The Return of a classic - Battlezone!

[Jarhead0331]

I've had my eye on this for awhile and its finally been released. So many great memories of playing this one. The best part is that its not just a re-release of the original game. Its been updated and improved. Looks great!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/301650/

One of the greatest sci-fi strategy games of all time returns Spring 2016 with remastered visuals, online multiplayer, and near unlimited mod content from Steam Workshop.

Enter an alternate vision of the 1960s where the "space race" is nothing more than a cover for an interplanetary war between the US and Soviet Russia over mysterious alien bio-metal.

Take command of an army of sleek heavy assault tanks, strike cruisers, APCs and more, and wreak havoc with super-heated projectiles in your mission to blast your enemy from the face of the Moon, Mars, Venus, Titan, Io and Europa.

Scavenge the battlefields for crucial bio-metal, deploy powerful defenses, construct advanced facilities and escalate each battle to an epic confrontation.

Revolutionary, revitalised and remastered, Battlezone 98 Redux's blend of thrilling first person action and tense RTS gameplay is as essential now as it ever was.
FEATURES
Critically Acclaimed RTS:

    Command the battlefield and fight vehicle-to-vehicle from the immersive first person cockpit view.
    Unleash mechanized devastation with a huge tactical arsenal including Howitzers, MAG Cannons, Cold Fusion Lasers, Day Wrecker Artillery, and more.
    Customise and fortify your bases from the ground-up with production factories, power plants, barracks, armouries, command towers and deadly defensive turrets.


Two Explosive Campaigns:
Play as American or Soviet forces in two separate singleplayer campaigns, with 29 missions across 7 different planetary environments.

Sleek Remastered Visuals:
Play Battlezone 98 as it should have been, in HD with completely remodelled vehicles and buildings, enhanced lighting and shadows, improved particle effects, upgraded animations, upscaled terrain, and more.

Online Multiplayer for 2-8 players:
Experience the classic rush of "Deathmatch", or test your skills in a pulse-pounding battle of wits in "Strategy" mode.

Steam Workshop Mods:
Tap into a community nearly two decades in the making, and enjoy near limitless new content with support for mods, such as new singleplayer and multiplayer maps, new vehicles, new HUDs, custom scripts and much more.

Map Editor:
Not a modder yet? Create your own custom multiplayer arenas with the in-built map editing tool.

[Huw the Poo]

If it was on Linux I'd be all over it.  Battlezone was an excellent game.

[Micha]

10 years ago this game made me sick, playd it day and nigth, in every free minute. Its not a joke, had to stop it, it was my heroin.

[JasonPratt]

Bionite: Origins is also in beta, which is much the same theme but looks more like Uprising: Join or Die, which was released around the same time as Battlezone 98 (in October 1997) -- and which GoG recently re-released, by the way!

[Staggerwing]

I must be one old ukerfay because when I hear 'Battlezone' and 'game' I think this:

[mirth]

^That's Battlezone.

[Wes]

I must be one old ukerfay because when I hear 'Battlezone' and 'game' I think this:

+1  O0

Vector Graphics Baby! Oh Yeah!

[JasonPratt]

Yep, shot a lot of tanks on that game, and also for the first time learned that tankers drive by adjusting the two tracks forward and back. Super-innovative for a video game in that day.

But that wasn't the 1998 Battlezone; which I never got around to playing because I enjoyed Uprising sufficiently enough.  O:-) (Though I missed using the tracks properly... I doubt 98 Battlezone had it either, because "hovertank". Uprising, the thing moved like a FPS; might as well not have been a 'tank' at all. Still a great game.)

No lie, I ripped the musical score to Uprising and listen to it occasionally. Good music to burn 45 minutes on the road to.

[-budd-]

Looking forward to your feedback JH, i played this a lot back in the day. I sucked at it, but it was fun.

[jomni]

Found battlezone 2 to be better. But disliked by BZ1 fans.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlezone_II:_Combat_Commander

[JudgeDredd]

I was thinking of another game. I didn't play this one.

The Battlezone I was thinking of was where there was a little popup window that showed the battle being played out and then took you back to 2D...but I don't recall what that was. I'm sure it was Battlesomething

[jomni]

BattleISLE?

[MikeGER]

Battlezone, Red Baron and later StarWars  (all vector graphics) ohh, that were the days at the arcade

...i have a Atari game pack with the original Battlezone and Red Baron for Android tablet, ....but its feels not the same then playing in the arcade 35! year ago.   

[JasonPratt]

The Battlezone I was thinking of was where there was a little popup window that showed the battle being played out and then took you back to 2D...but I don't recall what that was. I'm sure it was Battlesomething

Battleship definitely did that, which was really quite an interesting (if insane) mix of naval tactical task force surface group action and, well, Battleship rules.

At least some entries in the Battle Isles series, too. Not the first one, nor the most recent one. BI2?

[JasonPratt]

Found battlezone 2 to be better. But disliked by BZ1 fans.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlezone_II:_Combat_Commander

It's grimly amusing reading the developer defending the failure of BZ2 and the choice not to continue the plot with BZ3, as being essentially that only a few people like both FPS and RTS games and so are willing to try to play a game with both factors. This was after enough of a success with BZ1 to make 2 (and ditto Uprising, btw).

Actual reports are more that the game shipped as a buggy unfinished mess that required a lot of post-release patching, at a time when that was still unfeasible (although to their credit the devs really tried). ;) Which, y'know, would fully explain why interest in the series nosedived after 1's success.  ::)