As much as I hate to pile-on, I gotta add myself to the throng stating Windows 8 = No Sale. It sure would be nice if people in charge could be made aware of the resounding and near-unanimous tone of this thread.
This forum is every bit the game’s target audience, and we’re alienated en masse by a boneheaded publishing decision.
I’ll buck the trend. Instead of joining the anti-Win8 crowd, I’ll point to a rather nice review of the game.
Thanks, Telefrog. It is indeed a nice and fair review.
My first reaction was this seemed normal for Microsoft to release a game that showcases and takes advantage of the new features of the new Windows (which I am assuming it does hence its requirement). I don’t look at it any different than the new games in the past that I couldn’t run due to either OS or Direct X release or other requirement. At least it gives those that have Win8 already something to try out and for most of the rest of us, something to look forward to when we inevitably have to upgrade at some point in the future (even if we do skip Win8). It still sucks, though, as Win8 seems to have a very low popularity right now.
However, if I ever get forced to install or upgrade to Win8 in the near future, I know the first thing I am going to do now… install this game! Maybe I should talk to my IS department…
Interesting, will definitely check this out when I get back. Though again, echoing the comments that preemptively limiting your audience is a poor strategy. Were there any technical reasons for going app-store only (eg/ easy backend for multiplayer with phone users) or was it for the heck of it? For example, my opinion on the Halo 2 Vista and GFWL bondoogle is that it would have been perfectly acceptable if the Vista/GFWL backend had allowed for cross-platform play.
" … the battle is rendered on the cloud …"
until the servers will be turned off. Then the game will be rendered useless, right?
Apart from anything else, why is the only press or marketing for this game seemingly just this thread. The game does look very very nice. It deserves more attention methinks (as well as a windows 7 version).
I recall that someone made a patch to allow Halo 2 to run on XP. Apparently the game didn’t actually require any of Vista’s features.
Thanks! And yes, precisely. The game operates seamlessly between Windows 8 and Windows Phone. The team lead is speaking on that point and several other technical elements next week at GDC. The battle rendering process is very interesting from both a game design and a technical design process.
In the same way that any multiplayer online game is useless after the servers are turned off, yes.
Sadly, I don’t set marketing policy for Microsoft, so I can’t answer that. My team is trying to grassroots as much as we can, because it is a pretty nifty game.
And thanks for the kind words; they mean a lot, especially coming from you.
I have been messing around with the game a bit on my surface. anyone looking for a match can send me a friend request: Gladguy is my gamertag.
My daughter has Win 8 on her laptop so we just downloaded the game.
Well, we just wanted to try the game out but trying to link up her microsoft account with her already existing Xbox account is like pulling your teeth out with a pair of pliers.
My goodness let me log into my microsoft account and simply link up the xbox account to it already - but you have to go in circles moving one account to a fake account and then to the actual account to get it to work.
Oh, well when they make it simpler to do - then we will take a another try at the game (not just this game any game linked to the xbox).
We even tried to make a new xbox account but that is also another mysterious undertaking.
Overlooked the multiplayer part. There is no single-player at all?
I think the single player portion is a series of 60 missions more designed to teach you the system and mechanics, rather than offer a robust experience against an AI, according to the review linked previously.
That is correct; single player is just a series of tutorial challenges. They are useful to learn the combat interaction of the weapons systems, but are not a full game.
Seems interesting enough, halfway through one game right now.
Some annoying design decisions though - the offloading of the combat to the server, while certainly makes sense for phone, is really annoying on a PC. As one of those people without a great internet connection, waiting minutes for a battle to be processed, and then to download a video of the battle to download is really aggravating when I have the processing power shitting to the right of me. Also, apparently they don’t download in the background either, making things even more annoying.
EDIT: Finished up my first game. More notes:
I have no idea how combat plays out, and the battle video is not helpful at all. EG/ The climatic battle of this game was 562 heavy strikers, 7 artillery, 10 cruisers vs. my 620 light strikers, 70 destroyers (anti gunship), 25 cruisers (anti gunship), 2 battleships (fitted out to be anti-striker with the pew pew cannons).
What happened in the playback:
Enemy artillery pew pews, nothing happens (?)
Light strikers ran into enemy heavy strikers, no idea whats going on
Battleships doing nothing. No idea what the enemy artillery is doing.
My destroyers laser enemy cruisers to death, then die to heavy strikers
Battleships still apparently doing nothing. Still no idea what the enemy artillery is doing. Where did my light strikers go?
Enemy heavy strikers run into cruisers, kill them
Battleships still apparently doing nothing. Still no idea what the enemy artillery is doing. Light strikers still MIA
Battleships die to enemy heavy strikers, finally doing something
Cut to light strikers killing the enemy artillery, which are apparently down to 2 (guess this was going on in the background)?
Where did the enemy heavy strikers go?
Victory. Remaining enemy heavy strikers MIA.
Really need some kind of text summary of who’s engaging what at the very least.
We got a new PC, blessed with Windows 8. So, of course, I thought I’d try out Galactic Reign by finding it in the ‘Store’ app and installing it.
After install, I went to run it and the game halts at the first menu, demanding that I review and click thru the updated terms of service for xbox. However, I can’t view the new TOS unless I update the ‘Games’ app from the ‘Store’ app. I go to the ‘Store’ app, and click on the ‘Updating’ label on the top right of the screen. I find the ‘Games’ app in the list, click it, then click ‘Install’ somewhere near the bottom.
~45 minutes later, my ‘Games’ app is sitting at ‘Downloading’ and I’m still not able to play Galactic Reign. Sigh.
UPDATE
It finally updated the ‘Games’ app, it just was not updating the progress bar for the update. I could then open the ‘Games’ app, and was presented with the TOS.
After 1 hour 20 minutes, I’m able to play! Wheeee!
Kevin, I’ve watched a bit more of this via Youtube… I really, really wish I had a Win8 device to play this as it’s something I’ve always wanted - animated cut scenes of actual TBS gameplay. If MS intended this as a driver to Win8 they were right as it’s the first thing that’s made me actually want the OS on my computer. I shoulda picked up Win8 when it was cheap for an eventual move. Is game performance on Win8 still rather equal to Win7?
Holy poops, this game looks awes-
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU