exigo22: Wonder if Battle Realms will go on sale....that's my #1 want right now in a flash sale, but i keep seeing the same games rotating....:(
You know, I think I'm totally going to have to buy that game if it ever shows up with a 80% off or more blowout bonanza thing going on. YEARS ago I was at HMV in Toronto under Eaton's and it was Warcraft 3 release day and my buddy and I picked up WC3 with much excitement. While in the store I found in the bargain bin out of the corner of my eye "Planet of the Apes" video game and I had just finished watching the Planet of the Apes movie boxed set plus the remake so I was all in Planet of the Apes mode. The game was $10 and was shrink wrapped to another game I had never heard of - "Battle Realms". Looked at the other game and didn't think anything about it either way. I brought that and whatever else I bought that day home and threw them in the pile. Installed Warcraft 3 and it dominated my gaming all week or month or whatever it was. It's all a blur now.
Some months later I got around to trying out Planet of the Apes finally but more of a test run than a serious gaming session. I don't remember the results of that much either way... then a few months later I decided to try out this "Battle Realms" game and it turned out to be a crapload of fun! I installed it on all the computers on the LAN and had friends over for LAN partying and out of the 10 or so games we played Battle Realms ended up being one of the most requested games among my LAN party circle. When our LAN gaming died off about a year later I have never played that game since. No reason, just game saturation and huge amount of titles to play more than anything and not enough time. :)
What is funny though, is almost EVERYONE who was exposed to Battle Realms had the same reaction. They said "Looks like a Warcraft 3 ripoff". The funny thing being that not only did I buy it from the bargain bin the very day that Warcraft 3 was released, but the game came out an entire year or more *BEFORE* Warcraft 3 existed so if anything one would have to characterize Warcraft 3 as a Battle Realms ripoff to be fair. :) I had to defend the game and point this out to people. Everyone loved it though regardless.
One of my buddies from back then has a 9 computer LAN party setup at his house nowadays and Battle Realms is still one of the top 10 games they play!
I've been kind of wanting to play it again though, and while I still have the DVD it doesn't have the expansion pack. And oh, look at that... GOG has it with the expansion DRM-free! I'm thinking I am totally going to have to get it again now and skip the archaic shiny plastic disk nonsense. :) Yeah, $1.99 will be the sweet spot on that one for me for sure. Great game.