Brothers in Arms to be featured in History Channel documentaries

[Everlost_MI]

Wired (http://www.wired.com/) has the scoop (http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,69551,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_3) on Brothers In Arms being used to re-create key battles scenes for a new History Channel World War II documentary that is set to air on December 18th.

Brothers in Arms: The Untold Stories of the 502nd, a pair of one-hour documentaries debuting Dec. 18, will feature video-game graphics from Gearbox Software's Brothers in Arms video-game franchise.

Gearbox took photos of some of the World War II vets interviewed for the show, and re-created them in the game as they looked when they fought in Normandy as young men of 18 and 20 years of age.

The software company said it spent more than a year studying Army maps, photos and journals to create the virtual documentary.
That's just damn cool.

[The Iron Weasel]

I can't play EiB anymore, It needed more time, you cant release a game and its sequel in the same year, it just cant be done, It feels stale now, there was no time to miss the game. But yeah this is really cool.

[GigaFuzz]

Reminds me of when the Rome: Total War engine was used on the BBC show Time Commanders.

Contestants would come on the show, and instruct the people operating the computers on what they want their various units to do. I didn't see much of it, but it was nice to see such game technology put to use on a non-gaming TV show.

[netcraazzy]

My brother bought Brothers in Arms and I just couldn't warm up to it. The voice acting and story seemed way too over dramatized, it may work for Max Payne but just seemed lame in this game. Also, the amount of swear words seemed forced simply to add that "cool" factor.

[The Iron Weasel]

My brother bought Brothers in Arms and I just couldn't warm up to it. The voice acting and story seemed way too over dramatized, it may work for Max Payne but just seemed lame in this game. Also, the amount of swear words seemed forced simply to add that "cool" factor.

I thought the voice acting was very good, and the story well...actually happened and I didn't think it was overly dramatic. And there wasn't that much swearing.

[KNOTE]

Will the framerate be terrible? I keed, I keed. Seriouly though, BIA's framerate is below 30 nearly the entire time on the Xbox.

[Kagger]

Reminds me of when the Rome: Total War engine was used on the BBC show Time Commanders.

Contestants would come on the show, and instruct the people operating the computers on what they want their various units to do. I didn't see much of it, but it was nice to see such game technology put to use on a non-gaming TV show.

On the History Channel, they had a show Decisive Battles that every episode they recreated a battle using Rome: Total War. The one I saw the most of was Thermopylae Pass, a little bith of another one. Great stuff.

10,000 Immortals

[agentgray]

Will the framerate be terrible? I keed, I keed. Seriouly though, BIA's framerate is below 30 nearly the entire time on the Xbox.
How does one measure this? Does the Xbox have a framerate meter? Is there something in the game I don't know about. Doesn't most video on a TV display at 29.97 fps?

I played enough EiB to review it here (shameless plug), but never experienced any framerate problems even in it's highest quality on an HDTV.

[agentgray]

I thought the voice acting was very good, and the story well...actually happened and I didn't think it was overly dramatic. And there wasn't that much swearing.
The first game was horrible with the inaccurate swearing. For a game that touts accuracy, at least get the dialogue right. G.I's in the 40's didn't talk like that. EiB did a much better job of eliminating some of the swearing.

[netcraazzy]

I thought the voice acting was very good, and the story well...actually happened and I didn't think it was overly dramatic. And there wasn't that much swearing.

Sorry about that, as agentgray pointed out I was in fact talking about road to hill 30 not earned in blood. The 2nd one could very well be better but I've never tried it.

[AversionFX]

I played a little of Road to Hill 30. It was decent, I suppose. But I'm really worn out on WW2 games.

[*Legion*]

How does one measure this?

With their eyes. Though you can't look at it and say, "that's exactly 17.8 frames per second", people with reasonable eyesight can very plainly see when something is running short of, say, 30 fps.

Doesn't most video on a TV display at 29.97 fps?

On NTSC TVs, the TV draws a new screen 29.97 times per second (30 for the sake of easy discussion). That does NOT mean that the video hardware in the console is necessarily sending a new frame to draw each time, though. Those are two separate issues. It limits the number of possible frames (if the TV only redraws ~30 times per second, extra frames that occur between redraws will be as if they never existed). But it doesn't limit the low end.

[aversion2k]

I hated the first brothers in arms. The collision detection sucked, there were so many times my bullets hit invisible walls, the weapons felt dumb, and the AI really sucked.

Of course I seemed to be the only person I know who thinks this.

I did finish it though. And the levels looked nice.

[Chill]

I hope this turns out better than Decisive Battles. I loved the show, but only because I love RTW and ancient warfare. But, whoever directed Decisive Battles should be shot. It seemed they went out of their way to show the weaknesses of the RTW engine. Units look fine when marching, but when two armies clash you can plainly see the units bouncing off one another and just looking very "game-like". Basically, the show would have been more successful (imo) if they used some clever editing to make it seem more cinematic.

Also, its pretty weird they used live actors to show the armor and weapons of an individual soldier. Why not do it with the RTW engine?

[MaiXu]

I can't play EiB anymore, It needed more time, you cant release a game and its sequel in the same year, it just cant be done, It feels stale now, there was no time to miss the game. But yeah this is really cool.

I'm looking to get one of the Brothers in Arms games this Xmas ... which one would you guys recommend? Keep in mind I have not played either, or many WWII games at all, for that matter ...

Edit: OK, based on some other comments, I'll rephrase: if I'm going to get one WWII game (any console platform) of this generation, what should it be? I played some MoH and really hated them, and thus avoided WWII games in general. But now I'd like to get one or two, and Brothers in Arms seemed like the most enjoyable ... still, all input would be appreciated.

[The Iron Weasel]

I'm looking to get one of the Brothers in Arms games this Xmas ... which one would you guys recommend? Keep in mind I have not played either, or many WWII games at all, for that matter ...

Edit: OK, based on some other comments, I'll rephrase: if I'm going to get one WWII game (any console platform) of this generation, what should it be? I played some MoH and really hated them, and thus avoided WWII games in general. But now I'd like to get one or two, and Brothers in Arms seemed like the most enjoyable ... still, all input would be appreciated.

If your going to get one get EiB, if your going to get 2 get both Brothers In Arms games.

[RandomViolence]

I'd say, if you're going to get two, get BiA: Earned in Blood and Call of Duty 2.

Vastly different games, but both very enjoyable.

[agentgray]

I'm looking to get one of the Brothers in Arms games this Xmas ... which one would you guys recommend? Keep in mind I have not played either, or many WWII games at all, for that matter ...

Edit: OK, based on some other comments, I'll rephrase: if I'm going to get one WWII game (any console platform) of this generation, what should it be? I played some MoH and really hated them, and thus avoided WWII games in general. But now I'd like to get one or two, and Brothers in Arms seemed like the most enjoyable ... still, all input would be appreciated.
Both BiA games are basically the same game just told from different angles. The second one is more like an "expansion" the games are so similar.

[RandomViolence]

Fucking dumbass Wired editors list BiA as a third-person game in the screen caps. Morons.