By Jim Rossignol on February 22nd, 2013.
Those meticulous fellows at DigitalMindSoft have released several minutes of footage of the tiny men of Call To Arms doing war in destructible maps. As we might well have anticipated, the game looks a lot like the Men Of Wars, on which it based. Still a bit of a way to go, judging by this, but I am keen to get my hands on this, because these kinds of fiddly RTS games are too few and far between.
Also: Tanks! BRING ME TANKS!
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DigitalMindSoft Interview
By Jim Rossignol on January 29th, 2013.
At the end of last year we were pleased and then surprised to find that DigitalMindSoft were making a “spiritual successor” to the Men Of War games set in the modern world. Call To Arms, as it is called, baffled us a little by kicking off with a crowd-funding appeal, which seems to have gained little traction. Concerned to learn more – because Men Of War is a favourite game series of mine – I thought it might be good to talk to the developers and ask about their plans: would they go to Kickstarter? And would the GEM engine be updated? I talked to Chris Kramer.
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By Jim Rossignol on January 16th, 2013.
The spiritual successor to the Men of War games – Call To Arms, which is being developed in the same folks who did Assault Squad, in the same engine – is making… slow progress with its crowd-funding effort. Which is sort of a shame, because who wouldn’t want a modern version of the brilliant game of soldiers? But also unsurprising, due to a remarkable lack of assets and information to promote and accompany the pitch. The first of these have begun to trickle out, with a physics and dynamic cover video showing us a game that looks a lot like Men Of War with better voice acting, as you can see below.
We’re keen to find out a bit more about what is going on with Call To Arms, so expect an interview with developers DigitalMindSoft later in the week.
By Jim Rossignol on December 18th, 2012.
So here’s a bit of interesting news. If you are me, at least. Which I am, for some reason. DigitalMindSoft, who took over Men Of War from originators Best Way (who are now making Nuclear Dawn), are making Call To Arms. They claim that the game “the true successor of the Men of War series.” And yes, it’s going to be modern-era combat: “Similar to Men of War: Assault Squad, Call to Arms also includes our innovative “direct control” feature, a 3rd person action mode used to operate your unit’s aim and movement. Whether advancing with a Humvee, infiltrating with a Scout Sniper or crashing through buildings with a M1A2 Abrams, everything can be controlled by you!” But there’s a twist, of a contemporary flavour, of course: they’re crowd-funding. I think I might just back this one, despite the rather obvious lack of a pitch video – come on, chaps!
By Alec Meer on August 20th, 2012.
The judicious use of the words ‘assault’ and ‘squad’ and the attachment of Men of War co-developer DigitalMindSoft to this web-based, predominantly multiplayer strategy game had me thinking this was some new MoW spin-off. Assault Squad shares a World War 2 setting – i.e. there are tanks – but that’s about it. No dramatic 3D explosions or hat-scavenging here, simply hex-based battles between static units. Rather than immediately firing up the Stonesignal I had a quick sniff around its public beta this morning, and discovered it to be turn-based strategy in the vein of a small-scale Civ, but with a steely focus on all-out war.
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By Adam Smith on April 10th, 2012.
Court-martialed officers are given the chance to redeem themselves by signing up to fight alongside their fellow condemned in the bloodiest battles of a bloody great war. It sounds like it could be a science fiction concept, with electrified manacles, guns that are also handcuffs and remote controlled explosive dogtags that bark out orders in the abrasive tones of an angry prison warden played by Malcolm McDowell. No such thing. Men Of War: Condemned Heroes tells the story of a soviet penal battalion during World War II. To the Eastern Front then and a slightly more unusual story of that many-storied war to discover. Trailer below, game due on April 12th.
By Jim Rossignol on February 17th, 2012.
The team behind Men Of War: Assault Squad have announced that they’ve released a demo for their Game Of The Year edition, and you can get that demo here. They report that “It contains 3 playable missions (USA, Germany, Soviet Union) and 1 introduction mission.” This was one of my favourite games of last year – a multiplayer and skirmish remix of Men Of War that was eminently playable with or without friends. The GOTY edition simply throws in all the DLCs that came out for it, too. If you like tanks and using your mind to send tiny men to their deaths, then you should give this quite a serious whirl.
By Jim Rossignol on February 9th, 2012.
In retrospect, I should probably have made more of a fuss over the superb Men Of War: Assault Squad, because it was one of my favourite experiences of last year. Yes, it was a co-op/multiplayer remix of the original, and all the DLCs meant the pleasure was sort of fragmented, but actually I spent many meticulous hours playing through this game both solo and with my MoW-playing friends, and the result is always one of the best RTS experiences I can think of. The original game and all the DLCs are now being bundled together in a Game Of The Year edition. 1c explain: “The pack totals 25 skirmishes, over 50 multiplayer maps, 5 playable nations, over 100 infantry weapons and over 200 vehicles.” It only seems to be on GamersGate so far, but I expect it will pop up elsewhere today.
I’ve posted the most recent devs versus game video below to provide the clueless with a taster.
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By Jim Rossignol on September 20th, 2011.
Men Of War: Assault Squad’s men of development have sent word that they expect to fling an update at the game later this week. There’s also going to be more DLC to follow, and then more to follow that, if they word of DMS’ Chris Kramer (below) is to be believed. Which it is.
He also says: “we are discussing a new title for the series, which is an entire rework of the present game from the ground up”, which is quite, quite exciting.
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Making Tracks
By Jim Rossignol on June 24th, 2011.
PLEASING UPDATE: Ah, I got the wrong end of the stick. I have two of five missions to play with. There’s actually going to be one for each faction. That makes this 350% more exciting!
Ooh, I love a bit of Men Of War: Assault Squad, and now I have a bit more of it. Two new (as yet unreleased) skirmish scenarios have been dropped into my grasping hands by the chaps at DigitalMindSoft. Plenty more on this, below.
By Jim Rossignol on April 27th, 2011.
Men Of War: Assault Squad has had another patch, which fixes up some balancing issues and adds a couple of new vehicles. You can get the patch here if you need to. There’s also some paid-fo downloadable content now available, which is a pack of five new maps for assault zones multiplayer mode. Sigh. I love this game.
