Steel Battalion

[DeckardBR]

Picked this one up on ebay and I think its safe to say this game was years ahead of its time. A pricey peripheral bundled with a game, it still plays well and in some ways even better now that large screen tvs are so widespread. On a 46 inch tv, you get the real feeling of being inside a mech cockpit, especially with that amazing controller. If this game was released today it would be a huge hit.

The game itself is pretty tough and unforgiving. Fail a mission too many times and you run out of points to buy replacement mechs (called VTs in the game) and have to start all over. After a few missions of this, I found a code to unlock all missions and mechs right from the start and the game experience improved immediately. With the larger, stronger mechs it becomes more shooter then sim but the basic mechs are always there if you want that challenge.

Does anyone have any good memories or stories about this game? How was the reception in Japan compared to the US? I just know it hasn't been played by too many people, I wish Capcom had dropped the price down to $100 or less at the time, and it would have sold better.

[rgb3do]

Since the game was hard and i wanted to beat it so bad I creating my 1st xbox trainer.

http://www.maxconsole.net/showthread...talion-6-(usa)

[Metro Spy]

In the UK I don't recall ever seeing the game in an actual game shop and I know it was available in limited numbers. Not many people I know knew about it, so it always went down well at gaming parties.

I ordered the sequel plus controller with my brother to split the cost. I remember it fondly, and it's an addictive game. Really made better now due to much larger tv's! Personally the best bits I found were with tension such as restarting a downed mech, fumbling for the eject switch, and getting the mech running at full speed.

I'm sure someone out there must have written a controller map, so that you could use the sticks on a PC. Would be cool to map it to use other games, such as this mod for Crysis getting some good press lately:

http://www.mechlivinglegends.net/cpg/

[sirmosh]

I owned it and enjoyed it, the inch thick manual alone was worth the money. I sold it during the Steel Battalion boom on eBay and sometimes regret it but it was a pain to set up and put away all the time anyway. Line of Conflict was very good online and was full of innovation, for instance you had to tune into the right radio frequency using the controllers dial for team chat, not only that but finding the right frequency allowed you to listen in on the opposition.

Good game and it's a bit of a shame that the cost and avaliablity restricted the number of people that were able to play it.

[neogeocdworld]

Hello

I remember it cost 200€ in france and the quantity are very few
so i see you could use live again with an xbox live count
Personaly i prefert LAN

[Carnivol]

They had a copy collecting dust at a local game store. I picked it up when they had a clearance sale. They were most of all pretty happy to get rid of the giant box (this was before stores had to get used to Rock Band and Guitar Hero boxes taking up space all over the place)

It's pretty awesome in action, but, yeah, it's pretty brutal and cruel on the difficulty and deaths.

[ASSEMbler]

They had a copy collecting dust at a local game store. I picked it up when they had a clearance sale. They were most of all pretty happy to get rid of the giant box (this was before stores had to get used to Rock Band and Guitar Hero boxes taking up space all over the place)

It's pretty awesome in action, but, yeah, it's pretty brutal and cruel on the difficulty and deaths.

Deaths? You're not ejecting properly then.

[neogeocdworld]

yeah
let's open the protection edject button

[Carnivol]

Deaths? You're not ejecting properly then.

I have faith in my machine 'till the very end... Maybe I shouldn't really be trusting it that much :(

(Also, curse this thread! Now I almost feel like hooking this beast up again, even though I don't really have any table space for the controller...)

[spot778]

Great fun playing LOC back in the day.

Notice how Chromehounds and to an extent MAG have used the battle system, three factions etc..

[BuddyBuddies]

I bought 2 of these when the first came out for $200 each iirc from Gamestop, then they released another with Steel Battalion 2 and i think the buttons were different color. I never got too into it though. Was awesome back in the day though!

[spot778]

I bought 2 of these when the first came out for $200 each iirc from Gamestop, then they released another with Steel Battalion 2 and i think the buttons were different color. I never got too into it though. Was awesome back in the day though!

Correct a version with green buttons and one with blue.

[Figure0fTragedy]

I always wanted to play this game with the full set up, but never had a chance to. It sounds like something I would really like, but I've just never gotten around to playing it and getting the controller and all. I need to do that eventually.

[SuperGrafx]

I don't know. I bought the game directly from Capcom back in 2002 (shipped in a double cardboard box with a small Steel Battalion logo even) and I guess my expectations were mostly met.
My biggest issue was how cheap the controller parts felt...specifically the gear speed lever. It had this terrible cheap/lightweight plastic toy clickiness as you shifted speeds. Apart from that, it was a unique experience that offered something different if you were willing to pay the higher than usual price.