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What is BATTLEFORGE and why is Massawyrm giving away Betatest codes for it? And how can you win a new AMD Graphics card???
Hola all. Massawyrm here.
Occasionally, someone will pop into my AICN TABLETOP column and ask why I don’t like videogames – as if liking board games and RPGs is mutually exclusive from enjoying a video game. On the contrary, I LOVE a good video game. And so when I was approached last week to check out and possibly introduce you folks to a little thing called BATTLEFORGE, I jumped at it. Especially once I heard the pitch.
Combining the best of both worlds, BATTLEFORGE is an RTS (Real Time Strategy game like Starcraft, the first 3 Warcrafts and Dawn of War) combined with the concept of a collectible card game. Rather than having a few armies with a specific units, you instead have access to whatever units you choose to slot into your 20 card “deck”. There are four elements – Fire, Frost, Shadow and Nature – each with their own unique playstyle, powers and feel. Normally I’m an undead and necromancy kind of guy, so I started with shadow, but soon found that Frost was my preferred element. But much like card games (as opposed to RTSs) you can mix and match, creating the army of your choice. You can play a one element army and have access to that element’s most powerful units (eventually) or you can play 2 or three elements and get solid core units and abilities from across the board.
As you would expect Nature has a lot of regenerative powers while fire can throw out a lot of hate. Frost takes a lot of punishment and shadow can feed upon itself and summon all sorts of frightening, hard to kill creatures. Normally RTSs aren’t my thing, but the concept of this game removes what I dislike about most RTSs – the slow power ramp up. Normally you have to run a series of missions that give you only access to certain units, and therein lies the challenge: solve this puzzle with these tools. BATTLEFORGE confronts you with a tough tactical situation and challenges you to find your own solution with the cards you have. The other advantage to this system is that it doesn’t take a full on expansion to expand the game – just new card sets every few months (confirmed as the plan) to add new options to each army, or perhaps add new armies entirely (wild speculation on my part.)
As you’d expect, the cards have a rarity and there’s a trading/auction system built into the game to help you collect. But you’ll find that the Rare and Ultra Rare cards, while powerful, are also late game cards. That’s not to say they aren’t fun and useful, but someone pouring money into the game won’t be armed with a fistful of cards that you can’t beat. They’re still going to be pulling out the same power level of shock troops in a round as you are. I have gotten my hands on a few Ultra Rares myself, and have definitely had a good time messing around with them. But they’ve in no way defined the deck. My choices of my core units have.
But while you collect “cards” you’re not playing a card game. You have access to your deck right away. What determines what level of spells you can cast and how frequently all depends on how much of the board/map you control. There’s no base or factory building per se, but you do take control of energy stones that you can quickly build into energy stations that fuel your spells. If you can keep them, you can cast tons of spells in a short amount of time.
BattleForge has campaign play modes that range from You vs The Computer to 12 player co-op throwdowns. It’s pretty insane. If there’s any problem with the game at all it is that the NORMAL difficulty setting is challenging as all hell. I can’t even imagine trying these battles on a higher setting. But the constant challenge has proven to be a lot of fun. But if you breeze through this, I respectfully bow to you and ask you NOT to challenge me to a duel. You’ll wipe my sorry ass.
I found BattleForge to be pretty addictive. One of my favorite aspect of any collectible game (or miniature wargame) is the strategy of army building, which is definitely present here. With the starting amount of game cash, you’ll have more than enough booster packs to ensure more than 20 cards in each army, so you have to make some difficult cuts sometimes. I assume that over time the amount of cards will grow to the point that multiple decks of the same element won’t look at all similar, save a few standard, optimized choices. I need some more time with it to see if I’ll be playing it in the long run – and I’ll have a full review of the final game closer to release - but I’m sure enjoying the hell out of it now.
So now you’ve heard my thoughts – why don’t you give it a shot? How do you do that? Well, first you’ll want to go to http:// www.battleforgecardhunt.com
and sign up for the beta. Once you do that, you’ll be given the option to “Add a card to your deck” and be prompted with a request for a key. That would be this little piece of awesomeness here:
FRA-JPV-8S9-AZE
WHILE CODES LAST, that will get you your first card and entry into the Beta. You’ll get an e-mail explaining the rest. It’s that simple. You can be playing within the hour (download speeds and patching permitting.)
So the contest? Well, the cards will have their own histories or “legends” and Electronic Arts would like the dreamers and brainiacs here at AICN to dream up a legend for this card: the Parasite Swarm. Prizes range from high end AMD graphics cards to T-shirts. They want no more than 150 words detailing the history/background/story of this card – I’ll bring the best of them to you to vote on next week and the top three will be selected and brought to the BattleForge story writer for final selection. Send your submissions to battleforgecontestentriesaicn@hotmail.com. Have them in by 11:59 CST Thursday, March 4th.
