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Combat Mission: Shock Force Demo Released


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See, that didn't take long now did it?

Combat Mission: Shock Force Demo

Filesize: 327 Megabytes

The Combat Mission: Shock Force demo includes two scenarios playable from either the US or Syrian side. The first is a a tutorial to help get your feet wet with the game system and the other is a combined arms battle with Stryker's, Abrams against some tough Syrian Mechanized infantry. All multiplayer modes are active (TCP-IP, PBEM, Hotseat) and you can even access and play with the full Game Editor, but the save function is disabled. In addition to all of that, the pdf version of the full 200+ page manual is also included.

a20%20002_0001.jpg

(no that pics not from the demo, but its still cool!)

Combat Mission: Shock Force Downloads Page

Madmatt

[ July 28, 2007, 06:06 AM: Message edited by: Moon ]

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Originally posted by Rudee:

The demo seems to run very poorly for me despite having a fairly fast rig which exceeds the hardware requirements.

There are a few issues with nVidia drivers (7xxx and 8800 in particular) and Dual Cores. Most can be resolved by new (or older) drivers, DL-ing a M$ patch for dual cores or settings. Check the Tech support section to see what may be the issue for you. Most performance issues can be fixed this way.
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Originally posted by Elmar Bijlsma:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Rudee:

The demo seems to run very poorly for me despite having a fairly fast rig which exceeds the hardware requirements.

There are a few issues with nVidia drivers (7xxx and 8800 in particular) and Dual Cores. Most can be resolved by new (or older) drivers, DL-ing a M$ patch for dual cores or settings. Check the Tech support section to see what may be the issue for you. Most performance issues can be fixed this way. </font>
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Well, after trying the demo, the game is definetely up to the expectations. Very nice to play.

I have a few comments on the GUI, most of them being already discussed in the forum (I've only browsed it quickly a couple of times). In my mind, the two worst points (and you'll see they are slight!) are the crowded info and orders bar. Right clicking was nice and it would give more room for the unit description, which would become more informative. The icons seem fairly good, but a little too small to be easily read at a glance (of course, after a short while, the more important are easy to spot).

I read the answer to the LOS tool disappearance (and haven't check the manual yet to find another mean to assess the visibility from a defensive position for ATWs).

The camera movement mode is somewhat mixed. I like the new mouse-directed angle, but the hot keys are less easy to use than the vertical arrows and fine-tuning the translation of the camera is sometimes tricky (or is it my wireless mouse?). Another issue with the mouse is that it sometimes takes time to answer to a click, therefore pushing me to click once more. Too bad for stopping the replay and giving orders. Honestly I can't remember this problem with previous versions.

When the new form of the GUI is understood (it takes a few minutes to figure out what the buttons are doing and a bit more to get used to the camera movement), the game flow is smooth. As far as I am concerned, infantry combat plays much the same as before, the biggest difference with WWII being the accuracy of heavy direct fire assets at long range. But where is the unit info screen? Not checked in the manual, either...

Last point: this new version is a great new addition to the already high rate CM series, will it be used to round up WWII (still waiting to see my B1bis crushing the early war Germans, with the newest version of CM engine !)

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I think this demo is too easy. Few US soldiers with Javelins easily destroy syrian mechaniced troops and T-72 tanks. I bet they would not do that in real live. I "know" T-72 is able use machinegun to hit head sized target farther than distance in demo. Perhaps this is related to bad AI?

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Originally posted by jep:

I "know" T-72 is able use machinegun to hit head sized target farther than distance in demo.

A head-shot with a MG past maybe 50 yards would be a miracle.

As already mentioned, this is a low-light scenario - the armour may not even see the infantry.

Having said that, the t-72's just sat there for my M1's as well. And then there was the T-72 that was under fire at 100 yards from two M1's for three minutes before it was hit. M1's on a hill. Something wrong with that.

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Originally posted by acrashb:

A head-shot with a MG past maybe 50 yards would be a miracle.

Iam not military expert, but I wonder if you have ever used ligth machine gun. I was easily able to hit head size targets at distance of that 50 yards. I think everybody can do this. I must admit thought that I have only second-hand knowledge about T72 machinegun accuracy. That claim sounds quite believable thought. A machine gun, mounted on a T72 tank does not move much.

Then again I am not military expert.

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Modern mgs tend to have a bit of a built-in dispersion, especially when mounted for anti-air defense. So though it may be correct that a single round could miss its mark a stream of bullets falling in a well defined pattern is bound to hit something. I've heard of guys on training range firing on old oil drums from 1000m with iron-site .50 cal Brownings.

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Just want to say that I am really impressed with the demo and have purchased the game. I nearly overlooked this game completely, the main reason being that I figured there was no way my 3 1/2 year old computer could handle it satisfactorily. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I can run the game really smoothly on the "improved" graphics setting, even with my crappy Geforce 5200 and P IV 2.6.

Overall I felt right at home with the interface, I love the graphics, the music and overall presentation of the game. It feels just like classic Combat Mission only the series has finally grown up and matured. I was hooked right from the first minute watching a catastrophic explosion of an enemy bmp close up and watching the sole survivor jump out of the vehicle. Can't wait to play the full game.

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Originally posted by jep:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by acrashb:

A head-shot with a MG past maybe 50 yards would be a miracle.

Iam not military expert, but I wonder if you have ever used ligth machine gun. I was easily able to hit head size targets at distance of that 50 yards. I think everybody can do this. I must admit thought that I have only second-hand knowledge about T72 machinegun accuracy. That claim sounds quite believable thought. A machine gun, mounted on a T72 tank does not move much.

Then again I am not military expert. </font>

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yes now a 2 way range would be difficult as you know when the insects our buzzing by your head you tend to lock up and blind shoot or look over the iron sights and use tracer lead in...

oh and mad matt said they are working on updating the Demo. With a add map.

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We have just released to the various file mirrors an updated v1.02 Demo.

We were able to also trim down the filesize a bit so its now only 276 megs.

It still has the same two original battles as the older demo but incorporates all of the v1.02 specific fixes and improvements.

A future demo (based on v1.03 or later) will include at least one new battle but that demo won't be out until the next patch is released.

Madmatt

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