Curious about curiosity: 360 and BfMEII?

[Jake Plane]

I'm curious about curiosity.

Specifically about mixing console gaming and real time strategy games.

Battle for Middle Earth II in general wouldn't usually appeal to me. But I likely will pick this up as a rental primarily because I'm curious whether a RTS can work on a console.

(and yes, I saw Tom's excellent and detailed post on this - but that only fueled my curiosity; I'm wondering if it did the same for others).

[Kaigen]

Yep. Same here. I only played the demo of the PC version and it didn't really do much for me, but I'm very interested in seeing how the 360 version works out.

[Jake Plane]

Here's what I dread...

I try out the game... like it. Get excited over the fact that yes, you can play real-time strategy games on a console! Look forward to the possibility that other "mouse-only" titles may join (Freedom Force 3?) but then...

It doesn't sell well and this little foray ends up in consoles remaining the world of action first, sports second, adventure gaming third and strategy 9th.

[Mysterio]

First review I've seen online so far:

http://videogames.yahoo.com/gamereview?cid=1951246583&tab=reviews&page=0&eid=468158

[SorenJohnson]

I'm curious about curiosity.

Specifically about mixing console gaming and real time strategy games.

Battle for Middle Earth II in general wouldn't usually appeal to me. But I likely will pick this up as a rental primarily because I'm curious whether a RTS can work on a console.

(and yes, I saw Tom's excellent and detailed post on this - but that only fueled my curiosity; I'm wondering if it did the same for others).

I am curious too... where was Tom's post?

[Justin Fletcher]

Voila (http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=25284&highlight=bfme2).

[TomChick]

I'm also curious. Not about how it works -- I've been playing for the last week -- but about how people are going to react to this one. I think it can go either way: a) the typical console gamer gets frustrated with the learning curve and says 'fuck this, Pikman was waaaaaaay better', or b) the typical console gamer powers through the considerable learning curve, figures it out, and decides that, hey, you actually can sorta do a full-blown RTS on a console.

I'm not entirely convinced it's as good as it could have been. There are some things that should have been translated to the 360 better (Ring powers, minimap, hero interaction, graphics, framerate). The experience is intact enough. On the whole, I'd rather be on my PC. But being able to play my favorite game of the year so far while sprawled out on the couch? Yeah, okay, I'm down with that.

-Tom

[Jake Plane]

In some ways, I think the 360 is the perfect medium for this, as I think (though I have ZERO evidence for this) that more 360 gamers migrated from the PC and are familiar with those paradigms.

Either way, day one, this is a rental for me.

[Demon G Sides]

Already in the mail, and i've been waiting for weeks for it :P

But I can't wait to actually try it out. It'll be interesting... I'll probably only glimpse at the campaign, and plow straight into Multiplayer, with the bonus 3 free maps I got when I preordered from Ebgames... mwahahaha!

[BDGE]

Looking extremely forward to it, I've held off buying the PC version since this was announced.

Did anyone happen to play the N64 ports of Starcraft or C&C? Curious how they managed.

[Uncle Larry]

Looking extremely forward to it, I've held off buying the PC version since this was announced.

Did anyone happen to play the N64 ports of Starcraft or C&C? Curious how they managed.

I played the C&C for N64. I remember reviews jumping all over the joystick interface, but it was playable. Not a bad port, all things considered.

[Pumpkinhead]

I picked it up today. I haven't played the PC version so I can't compare. After playing through the tutorial and a few skirmishes I am enjoying it quite a bit. I fell like I have a good grasp of the controls thus far. Although I wasn't able to play online so I'm sure that notion will be shattered as soon as I get rushed for the first time on Live.

[TomChick]

I played a couple of games online today and felt bad, because my opponents obviously hadn't figured out the interface yet.

I didn't have my mic hooked up, so I couldn't try to help them. Besides, it wasn't clear they didn't know what they were doing until I was swarming their fortresses with goblins and realized they'd barely gotten any defenders out. One poor dude playing Isengard countered my goblin swarm with a battering ram.

