very disappointed - RTS yuck

[franz]

well, I have been hoping like hell this game would be something to hold me over till the next WW2 CM.....but my worst fears have materialised. TOW is not the game for me.

- there is simply too much going on to be able to manage the battles properly and with thought. Unless I pause every 5 seconds, I am losing track completely off what is going on in the different areas of the map.

- the camera views are way too hard to zoom all over the map in the time required for a real time game.

- I cant sit back and enjoy the game like CM !! TOW requires constant attention and clicking to watch and give orders to units.

- I know the game was created by another company, but my God, what a waste. Such awesome graphics, and detail wasted on a real-time click fest. If the TOW engine and game simply had a turn based gameplay like CM, then TOW would have been a MAGIC accomplishment.

...so, very disapointed after almost 1 year of waiting, I am now having to turn my hopes towards Shock Force. My copy of TOW will go to Ebay for sale.

but I do acknowledge the work BF put into it. They did warn me TOW was far from a new version of CM, and by God, they were right.

[rofl]

- very small maps, no space for tactics

- no multiple waypoints and commands possible

- AI dont remember commands

- vehicles pathfinding is frustrating

- no mapeditor

[Jaws]

I am not a complainer. But I aint get the warm feeling I hoped for. This is more a puzzle game then a tactical game.

Lets wait an another few years for CM then.

[Meach]

I hate to say it but I am also dissapointed with this release. I am suffering from the low FPS issue but I persevered to try and get some enjoyment out the title. No luck. I went back to CMBB and found much more entertainment to be had.

Nice try guys.

[KiloAlpha4]

demo shouldn't lag as much as it does, coh and m2tw etc don't lag close to this.I am hoping the real game will run better.

[Lord_Simmox]

after 4 or 5 years of CM,its a nice change of pace

certainly more like CC but deeper

path finding is alittle poor,sure itll improve as the patches come out im sure

i can manage the troops and scale of the engagements ok,not easy to win but i dont want a walkover either.

no lag for me,,apparently AMD users are suffering lag or poor performance,again im sure it can be resolved

a few game issues could be resolved as im sure they will

anyone playing any other of 1Cs games should see the resemblance in this game,faces of war , etc

spent money on far worse than this,,SH4 is a prime example as was SH3,,bug city and unplayable for alot of people at first release.

its cheap too,compared to the other big name crap going around.for top dollar and surely riddled with issues,as seems the norm for most games these days

i can still remember the bugs in cmbo too,,but patience is a virtue

[KiloAlpha4]

hope so and yes I have amd. Thanks for posting that LS I was a little weary on buying the game.

[huhr]

i usually wait until after a game is released to read the comments and I sort of wished I did follow my own advice on this one and saved myself 45 dollars. I am starting to think that this is another example of 3/4 completion product without enough input from the people who enjoy these type of games. After reading the comments, most of the problems described should have been identified and worked on since this game was for hard core gamers? Or the general population of gamers? I like the CM method of placing orders and then letting it play. If I want a clickfest I can go play Starcraft, Rise of Nations and Warcraft. I hope I can get used to the game if not, a quick delete and sell the game on Ebay.

[gatsby]

Yep...I've been playing or trying to play this game since it came out..including the demo...and I thought well there must be somethign wrong with me.I am missing something..I just don't like RTS..no? that's not it...but last night I got so frustrated I played a quick battle of CMBO just for fun.. I haven't played it in over a year...I had so much fun..I forgot what a gas that series is...then I finished a turn I had started on VASL playing a classic ASL scenario...that was great too..and then I played Championship Manager and had a great time with that...TOW came off the hardrive...

[BFCElvis]

franz, I know exactly how you are feeling. When I first began playing it I felt tense and slightly overwhelmed. I began to pause constantly to get a handle on things. Somewhere along the way that changed for me. I sort of relaxed and got into a flow while playing. I knew the areas of the battlefield that demanded my closest atttention and which needed moderate to light attention. I seldom use pause anymore. I am not a fast clicker kinda guy. I stink at MP CoD because my 46 year old reactions are so slow. But what I found once I relaxed and got into the flow is that using CM style tactics won battles for me. I initialy felt like I needed to advance to and engage the enemy. Now I provide my self with covering fire, move units to flank positions and all the other tried and true tactics.