Alright gang. Enjoy, and feel free to share your experiences and usernames here in this talkback. Maybe some of you regulars can actually throw down with and against one another. The final game ships March 24th, 2009 – just after I wake up from a SXSW induced coma. That suits me just fine.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
Got something for the Wyrm? Mail it here.
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FIRST!
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No graphics card upgrades needed with my MacBook Pro. Suck it, Trebek!
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i was following this game back in the day...now i can check it out without a preorder :) and now that i've got my beta spot - time to actually read the article.
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Mac: “Hi, I’m a Mac!”
PC: “Hi, I’m a PC.”
Mac: “Hey PC, Whatcha doin?”
PC: “Just playing a game.”
Mac: “Which one?”
PC: “All of them.”
Mac: “….. “
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YackBacker - You're correct - Macbook conveniently soders its graphics cards right to the motherboard, so when you want to upgrade to a better card, all you have to do is buy an entirely new MacBook! Ah, Apple, do you ever stop giving?
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Feb 20, 2009 1:26:00 PM CST
I am looking for a fantasy CCG that I can play alone...
by leafar the lost
...and has some roleplaying aspects to it. Something like Magic, but not.
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Who gives a fuck about this shit?
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AM I GONNA WALK AROUND AND RIP YOUR FUCKING TB DOWN?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnIWJ2CI2Qw
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locking a thread because it was about to get 10k posts. For what purpose, exactly?
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I know--it stopped at 9986.
That aint right, man. Just aint right. And when I tried to reload, it actually DECREASED the 24 hour post count from 902 to 893, then 892... -
Give me back my Node.
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is an admin using a 'pump the postcount' login. This site was busted for doing that a few years back, padding their ad impressions to make them look more active, and to generate more income from the ads themselves.
We stayed low and then within 15 minutes of promoting the 10kth post, it gets locked. And yet - there's no admins around other than Mass. -
But I can say we've had problems with high post count threads in the past. It has something to do with the way the server checks for each individual talkback, meaning that the nigh 10,000 post count causes each attempt to load the page force 10,000 tiny operations, absolutely killing our server when a number of folks slam it at once. If it got locked, it was because it was a draw on our resources, not for anything insidious.
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Feb 20, 2009 1:58:33 PM CST
DO NOT POST IN ANY LOST TALKBACKSBook of Bale, Cp4, page 20.
by arcadiands
do NOT post in any more Lost talkbacks guys. ever.
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He is welcome in the dojo.
However, I call bullshit. That talkback has been throttling on gas fumes for the better part of 6 days, and you mean to tell me just a handful shy of 10k, it suddenly can't take it anymore?
If it was manually locked, it could have waited 5 minutes for post #10k.
IF IT WAS LOCKED ON POST 10,001 - THERE WOULD BE NO DRAMA. ONLY CHEERS, PATS ON THE BACK, AND VICTORY FOR ALL.
once again, the HarryFail Express runs right on schedule. -
some of us are posting a lot, yes - but each post contains content for reading and discussing. While you may not like the content or its context, when the time comes (soon I suspect) to begin bans, please use some discretion.
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It's about as retarded as your mum.
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Unlock Node39976. Let us have the victory we fought for. Don't watch us build a brand new community center and then wreck it on opening day with a tornado.
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but everytime I reload ANOTHER talkback, like this one, the daily count in 39976 DECREASES. What's THAT about?
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So if it's able to be unlocked then you might as well unlock it. Or ban us all.
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Are the codes INDIVIDUALLY stamped and coded? Or can codes be shared? If someone gets a code at PAX, can they post it online and let others add the card to their decks? Am I supposed to pay $60 for a game, and then buy cards as well after the fact?
I don't mind collecting cards in game by unlocking certain aspects, but I'm not sure I will be going to conventions, or spending bucks just to get new cards for a computer game I've already purchased. -
What an idiot.
You to, Klytus.
Snowcone, you're an idiot also.
Arcadian, you're on the same side as those idiots, but at least you're rational. Good job.
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You cocksuckers could have locked it days ago, but you wait until we're just about to hit 10000. That is purposefully fucking with people you no count sons of bitches. I hope you get what you got coming to you.
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I'll say that, and leave it at that.
Until Node39976 is unlocked, I am done here professionally. At least for a while. I need time to mourn. I feel like my dog died.
