Greed Corp - Catch All (tabletop gaming without all the pesky tables)

I've had my eye on this one ever since seeing the teaser trailer.

And the folks at GiantBomb just did a quicklook with one of the game's developers which has me even more excited.

I like the mechanics at play in the simple economy of this universe. As I understand it gathering resources will inevitably destroy the tiles those resources are gathered from, constantly shifting the physical landscape. On top of that scarcity of usable land makes resource gathering more profitable. Also the ability to use resource gathering as a weapon is super-cool.

What I truly love about this game is that it maintains the feel of a typical tabletop strategy game while introducing mechanics that would be difficult or time consuming to implement in a physical gaming session.

IMAGE(http://www.psnation.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/gc_screen_04-1024x576.jpg)

So who else out there is looking forward to when it releases for PS3, 360 and at a later date PC?

Been keeping an eye on this for quite awhile now. I agree that it looks like a nice blend of board and video game mechanics. I love this style of game so there's no way I can pass it up! Don't care for the Giant Bomb guys but it was nice to see the game in action and get a feel for the mechanics. Hopefully the different map layouts will add enough variety in what appears to be a zero-luck game. I am curious if there are 2v2 maps.

I'm liking what I see.

Poking around in the interwebs I found a trailer describing the world in a little more detail.

Also, this faction centric promo is delightful.

And finally an official gameplay trailer which is also shows a little humor too.

For a game where your units are not super close up or highly detailed, the developers have certainly devoted a lot of time and effort into fleshing out this world.

It's up for purchase this Wednesday on Xbox Live.

Likely to be $10 on PC and arrive around two months later.

I'm interested. I had slated this Wednesday's splurge to be on Fret Nice (2D platformer played with a guitar controller) - I hadn't heard anything about this, but I'll certainly take it for a spin.

Seems interesting. Is it multi-player only?

10+ hours single player campaign consisting of a tutorial and 24 unique maps

I'm guessing that you could also play skirmishes but that's conjecture based on generalities of the genre.

Woot! Just saw Greed Corp released on XBLA today and it's the first I've heard about it. Loving the style and feel of the teaser trailer in the first post.

Anyone picking this up?

I had heard about this one from a Three Moves Ahead episode a while back, but I had thought that it was a PSN exclusive. Due to the multiplayer potential, I'll definitely take a test drive on the 360 demo.

OzymandiasAV wrote:

I had heard about this one from a Three Moves Ahead episode a while back, but I had thought that it was a PSN exclusive. Due to the multiplayer potential, I'll definitely take a test drive on the 360 demo.

Funny thing about that, I thought the same thing. Late last year when I first heard of it (probably when the debuet trailer was released) it was only advertised as a PSN title, but then when the Giant Bomb Quick Look EX was done, suddenly it was on 360 as well. More power to them, I guess it took longer for them to convince Microsoft that it was a title worth having.

Speaking of Giant Bomb, they posted a new trailer a couple of weeks ago.

I'm definitely gonna pick it up for PSN. I hope Rabbit gets it (seems like it would appeal to his board gaming sensabilities) so we can hear some impressions on a future podcast.

Anyone going to pick this up today? If I get home early I might buy it and try some multiplayer.

I played a couple of rounds in the demo earlier this morning. I can't say that it immediately grabbed my attention, but I'm going to mess with it some more later tonight. I may not have looked hard enough, but my first impression of it was that it needed a bit more documentation on units and their function.

Apparently the illusion of PSN exclusivity was strong and pervasive.

Tycho of Penny Arcade wrote:

I thought for certain this was set to be a PSN exclusive, seeing as it made its debut in a reel of platform-bound upcoming titles, but it's now en route for Windows and XBLA as well. Some of the best downloadable games of this generation have been conversions of boardgame classics, and Greed Corp so playfully draws on that heritage.

I plan on picking this up on PSN tomorrow.

Elycion wrote:

I played a couple of rounds in the demo earlier this morning. I can't say that it immediately grabbed my attention, but I'm going to mess with it some more later tonight. I may not have looked hard enough, but my first impression of it was that it needed a bit more documentation on units and their function.

The tutorial wasn't the greatest at explaining anything more than the basic mechanics of the game. I played another round after the tutorial and it started to click. I'm going to have a blast with this.

I bought it - played the first few levels last night, and it's interesting. In a good way.

