Hammer Wars becomes Age of Hammer Wars for NA release…
The initial European release was basically summed up as an interesting idea that needed better execution. But the developers, Dynamic Systems, took the criticism to heart and went back to the drawing board and retooled the game (and renamed it to Age of Hammer Wars) for its upcoming NA release (which will hopefully be soon?).
This update is apparently also available in Europe, free if you’ve already bought the game or won it in the contest here. They addressed the main complaint (the controls) and changed some of the levels for the better.
Now Im looking forward for this game. When will it release in North America?
Absolutely no idea, but it was just rated by the ESRB, so probably soon? Within a month most likely, but you never know.
i loved this game and now its getting an update?? WHOOP
Fantastic news that Dymanic Systems are listening to community feedback and making updates avaliable for the game that not only address the control issues but also add new content.
See this great quote from the dev website regarding the updated game:
“Stupid levels were removed and good levels were optimized — the game became twice more interesting! ”
lol
Indie developers are awesome! Many of the more established triple-A producers could learn a lot from the smaller indie teams.
I have the original Hammer Wars (v1.03) installed, so I tried running the ‘update’ function from the game options in the XMB – no update detected. So I went into the PSN and had a look in the list of Minis, and sure enough the game is now called ‘Age of Hammer Wars’. I therefore selected the option to download the game again from my list of downloads. I didn’t bother deleting my existing copy of the game because I wanted to see what would happen.
The download/install completed OK. When I browsed the game list on the PSP, the game was still called ‘Hammer Wars’ but when I looked at the information the version came up as v2.01. Cool!
The first time I ran the newly updated game, a message was displayed explaining that my save game file was either corrupt or from an earlier version of the game (fair enough).
The first thing you notice playing the updated game is that you can now use X to swing the hammer. You can also still use the analog stick if you prefer that method. What is great is that you still need considerable skill to swing the hammer with the X and make contact with the target/enemy. You can’t just mash the X button and have the hammer swing constantly – thankfully it doesn’t work like that.
You still need to time the swings correctly and use physics to perform successful attacks. It’s hard to explain, but you’ll see what I mean when you give it a go. This keeps things true to the original concept of the game – using physics to attack – while still making things a little more accessible (I could never get the hang of using the analog stick and I was basically terrible but now about 30% of my attacks make contact in the place I was aiming for when using the X button – which is a considerable improvement!).
I haven’t discovered the new content yet (the new levels), but I at least stand a chance of seeing it now with the improved control system!
Well done Dymanic Systems – thanks for the update!
Thanks for the impressions. I never got around to playing the original, so I wasn’t in a position to.