My LAN review/comments on T72...

[Magnum MGG]

As most of you know, T72: Balkans on Fire, does NOT come with online/internet multiplayer support. Battlefront has assured us that a add-on will come later which will include online multiplayer. Battlefront has never let me down, so I tend to believe the fine folks over there.

What T72 does come with is LAN support, and I guess it supports up to as many people that can fit in each position of each tank, and the number of tanks in the battle, as long as your all connected with a LAN.

I, with a friend of mine known in this community as "Snake Eyes" tried a program called "Hamachi", which lets you use an internet connection as a virtual LAN... and it worked! but the problem we had was that whoever was the client had major lag, unplayable lag, (I am proud to brag that I still got a victory on old Snake Eyes, even with the lag by letting the AI take over TC and Gunner, HAHA SnakeEyes... you got SMOKED!" OK, sorry... back on topic...

So anyway... I wanted to test the LAN, so I booted up my Dell laptop and installed the game. The game comes with two disk, which are required to be in the drive to play... but you can use either disk, so I was able to set it up. (Don't fret Battlefront, immediately after my LAN test, I un-installed it from my laptop.)

OK, So then I called my 10 year old daughter, Jessica over to me to help with the test.

"Jessica, come over here and help daddy play a computer game."

"is it Diablo"

"NO, I stopped playing Diablo years ago."

"But I liked diablo, telling you when your health was low while you were fighting all the monsters."

"Ya, well this is a new game, and I need your help to test it."

She comes over...

"another Army shooting game, NOOO, please dad, I want to go play."

"It will only take a minute"...

I then explain to her how to drive the tank, and that were both going to be in the same tank, I give her a little practice time, and tell her what to push when I say..

"This is boring, I want to play Harry Potter"

"HARRY POTTER, That game sucks, this is a real game, this takes brains and coordination to play, so behave, sit down, and shut up... were starting soon." (I did not say shut up, story effect folks, lol.)

So we started the LAN, I picked the TC position, and she joined as my driver... I called out the steps for here to start the engine, move it into gear, take off the mountain brake, and steer and gas flow... she then calls out to me...

"Dad"

"yes dear"

"Are you going to yell and cuss like you did when that guy shot you a bunch of times in that America's Army game?"

"HEY! That guy was clearing using a aimbot cheat, there was no way he could of shot me that quick and that fast over and over! Now, I said never to bring that incident up again!"

"OK... so, am I doing good"

"Yes, great job, listen for my orders"

She continues to drive I begin calling targets and my gunner engages, I'm giving her turning orders, stop and go... were doing good... we start to come up to a hill...

"OK, Jessica... find a nice hull down position so I can engage"

"WHAT?"

"Come on, a hull down position... NO! don't go over the hill...STOP! Go Back! NO, your going forward... STOP Damn IT!"

"OH DAMN It Jessica, you got us killed, I said to stop!"

sad with a slight tear (for story purpose only folks)... "I'm sorry, I didn't know what you said about down, I thought you meant down the hill... I'm telling mom that you cussed and yelled at me when she comes home..."

"ahhh, it's OK sweety, you did good, real good, we don't need to tell mom what we did"

"I'm telling here that you yelled at me for no reason"

"come on sweet heart, I wasn't really yelling, just talking loud... want to go to the Circle K and get some ice cream or something"

"Sure"

OK, conclusion...

The Home LAN was working great, you only get one co-op mission for some reason and three war on war adversary missions... the pick screen lists the tanks on both sides, blue team and red team... and you simply click where you want to be and in what tank. Then the host clicks play...and game on.

Like I said the home LAN worked well, it was smooth and trouble free...

currently connecting through the internet, like with that Hamachi program is a NO GO... it can be done but the coding isn't up to par to keep a good frame rate between machines, so for now... unless you have a bunch of local buddies all with T72... you'll have to wait for the add-on for multiplayer action, when it does come thou... I have a very good feeling that it is going to kick some serious DONKEY! and I for one can't wait... until then, enjoy the Single player, and learn well... because I WILL SEE YOU ON THE BATTLEFIELD once it's supported.

[Jester_159th]

Great read!!

If you're not a writer (and comedian) by proffession you have definately missed your calling!!