If anyone wants to go online for a friendly bout, I'd love to hook up. I like the King of the Hill and Capture & Hold multiplayer variants. The latter is especially a test of interface management, since you can't really rely on just "Select All'ing" your army and sending it into battle.

I'm not terribly convinced about the hero battles or resource races. And I'm already bored of the campaign missions, have played them already on the PC. But I guess there are custom heroes to be unlocked. Oh, and gamerpoints to be earned.

-Tom

[John Reynolds]

So, EA, where's the widescreen patch for the PC now that the 360 version is out?

[Xemu]

Anyone else having it just spin forever trying to connect to the EA servers?

[Jab2565]

Does the 360 version let you play with the pc and vice versa?

[Pumpkinhead]

Anyone else having it just spin forever trying to connect to the EA servers?

From Major Nelson:

If you are playing this game on Xbox Live, and you get hung up at the 'Connecting to EA Servers' screen, we are aware of the issues and working with EA on this. In the meantime you can get online the following way:

1. Sign in and start the game
2. Select Xbox Live
3. This is where you will sit “Connecting To EA Servers”, at this point, press the 360 button on the controller and sign out, but don’t go back to the dashboard
4. Once signed out, sign back in again.
5. Go back to the game, it will say “the active gamer profile has been signed out”, press A to continue.
6. Select Xbox Live
7. You get connected

Thanks for your patience as we work on addressing this.

[GregB]

Messed around with this last night. The controls, while a little clumsy, do work quite well. After reading some of the previews / reviews I was expecting it to be a steep learning curve, but that really isn't the case. The bookmark system works well enough and there are plenty of different and useful ways to select units. The only real rough patch for me was in selecting powers and things to build. It's hard to remember that you don't have to press A one you've selected the power you want to use or the building you want to build. If you just let go of the Right Trigger you can then move around the map at will before executing the command. If you do press A while the Right Trigger is down, the power / building will be invoked immediately wherever your cursor happens to be. And even in HD the icons and minimap are really too small. The tooltips are nice, though.

The tutorial covers all the basics, but there are things that I'm still not sure how to do, like waypoints. Is there even an option for this? I also really miss being about to use the mini-map to direct your units although I don't see how they could have implemented it.

I was also a bit surprised that they removed the War of the Ring mode. It wasn't great on the PC, but it was a nice diversion when you wanted to play something a little longer and more drawn out.

I played my first online match with some random dude. He clearly knew how to play the game, but must have really been having a hard time with the controls. He just amassed an army and sent it my way. But thanks to my prowess with Bookmarks and the Right Bump button, I was able to send my Wargs into his flank while my pikemen poked away at his trolls.

It's interesting that because of the controls, the game plays at a very different pace. It's less about clicking fast and build orders (although that's still important) and more about formulating a sound strategy.

I look forward to getting spanked by Tom Chick and/or any of your other BFMEII nerdy experts.

[TomChick]

Greg, you can indeed add waypoints.

You know how the left button (LB) adds units to a selection. Hold it down while you're dropping destinations to "add" a waypoint. Voila! Now you can run your Rohirrim back and forth over some hapless goblins.

-Tom

[Rorschach]

It's interesting that because of the controls, the game plays at a very different pace. It's less about clicking fast and build orders (although that's still important) and more about formulating a sound strategy.

This interests me a great deal since I know I lack piano skills in the RTS arena. Anyone else care to comment on the pace of the game compared to its PC brother?

[BDGE]

Ok, I ADORE this game thus far.

I'm still adjusting to the controls, I have the d-pad 'quickaccess' stuff down, although I have yet to ever use the shoulder bumper buttons, I'm just trigger happy with the 'All units' hotkey. Manhandling massive swaths of armies with a controller on the couch is a total nerd-delight though! Seriously wonderful.

So some quickie questions...

-Is there ever a reason to keep heroes unmounted? Bonuses on foot?

-Is there an easy way to click-scroll through an army for specific unit types instead of hunting around and waiting for the textbox to tell me? Say if I want to separate archers from the pack, I don't wanna play Where's Waldo? to find them. Probably bumper related, but the tutorial wasn't really detailed.

