We'd hoped to go hands-on with the upcoming strategy title, Warhammer Battle March, but instead we had to be content with sitting through a Deep Silver press conference with one of the game's designers who talked us through and showed us some of the gameplay and unique controls of the Xbox 360 version. Still, Warhammer Battle March's game designer has been doing his research and tells us that he's played all the RTS titles so far on Xbox 360 in a bid to see where their team could improve and make a more accessible, user-friendly RTS on Xbox 360
The single player campaign will offer an Empire, Chaos, Orcs and Goblins campaign. They'll be customisation options that we've become accustomed to in Warhammer games, such as a full palette of colours to paint our armies, body swopping and banner design, which we'll then be able to save and bring online. Namco Bandai has simplified the user interface and the control system to make it a different gameplaying experience on Xbox 360 than PC. The centre cursor for example, which is used for manipulating your units, can be locked and unlocked, meaning that you can move your troops without the camera following the action. Ultimately, the developers hope that this will give the played a solid sense of movement.
Heroes feature heavily in Warhammer Battle March and can be accessed quickly at anytime by a press of the trigger and each hero will have a skill tree, where you can spend points on three skills: Combat, Duel and Command. Like other Warhammer games, you'll be able to capture relics and duel with opponents.
The Xbox 360 version will feature unique maps that won't be available on the PC title, downloadable content and 2 vs.2 online multiplayer.
Namco Bandai tell us that Warhammer Battle March on Xbox 360 will be much faster and accessible than the PC version, with camera movement tailored specifically for the console. With 20+ hours worth of gameplay in the single player campaigns and a multiplayer aspect that will feature plenty of game modes, Warhammer Battle March is shaping up to be a solid RTS that may appease gamers who haven't been totally convinced that the real-time strategy genre can make a jump to consoles.
Warhammer Battle March will be released in the first quarter of 2008.
