CM Normandy screenshot released

Michael Dorosh

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This was released in BFC's self-congratulatory 10th anniversary propaganda spiel today.
 

[hirr]Leto

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Give me a game that works and is fun to play... and I will pay.

TOAW looked very nice too... anyone here play that game?

Cheers!

Leto
 

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I guess they decided to go back to boring old WW2 after all and not give us the game we really wanted: the famed 1930's "Chaco Wars" of Bolivia & Paraguay...

[hirr]Leto;1115165 said:
TOAW looked very nice too... anyone here play that game?
Almost 24/7! Loved & lived that game- till some smart players figured out how to work-around the engine getting 20+ phases in a 10 phase turn.
 

Geordie

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While I cant deny those graphics look pretty, I can only imagine they are on the British front.

Wheres the Bocage! Where the Shermans? Oh and where are the infantry? I suppose the next screenshot will be the SS troops that faced the US throughout their campaign, from the beaches to the Rhine!
 

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ToW was a game I was really looking forward to, throughout its long development history. The demo shot those hopes down in flames.

For the next ten years to deliver what most of the first delivered will take a healthy dose of humility and much less arrogance. BFC built a brand on a healthy and vibrant community and a game engine that hit the spot. You have to have the humility sometimes to realise not everything is down to genius; we get lucky sometimes. Luck being a function of hard work and perserverance. The trick is to make the most of that and keep doing the right things. If you start to believe your own hype that's when the wheels can come off.
 

Michael Dorosh

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ToW was a game I was really looking forward to, throughout its long development history. The demo shot those hopes down in flames.

For the next ten years to deliver what most of the first delivered will take a healthy dose of humility and much less arrogance. BFC built a brand on a healthy and vibrant community and a game engine that hit the spot. You have to have the humility sometimes to realise not everything is down to genius; we get lucky sometimes. Luck being a function of hard work and perserverance. The trick is to make the most of that and keep doing the right things. If you start to believe your own hype that's when the wheels can come off.
Well-stated. You make your own luck, in other words. They did with CM:BO, as you point out.

Well. As they point out too. Over. And over. And... :laugh:
 

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As I've said before they started to talk more about what was good for them than what was good for their customers. I can sympathise with their position with regard to wanting more bang for their development buck, but if you're going to deliver less content you have to provide more depth, and if the campaign layer was meant to do that it was badly thought out.

I have the feeling the module concept has been expanded in scope as time has passed. I'd like to think there's some realisation there that there has to be give and take between developer and customer. But on the other hand from comments Steve has made I don't have much confidence that campaigns will be as engaging as the concept demands. You're then resting your hopes on QB's being fixed.

The Normandy game, for me, is make or break, because it sets the tone for at least the next two years after release. If it isn't fixed for that game, it isn't going to get fixed. It might not even be whether BFC stands or falls, but what kind of developer it wants to be, or whether it still can't make up its mind what it aspires to.
 

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Having played the 1.11 Shock Force demo I think CMx2 is now more or less playable.

The 1:1 thing failed to impress me. OK, squads now form proper assault and support sections instead of performing a kind of "wading through molasses" act towards the waypoint. Other than that, handling infantry feels exactly the same as it did in CMx1, given that the individual soldiers stick to each other like glue and go everywhere in lemming fashion.

Judging what does and does not matter about the game engine is very difficult though because of the one-sidedness of the engagements. As the Blue player you can win every scenario with both hands and one leg tied behind your back. At no point are you required to get the best out of your troops.

I don't know much about firearms but it seemed to me like every soldier in my Stryker squads could put some form of fire on the enemy, whether it be at 50 or 400m range. As such, it didn't matter much who ended up where.

I expect the story is going to be a whole lot different for German squads relying on MG42s for a good deal of their firepower.

One thing I'm wondering about is whether they're going to try and start their campaign with a beach landing battle. Since Saving Private Ryan no selfrespecting game about Normandy can do without it.
 

Michael Dorosh

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One thing I'm wondering about is whether they're going to try and start their campaign with a beach landing battle. Since Saving Private Ryan no selfrespecting game about Normandy can do without it.
They've already stated explicitly that they won't. The landings were 6 hours out of 1 day of a 90 day campaign (at least, in the east), or in other words .00277% of the campaign (or, going with the American definition of July 25, 49 days, so 0.005%), so I'd contest the importance attached to it from that perspective. Popular imagination attaches a lot more, of course, but having to model water, surf, shingle, sand, anti-ship obstacles, the physics involved for all that stuff, LCAs, DD tanks, and who knows what else, is really an entire module in itself. And all for scenarios that are really pretty unengaging; the Germans sit up on a bluff and gun down men in the water while the men advancing up onto shore use smoke and fire to overpower the outclassed defenders. Big yawn. Saving Private Ryan was only interesting because it wasn't depicted accurately. Ditto The Longest Day. To depict it accurately you would have been watching for five hours as everyone in the first wave got blown to pieces, then watched the second wave flounder about for a couple of hours, etc.

There was a lot more to Normandy than just Omaha Beach, and since Call of Duty already covered SPR and Brothers in Arms already ripped off/cashed in on Band of Brothers, why pander to that further?

