Whats the latest in combat pc games?

Ive just tried Raven Shield and I was quite disapointed. The graphics and art work are actually a step backward from RS and Black Thorn. Even the setup menu was lower quality. The area you fight in is smaller, which means the game goes alot faster. I was just testing out the teams on the first level and was quite astonished when the mission completed screen suddenly came up. The layout of the fighting areas is not very good and the AI of the tangos is bad which means your not going to encounter much of any unexpected firefights. Some other interesting points are that doors only open one way, which is admitedly more realistic but very difficult to open if you standing on the side which the door swings open. One thing that really surprised me is that they took away the ability to hold postition for team members, which means they constantly follow you around like a puppydog getting shot or giving away your position in sensitive situations. Even the Gameboy Advance allows you to park team members, this is one of the biggest faults of Ghost Recon also. Another surprising thing is you cant jump. The one thing I did like about this game is that you use the action/use button to grab a ladder before you climb/ascend. This is something that has always bothered me in other combat FPSs is I have trouble connecting with ladders especialy when you have to go down a ladder in a hole in the floor, and end up waddeling around like a lunatic to try to get in. Another new item is that all assault rifles come with the option of using a 100rnd dual drum magazine which eliminates running out of ammo in close-in firefights. My overall advice is to avoid this game and get the original Rouge Spear or Black Thorn as this is a step backward in almost all respects.

Hidden & Dangerous… I’d forgotten about that game… it was very good.
The range of weapons available was excellent… all were depicted realistically. The only two faults I ever found with it were 1) I had a problem with crashes anywhere from 10 seconds to 3 minutes into the game if I had the sound turned on (I assume it was a conflict with my sound card…) and 2) occasionally looking through a scope and firing a rifle the tracer round would travel accross the screen instead of into the screen where I was aiming.

The tracer problem wasn’t really a big deal, but turning off the sound was serious. Even on the first level in the heavy rain next to the river the sound was awesome and really set up a great atmosphere.

Having 4 guys under your control was very good too and being able to pick up weapons was handy too… I often started missions with 1 or 2 men unarmed and picked up weapons for them on the way. The Weapon sights were very well modelled… the Bren gun and the Sten gun were cool…

I got the H&DII game and it was very good as well… adding a PPSh-41 and a few other weapons to the mix.
If you like WWII combat for some time H&D was the best.

Delta Force 2 – The Novalogic server turns a pretty poor single player game into a very addictive multiplayer game. I was engrossed with the sniper vs sniper games!

I have to agree that Ghost Recon and Desert Siege are excellent and the most comparable games I’ve played before are Hidden & Dangerous and its add on – classics.

I’ve tried connecting to ubisoft.com to have a blast on the multiplayer but my new laptop is causing a few problems with the modem connection. Even though it has the usual 56k modem the connection rate displayed is 1.2kbps? Maybe someone knows what I’m doing wrong? Maybe its because I went for cheapness bought from Time.

Since real fighter pilots train on flight simulators, I think some of the combat technics learned on sims are very realistic. Im wondering if some of the flight sim aces here can share some of their experience. I personally have found it very difficult to hit enemy at anything but up close and I find I have to toggle between outside zoom past views and cockpit views to be aware of whats going on around me. I also remove the cockpit at times for full screen forward views as you can hardly see anything in WW2 sims like CFS2 or Il-2. Do pilots here make much use of padlock views? How about using snap-look views when in a dogfight? I always seem to pass an enemy Im chasing right as Ive pulled up into firing position with too much speed. Does anyone here chop the throtal or use barrel rolls or other special manuevers to set up into firing postion? What kind of realism settings do most use here? Dont you need to have rudder pedals when using highly realistic flight handling settings? If you were to take on six enemy with the highest experience settings, how long would it take you to shoot down all of them? I personally like WW2 fighter sims over jet sims as the jets are just a little too “plush” and seem to catch and hit targets a little too easily.

A couple of times before on this forum, the idea has been discussed of a flight sim stratagy game where not only is online aircombat fought, but missions are waged on an overall real time war map between warring countrys. I think the game Aces High fits that bill perfectly and is an awfully good flight sim for a free 35mb download. Unfortunately they charge $14.95 a month (a MONTH not a year) to play on the overall online stratagy game. Maybe someone here who is playing on this game could describe the combat enviornment as Im deffinately not going to shoot $14.95 a month on any game.

Simmer- Could you give a review of Il-2 forgotten battles now that youve tried it?

Regarding Tank sims, I have M1 Tank platoon II which was pretty good, though as the name suggests you can only drive an Abrams.

