News: Iceberg announces new futuristic turn-based 4X game, Horizon

News

Iceberg announces new futuristic turn-based 4X game, Horizon
Posted: 19.03.2013 18:12 by JonahFalcon	Comments: 45
Iceberg Interactive has announced that it will be publishing Toronto-based game developer L3O Interactive's new futuristic turn-based 4X strategy game Horizon for PC in certain European and Oceanic territories. The publishing deal covers worldwide digital rights and boxed retail rights for the game, which has been in development for several years, in Western Europe, Russia, Australia and other territories. L3O describes Horizon as a "grand space strategy game of galactic conquest" where players take the role of the human faction as it explores deep space, discovering alien artifacts and new worlds. Players will also "come into contact with 10 other species, each with their own unique culture, history and schemes." Additionally, "A fully interactive galaxy allows you to navigate open space between stars and planets. Patrol your borders and, when the need arises, defend your territory by engaging in ship-to-ship tactical combat. Develop new colonies and then watch them become galactic centres for trade, industry and science - and of course military bases, outposts and shipyards to build your battle ships." Horizon is due to be released this Summer 2013. Related games: Horizon (PC)

Comments

By Chosen_One (SI Elite) on Mar 19, 2013

4X era is rising again? :)

By JPerry06 (SI Core) on Mar 19, 2013

Sounds good to me.

4X?

By danfreeman (SI Core) on Mar 19, 2013

Damn,been playing Stardrive since last week(awesome game by the way and it`s still in beta) and now we have another 4x game? Not that i`m complaining mind you,seeing the genre come back with such force is exhilarating but i fear this will become a bandwagon like what happened to braid and people will try to copy it and thus dilute the experience and i do not want that.

By nocutius (SI Elite) on Mar 19, 2013

4X - explore, expand, exploit, exterminate

I'm loving this renewed popularity of the genre as well :)

By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Mar 19, 2013

2013 is already better than 2012

By Voqar (SI Member) on Mar 19, 2013

This one looks kind of interesting.

By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Mar 19, 2013

Looking forward to this, along with Iceberg's other soon-to-be-released "StarDrive" (an expanded and enriched combination of "Armada 2526" and "Star Ruler").

By JonahFalcon (SI Elite) on Mar 19, 2013

@jperry: 4X means "Civilization-type game", more or less.

This looks a LOT like Master of Orion to me.

@Herod: Good catch. Forgot Iceberg was publishing StarDrive.

By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Mar 20, 2013

An improved "MOO 2" would be okay as well (let's just forget "MOO 3" shall we?).
Iceberg is a quiet achiever, yet they produce some pretty sharp products. I own a few, and most are "under the radar" type yet very well made and supported.
Okay "Gemini Wars" wasn't the greatest but I think "StarDrive" will make up for that one.

By JPerry06 (SI Core) on Mar 20, 2013

Having now got my office set up at home I will spend this weekend updating my desktop with some of these games.

Going to give my ps3 a rest for a bit while i wait for the ps4.

Looks like a good game though so will keep my eye on it

By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Mar 20, 2013

It's made by a small Oregon-based team who pride themselves on being hardcore PC strategy gamers, and aim to bring the some level of hardcore strategy to the game. It's been in development for several years, Q&A for 4 months and is happily now in beta.
If I didn't have so many 4X space strategy titles already I'd jump right in, but I may wait....or not. With "Endless Space" just getting a new update, and having just upgraded "Armada 2526" to "Gold" (including the necessary expansion "Supernova") I'm short for time.

By JPerry06 (SI Core) on Mar 20, 2013

Apart from doing a google search where can i find a list of good online games i can play.

not looking for anything serious but just some little pc games to enjoy

By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Mar 20, 2013

Here's a great source for a bunch of free PC games that I've spent quite a few hours on. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n1g3oTXjDM&list=PL4Sz7_l-PtwCCwl3bDkZg8NUGWfiBLj1X

Just that entire playlist, dozens of games

By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Mar 20, 2013

Nice little games there Roderick,, but as someone posted the video is over 12 months old and there are loads to be found by googling.
Jperry are you asking for "online" only, or just simple PC games as there are heaps of the latter?

By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Mar 20, 2013

Well if you look slighty further, that's the first of a playlist of videos that is still being added to every Friday....looketh before ye judgeth!

Latest one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Gkafkuwdc

By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Mar 20, 2013

To be honest, I don't much like Youtube videos as the narration gets on my nerves nine times out ten. I prefer lists.

By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Mar 20, 2013

Well that's personal, no worries.

I like to see a bit of gameplay and some entertaining narration never hurts

By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Mar 20, 2013

Sure the gameplay is good, but I tried to watch a 30 min. 'first impressions' video of "StarDrive" and the guy's American drawl loaded with "um's", "ah's" and " oh shit man, oh dude, like for real?" just had me running screaming down the street in the pre-dawn.

