phil stanbridge

Ah that is music to my ears. I love a nice selection of units.

5 campaigns wow? I was expecting 3.

Ahhh sweet! Thanks for the heads up! Only 4 hours remaining lol! Pity I'll be in bed by then..

Goodness me! Where do I start? It's totally amazing. Even I am surprised just how 'good' this feels. I've spent a couple of days on the missions (as the attacker in all of them, we all know how it feels playing defensively in these games) - and have spent the best part of 2 hours tonight on 'closing the pocket'. What an astonishing simulation. Just a few of the things I've picked up:- -Feels much more 'balanced' than Shock Force. Harder work, but plenty of toys to play with. -Graphics/animations are superb, especially the death throws! They are amazing and varied and really add atmosphere. IMO it needs some saturation work and perhaps a few little things here and there, but otherwise top notch. I'm sure mods will eventually see to these little niggles however. -Love the extra little detailing in the buildings and amongst the scenery - it feels authentic. You want to look around the place first, then completely ruin it with artillery. Love the way buildings rubble and scenery changes. It reminds me so much of CMBO, but so much more advanced. Everything about it seem significantly improved. I know this is stating the obvious, but when you compare every tactical sim to CMBO, well, enough said. -Fighting in the bocage is going to be tough! This game is going to be hard work, especially for the novice. Casualties quickly mount - especially under mortar/artillery fire, which seems pretty accurate apart from the occasional total miss. It's quite painful to see. I'm sure there are some little bugs to be ironed out there! I stuck a 81mm mortar squad in some trees and they promptly killed themselves firing the first round! Airburst? -Some of the sound effects are impressive - the 20mm meat-chopper sounds great, as do some other 'meatier' effects, and the ricochets are awesome but then some feel quite weak and distant. The artillery might be an acquired taste to some. Needs some more work I feel, but this will be down to the modders. They are significantly improved anyway. Also have to have coloured icons. I think what I'm really waiting for is the HUGE epic battles. Battalion sized engagments are going to be so much fun to play, on large sprawling maps. Campaigns will obviously lend themselves quite well to this. Also, I know it's a way away, but I'm really looking forward to the Arnhem module. If the scenery/graphics are this good already, imagine how it will feel playing in a more 'urban' environment. It's pretty nasty up close, and it brings it home to you just how crazy and intense some of the battles must have been. I think this is as close to perfect in my eyes. Sure, there are some little bugs, but they will be addressed in due course. Well done guys for an amazing simulation!

I have found the US mortars to be 'reasonably' accurate in the few games I have played, I quite like it like that. They're actually a useful support weapon now. But maybe the suppression level is too high? I don't know really, but I quite like using them now.

Maybe if you break the squads down into their little teams, it will help somewhat? But I have noticed it can be slightly distracting. I've only played one scenario (demo training) but the size of the squads doesn't help - however, isn't this somewhat realistic? After all, you wouldn't get a full squad trying to squeeze itself into a small area would you? I think its hundreds times better than the artificial representation in CMx1 - I also love the way squads will fire at multiple targets at once. Now that didn't happen before.

Ah that's interesting. I didn't realise it was 'on-map' support as such. I was wasting my mortars in a direct fire role - which was reasonably accurate. But they didn't half run out of ammo quick!

Arrrghh!! I will have to download and play this later - I'm travelling all day today. Bah!!

I don't think we'll get charged anything extra. Let's wait and see.

Hmm I pre ordered on day 1 - but I am obviously concerned about the possible costs incurred in the UK after shipping. But I will risk it - I can't miss out on this.. The last game was shipped from Germany which was also a pre-order at no further cost (obviously within the EU) so it will be interesting to see how much duty will be applied this time. Maybe I will get lucky - the last parcel from the US came through without any extra charges.

There are passive Nvidia cards out there but I have no experience with them. There are also very low noise top-end cards available by Nvidia, but these are not server based products.

hehe, well lets be realistic. It's only a small parcel. It's not going to break the bank is it. I've got my fingers crossed - our local postie cant be arsed with duty forms and things like that - he tends to cross the forms out, and shove the parcel/letter through the letterbox.

Guys, it doesn't matter whether you think ATI is better than Nvidia or not, the fact is that the Nvidia cards handle this game much better. I don't know why that is - but try it for yourself and see. My 6950 was a fab card, but it was awful in Shock Force. My 480 is utterly fantastic in Shock Force.

You guys could get lucky. I've had parcels arrive from the US without any extra fees. My last pre order was shipped from Germany. I will wait and see what happens, but I want it either way.

Just to update this thread, I eventually ended up with an Nvidia card - (long story but I sold the 6950) and boy, is it an improvement over the 6950! Just a heads up for the guys in the same boat as me. Scottie, if you are reading this, there's nothing wrong with the 6950 generally, but the Nvidia cards are much better with Shock Force, and probably Normandy.

I should *think* your setup would cope okay with future combat mission titles, providing you run medium graphical settings. But without looking in a crystal ball it's very hard to tell As it stands your 420 will hold you back a tad in graphic heavy games like Crysis 2 if you play those, although on the plus side that monitor will keep resolution down, which will help improve framerates. But it's a good setup.

Is it me or do those large naval guns seem not as effective as the naval support in CMBO? There are houses right next to the shell impacts (several at that) that are still standing.

The campaigns could probably be classed as semi-dynamic. There is a certain amount of linearity (is that a word?) within the structure of a campaign just as in Shock Force. ie one mission progresses to the next if you are successful, similar or the same force make-up and so on and so forth, but there are certain random factors in that involved too. Am I right in thinking the AI might also have different plans per battle? That can make things interesting in Shock Force. Although you may know exactly what units the enemy has at its disposal, you might not necessarily know when you will face them. I've played most of the Shock Force campaigns several times, and even though I recognise the battles I replay, the AI positions its forces differently in the most part.

haha that's brilliant. I dread to think how long that took you

Yeah I really like Nato - it offers a nice variety in missions. I'm part way through the Dutch campaign at the mo, and those units pack a punch! It's a pity the Germans have lost their panzerfaust launchers in 1.31 otherwise I would try the German campaign too as it looks pretty tasty. Thanks! Little chap is doing really well - he's going to be tall by the looks of things, just like his daddy - and he is sleeping 12 hours a night now undisturbed which is great!

I'm already preparing my hard drive in anticipation of your Normandy mods!

You tried the Nato module yet Scottie?

I told you you'd like SF given half a chance

That is correct of course, but the problem may be, has the SF engine progressed as much too? I doubt it very much. Judging by what we've seen, the inherent problems within SF will be still there for Normandy. So having a faster machine won't make any difference. Except, the battles should now be much larger!

This is an interesting question. For example, in one SF campaign, playing as NATO Dutch you have access to US Apache helicopters. This is part of the campaign and cannot be changed - so it does beg the question, how will these modules all coincide with one another. I hope there is a level of cohesion between them, because I for one would like to see the battles/campaigns fought on several levels, between different forces.