If BFC can get bocage fighting down, they will be the first game company ever to do so. MMP just released a Normandy Action Pack for ASL last summer, and they're still trying to fix up their bocage rules to a playable state. It's a tough row to hoe. A lot of guys love what they've done, others aren't convinced. (The same can be said for what they've done with beach landings, though, too, to be fair, and CH is working on an Omaha Beach module that will be massive).

But logically speaking, CM has always been armour and tank heavy anyway - no reason to expect this will be any less. The infantry game still sucks in CMX2, so I'm expecting an armored infantry company to be the core unit - or mechanized cavalry or something. Halftracks and overpowered .50 calibre MGs. They didn't come ashore on Omaha, and even if they did, why start a campaign by losing half your men in the surf? CMX2 is now written for the twitch-ADD crowd. Can't disaffect your new demographics by turning them off with healthy doses of reality in game 1. ;)
 
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Sirocco

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Battlefront.com today counts more than 200,000 online customers, nearly 30,000 community forum members, and around a million hits to www.battlefront.com each day.
A couple of caveats to that; how many of those are active forum members? And although Alexa isn't a completely accurate picture of traffic it does give a reasonable guide. From that I'd suggest "hits" are actually accesses. A "hit" suggests either a raw or unique hit. An "access" is a file retrieval, for example a HTML page or a JPEG image.
 

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Like Mike I have thought the campaign would be based around an Ard Inf unit. Also agree that CM is still more about the vehicles than the man in a trench. The bottom line for me is if it looks and feels enjoyable to play then I will get it.

However, unlike Sci Force I will have a very hard time playing it if every campaign scenario has SS and Tigers in it. I will also have a hard time playing it if its too easy to win. BF have already stated with SF that the campaign is designed to be won by an average player. I dont want my Nazis dumbed down just so that some spotty oik can re-create how the US won ww2 all on its lonesome, yet again!
 

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Coupla thoughts:

1) A Tiger? In Normandy?

2) Can't jump on someone for tooting their own horn in ad copy - they'd be fools to write it any other way in my opinion.

3) If their intended "campaign" does focus on an armored infantry company/battalion it'll be restricted to the Omaha sector 'cuz t'weren't no such animal in VII Corps up Utah way. 2nd and 3rd Armored were both under V Corps.

4) I'll still believe it only when I see it for sale.

-dale
 

Rocket-Man

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Real companies tout their monetary numbers, not the traffic on their website.
 

[hirr]Leto

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Real companies tout their monetary numbers, not the traffic on their website.
Unfortunately, BFC is not traded publicly, so we will never know what the financials really are, unless someone (ahem) engages in industrial espionage and hacks into the files of their accountants.

But do other companies like BFC publish financials?

other questions:

1) 200,000 customers? over what period? Aggregate of 10 years?

200,000 x $40 (avg game price) = 8 million dollars over of revenue over 10 years, so operating revenue of about $800,000/year. Salaries, office infrastructure, PC's, donuts and coffee, consultations with psychiatrists over self esteem issues, legal fees, cash for hookers, etc etc etc for expenses... that doesn't leave a lot after taxes.

2) is that for all products? or is it just for CM?

3) does tihs count the paradox and other box releases?

Lots of questions.

Cheers!

Leto
 

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[hirr]Leto;1115717 said:
Unfortunately, BFC is not traded publicly, so we will never know what the financials really are .... Leto
True, but if the numbers were outstanding would they publish them even if they didn't need to? I am no financial analyst, but I have seen other companies touting their financials in press releases even though they were privately held when the financials were outstanding.
 
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I was more struck by the total insecurity in their 10th Anniversary message.

Are there any other websites and media outlets where anyone else is saying such kind things about BFC? It strikes me odd that they have to work so hard at greasing their own wheels. It comes off as kind of embarrassing - "Look! People like us and stuff!" If they were selling units like hotcakes, they wouldn't care give a crap about the "million hits a day" on the website and certainly wouldn't be bragging about it as if it is supposed to mean something.

Show us a game people are talking about, not website stats in which 20% are driven by off topic posts - I'll bet half of those 30,000 registered users have 10 or fewer posts to their name. But guess what? Moon disabled the Members List when they went to the new format. Coincidence?
Good point! Yeah, that bolded bit saying "a million hits a day" made me gag on my coffee! LOL That might be true, but I still frequent the BF site and I would be surprised if there were more than a hundred new posts in a day, much less 1,000,000 hits!
:)
 

Patrocles

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Real companies tout their monetary numbers, not the traffic on their website.
AFAIR, BF does not release any data on sale figures, income, expenses, even sales goals. When BF has stated a few times in the past that CMSF and CMSF Marines have 'exceeded' their goals I take it with a grain of salt.
 

KG_Jag

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AFAIR, BF does not release any data on sale figures, income, expenses, even sales goals. When BF has stated a few times in the past that CMSF and CMSF Marines have 'exceeded' their goals I take it with a grain of salt.
As my dad told me almost a half century ago, it's what they don't tell you that is usually the most important fact(s).
 
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