GDN writes: "Which personality represents your play style more? Captain Kirk or Captain Picard? If you know who they are and actually have a preference on the matter, then you are one step closer to enjoying Gratuitous Space Battles.
No, I don't mean you'll enjoy big fights that occur in space for no reason. Though I guess you'd like that as well. I'm talking about a game. It's called Gratuitous Space Battles. There is no plot to the game or purpose except to build armadas that attack other massive fleets. That's it. No politics, no trade, not even a resource pumping machine to build. Just drop in what ships you want in battle and hit "go"."
GSB and GSB II are real-time strategy games that you don’t play in real-time. That is to say, all the strategy (and player involvement) comes before the battle is joined and the death-rays leap across the void to destroy the enemy. Acting as a sort of grand admiral of a space armada, you design the individual classes of ships, determine the composition and formation of your fleet and issue general orders that affect your ships’ behavior in combat. Then, you sit back and watch the show, hoping your planning was good and your AI commanders know what they’re doing. “I wanted to design a game where having no control was actually the main mechanic…” Harris says.
So yup, GSB2 is now taking pre-orders direct from my site, and this gives you access to the beta. You can grab it right now from
the developers site.
Note that this is a proper beta, not some super-early-access proof of concept thing where most of it doesn’t work. In other words, most stuff works! it’s playable. Hopefully its fun! It’s PC-only and English only for now, but that will change come-release. There will of course be bugs, and myriad balance issues. And I will be adding some extra voiceover and a few other bits and pieces. But hopefully this is something you can play and enjoy right now. You get a download link, an online serial (for challenges, if you want to use them), and a steam code for its eventual steam release (the code obviously isn’t working yet).
This week, the Humble Sale has gone back to selling video games, with the titles up for grabs coming from strategy developer Positech Games.
