Upcoming Reviews--the hardcore stuff

[mystro]

Which hardcore wargamer sites (besides here:) will likely do the most indepth review of CM-SF..at one time I had a list of wargame reviewer sites who reviewed previous CM releases and from what I can recall.. pulled no punches.

Here's hoping my dlx version soon gets mailed so I can atleast understand what they're talking about when I do read them.

[MikeyD]

I wonder if BFC should allow the 'nasty boys' to review a Beta build. In a week and a half (giggle-giggle) They're going to have the 'real deal' to show around. No chance for hard-core reviewers to spend half the article fixated on some minor bug that never made it into the final release anyway.

[dan/california]

After the 27th the only opinion I care about is my own. However I will be soliciting advice madly about why the game is wiping the floor with me. The mark of a great game is that you can enjoy losing.

[mystro]

I'm sure most of the true wargame junkies here

at BF are regulars on the mother of all wargame

forums

Comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.war-historical

I had some fun last night reading the archives

in 2001 on the first release of CMBO and yes Matt was there.

[JaguarUSF]

Well, the definitive review has already been posted

[Dirtweasle]

Used to be a fellow, Alan Emerich I think is the name, that did excellent reviews of games in Computer Gaming World many years ago. Since then... other than this fellow James Allen (wink) I don't know who the important reviewers are for wargames besides members of the user community that I trust.

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by Dirtweasle:

Used to be a fellow, Alan Emerich I think is the name, that did excellent reviews of games in Computer Gaming World many years ago. Since then... other than this fellow James Allen (wink) I don't know who the important reviewers are for wargames besides members of the user community that I trust.

I lost interest in the community press after The General went under. The PC games focus on glossy photos and FPS and RTS and "kids games" and aren't worth the money, to me. Do any of their reviewers have any name value the way movie reviewers in newspapers (Ebert, Roeper) or magazines (Entertainment Weekly) do? I usually just go online and google the latest game +review and generally end up at one or two well known sites, but the name of the reviewer passes me by without notice. Their identity seems very trivial to me. I wonder if I'm missing out, but I'm convinced that few would like games for the same reasons I do anyhow. I'm one of those that look for full-featured editors more than I do exciting gameplay or stunning graphics. I'd rather design and tinker than actually play, I think. Few reviews focus on that.

Part of the game experience now is also the online communities - reviews rarely address that, either.

[Dirtweasle]

Doubt you or I are missing a thing.

[molotov_billy]

Originally posted by JaguarUSF:

Well, the definitive review has already been posted

There seems to me to be something basically wrong with a member of the development team writing a review of the game (and being the first to do so.) It would suck for people to assume that it was written by an unbiased person writing on behalf of customers' interests.

[Dirtweasle]

I think he is a biased person writing on behalf of our interests.

[JaguarUSF]

Originally posted by molotov_billy:

There seems to me to be something basically wrong with a member of the development team writing a review of the game

Actually, I just did some scenarios with the editor while previewing the game on my own. I sent them to the developers (around 12 or so) and they put 5 in the game. I didn't have anything to do with the development of the game, I just contributed some additional stand-alone scenarios.

[Salkin]

Yeah, and it was a nice review too Jag !

This guy is as biased as most of us. I think it's safe to say that if you like CM as much as me you'll probably(!) like CMSF as much as JaguarUSF.

But I'm just a raving fanboy so I could be wrong .

aka_tom_w has been strangely missing as of late so I'm trying to fill his shoes .

//Salkin

[Bahger]

I liked your review a lot, Jag, and never assumed you were part of the dev team. You fessed up to having been the author of a few scenarios, which in turn gave you a better understanding of how the scenario editor works, something you were able to communicate very effectively to your readership. I contributed several scenarios to STEEL BEASTS in the old days -- which were incorporated into the published game -- but that never caused me to cross any editorial line as far as reviewing the game was concerned.

As far as the other reviews are concerned: SimHQ's will carry a lot of weight with serious combat simmers across all genres and I hope Battlefront will make sure they have an advance copy if necessary. SimHQ review fairly and in great detail and if they like this game their review will be of some benefit to Battlefront.