I have heard good things about Steel Beasts and Steel Beasts II is coming out shortly I think… off the top of my head I think II adds Leopards to the drivable vehicles. As there are no Soviet or Russian tanks simmed yet I only buy these games when they become budget or if they are i a pack with another game I want. (I got M1 tank platoon in a pack that included Falcon 4 and Apache Havoc… I wanted apache havoc of course..)

I have a demo of a game called CMBB (Combat mission Barbarossa to Berlin) which is a 3D strategy game where you have troops and guns and tanks etc on a map. You give them commands and then either the computer has a turn of entering commands or a human opponent enters commands, then you start the round and each side carrys out its orders.
To see more go to www.battlefront.com
You can obviously play either Germans or Soviets.

Simmer
I got a ripped copy of DF2 and liked it so much I bought all three that were out at the time (ie DF1,2,3 land warrior). They are very good for very long range sniping… one of my favourite levels in a FPS is the level in DF2 with the combined assualt on a base that is guarded by towers… lots of nice long range shots. I also liked the fact that you actually have to adjust your scope setting for the different ranges.

Can anyone tell me what some good tank sims are. I just started playing C&C red alert2 and cant stand it, soldiers shooting it out point blank with armor…nooooo I dont think so. Please someone give me a realistic battlefield armor sim.

Just picked up my copy of forgotten battles today!!

Anyone guess what I’m doing at the weekend 😀

Plus next week sees the release of DF Black Hawk Down, played the demo and it was awesome (big fan of df series)

seafuryfan or anyone else- Is the entire Aces High game really a free 35mb download or is that just a demo?

Fair enough.

Originally posted by GarryB
When I am creeping through a village in Opfp and I hear enemy armour I like to know I can go to the last LAW soldier I killed and have a go at that armour, rather than run away. Equally when aircraft start to make my life awkward it is good to know I can pick up a strela or stinger and deal with it rather than wait for it to lose interest… having more options doesn’t mean you have to use them.

Also as I mentioned there is nothing worse than not being able to complete a mission because you need to kill a tank and your LAW guy is dead. Infantry are all trained to use disposable LAWs like the AT4 or RPG-22, so there is no argument that other soldiers would not do it in real life.

These are soldier sims after all. (though they lack proper artillery).

Garry- Let me clear some stuff up for you. First you have to try Ghost Recon before you can really critisize it. Second, Ghost Recon takes an extremely hands on approach to combat. You can send your other teams to places on the map with real time waypoints, but by enlarge your fighting the entire battle yourself, which is why for the most part the enemy are stationed in defensive positions as there wouldnt be much of a game if the 100 or so average number of enemy per level all came running from all parts of the combat area to fight your total if six members in one big shootout. Ghost Recon does have anti tank rockets, but eliminating the switching of weapons is more realistic as in real combat where a soldier really isnt going to run back 2 or 3 miles to pick up a RPG off his dead comrad. Ive already admited that OpFP is more a dynamic type of combat and in that sense more realistic. But Ghost Recon simulates a more guerilla type of combat where your on your own, stealthily taking out enemy. For realistic shooting and AI tactics of the enemy, you cant match Ghost Recon. After youve completed at least one level of Island Thunder, then tell me what you think off its realism.

When I am creeping through a village in Opfp and I hear enemy armour I like to know I can go to the last LAW soldier I killed and have a go at that armour, rather than run away. Equally when aircraft start to make my life awkward it is good to know I can pick up a strela or stinger and deal with it rather than wait for it to lose interest… having more options doesn’t mean you have to use them.

Also as I mentioned there is nothing worse than not being able to complete a mission because you need to kill a tank and your LAW guy is dead. Infantry are all trained to use disposable LAWs like the AT4 or RPG-22, so there is no argument that other soldiers would not do it in real life.

These are soldier sims after all. (though they lack proper artillery).

Originally posted by GarryB
There certainly needs to be balance with weapons… I think too many is better than not enough, but weapons with distinctive features with advantages and disadvantages can make the game much more interesting for a wider range of players… ie a new player vs and experienced player can be balanced if the new player has the right weapon in the right environment and the experienced player does not… of course part of being an experienced player is knowing what weapon to use and when.

Garry- I disagree, I dont think too many is better than not enough. Games like Medal of Honor, Max Payne and RTCWolfenstein requires the soldier to switch between tommy guns, BARs, sniper rifles, its just rediculas. Thats one reason I love Ghost Recon is that the battle field is very much open to any style of atttack you prefer. If your a sniper nut like myself, you can equip your teams with alot if them and take on the fight from that perspective. If you like sluging it out with SMGs or like the grenade launcher on field rifles, you can play from that perspective and the game will be totally different, yet still equal from a tactical perspective and not at all disadvantaged for having wrong weapons, its just more personalized to your personal preferances of combat. I would like to see a greater variety of rifles offered though as in Black Thorn as I dont like being stuck with only M-16 rifles.

