NEWS - Friday, February 23, 2007
Battlestations Midway DL Content Revealed
For years, the Japanese naval base at Truk was a well-kept secret. In just two days in 1944, Allied naval forces erased Truk from the map. Next month, you can do it in about a half hour. The Raid on Truk will be playable as a single-player mission as part of the first downloadable content for Battlestations: Midway, Eidos confirmed today. The pack will also include a new multiplayer map and five new ships and planes and will hit Xbox Live Marketplace this March for a price of 600 Microsoft Points, or about $7.50. "You’re not just getting new maps," said David Bamberger of Eidos. "You’re getting new battles, whole new strategies to play with." The addition of a new single-player battle is welcome as the campaign runs a bit short. In the Raid on Truk, you’ll take part in Operation Hailstone, a massive air and sea strike on a Japanese base located in the Carolina islands. The real battle pitted nine Allied carriers, 45 warships, 10 submarines and nearly 600 planes against an Imperial force of three cruisers, eight destroyers, 50 merchant ships and 350 planes. As you can imagine, the two-day attack was a landslide Allied victory and a major blow for the Japanese as they lost a significant support base for other neighboring islands. In Battlestations: Midway, you’ll direct a four-phase battle beginning with a P-38 air strike and culminating in a major carrier operation with the USS Enterprise. "Truk concentrates a lot more on dogfighting, something that’s easy to ignore in our game," Bamberger said. "Later on, you get to the big carrier battles and the stuff you are used to." Perhaps what Midway fans will enjoy most is the Battle of Sibuyan Sea, the new multiplayer map. As part of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history, you’ll control either the American force featuring the USS Iowa and Enterprise or the Japanese fleet Center Force, under the command of Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita. Center Force consisted of five battleships, including super battleships Yamato and Musashi. The Battle of Sibuyan Sea took place just prior to the Battle of Samar and Battle of Surigao Straight, two other fights of the same forces that are also included as multiplayer maps in Battlestations: Midway. "Sibuyan features a big island chain, so you can use it for offense or defense," Bamberger said. "There wasn’t a lot of action on ships during the war. You never saw your enemy and there wasn’t much battleship to battleship kind of warfare -- except during the Battle of Leyte Gulf." Five new ships and planes will be at your disposal during these missions. On the Allied side, you’ll have the P-38 Lightning is a fast American interceptor that featured distinctive twin-boom design. A versatile fighter used as a long-range escort, dive-bomber, and as a recon plane, the P-38 also killed more Japanese fighters than any other plane in the American arsenal. The USS Iowa transported President Roosevelt from Morocco back to the United States in 1943, and then she started to destroy lots of Japanese boats. She saw action in the Marshall Islands, at Truk, New Guinea, Guam and the Philippines before an impressive tour during the Korean War. She is armed with 16 406mm guns and comes with an equally impressive nickname: "The Big Stick." New Japanese forces include the Type A mini-sub, or Ko-hyoteki. Known as midget subs, these little boats were carried piggy back by larger submarines and only 50 were built. Five participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor, and each came equipped with only two missile tubes. But how will it perform in the game? "It’s faster than other subs so you can do a lot of damage," said Bamberger. In the air, you’ll take control of the Nakajima J1N Gekko, the first Japanese plane designed to fight at night. The twin-engine Gekko was known to be especially effective against bombers because of twin 20mm cannons that could fire upward and another set that could fire downward. They would also be equipped with 250kg bombs under the wings and used for kamikaze missions. Finally, the Shimakaze destroyer was very large and fast and also equipped with 15 torpedo tubes. Her advanced power plant produced 50 percent more power than other Japanese destroyers, making her extremely quick in the water. Strangely, she was the only one ever built. We will have exclusive hands-on time with both missions and the new vehicles next Monday and Tuesday. Check back soon for new video and screens of the downloadable content, which will be available at an unannounced date in March. And there’s more good news. More content is on the way. "I’m most excited about the new community of Battlestations: Midway players out there and we want them to know that we are in it for the long haul," Bamberger said. "In the next few months even more battles are in the works."Source: http://www.ign.com
