign and the swamp graphics look nice, there's water flowing through the terrain but you can build on it, not in the rivers though. In one of the swamp maps you see stupid scenes like a crocodile with a penguin in its mouth. The props are great. In the Hordes campaign there are sets of eyes glowing in the dark, and spiders everywhere. The spiders are just props though, like the crocodiles. In Hordes you also find 8-sided die (dice) on some maps - a reference to old RPG games back when they were played with cards? I opened up multiverse and it didn't make any sense to me, just more stuff I can't be bothered with. I agree with your spoiler comment re music, I've disabled it for now.

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