By Kieron Gillen on September 21st, 2009 at 4:01 pm.

Are you excited about the forthcoming turn-based wargame from Battlefront? Here’s a chance to continue to be excited (and/or be crushingly disappointed). Are you not aware of it? Here’s a chance to have your expectations created. Are you still reading this paragraph? Well done. The beta demo of Empire of Steel can be downloaded from here. As the name says, it’s beta, so expect issues, but it includes two full maps to play, with no restrictions, and a chance to nose at all the other features. To get a feel for the game, there’s a game footage video below…



21/09/2009 at 16:43 noom says:
This doesn’t really appeal to me that much.
But I’m feeling fruity so I’m going to download the demo and give it a go.
21/09/2009 at 17:00 Spoon says:
Never heard of this, but it seems relevant to my interests. Will give it a go.
21/09/2009 at 17:02 Torgen says:
+1 for tiny little zepps, but looks like something for the Gameboy.
21/09/2009 at 17:13 bill says:
having your homepage set to a fixed width of 1660px is a little ambitious don’t you think? My brand new laptop only goes up to 1440, and with a sidebar half the content is pushed off the right of the screen. :-(
Only website i’ve ever encountered this issue on…. usually the problem is that they’re too narrow.
21/09/2009 at 17:29 Vinraith says:
This provokes fond memories of Empire Deluxe from the 90′s. I don’t know how similarly it actually plays, but that alone is reason to check it out in more detail.
21/09/2009 at 20:22 mujadaddy says:
1:30 in, can’t see anything actually going on when the combat sounds activate.
Skipped to about 8:00. Something’s happening, but the image is too small to see.
:-/
21/09/2009 at 20:38 Suman1083 says:
I think for most people, this game might be a little too “strategy intensive” for their taste. However if you like these games even the slightest bit the beta could be worth your while.
21/09/2009 at 21:00 Chaz says:
Did that video really need to be 9 minutes long?
21/09/2009 at 21:26 Jae Armstrong says:
:o
This looks awesome.
*downloads furiously*
22/09/2009 at 01:07 PleasingFungus says:
I just burned two and a half hours on this thing before I could force myself to stop. Not entirely sure I enjoyed it, but it tugged at some deep hook in my psyche.
Feels like a more complex version of this, probably, though that link seems to be to some odd pirated/abandoned version. Google, you have failed me! Nonetheless. Apparently’s that’s a variant of Empire, which Vinraith mentioned above, so I’m not the only one who sees the similarity.
22/09/2009 at 03:19 Thants says:
It doesn’t look turn-based in that video.
22/09/2009 at 08:00 Kommissar Nicko says:
I’m not sure what the video was trying to tell me, other than 1) my sound is too loud, and 2) games that repeatedly use the sound of a .22 being fired right next to your ears are annoying.
22/09/2009 at 08:55 jti says:
Read the title, it’s a whole game replay. It shows your game in real-time after you’ve played it. Sort of same thing as Civilization IV has.
22/09/2009 at 10:30 Pod says:
Do you actually controll anything, or do you just watch?
22/09/2009 at 10:50 Ginger Yellow says:
I must be doing something wrong. I played through the tutorial, and once I’d finished it crashed. So I started up a proper game and, having failed to find any oil on the islands near me, promptly ran out. I tried to set up a trade agreement with the Nazis (just call me Prescott Bush) , but it didn’t seem to do anything. So I gave up. I’ll give it another shot tonight.
22/09/2009 at 12:39 math0ne says:
Huge issue, needs to be fixed!