przy Posted May 15, 2000 Share Posted May 15, 2000 For those of you who were looking forward to the new Squad Leader game coming out from Hasbro, check out the preview at Computer Games Online's website. www.cdmag.com Go to the war section and there is the article. If you ask me it looks like it is not going to be very "historically" accurate, in much any sense of the word at all. Nothing like the boardgame. Kind of funny. [This message has been edited by przy (edited 05-15-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar Posted May 15, 2000 Share Posted May 15, 2000 Actually, there is nothing funny about what Hasbro is and has been doing for several months now. First they pull support away from Falcon 4.0. They give us Gunship! which is like the unwanted illegitimate stepchild of both the original Gunship and Gunship 2000 (then still remain vague about ever releasing a patch for Gunship! despite it being several months since the release) and now they have pulled the plug on Tank Platoon! because of "low sales" of Gunship! Perhaps if they didn't do such a crapola job in the first place sales would have been better. Upfront and clear statements of supporting their products would have also helped. Squad Leader from Hasbro will most likely be yet another bastardization of a fine war game. I wouldn't hold my breath for historical accuracy or realism. Better just stick with Combat Mission. If you are going to spend your dough you might as spend it on quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Walter R. Strapps Posted May 15, 2000 Share Posted May 15, 2000 They also say that they will not include SS troops! Because they want to market the game in Germany. Perhaps this is because a lot of people don't realise that the majority of the SS *wasn't* death camp guards and were frontline soldiers? How one can have a Normandy breakout but not include the SS divisions and then claim 'historical accuracy' is totally beyond me. But we can rest pretty much assured that compared to CM, this game is going to look and play rather sadly. Cheers, Walter R. Strapps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knaust Posted May 15, 2000 Share Posted May 15, 2000 damned Hasbro!...nice game Gunship...pits it needs a lot of patches! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CEO Posted May 16, 2000 Share Posted May 16, 2000 A quote from the article: <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>What you won’t find is blood, or swastikas, or SS soldiers; Hasbro is quite adamant on maintaining a "family" atmosphere, and is equally determined to market the game in Germany, where there are certain restrictions on showing Nazi regalia. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I didn't know war had turned into a "family" atmosphere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar Posted May 16, 2000 Share Posted May 16, 2000 A Family atmosphere? Give me a break! Yeah, I remember so many nights of me and my family taking out SL and trying to take the Red October Tractor plant or those cursed grain silos. Mom just insisted on human wave attacks but I keep telling her that direct assaults on any fortified MG position usually only results in a lot of grieving mothers and fathers. After that, we would play a game of Candyland. Do they really think moms and dads are going to buy a game on war for family home evening? The grogs won't buy it and the families sure as hell won't. Why don't they just build a slide from their factory straight to the bargain bin? Saves time and shelf space that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kraut Posted May 16, 2000 Share Posted May 16, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Commissar: A Family atmosphere? Give me a break! Do they really think moms and dads are going to buy a game on war for family home evening? The grogs won't buy it and the families sure as hell won't. Why don't they just build a slide from their factory straight to the bargain bin? Saves time and shelf space that way.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> If the put some nifty ads in the mags and include some kind of cool flashbang gfx, they will meet their profit margins. Just like CC5 ... MK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pham Posted May 16, 2000 Share Posted May 16, 2000 This isn't about Hasbro's Squad Leader, but still in the general theme of what's going wrong with the industry(plus, I just happened upon it while browsing Computer Games Online shortly after reading this thread). Quote from the Dogs of War preview ------ TalonSoft’s wargaming future "This is the future of wargaming," says Rose. "This is where it’s going," he says as the camera pans across the Dogs of War battlefield, showing hundreds of polygonal units doing battle, with the requisite colored lighting, smoke and explosions. "No doubt about it." But releasing any historical-based wargame with high system requirements is a tricky proposition: you really risk alienating both the hardcore grognards with too much technology (which they may even not possess) and the hardcore technology fans by appearing too stodgy or formal in your gameplay. "Until the old, complaining grognards are drawn kicking and screaming into this environment," he says laughing, "they won’t really appreciate it." He envisions a future where TalonSoft would do the artwork, scenario design and combat data for a 3D wargame and