Capt. Toleran

Hi, I'm not a fanboy by any means (check some of my more critical posts over the past 7 years), but I feel I need to step in to defend and clarify what this product is. All of the below is opinion only, so please take it as such. TOW was not meant to be a CMBB/AK replacement. That's what CMSF and their WWII equivalent ilk will be, as CM is the flagship product of BFC, the one they built from the ground up. TOW was built on older software, and not by BFC. BFC polished it and made it more real, but they can't change everything, and they shouldn't. For the past 7 years, people asked for a RTS realistic WWII game, now they have it. If that is not for you, don't buy it. CMx2 will have WeGo, so you should be happy. TOW is a sideshow, a distraction until CMSF comes out, and it's a good one. True, cover doesn't seem to count for much. True, units seem to move around a bit strangely sometimes (though not any worse than they do in CMx1, esp. tanks making bonehead moves, if anything, there is less of that here). Still, the damage modeling is pretty nice, WWII tactics still have to be real (the trench-charging in the demo is supposed to be too easy, it is a chance for you to get the controls down, not teaching you tactics). If you use CMBB tactics, you will win. If you just charge, you will be slaughtered on the normal maps (Try the St. Lo mission if you don't believe me). Some tips for better gameplay -- 1. Read the manual (RTFM for other nerds out there). 2. When you need your troops to stay put and stay prone, give them the "Hold Position" command 3. Use formations, that's what they are there for, and reissue the orders if they get shot up or pinned. Just like CMSF, have your troops hunker down (hard without good cover, I know) until your tanks and arty have the enemy supressed. 4. Don't micromanage, but do try to herd your troops. Also, assign them to quick keys (grab a group, hit ctrl-1, now when you hit the 1 key, you'll have all those troops selected) for easier management. The game is similar to the Total War series in many of the strategies and management ideas that make things winnable. 5. Have fun. Enjoy the Zen of the moment, zoom in on the battle, hear the sounds, see the effects. If you lose the mission, oh well. 2 months from now you'll be playing CMSF, and will be able to do instant replay to your heart's content. Savor this appetizer, wait for the main meal to satisfy your appetite.

Sigh, it finally started working for me. Just FYI. Wish it had been this morning, because I'm not going to be able to play it tonight after the 3 hour download. Oh, and I still don't have my e-mail. I checked my spam filter, everything. Not cool. Btw, before, it wasn't even acknowledging my license key, because I got that security error screen, which was total BS. I checked everything (enabled stuff on IE, checked my firewall, etc.), nothing made a difference. It just suddenly started working, with no change on my end.

I checked my filters, inbox, everything, no dice, and I'm NOT happy. I preordered, and here it is, almost the 20th by EST time, and I still can't download (I sent an e-mail regarding these issues to support). Anybody else in the same boat?

I have a AMD 64 3700+, nvidia GE force 6800 GS, and 1 GB RAM. It's pretty jerky on the bigger battles, smooth on everything else. The common theme above seems to be that those with 2 or more GB are smooth as silk -- I'm biting the bullet and upgrading for another gig, it is worth the investment with CMSF coming out in 2 more months. For games like these that we have been waiting for forever, better to make the extra investment, as they won't be making new games for a while. BTW, for all those that hate waiting in the RAM line at Fry's -- Both Circuit City and Best Buy have in-store pickup, great feature to use, and it was not hard to find the RAM I needed, at a good price, online on the Circuit City site. For those who don't know what RAM they have -- you will have to probably take it out of your PC to see, and to see what socket you have. Just write down everything from the RAM chip you see, it will look familiar once you start shopping (for example, my RAM is DDR, PC3200).

I feel bad for them -- clearly things took a turn for the worse, and now they are in a no-win situation with the pre-order folks. I can only imagine it has been < 5 hours.

I keep on seeing concerns about graphics, and I'm wondering if the mil gamer demographic is on the medium to low end in terms of income, or just frugal. I'm running CS Source at about 40fps, and other games as well, including flight simulator, on a mid-level to slightly expensive vid card, 1gb RAM. If this game breaks my vid card, I will be really surprised. Also, consider that we have been waiting for this engine for many years now. Surely this game itself might justify an upgrade, especially considering the subsequent modules to come out? PC gaming is pretty much a luxury market. Expect to spend a little to get enjoyment out of this medium. It's the price of being on the cutting edge of gaming. My PC expenses (and I'm not one to constantly chase the framerates with new vid cards all the time) average about 600 bucks a year.

I just wonder what makes it better than a tommy gun, isn't that about the same bullet? I notice on Future Weapons that they have a lot of cool stuff, and some of it seems revolutionary, but in many cases it is just PR fluff from the defense contrators to justify these purchases for the defense budget and reinventing the wheel. There is a lot of focus there on high-tech, but high-tech can break easily, and may not stand up to the rigors of battle and dust. I often think we should be buying or licensing for domestic manufacture Russian arms, due to the simplicity and battle-tested technology that has kept those arms in service so long. That being said, that Super V XSMG was pretty cool

Just curious -- how old was the build he was using? The infantry graphics looked much older and more primative than what we have seen in the recent screenshots and vids. I'm hoping those were a lot of placeholder graphics in the preview.