[you1]

I must admit, I'm finding the game not as " glued to by Pc as older games did "

Graphics are good, you would expect that today

sounds are some what well missing You see a tank explode " gr8 graphics " although still missing the turrent fly off, But the Sounds aren't there??

The game play is different I can get used to that.

It's like the old Eastern front game, until the the 1.8 patch game was just left in the draw,but with the patch I still play it now.

Is it that western games companies by tradition are more equal in the game data, it's just that I've had many Panther tanks disabled "main gun "

I know of the shot trape ,but there don't last very long even at long range.

I'm not disapointed with TOW, I'm playing with the editor makeing some battles that i have interest in, but it does need patching

I was moving a Anti tank gun through very thick grass corn ,it was spotted my a pz1Vc some distance off even when i had attacked it with a squad of infantry to distract it, it only took one shot and bagged the gun and crew,

if this is a Real time game, this would not happen in the fog of war, the tank would be to busy with the infantry,

many t-34's and kv-1's where bagged by the germans moving up 88's and 105's,

in this game it's not poss to move anything without been spotted!!.

All in all I'll wait and see what is patched b4 I put this away like t-80 game the editor is fun and you can make some gr8 battles

good hunting

[KiloAlpha4]

think I'll wait to see if there is a amd fix before buying it.

[ASHBERY76]

My AMD64 works TOW with no problems or lag.

[ironpants]

i've got an amd, no issues whatsoever. I too had trouble getting into the game but like elvis says in earlier post I have now relaxed into it and i'm finding it much easier to play (although the missions are rather difficult at times, but that is a good thing).

I would also agree with another comment in this thread that it is a bit of a 'puzzle game' In a sense it is, but tactics are important too. The pathfinding does suck, and non enterable buildings is something to be put up with without too much effort.. If I were to pick 3 things I wanted fixed the most in a patch I would say:

1) Pathfinding of vehicles

2) Multiplayer lobby(not {spit} Gamespy!)

3) sounds (getting a lot of muffled voices and queit gunfire... could be my pc)

All in all though it is a good game for me, although i have to admit i'm thinking it's a step (a big one at that) in the right direction rather than something i'm going to go back to after a few weeks playing but you never know my enjoyment of the game is going up with every one I play.

One other point, I think the campaigns could be more in depth e.g. german campaign, jumps from 1 mission n poland to 1 in france, then it's dunkirk, I was expecting a good 5 or 6 missions in poland... If I manage to get a multiplayer game and it proves stable I think this game will be a winner.

[seppDieter]

Originally posted by Lord_Simmox:

after 4 or 5 years of CM,its a nice change of pace

certainly more like CC but deeper...

i was actually hoping for a 3d version of CC, i had great hopes that this game would be as good as Close combat.

i always thought it would be impossible to make a game in 3d that was as good or even better then CC, and unfortunately i think i was right. CC beats TOW in every single aspect while its a 10 year old game...

it was nice to try beating CC, but i think you guys missed the essence of the succes of the close combat series. what i like in close combat is that you feel an affection for every of your soldiers: you read their name, see their equipment check their ammo and state of mind, while you can only give orders to groups of soldiers. and only real life military tactics wil get you to victory.

i feel that in TOW even if you can order individual soldiers, they all look the same and they die in silence. many efforts have been done on details like animations. while many crucial features were simply left out (enterable buildings, smoke, ambush order, natural terrain cover for infantry.

also even if TOW plays on a larger scale than CC, you need to micromanage your units alot more: they wil leave their positions unless they are specifically ordered not to move (2x more orders to give)once they arrive to destination they won't position themselves in the most effective positions (some wil just sit up in an open road) (in CC even if you order them to go on a road, they will lie down in the small depression next to the road)

correct me if im wrong but there seems to be no suppression function?

will units lie down and take cover when they are being pinned down even when they are ordered to move or assault? it doeasnt seem to me, while in CC suppression was THE most effective tactic to win...

the reason why so many ppl are mad (i think) is that we had hope in this game, and we waited for months or years holding on because we had been given Hope, hope for a good game, a game in the style of close combat. and when you give ppl hope, to finally let them down... then that is IMO one of the most cruel things to do

[spec124]

Yeah, I'm a bit disappointed too. Although I haven't been playing very much it seems that infantry is out there like sitting ducks. No waypoints? Hard to keep track of troops. Camera controls suck (how 'bout Google Earth style control, those are nice). Well - here's hoping some patches fix it up.