I'm not quite sure I have a handle on the tactics yet - the first few levels are trivially straightforward, and the fact that you earn resources by destroying your own territory, while simultaneously losing when you run out of territory makes for an interesting tactical balance.

If nothing else, it's going to be a great game to play as wind-down from the stress of shooting dudes in the face.

I'd go as far to say that the tutorial was pretty terrible, actually. At one point, I was building four walkers without any real indication as to what walkers do, why I'm building them now, or why I needed to build four of them. Very little, if any, of my attention was forced upon the one minute (!) time clock or the tile height indicator, other than "here it is." Even Panzer General: Allied Assault's super-dry tutorial gave you a good indication of how things actually flowed in the game; only after scrapping my way through a handful of games was I able to suss out the general game flow.

The UI was a bit clunky as well. It was especially egregious in the tutorial, where they separated out what limited information they had to give you about what you were doing on the left while giving you the actual steps telling you to do it in the middle of the screen; it never really got any better as the game went along. The available options for construction on a given tile are mixed up and spread out on the right without any kind of grouping or sense of organization. There's a leaderboard at the bottom for gold, but there's no easy indication for the number of controlled tiles or units or cannon ammo across the maps. And one of the most crucial pieces of information in that game - the tile height indicator that tells you how many cannon shots or harvests it's going to take to bring down a tile - and it's almost completely obscured as your "mouse" pointer, showing only a white circle with little white dots around it.

It's a really cool game concept, but almost everything framed around that concept needs some major work. I didn't convert my demo of it and I'm not sure I'd really recommend it to anybody, unless you're really into that "turn-based board game" type of experience. If that's what you're aiming for and you're willing - very willing - to suffer through a rough start, then I'd recommend grabbing the demo.

I was very excited for this, and so far I'm pretty disappointed. I love TBS games (even though I tend to stink at them) mostly because I don't like the rush of RTS's. So what exactly is the point of a TBS game with a timer? I can perhaps see it in an online MP game, but why single player? Granted I've only played the demo, but it implies that SP has the same crappy timer.

I don't like to be rushed. I'm going to give it another try, but I'm thinking it's ultimately going to be a pass. Too bad--it's an interesting concept.

The tutorial isn't that great, I agree. They tell you a lot of stuff but fail to tie it all together. It's like showing someone all the pieces used in a board game without telling them any of the rules.

Thankfully it's a pretty simple game to learn, especially if you have any board gaming experience. I'm actually surprised that it is a zero-luck war game! It has a lot of elements I love in board games like territory control and resource management. I only played the first three rounds in the single player campaign so I don't really know how the AI will hold up overall but I had fun with the rounds I got through.

I really like how harvesters can be used to gather resources, defensively to separate you from your opponents or offensively if you slip one in your opponent's back territory. Once a harvester is placed it can't be removed meaning it will destroy some land. A cleverly placed harvester can be devastating. I noticed how one AI player used them defensively to isolate themselves, pretty cool stuff.

My last game was me and two AI players. It was a close match and I would've been doomed if the AIs hadn't been butting heads. They were distracted with each other enough that they didn't have time to build transports, giving me time to build up cannons and blast them to pieces. By the time they could recover I was able to pick them apart!

Overall I'm really impressed. The rules are simple and matches seem quick. Could be a lot of fun against other humans.

Finally got around to messing with this. It took me 3 run-through on the tutorial to power through it. Once I finally got into the first real "match" it all clicked. For my money this is probably the best strategic game on XBLA, and it's a tragedy that so few people will know it because of the tutorial.

Hey the game is on Steam sale until thursday. Whats the verdict?

It looks neat enough for 5$

Tamren wrote:

Hey the game is on Steam sale until thursday. Whats the verdict?

It looks neat enough for 5$

I think you'll easily get $5 worth of entertainment if you like the idea of a no-luck turn-based strategy game.

My only problem with the game is that it got very "samey" after enough matches. The end game pretty much always plays out the same, which is too bad. On top of that you'll often hit a tipping point where it's clear one side will win but you have to play it out to the bitter end.

Overall it's pretty clever, though. I'd love to see a sequel that takes those concepts and sort of fleshes it out a bit more. Maybe some troop variety, possibly a little dose of luck to keep things fresh.

Even though it looks like matches might be fast paced, they're about average for this type of TBS. That'd be fine, except there's no save. I like the ability to shut down a game when I'm done playing it...not when it's done with me.

cyrax wrote:

I like the ability to shut down a game when I'm done playing it...not when it's done with me.

In Soviet Russia?