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i'm not an RTS fan but my brother is and this seems like something he might enjoy.
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Feb 20, 2009 3:07:56 PM CST
It would be better to post payola style advertisements....
by whinynegativebitch
...Like this in the Bale talkback. At least you'd be gauranteed to get an audience for it. I'm not a fan of Bale talkbacks, but my brother is, and I know its something he would really have enjoyed.
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No one cares but you people. What the fuck are you even talking about?Mass, THANK YOU for this. It looks pretty sweet, and once I actually get a chance to look at the card the contest is about, I'll send in an entry. I already signed up for the beta and used the code you gave (which nabbed me a "Tremor" card... wonder if it's random or set to that card?). I worry that this game won't run for me (it probably won't), but whatever, I'll give it a shot. Anyways, off to read up some more on this game...
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to the Parasite Swarm card for us to see? Cuz writing blindly about a game card based only on the name is a little odd.
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Pieces of shit
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Take that Magic: the Gathering Pokemon shit out of here.
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though the imaginary cards were cool, such as The Deck of Many Things.
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i didnt know AMD made graphic cards. thats like intel making graphic cards thats crazy
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Why would you do that? Rick-Roll if you must but don't do that. Please. Possible reason for loss of Bale TB posts: Somebody got themselves banned. It happens. There's a line you don't cross. Some do.
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AMD bought ATI. I don't know if they renamed them. They do own them though.
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GTX8800 still beating new games down like they owe it money!!!!
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Most retailers still call them ATI cards, but yes, AMD owns ATI.
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A salesman at Comp USA once told me that there was an ATI card that cost less and was faster than the NVidia card that I was looking at. I figured that I would try out the ATI card since I had never had one before and I was curious. It wasn't faster. It also had some problems. I don't know if the guy just wanted to make a sale or what. Anyway, I brought it back. ATI may be a good company, but I've stuck with NVidia cards. This laptop has an 8800M GTS w/512MB in it and I've had no complaints since I bought it while on "holiday" from Gustav (That Fucker!).
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but my feelings were genuine.
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Just kidding, man. She does screech like a cat in a fanbelt though.
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not a shock. he was spambotting his hands off. Im all for being mad about the lock and subsequent post deletions, but really - its not a good idea to kick over all the furniture in someone else's house.
we had epic win, fellas. We know we would have surpassed 10k and would be somewhere near 12k in about an hour - but its Harry's sandlot, and if he wants to lock threads shy of 10k, well - that's his perogative.
I would respect it if an admin would post and say "we will lock any/all threads around 9.5k" - thats fair. Anyway, to the mods: thank you for not going bugnuts with the banhammer. it might have been justified if you did. -
we kinda ripped down his update, and whether you're into tabletop gaming or not, he put a lot of work and effort to share his thoughts with us about it, and we just trashed his scene.
sorry, Mass. You're a professional. -
The Battleforge website needs some work.I loaded my card (Tremor), and the stats on the card don't match the stats listed right below it under "card info".Anyhoo, thanks for the beta pass, Massa. This game looks like a hoot!
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did not know that im a nvidia person. but damn intel will have to do something about that.
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I have the same question as enderandrew. I like RTS and appreciate the "collectible" aspect with this but if I shell out X$ for a game I really don't see paying more for codes to unlock game content.
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once upon a time in the late 80s to early 90s, owning an ATI video card was the most fail your PC could possibly have.
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Honestly Nvidia is written for the intel chipsets (fuck AMD). You get a quad processor and a GTX8800- no real need for the ultra which is an overclocked 8800. Toss in 4 gigs ram or 8 gigs if you have a 64bit OS, and you are kicking ass!!!! Fuck Ati. The high end cards have stale fished anyways. Nothing amazing and new is coming and it's been like this for a while... I bought my 8800 in 2007 and it's still fucking kicking ass. I'll buy a new hihg end card when I really need one, and right now I don't.
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It seems the only smart thing AMD has done ( course they're still bleeding money like crazy) was buy ATI, but the ATI cards have been kicking NVidia's ass in popularity and in benchmarks for awhile now.And I'm an Nvidia user.
As for that game, I haven't checked it out yet, but it sounds an awful lot like POxNora ( an enjoyable game) which has been around for several years now, but unfortunately recently got bought by the Great Satan, Electronic Arts.Fuck You EA! -
I guess BattleForge is also owned by EA.WTF?Did they buy PoxNora just to eventually kill it to make way for BF, or just steal PoxNora's ideas for BF?Gotta love them Borg.
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PoxNora is owned by SOE, my bad.I got the names of companies I dislike mixed up.
Back to the drugs I guess.
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