[MajorPrivate]

I have an AMD FX-55 oc'd to FX-57 specs, w GT7600 pci-x card. 0 log and 0 frame rate drop, plays perfect as far as I am concerned. I did have the game just turn off once, with no error in teh event viewer or anything else. It just quit. PC kept running just fine.

[wolf66]

the reason why so many ppl are mad (i think) is that we had hope in this game, and we waited for months or years holding on because we had been given Hope, hope for a good game, a game in the style of close combat. and when you give ppl hope, to finally let them down... then that is IMO one of the most cruel things to do [/QB]

Exactly, that and being told constantly before the demo came out that we should wait and see and when ppl "complained" about eg not being able to enter buildings, they were always told that wait and see and what a great game it will be nonetheless......

Well I have seen it now and I still don't like it, but at least I have paid 45 bucks for it. Mission accomplished for BF :mad:

I even liked that "Squad Leader" computer game from years ago better ....

And that was pretty bad by any standard .....

Sorry for the rant.....

[Prince of Eckmühl]

Originally posted by franz:

well, I have been hoping like hell this game would be something to hold me over till the next WW2 CM.....but my worst fears have materialised. TOW is not the game for me.

- there is simply too much going on to be able to manage the battles properly and with thought. Unless I pause every 5 seconds, I am losing track completely off what is going on in the different areas of the map.

- the camera views are way too hard to zoom all over the map in the time required for a real time game.

- I cant sit back and enjoy the game like CM !! TOW requires constant attention and clicking to watch and give orders to units.

- I know the game was created by another company, but my God, what a waste. Such awesome graphics, and detail wasted on a real-time click fest. If the TOW engine and game simply had a turn based gameplay like CM, then TOW would have been a MAGIC accomplishment.

...so, very disapointed after almost 1 year of waiting, I am now having to turn my hopes towards Shock Force. My copy of TOW will go to Ebay for sale.

but I do acknowledge the work BF put into it. They did warn me TOW was far from a new version of CM, and by God, they were right.

Franz,

Are those your final words on the subject?

PoE

[MajorPrivate]

I like teh camera controls, I think they are fine.

Only probs I have have had is teh training defense battle. I could not win it, I tried maybe 18 times, with every possible tactic, even read on walkthroughs how people have done it.

I have 2 45mm at guns, and I get attacked by maybe 15 tanks inc Pz IIIs. Its almost like they are getting every unit they are supposed to at once, but I have half teh units I am supposed to.

In teh Russian campaign (iirc NW of Moscow)I am currently in a defensive battle, and having much trouble winning it. And I am playing on novice

[Hertston]

Originally posted by Lord_Simmox:

certainly more like CC but deeper

'Deeper' than CC in what way? OK, I'm only judging from the demo so far, but as a combat simulation (tactics, morale effects, etc) I'd put ToW well behind CC. It's a fun WW2 RTS that's a little more 'realistic' than 'RTS' usually suggests, but no more than that. That's not a criticism; ToW was clearly never intended to be the new CC any more than it was the new CM.

[MajorPrivate]

Having a blast playing the game!!!

[flintlock]

Originally posted by ASHBERY76:

My AMD64 works TOW with no problems or lag.

I'm having no issues with my Athlon 64. Actually, it plays surprisingly well and having an absolute blast overall with ToW. I'm happy the wait is over, and feel it was more than worth it.

Kudos 1C and Battlefront!

[GI Jas]

I don't like it one bit. I can get over the camera controls and "click fest" since I've played these kind of games before but the performance is a major issue with me.

I have the minimum proccessor, 2.6 ghz and it plays fine when it's running even on high settings but then it lock up meaning it freezes up and just sits there? Anyone having this problem?

[maniac_mat]

i think the game is ok, the sad thing is, i kind of got the same feeling i got whe i first played GI Combat, the feeling like i had no controll of what was going on.