And, um, it's called broadband, son -- get some. 80MB shouldn't be that much of a deal, especially since it streams. [ April 14, 2007, 12:34 AM: Message edited by: Capt. Toleran ]

Enjoy! http://www.liveleak.com/player.swf?autostart=true&token=6fb_1175816707&p=57253&s=1 Just curious, in the last 30-45 secs, is that an auto nade launcher pounding that building? Looking forward to using those in CMSF.

Remember, graphics are not the strength of BFC games. It's the content, and why people are still playing CMBO, BB, and AK intensely. We choose BFC because they represent quality and realism, not graphics. COH has superb graphics, but after some mild amount of fun, I put it on the shelf. I'm still playing CMBB, and single player of all things. I'm confident that this appetizer, which is what it is, will be well worth the money and longer lasting than similar dollars invested in competing products. CMSF will be the masterpiece, but this will hold me until then, as I suspect is its intent. Also, remember that many in the CMBO, BB, and AK forums begged for a RTS CM game, which is what I hope this will end up being like. With the BFC touch, I cannot imagine how it would not.

Miyokan, TOW had better be very close to CMBB, or a lot of people are going to be ticked. After all, we could have had the Russian version months ago, which, from what it sounds like, was not very close to CMBB. My impression was that the "Battlefront touch" was specifically to boost realism in ways that we of the CMx1 and CMx2 ilk would like. Otherwise, why waste our time? There are plenty of crappy WWII RTS's out there.

I have the feeling it is sort of an interrim product to both satisfy some promises (i.e. RTS CMBB/AK/BO) and satiate some of our hunger before CMSF. CMSF is the flagship product, TOW is just an appetizer, CMBB all cleaned up, individual soldiers, RTS, and actual viewable aircraft. Have fun with it for a few months, have fun with CMSF for years (or at least it and the whole series of modules).

Everything I look forward to in CMSF: http://www.liveleak.com/player.swf?autostart=true&token=52e_1172074860&p=57253&s=1

Ah, great to hear -- I was just a little worried about TOW, because it seemed a tiny bit slow, and I presume the vids were done on decent or high-end systems. The explanation makes a lot of sense, and I'm relieved and looking forward to both.

Don't give up hope, plenty of better stuff crept into CMBB and AK. I'm sure the ATG will rise again soon

Viewing videos from both, TOW looks a bit jerky , while if anything, CMSF looks almost too fast (though I am not complaining, and I understand well that both are in beta and subject to change). There seems to be a frame rate lag in the TOW vids. Just curious, was a faster PC used for the CMSF vids, or is CMSF actually easier (which seems incredible, and a dream come true) to run smoothly than TOW?

Hmm, Thunder Run also mentions AA firing from rooftops on the columns that grabbed the palaces and parade grounds -- might be a reason to keep them in. Just make them fragile. If it's too late for this release, maybe a later module?

I did a search and did not find anything, so... I know Battlefront has already ruled out anti-tank guns. However, I'm in the middle of reading "Thunder Run" right now, and it looks like recoiless rifles were somewhat common during the battle for Baghdad, and may have even been responsible for at least one M1A1 kill. Will these be making an appearance, at least vehicle-mounted?

Very happy with what I saw, and if that is just the raw unfinished stuff, then we are looking good. Now if only Battlefront could get my copy of T-72 to work... (like I paid for)

So if we get vids, we're 80-90% there? Seems like we should have crossed that point a while back.

Tried uninstalling both main game and demo, checking for that MMSwitch.ax file multiple times and locations, nothing. I can't believe the demo worked, and this doesn't. If I can't get a fix, I'd like my money back or credit towards CMSF.

So, I played the 1.3 demo just now, everything's fine. I buy the extended mail and download package, download the game, go to play... nothing. I checked troubleshooting, I don't have that mmswitch file anywhere. What gives? And, um... I already prepurchased the TOW package, and was planning to for CMSF. It's not going to be like this for those too, is it? Kinda sucks to expect something to work, I haven't had a game do this to me since the DOS days :mad:

Have you ever said "God Bless It" in polite company? That's the clean version. So translate that into Arabic, what do you think that is? In English it sounds like Whoo sometimes

See, that's the thing, I guess some people are equating "Allah Akbar" (apparently a quite common saying in the mid east, as common or more as you saying "God Bless You" if someone sneezed) with much more nationalist or ethnic-specific contexts. Whatever that particular phrase might conjure for you personally, know that in the Mid East, it is not necessarily tinged with any particular malice, and is their equivalent of "whooo!!". Part of the fun of these games is seeing both cultures, and understanding what motivates what force in which way. Plus, the whole subtext is a fundamentatalist takeover of Syria, so it doesn't really seem that strange that they might want to mention Allah occasionally.