By JustCommunication (SI Core) on Mar 20, 2013

Yeah, tell me about it - the american ones are the worst. No offence guys :P

I previewed the StarDrive Beta and I was very impreesed. A bit rough around the edges, but hopefully nothing they can't fix. Need to give it a nother go.

This looks exciting as well, going to try and hit them up for an interview.

By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Mar 20, 2013

I ADORE their diplomacy screens

By nocutius (SI Elite) on Mar 20, 2013

Yea, they are quite gorgeous :)

By danfreeman (SI Core) on Mar 20, 2013

Good to see Stardrive is getting a lot of praise,i love the game as well though i do have some complaints about it,the diplomacy could use a little work on it and i would like other races to play as or at least more differences between them,as they are now the differences are mostly cosmetic since at the start of the game you can choose a race and change their pros and cons however you wish,still this is beta and these problems will be fixed along the way.

By nocutius (SI Elite) on Mar 20, 2013

That was one of the most requested features in a poll that one of the mods over there ran, a different tech tree for all the races.
The game will get there, if not sooner then with the inevitable expansion.

By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Mar 20, 2013

With a little more work, let it stew for a bit, and it will be a very enjoyable game indeed

By JPerry06 (SI Core) on Mar 20, 2013

Thanks guys.

I meant browser based games such as eve and other free 2 play games that you can download. Not your normal CD bought ones.

My pc collection is Starcraft 2 and sim city so if there are any other games that are not to be missed let me know. Don't have a big gaming background or knowledge.

By Chosen_One (SI Elite) on Mar 20, 2013

That would be a very big list Perry :D

By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Mar 21, 2013

"Star Trek Online" and "DC Universe Online" are two I strongly recommend, JP as while they are not browser-based you need spend no actual cash on them yet you get the whole content of the experience made available with very few restrictions.

Browser-based, if you're a "Battlestar Galactica" fan like me then "BSG Online" is a title getting better and better. I haven't played it in a while, but when I did it was very promising and quite atmospheric.

As for "StarDrive", if they continually seek and accept input from the community as another Icerberg title does ("Endless Space") I see it getting to be a monster hit with those of us so inclined to this genre.

Now I'm off to give "Heroes & Generals" a shot, as I've just been given a load of Gold to kick start it and it's just finished installing.

By nocutius (SI Elite) on Mar 21, 2013

Any basic promo codes going around?

edit:
I see they are giving away some 200 gold ones.

By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Mar 21, 2013

I wouldn't bother unless you're hard up for a US vs. German WWII MMOFPS. Felt like a very cut down version of "CoD 2" combined with a bit of a better looking "Red Orchestra 2".
Already uninstalled as I can see it will be just as clique-riven and pay-to-win as all the others.

By nocutius (SI Elite) on Mar 21, 2013

Thanks for saving me the time, I was just about to create an account :).

The premise of the game sounded very interesting. I'll just wait for it to launch to see what all the reviews say then.

By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Mar 21, 2013

You're welcome. It's all a bit "I've been here before - a dozen times over" with the knowledge that the cliques and cheater clans will rule every map.

I bought "StarDrive" from Gamersgate for the coinage and to support them directly rather than Valve (who everyone must know by now I loathe almost as much as Blizzarse). Unfortunately GG had changed their early beta access, to "pre-load" so I, being the affable character that I am, wrote a sarcastic letter of complaint and demanded a refund.
Thank you GG, you never argue.
So picked it up on Steam and so far, after having played 'Armada 2526 Gold" for a few days to stave off the cravings, the game even in beta is still pretty light-on.
The space combat, and even ground combat screens, are very much the same. The only real difference so far - modular ship design, which is well covered in "Star Ruler". The options are pretty light on as well, and pardon me if I don't appreciate video tutorials (hear that Stardock? No more for "Fallen Enchantress"). I'm all for interactive stuff. "See this? Now go do it!" sort of thing as with many games including one I'm re-visiting at the moment "Star Wolves 3".

Then again the pop-up-and-read tutorial tips for "Endless Space" were endlessly useless as well.

I hope they have a lot in store for the coming month before release as so far the price point has not been justified for me.

By danfreeman (SI Core) on Mar 21, 2013

Star ruler felt too complicated for me,i even forgot about it till now,i hate to say it but you do have a point hero,Stardrive is a bit expensive but i for one don`t mind,it gave me what i want and i`m okay with that.

By nocutius (SI Elite) on Mar 21, 2013

If I could have paid the USD price I'd have considered the game quite cheap, but the EUR price makes it seem just a tad expensive at the moment. I'm hoping that a few more features get added before they move on to doing expansions so we really get all our money's worth.

I still love the game and I don't feel bad at all about making a day one purchase. The combination of real time battles with this kind of combat engine really makes the game stand out for me.
Things would be even better if there were some tactics to the battles as well instead of the simple zerging.