SOC- Isnt Halo a Xbox game?

error- see next post

There certainly needs to be balance with weapons… I think too many is better than not enough, but weapons with distinctive features with advantages and disadvantages can make the game much more interesting for a wider range of players… ie a new player vs and experienced player can be balanced if the new player has the right weapon in the right environment and the experienced player does not… of course part of being an experienced player is knowing what weapon to use and when.

That’s one of the constant irritations in Halo-you can only carry two weapons. And only 4 Plasma Grenades! This game gets downright irritating on Legendary because you are always running out of ammo at preCISEly the wrong moment.

“I think alot of FPSs go overboard with picking up weapons, I think every soldier should have one rifle and one alternative weapon. “

Yes, I quite agree, RTCW has you running around with a veritible arsenal including gatling guns (venom gun), 2 x sniper rifles, at least 3 Submachineguns (Thompson SMGs are good but they weigh more than an AK-47), etc etc.
Unfortunately with Ghost Recon if you have one Anti tank guy and he gets shot early in the mission and a tank is around somewhere and needs to be destroyed to complete the mission you are stuck. You can’t pick up the rocket launcher and fire it, like any untrained Afghan managed to do, yet trained professional soldiers can’t?
In Opfp you can pick any weapon up but you can’t carry all the weapons at once. If you pick up a 66mm LAW you can carry up to 3 rockets plus one rifle and three magazines, but nothing else (ie no grenades). If you pick up an SA-7 you can only carry one rocket and a rifle and 3 mags. etc etc.
Completely unlike Serious Sam, or Doom II.

The only reason I bought Ghost Recon and Rouge Spear was because I had a few links for Mods that added new Russian gear. Unfortunately with Rogue Spear you can’t see the weapon you are carrying, and I can’t play Ghost recon… (tried the new driver Nikumba but I keep getting the same page fault errors with all the games that wouldn’t work before… maybe I should revert to DirectX 8.0 as I am currently using 8.1.)

Aces High

I love this on line WWII flight sim. It’s generally reckoned to have the best modelled aircraft around, and as you’d expect, it has a fanatical following.

I had a go at the free online trial recently and being in a three country battle with 550 players online was awesome (“Mission!”), especially as you can jump into aircraft, vehicles, or ships. And you can’t capture anything unless you have a C-47 driver to drop troops 😀

A major upgrade is due shortly to take advantage of the latest technology.

Don’t we just love online gaming 😀

Link: www.hitechcreations.com

Garry- I think alot of FPSs go overboard with picking up weapons, I think every soldier should have one rifle and one alternative weapon. I do agree though that the weapon choices for Ghost Recon have gotten really bad compared to the awsome collection you had to choose from in the earlier rouge spear game Black Thorn. You also have alot less control over team movements although I think they really over did it with all the waypoints in the original rouge spear. But thats what makes Ghost Recon and OpFP such great games is you have total freedom on the entire combat area as to how you can go about your attack. In games like Medal of Honor and RTCWolfenstein you have a set route and objectives that you have to carry out in order. Once youve completed these games, thats it, theres no more to it. Ill be replaying Ghost Recon and OpFP for along time to come trying out new tactics and stratagys and it will never be the same each time. And if your into steering wheel feedback, you should really give Xbox a serious look, its definately equal or better to PC games in that genre.

I have an idea for a flight sim view. They should put a stationary camera about a 1000 yards back of the aircrafts line of flight so you can see the planes flight handling qualitys from a distance. I would call this the “airshow view”. I have seen in some sims where they show the plane making passes past a stationary camera, but that doesnt really show you how the plane is flying.

Id like to mention that Ive stopped playing Unreal II as that is just mindless shooting. I cant stand Diablo II either, how long can you go on hacking zombies? I do like Quake 3 though as that does sharpen my shooting reflexes and mouse handling skill. Ive also tried CFS3, and I was surprised to see the artistic quality is worse than on CFS2. The sound for the aircraft was recorded at airports so the prop noise of your aircraft sounds like a cessna 152 idleing. Id like to see an upgrade made of Crimson Skys as the highest resolution in that is 800×600. I also was really ticked off at Age of Sail II as they make the ships heave back and forth even though you only have calm seas. The “storms” are simply a clouded over sky with streaks on the screen that are supposed to be rain. Being a tall ship lover, it really pisses me that game develpers get away with stupid stuff like that.

Got that one, but thanks anyway. Got the 2.5 upgrade, the training mission upgrade files, and the 2.51 patch.

SOC, you have to download 2.51 patch… in 2.5, gun pipper doesn’t show the actual hit point.