CMBO vs CMBB and CMAK

[poppy]

Hello everyone. This is a great game but like most great games the follow ons get changed to the point to where the attraction of the original is lost. CMBO in my experience is the best of the three. It is to me the most playable for a non grog such as I am. It offers enough authenticity to make the game absorbing and yet enough fiction to make the game playable. The graphics are acceptable. Terrain color in CMBO is much better just enough trees and stuff to make it interesting,remember we are playing on a "sand table" tactics are the attraction and the correct tactics the reward. poppys

[sugafudahuh]

so then whats wrong cmbb and cmak?

[tooz]

Poppys, I would not say that CMBO is better than BB or AK, BUT, lately I returned to CMBO after two years and now I find myself playing MOSTLY CMBO! :confused:

Also, when I first purchased BO I didn't know squat about modding, downloading maps, and the joys of the scenario editor. Now that I have completely given CMBO a mod makeover I am amazed at how good it still is. The clincher was the CMAK faces for CMBO. Andrew TFs uni's, Dark Knight's exhaustive mod pack on uni's, vehicles (especially the black camo Allied tanks)and unit insignia, beautiful terrain mods, and the added bonus of King Tigers and Jagdtigers once again ripping apart Cromwells,Avengers, Comets and Achilles. I am now playing BO 75% of the time.

I guess I just love the NW Europe battles more than desert and MTO. I know I know, CMAK has mods for these, but you can't mod the missing tanks!

So I hear ya' poppy, I still play BB and AK--mostly just PBEM now, but when I want to sit back with a six-pack and bottle of tequila, I fire up the BO and let fly. Great fun.

As an added note, I WAS going to buy the expansion pack for Call of Duty and the soon to be released Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault, but now I think I just might save my money.

If there are any modders reading this thread, can we FINALLY have the rest of the Allied vehicles modded in winter whites (especially the jeep)? I mean, we have been waiting four years.

[GreenAsJade]

Originally posted by poppys:

This is a great game but like most great games the follow ons get changed to the point to where the attraction of the original is lost.

It maybe true that the specific attraction of the original is not in the follow ons in many games, and it may be true in Combat Mission too.

In the case of Combat Mission, the followons have much better attractions than the original.

If you want to keep pushing supermen around the a fairy floss map, stick with what you know. That's an attraction for some. If you want the challenge of more realistic unit behaviour, CMBB and CMAK will attract you more.

GaJ.

[Redwolf]

While I think that CMAK and CMBB are overall way better than CMBO, I have to say that many of the new features implemented for CMBB are only half-baken, compared to the feature in CMBO that almost all work as advertisted.

In addition, apart from the new MG model, there are many thing that have been slowed down in CMBB, many of them I find questionable. Apparently Charles found them questionable, too, because he lightened most of them for CMAK, but not back to CMBO levels. I hurts whent he history channel Tiger turns so much faster than the CM one, I could never understand why they did that.

[poppy]

Theres nothing wrong with CMBB or CMAK as far as I can tell but CMBO to me is more fun to play. Vehicle movement along a serpentine road in CMAK may be more realistic but it also is a chore compared to CMBO. And if realism is the objective then the vehicles ,tanks for sure,need to stay on the road with out taking shortcuts across unsuitble terrain. To me CM is a game and not a Sim. CMBO to me has the best mix of Game and Sim to make it both fun to play and accurate enough in respect to the real WW2 weapons to make it interesting and to inspire some research the results of which to question BF with. tooz Im doing the same thing except a little Tennessee sour mash.

[GreenAsJade]

It's a strange thing to say, but I find CMBO too easy somehow. That's why I say "fairy floss". Nice to eat very occasionally, but insubstantial, and after you eat some, you remember why you stopped doing it.

GaJ.

[Berlichtingen]

I play all three. CMBO will always have an appeal, but CMBB & CMAK outshine it by a wide margin. My interest is in infantry battles, and that is where BB & AK had the most noticable improvements.

[poppy]

Hello Berlichtingen, I play mostley CMBO .To me a tactical game at the squad level can best be played effectivly within a limited area. Unless of course a player enjoys the details of movement over the details of engagement. CMBO, to me ,fine tuned the elements of movement and engagment. Im sure that an lot of thought and programming went into CMBO to arrive at this balance. CMBB and CMAK in my opinion took away from rather than adding to playability. Why Make vehicles harder to manage. Why make terrain elevations harder to deciper. An "improvement to CMBO" without a new engine would not have made a new game, so changes were made,not improvements, in order to make a new game, ie CMBB and CMAK. And I bought both and thats ok, as long as BF realizes that this is why most, I hope, fans bought CMBB and CMAK. CMx2 will, in my opinion, sell many more copys if it remains true to the parameters set by CMBO.

[Berlichtingen]

Originally posted by poppys:

CMBO, to me ,fine tuned the elements of movement and engagment.

And an infantry model that was quite inaccurate

CMBB and CMAK in my opinion took away from rather than adding to playability.