-Any way to tell an entire army to go "aggressive stance" or defensive? Sometimes the AI can be a bit dumb on Battle stance, standing around while my fortress is getting hammered nearby. On aggressive, they smarten up a bit, but I hate having to click through all unit types to change this.

-Isn't Tom Bombadil hilarious?

Umm..more to come, this is all I have off the top of my head now.

[TomChick]

BDGE, I believe mounted heros fold differently into the paper/rock/scissors balance. But more imporantly, when mounted, they're a more likely target for your opponent. As Mordor, I prefer to have my Nazgul on foot and blending in among the orcs and Haradrim. It makes it less likely the other guy is going to freak out and go, "Shit! Nazgul! All you archers, concentrate your fire!". Which is why I make the poor Witch-King walk most of the time instead of riding that cool Fellbeast.

When you left trigger + double A press to select your entire army, holding down the right trigger will slide out a panel that details exactly who's in your army. Just d-pad over to your archers to grab them. Alternatively, and a bit more byzantine, you can hold down the RB (which selects "types") and double A press an archer to select all of them on the map.

As for switching stances, I don't think you can do it globally. You have to do it to one unit type at a time. Keep in mind that stance has no damage/armor effect for ranged units or heroes.

Tom Bombadil will fuck you up while playing the banjo. How about that?

-Tom

[Jab2565]

Tom bombadil is evil, everytime I hear that little song I know that my entire army is about to die. So does anyone know if you can play against pc owners with the 360 version? I have a friend with the 360 who liked the game when he came over and watched me play it on my pc.

[TomChick]

So does anyone know if you can play against pc owners with the 360 version?

Of course you can't. They're different games, different systems, different interfaces, different multiplayer modes, different multiplayer services, etc., etc.

Plus, in the spirit of the early days of shooters on consoles, a dude with a mouse would slaughter a dude with a gamepad.

-Tom

[BDGE]

My guess is no, though the XBox servers are kinda borked right now. Tried logging in and had to do the crazy Gamespy trick to finally get past the frozen connect screen. Hopefully a patch is incoming.

Tom, thanks for the tips, the R-bumper+AA deal works well, I'm currently on the Good campaign mission where ships are introduced and my own Storm vessels sunk my entire fleet with their whirlpool attack. Ugh

Neat camapaign so far though, mission maps are well thought out and the beauty of the fake-physics tossing units all about continuously impresses. I really like how focused this game seems to be on combat. The building is tiered mostly towards defenses and pumping units, keeping my attention on the killing.

A friend of mine is intrigued by this game, but lacks a 360 or internet at the moment. I'm loving this so far, but once the story ends, I have XBL matches to enjoy. He's debating between this or RoL on the PC, but is looking for a solid WC3-esque campaign to keep him enticed. Not so much a skirmish player, so would the exclusive War of the Ring mode keep him happy beyond the campaign? Does RoL have a solid narrative hook to keep him happy between resource hunting? Which is the better bet for his interests?

Finally, let's play some matches people!!

[TurinTuramba]

Ok, I ADORE this game thus far.
So some quickie questions...

-Is there ever a reason to keep heroes unmounted? Bonuses on foot?

-Isn't Tom Bombadil hilarious?

Umm..more to come, this is all I have off the top of my head now.

Heroes on foot have effectively twice the hp vs arrows and swords and four times the hp vs pikemen , but take double damage from cavalry. In addition they get a 50% flankedpenalty. So yeah there are pretty big boni to being on foot.

TomtheBomb is awesome. He even has a hidden leadership ability, EA just forgot to give him an icon to show it.

[flyinj]

Does anyone notice that the "searching for savegames" gets longer and longer?

When I first started, the ring would spin twice and then I could select a game.

Now, when I go to save/load, the ring spins around 10 times before it shows me my savegames. I think it may be tied into how many savegames you have... I currently have about 7. I can't find a way to erase the old ones either.