Battleswarm-Field-of-Honor posts

While some games have attempted to merge the first person shooter genre with elements from RTS games (The Savage series, Command and Conquer: Renegade) none have been deemed a complete success. Today publisher Reality Gap officially launched Battleswarm: Field of Honor, a sci-fi themed free-to-play online game that was originally developed by Asian developer Gameworld Tech. The game itself has one side (the human solider) in a first person view point. They go up against the other (side the bug-like aliens) who have an RTS game play design.

On the occasion of today's official launch of Battleswarm, Big Download got a chance to ask some questions to Reality Gap's Chief Operating Office Mark Hood as he talks about the game, how Pong creator Nolan Bushnell is involved and more.

After a few months in beta testing, the free-to-play RTS-FPS hybrid game Battleswarm: Field of Honor is scheduled to officially launch to the the public on Thursday. The game's publisher Reality Gap plans to make the most of it with a launch sweepstakes that will include the grand prize of an Alienware gaming PC laptop.

The game's launch will also include the addition of the in-game and web based stores where players can use real money or gold from the game itself to purchase new weapons, armor and other items. As we have reported before, Battleswarm's gameplay lets players choose from either the first person-based humans or as the RTS-themed alien race.

If you have been part of the beta for the online FPS-RTS hybrid game Battleswarm you know that the game pits humans in a first person shooter mode against an alien enemy who attacks via swarms of units in a real time strategy gameplay. While the game is still officially in beta its pretty easy to enter and this weekend there's some extra incentive to check the game out.

The game will add a new weapon (if you play as a human) or a new unit (if you play on the alien side). However the weapons and units can only appear and be used in the game on Saturday and Sunday. Come Monday, they dissapear. Here's the list of weekend only items:

Gauss Gun
Plasma Rifle
Sabot Rifle
Sabot Machinegun
Acid Beetle
Viper Beetle
Scorpion
Rhino Beetle

After launching a closed beta test a few weeks ago, Reality Gap has announced that their sci-fi RTS-FPS combo game Battleswarm: Field of Honor, has now launched an open beta test. The game will remain in open beta for the next two weeks, presumably to prepare for the game's official launch later this year.

Just a quick recap: Battleswarm is being designed as a free-to-play game supported by microtransactions. Players can either control the human soldiers on the ground in team-based first person shooter action or play as the bug-like aliens controlling hundreds of minions in an RTS-like interface. Players can sell or trade items and level up their characters in the game as well.

A few days ago USA Today had the scoop on Battleswarm: Field of Honor, a new sci-fi RTS-FPS hybrid game that's being designed by Pong creator and Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. Today the company behind the game, Gameworld Tech, announced that the beta for Battleswarm has launched on their official web site.

The press announcement also comes with the first 'real' screenshots from the game (USA Today had a really tiny image in their first article). As you can see the game pits human soldiers against insect-like alien threats (a la Starship Troopers). Players who take on humans play in first or third person mode while players who take on the aliens control hundreds of alien units in a RTS mode. The game is free to play now but will officially launch in September with a micro-transaction business model.

Atari founder and Pong creator Nolan Bushnell has stayed busy over the years in the game industry and recently became one of the co-founders of Reality Gap, a microtransation-based game company that recently launched the open beta for a new casual fantasy MMO called Monato Esprit. Now Bushnell is getting his hands dirty on a more hardcore free-to-play game.

USA Today's game blog has the first word on that project, a sci-fi RTS-FPS hybrid called Battleswarm: Field of Honor. The article chats with Bushnell about the project which also has a tiny screenshot of the game itself (that's it above this post). Bushnell said he came up with the game as a way to play online with his five sons; all of whom are first person shooter fans. However he admits that his reaction time in playing FPS is not up to his sons so Battleswarm adds some RTS elements into the mix.

Bushnell, who describes the game as ""a mash-up between StarCraft and Starship Troopers" says microtransactions will be used to purchase upgrades with Bushnell saying, "There are a lot of things you can do for a nickel, dime or quarter." There's no word on when Battleswarm will officially launch.

[Via Blue's News]