Silicon Dreams would put it together. ------------- Keep in mind, A)This is the president of Talonsoft being quoted, and B)this wargame that the grognards can't appreciate because they've got thier neolithic heads stuck up thier asses(ok, I'm paraphrasing him here) is about laser battles and big dinosaur looking opponents... So we have multi-racial, bloodless, nazi-less WWII battles from Hasbro, rocket/flame tank wars from Atomic, and the president of Talonsoft laughing at his main customers. Well, at least small publishers like BTS, HPS, etc still give a crap about what they're doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Time Software Posted May 16, 2000 Share Posted May 16, 2000 LOL, Commissar! I remember it well... the day I finally beat Mom. She had her heavy machinegun teams well dug-in... but she didn't expect the smoke barrage and the surprise flank attack. It was a bloody battle... but I emerged victorious! Then she made me clean my room and take out the garbage. I bet Napoleon's mom never made him do that! Charles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar Posted May 16, 2000 Share Posted May 16, 2000 Dear Lord, don't get me started on Atomic and their Clone Combat series. When they started labeling Panthers "medium tanks" in CC4 I knew that I just about had it with Atomic. Thank God for BTS and CM. They allow me to do things that CC just wouldn't (like getting infantry to ride the tanks) and now I have a fully 3D battlefield. I can't wait for the full version. BTW, can we make our own maps as well? . . . .I guess some moms are just sore losers. Good thing you didn't play something like Kursk. Losing all those tanks and still losing is embarrasing. Maybe you can allow the special 3rd Guards "Tupperware" division or allow mom to use the uber officer "Mary Kay". I think they included that counter as a special unit in one of the ASL mags Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miyamoto Musashi Posted May 16, 2000 Share Posted May 16, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Commissar: Actually, there is nothing funny about what Hasbro is and has been doing for several months now. Perhaps if they didn't do such a crapola job in the first place sales would have been better. Upfront and clear statements of supporting their products would have also helped. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Hasbro's just following the trend of most of the large corporate gaming conglomerates... more concerned with pushing out fast-selling product than making a worthwhile game that will keep your interest for more than a week. I have a Mac and my brother has a PC... he played this new Gunship a few weeks ago and we both had a good laugh over that. I played the old Gunship, when the name "Microprose" actually meant something, and it still remains one of my all-time favorites. Too often, these new games are developed strictly with the graphics in mind--as long as the graphics are on the cutting edge, the gameplay (or lack thereof) will be tolerated, or so they think. And it must work to some degree, because all the big companies continue to produce crap in bunches. I never thought much about this whole dynamic until I read BTS's manifesto several months ago... you truly can see how the bottom line is much more important than a finished product. With any game, there can be bugs that slip through, or some AI oddity that gets overlooked, but most of the games my brother buys are fairly atrocious where bugs and AI are concerned. Combat Mission is only the second game I've bought this year (the first was F/A-18 Korea for Mac, now that the OpenGL patch has come out), and I'll probably buy only one more max by December, but I can say with definite certainty that Combat Mission and its offspring will be enough for me for a very long time. There is a completeness and polish to this game that you don't find in the mainstream market... I just hope that the sales of CM make at least a few people in the gaming industry take notice, though I doubt that anything will dissuade them from doing what their doing until their profits begin to plummet. Thanks again Steve and Charles (and Fionn and Moon and Madmatt and all the others who had some hand in producing this most excellent of games) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ChrisC1009 Posted May 16, 2000 Share Posted May 16, 2000 All I can say is amazing...simply amazing. I would love to sit in on some of the meetings the nitwits at Hasbro have. I'm sure they're doozies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
von Lucke Posted May 16, 2000 Share Posted May 16, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Pham: Quote from the Dogs of War preview ------ "Until the old, complaining grognards are drawn kicking and screaming into this environment," he says laughing, "they won’t really appreciate it." .<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Hmmmm --- the last environment I got drawn into whilst kicking and screaming, I ended up calling in some Agent Orange and Daisy Cutters to exfoliate the place... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tgra Posted May 16, 2000 Share Posted May 16, 2000 I'm actually looking forward to it. I'm not that fussed about historical accuracy and WWII XCOM sounds good to me. As long as it doesn't turn out like 101st Airborne... Cheers Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts