benpark

Wherezitat? Will it come a-riding in today?

Apple is now selling the NVidia GeForce GTX 285, with 1 gig of memory, which I can use in my MacPro if I decide to get it. I've been using an ATI 2850 for about a year now, and would like a bit more frame rate improvement in games like CMSF, ARMAII and Empire Total War. I'm used to the ATI cards, but this card looks pretty decent. Any recommendations for or against it in particular, or NVidia in general? If it lets me play CMBB/AK perfectly(which the ATI seems to have some issues with)- big bonus for.

I'm wondering how the landscape will work will be done for the game as well. Conjecture is entertaining. Since St. Lo is in the span of time we are dealing with, I hope we will have the ability to do some industrial and multi-story buildings. The cathedral will be an interesting challenge. I suppose the minaret-style roof top might enable different sizes and styles of churches. Village type buildings will obviously be available. Some type of shop facades are good to have. A proper fully destroyed building seems necessary- the pile of rubble usually is nearly a story high for a multi story building. The flat destroyed tiles for buildings will hopefully change. See St. Lo picture below for reference. Flavor objects will probably include barrels, as they seem to be the stock in trade of all games with a working scenario editor. I hope for a few cars (smashed up and not), piles of spent shell (artillery) casings, wrecked artillery pieces and the standard Normandy stuff (dead cows, etc). Trees and grass are said to be improved over SF, good there. Hedgerows seem complicated, but I can see how they could be done with the new editor tools. The trick will be to get sunken roads with two hedgerows alongside, and to be able to get decent LOS spots for ambush possibilities. As far as bunkers and set defenses go, the stock ones seem to make it into all BFC releases (bunkers, mines etc), but I'd like to have a more hastily constructed version of a bunker available. A mortar pit would be nice, but I suppose that can be done in the editor with sandbags and a depression. Wire seems necessary. What have I missed?

Saturday midnight release? Hmmm?

With apologies to MarkEzra and anyone with eyeballs to perceive this monstrosity. Saturday release?

Images captured from the inside of Battlefront's top secret testing labs suggesting that the inmates are running the asylum (CMSF-BF in orange container):

If the Italian forces mod/add-on (there were screens of WiP a few weeks ago) comes out with a few new maps, that would be a great addition. Throw in some more Commonwealth units and it's a must buy. Earlier war battles would be great to have the ability to play. That said, the desert war really isn't my main area of interest. The sooner the series gets back to the Soviet-Axis war, the better.

Which button is the equivalent of the old ToW "hold position" button? I can't seem to find it.

I've discovered that if you click on a casualty report in the events dialogue, the game will pause. This allows you to quickly see where this happened, as well as giving you a brief breather to check the situation. This box is at the middle bottom of screen when inventory isn't showing. That's working better for me than the mandated pauses.

How do we turn off the auto pause for casualty notification? It's a good feature, but I want it off at times.

Although I'm pleased with the western front versions, the new eastern front is the one I am also waiting for more than any other. I'm trying to figure out how the add-on modules will work if the base game starts with Bagration. If the add-on system will add extra units, not large battles trying to imagine what form this particular one will take is interesting. There won't be any givens like "Brits in the add-on", as this instance has two national forces (no Axis minors in this area to speak of). Additional armored units? Specific formations like SS/Guards units? Additional terrain? Interesting possibilities. My main hope is that some urban terrain is included.

Let's have at that English language demo! The Russian one was just TOO much fog of war for me.

One of the main things that appeals to me about these games is the sheer spectacle of the battles. The animations, the masses of formations and the amazingly rendered landscapes are a pretty good draw. The time period is also something that I'm happy to see done, and when this series goes Napoleonic I think it will be one of the best things to be seen on a computer screen. In terms of game-play, I certainly have had problems with the fairly weak AI like most people, but that won't stop me from buying this one. My bigger problem in the past was having nearly every battle be a siege-something I hope doesn't happen in this installment. The AI seemed a bit better, bu the map for the Brandywine scenario was such a funnel it's hard to tell what the AI will do in an open field. Here's hoping it's going to be half way decent, because it's a fantastic looking game.

Rob Ross, here is a brief overview of the Tiger's use in Normandy: http://www.lonesentry.com/panzer/tiger-tank-normandy.html I'm so glad to be (almost) back to WWII. CMSF won me over in terms of game play, but the desert and modern combat just aren't for me in the long run.

Candygram for Mr. Mongo- his fix works. Thanks for that. Now the game is back to it's amazing visual self.

I can't install a newer driver. The one I have (8.493.0.0) is the latest from ATI for Mac Bootcamp. I hope something can be done to fix this, as I just spent $50.00 (that's what it comes to with the S&H) on the new scenario pack.

I'll check the driver number, but it's an older one since we Mac users have fewer choices in what we can use due to the dual boot . I also noticed the grass is no longer showing up. Will a reinstall help? I just installed the new add-on, so I'd like to get the game back to looking as nicely as I remember it.

I suddenly have an issue with the shadows not matching up with the models in game. They were working fine when I last played a few weeks ago. I'm on a MacPro with an ATI 3800 video card.

It works fine. There is one thing you have to change in the .ini, because the screen shows up as flipped (search the tech support forum for "mac, screen flipped"). After that, it runs perfectly.

Excellent looking maps.

"Choose Map" option in the QB screen.

Thanks, I'll give that a go.

Properly modeled hedgerows.