Mauser Markus

I really hope that later releases of CM have better looking tracers. Especially when you zoom in close, the bullets come out looking like huge 2 foot wide fake bright color blobs. It really detracts from the amazing graphics of the rest of the game. Some scenes look like they are right out of a movie they look so fantastic, but then comes the big tracer blobs and then it looks like we are in a Buck Rogers comic book. I think the tank rounds look fantastic. But they just need to improve the bullet tracers. When you zoom out, they look not much better, even though they are considerably thinner. It's true they help you see where the fire is going/coming from, but they still look fake. Tracers should leave a fading trail, with a bright point at the front kind of like a comet traveling in an arc due to gravity, and they should be bright white, not gaudy rellow and red. There has to be a way to pull it off! Just one more reason to be patient, sit tight and keep playing the demo until improved versions are realeased in a year or two. $53 is a lot of money to spend on a game that just isn't quite as good as it could be. Don't get me wrong, this game has got some unbeatable characteristics, but I just have this nagging feeling that it needs a little more polish before it makes the "all time best seller" list. For example, a "core" units campaign option with troops that can be built up, customized, and upgraded with prestige points purchases would be fantastic for us mainstream ("gamey" as you call it) Panzer General fans. It may be unrealistic, as some put it, but hey, it's FUN! Why gripe about something that makes a game more FUN for some people. Do you fans want this great product to make it into the permanent collection of every hot blooded gamer on the planet or not? This great game is a diamond in the rough, why argue against options that could refine this game and make it appealing to more people. They could always include the option to turn "core units" off for those people who are annoyed by it. But include it just for FUN!!! FUN is what games are supposed to be! FUN should not be sacrificed for the sake of "gamey" vs. "non-gamey" semantics arguments. Total "non-gamey" games are often so serious that they are the least FUN games of all! No game, not even CM, can claim to be perfectly "non gamey". But any game can be improved by attracting a larger audience, but you have to make a game flexible to be appealing to a broader audience. Give the option of "gameyness" to the people who play the gamer rather than completely take the option away because of a desinger's or programmers personal opinions of what makes a game "gamey" and what doesn't. Everyone has a different opinion about "gameyness" anyway, so why get so caught up worrying about it. Just make the best damn game there ever was, bar none. They almost have it, but not quite. They just need to include as many options as they can to satisfy everyones cravings and then they will have the all time best war game series going, period. And I'll faithfully buy every expansion pack they make from now until the day I die. But for now, I just have to sit and wait with rest of the world who hasn't taken the bait yet. I have to pass for now...but I'll keep checking back and be on the lookout for later releases. (All the while keeping my checkbook handy and ready for action.)