BCM Gold review @ UGO - and hello.

[chriscoe]

First of all, I am a fairly recent inductee to the BCMG universe, and have thus far enjoyed the challenge of manipulating my Carrier. So I am writing this as a general hello to the community. I am also writing because my search of the forums did not turn up this review so I thought I would share it with you guys.

UGO.com Review

Doesn't seem to add much to the reviews that are available, but I thought you guys would like a heads up.

[ 06-16-2003, 04:05 PM: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

[Wolferz]

Thanks for the link Talen

T'was a cold but fair reveiw and proves that reality is best served cold.

It takes a special player to command a starship in this universe, Sufferers of A.D.D. need not apply For me, Battlecruiser has been a 20 year long wait for a space sim with DEPTH!

and it provides that in spades. All the rest that have come and gone were not much better than playing Space Invaders at the local arcade.

Welcome to the real universe. Well as real as one can get with bits and polygons from todays computer technology. Watch your six.

Your OTHER six!

[Spindoktor]

I read the review and even though, for the most part, the guy didn't like the game nor "get it" as I like to say, at least he wasn't getting personal. Unlike that other POS review at gamingchronicles.

I don't think I've yet read a BC review where I felt the reviewer invested enough time and effort to get over that hump where he can give an honest and fair assessment of the game. But I guess thats just the reality of today's world of fast food and instant gratification.

[Eclipse]

hehe Welcome to the forums. take a look here to get your sig fixed.

[Supreme Cmdr]

Welcome and thanks for the link. The review was OK and yes, it was about the game. Here are some quick comments.

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What the paper manual misses, though, is any kind of background info on the various races and ship types, or even a mention of the history behind the conflicts taking place in the game. Such thematic fleshing-out really would have added a lot of atmosphere to both the game and one of the driest reads I've come across in quite a while.

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The background story of all races etc is explained in the online appendix. There is a link to it

from the program shortcuts and its right there on the main menu entitled Alien Nations

quote:

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There is a tutorial in BCMG, but it in no way teaches a thing about actually playing the game. It seems to just let you cruise about without threat of attack. But how does one even begin to cruise about or do anything? Nary a clue is given in the tutorial. Weird. Luckily, a lot of the more menial tasks can be handled by the AI, which allows you to focus more on the mission at hand.

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Thats not true. The printed tutorials - a LOT of them - are located at the back of the manual. And they are all listed on p6 of the manual. And as you can see from the list, the very first one is probably the one he wants.

quote:

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BCMG also supports the ability to hop out of your ship and fight both on the surfaces of planets and in space using your jetpack. On the downside, while such open ended-ness adds tremendously to the scope of the game, it still shows that a lack of polish went into developing the enemy AI. Opposing forces are a tad too willing to stand about and take a beating from you and your fellow troopers.

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The AI scales up the longer you plan. If you were met with high AI npcs during the early stages of any career, you'd be even more frustrated than having to read a 150 page manual.

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They aren't nearly as great at military tactics as one would've hoped.

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No they're not. They weren't designed to be that advanced. If they were, well, it would be a whole

other game.

quote:

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Also, the armaments at your disposal look relatively blah and unoriginal.

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Yeah, its not primarily an fps. Its just "another aspect of the total immersion" aspect of the game. But BCG has a whopping 18 weapons this time around, compared to the 7 in BCMG.

quote:

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In general, despite offering entire planets (complete with various military installations) to traverse, the first-person action of BCMG isn't nearly as well developed as most other current FPS titles. [/quote

Yeah, at first it was just a matter of being able to exit your ship and wandering about. Now considering how much work (and money) went into the terrain engine, I added the fps combat aspect in order "see where it would go". Of course, that meant having to develop a full blown fps aspect, complete with tactical AI, weapons, navigation, path-finding etc etc.

Still, as one aspect of a much, much bigger game, it holds up.

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Exactly!!!

quote:

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Though not available at press time (read: over a month after release), the feature that would bring the Battlecruiser name into the modern era is multiplayer.

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Its out now. Good luck finding a server though (not for long, as the next patch fully supports client/server on the same machine, rather than a dedicated server).

quote:

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BCMG doesn't have a plot per se, but rather like an intergalactic version of Flight Simulator (or life itself), is completely open to your whims.

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uhm, yeah it does. The campaigns have specific plots (though you can still stray from them). The free flight is just that. And thus has no plot. The Instant Action scenarios also have plots specific to the engagement. They're not plots per se, just sorta "...hey, go here and do that. Good luck!"

All in all, a fair review

ps: Eclipse, you only need your sys info in your sig if posting for tech support in the Tech Support forums.