CMBB & CMAK made it harder to do unrealistic things... they're no harder to play

Why Make vehicles harder to manage.

How are they harder to manage? I haven't found that to be true at all

Why make terrain elevations harder to deciper.

Again, I haven't found that to be true. CMBO/CMBB/CMAK ALL require a hi contrast grass mod (forget grids... those are horrible). The default graphics for CMBO are just as bad as CMBB & CMAK for telling elevation changes.

An "improvement to CMBO" without a new engine would not have made a new game, so changes were made,not improvements, in order to make a new game, ie CMBB and CMAK.

Again, I disagree. Both BB & AK are greatly improved over BO

[Tim The Enchanter]

Berli, CMBB, and CMAK had some very noticable improvements to armor as well.

Try knocking out a Tiger with a Greyhound outside of the realm of CMBO.

Stugs are more formidable as well rather than the wimbly Wespe clones they came off as in CMBO.

[Publius Cornelius Patton]

Well, there are a few things CMBO as over CMAK...

1. Pershings.

2. DD's uniform mods.

3. Little US flags on the US paratroopers.

4. The original Data files readily accessible on the CD, so you don't have to reinstall the whole game once you want to revert from a mod to the original stuff.

Other than that, CMAK is a better game.

God bless,

"P. Cornelius Patton"

[poppy]

My computers back up after a bout of "infinit loopittus". The movement delays for vehicles and troops in CMAK makes it more difficult to move vehicles around which may be more realistic ,but then in the same long delayed movement the tank for some reason makes its laborious way across a dry creek bed instead of taking the bridge as ordered. The infantry model in CMBO is I agree not as accurate as it could be but I believe the infantry model in CMAK may be a little too accurate for a game vs a sim. I cant really argue the graphics comment that I made since Im red-green color blind and thats probably the reason CMBO graphics are better for me. Also the M5a1 is much better in CMBO, dont say it I know, its more correct in CMAK. All three of the Games are great fun though, maybe Im spoiled to CMBO after playing it for four years without much let up except for H@D 1 and 2 and a couple of others. poppys

[poppy]

Hello Berlichtingen, I agree with every thing that you posted except for the additive delay on movement orders. poppys

[markl]

I must admit I like the game play in CMBO the best. I like the new graphics and commands in the later games better than CMBO though.

I spend my time between CMBO and CMAK. I think for the casual player CMBO is the easiest to get into.

cheers

[Sequoia]

One thing I really like in CMBO is that, unlike the other games, it's never so dark that one cannot see anything on the map, including one's own units. It's really no fun playing when one can only see a lit up unit base and nothing else. In my opinion, the maps are even too dark in the other games in the dawn and dusk scenarios if there's overcast skies.

[junk2drive]

Sequoia, have you tried adjusting the gamma from the hotkeys menu?

My old monitor is so dark that I installed PBEM Helper just for the 1-10 gamma adjustment.

Thanks to Sergei for that tip.

[Sequoia]

Originally posted by junk2drive:

Sequoia, have you tried adjusting the gamma from the hotkeys menu?

No, I'll give it a try. Thanks

[HeinzBaby]

Comparing the CM series against each other is...like comparing apples & oranges..you can't.

I find each is an inprovement over the previous, and each has a favorite.

CMBO is alot more 'gamey'..geez I detest that word, I love BO.

CMBB was a huge leap forwards and AK is a refinement.

It's alot like good music and wine, if you enjoy your particular tastes stay with it.

Tooz, grab the Call of Duty expansion, its a blast!!, I haven't been online yet but thats another experience I'm told

[Splinty]

Heinz, Tooz, give the Call of Duty Ex Pack multiplayer a try. The Base Assault mode is killer.

[poppy]

After four years of playing BO Ive finally gotten into AK enough to appreaciate its improvements and there are quite a few. All I need now are some terrain mods to help with the 3d perception. poppys

[throwdjohn]

I fell in love with BO, and still love playing it (my new terrain mods help), but I find it hard to go straight from AK or BB to BO. The commands are so simplistic compared to the other games, though if they weren't I probly would not have love the game at such an early age.

[poppy]

I just finished playing "Clervaux Deathtrap for the 110th Infantry Reg." as Allies against the AI. This is an huge scenario very well designed and with an excellent map. I got used to the infantry model for AK during this scenario but still wound up at the same place with a lot more micro managing of the squads. I believe that AK would play better with the BO infantry model. The armor model for AK is er morefuntoplay.poppys

[throwdjohn]

I detest any scenarios bigger than the occasional "large". I have neither the time, patience, or brainpower to move across huge maps with multiple battalions. Of course, in this I seem to be rather alone. Anyone know of some good company/battalion sized scenarios for any of the CM series?

[Europa]

CMBB for me. It's the size of it. It stretches over such a long time, wast areas and huge armies. It's the only one of the 3 games that actually covers an entire war, if you get what I'm aiming at.