New game Panzer Command

Aries

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I've seen enough of the game at this date.

Not really interested in it enough. Not radically different enough from CM. And CM is in my view an established game, it's got years of debugging, modding and all the rest.


The only way I might have remained interested, is if the game designer had been brave, and walked out of WW2.

There comes a point in time, when a company's lack of interest in accepting that someone else got there first, only results in the gamer's saying they are just not interested.

It's like when a movie gets released a month after another that was the same thing. Don't cry when no one cares about the second film.

Just not relevant to me if Panzer Command runs well or not. It's redundant.
 

ERutins

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That's too bad...

Your loss on that, Aries. I own the entire CM series and while I love them, they don't have a campaign system and you can't mod the data at all. This doesn't diminish their status as hall of fame wargames, but it does mean that there's room to grow.

Panzer Command does introduce some innovations as a first release, including those above as well as a minimap and an in-game clickable HUD/OOB and (IMHO) better camera controls. CM is definitely at this point a mature series, but we aim to keep expanding and improving Panzer Command as well - not to replace CM, but certainly to compete with it with a different approach to 3D tactical gaming. From the first release, Panzer Command has been stable and efforts are focusing on improvements and expansions rather than bug fixes, which is a great place to be.

Keep in mind, before CM, there was SP and CC, before that there was Kampfgruppe, Squad Leader and Panzer Leader, etc. There's always room for a new game and it's been a bit more than a month since CM was released, by the way. Frankly, I think we'd still be riding horses to work and writing via snail mail if past innovators had followed your advice. The bottom line is that we wanted to do a 3D tactical WW2 game, so we did one and we'll continue to explore all time periods and scales regardless of what may already be out there.

Your suggestion on trying something outside of WW2 is great - you should check out Flashpoint Germany and the upcoming Flashpoint Middle East, as well as our many other titles that are from eras other than WW2. WW2 still sells best though and as such is the best place for a new tactical series to start.

Regards,

- Erik
 

Aries

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WW2 sells best has to be the most annoying "thing" after hexes and turns :)

No I am not much into 3d normally.

This game looks to me, if I could use a comparison, close to how The Ardennes Offensive looks to Battles in Italy.

One simply looks raw and under developed in comparison.

Panzer Command might end up great, but right now it looks green, needs a lot more ripening from all I have seen.

That I would pick CM over it though, I don't want to be mistaken for a CM fanatic. I'm really not a big CM fan either. I just thing it's still king of 3d.

About Flashpoint Germany. The game looks ok, it only suffers a limitation with me that is personal to me. I carry too much WW3 baggage from my youth. I just can't seem to enjoy anything to do with WW3 in Europe.
 

madDdog67

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Erik, I think Aires makes a few valid points. I've played the Panzer Command demo, and I just don't see a huge improvement over stuff already covered in CMBB.

Graphically, you're on par with a game that was released 6 years ago (CMBO, don't exactly remmeber when CMBB came out, but it's been at least 3 years, I think), so you've done nothing to up the ante there, and it still looks like theres only 3 men in a squad?? Given the power of most machines today, is that really a limitation we have to live with? And, with all of the CM mods available, it really is possible to tailor the looks of the game to your own preferences.

While the ability to manipulate the camere with the mouse is nice, I don't know how well you implemented it. It's painfully slow cranking the mouse wheel in/out for the zoom feature...and I have to move the mouse about 2 feet to make one revolution of the battlefield. Is there a way to change these rates?? If so, then that isn't really an issue...but if you can't change them, I actually find it easier to maneuver around the map in CM. I have years of practice with that, and mapping keys to my Nostromo makes things a breeze.

The box with the unit representation of your forces is nice, it's easy to find all of your guys that way. The minimap is nice, too. I'm sure to some folks, the ability to change unit data will be a big thing, but that's not really anything I'd be interested in.

For me, I just don't see any huge advantages over the CM series, especially BO and AK, to warrant buying Panzer Command. You're coming to market with a product that, imho, doesn't improve sufficiently over your main competition to make it attractive enough to purchase. At the very least, I think you need MUCH better graphics given the state of computer gaming these days.

Yes, I know graphics don't make the game, but it's a step in the right direction if you're going up against a franchise that more or less wrote the book for this kind of game.
 
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