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Redwolf

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Said Martin van Balkom from Battlefront.com: „When I first fired up the demo for the game, there must have been a loud popping sound that my eyes made! The ambience, the wave effects, the lighting, and last but not least the ship models are breathtaking. After diving into the game I realized that the detail in the simulation doesn’t end with the visuals, and it was instantly clear that this was a game we just had to publish. Battlefront’s large wargaming community loves well made realistic and detailed simulations and strategy games, and PT Boats provides both of that in a unique mix of high speed boating action, intriguing tactical challenge and hardcore naval strategy.“

Said Svetlana Gorobets from Akella: „We are happy to work with Battlefront.com. Huge expertise that the company has in the field of wargaming convinces us that the product is in trusted hands of highly qualified professionals who will bring it to great number of gamers in North America, Western Europe and Asia. „PT Boats: Knights of the Sea“ is the next great product from naval line-up that Akella is famous with, and we hope that lots of efforts and knowledge which we’ve put into the game will bring a lot of fun to the community.“

Okay, Martin - I think you have some explaining to do, either to us or to Mrs. van Balkom! Because I was of course curious to know who this Svetlana from Akella was... well...

1ogl9.jpg

(It's September from a calendarfeaturing ladies from Russian gaming industry)

:D

P.S. No, I'm not making this up.

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The dev ran into trouble a good while back and it looked like it was fish food.

Then 1C picked it up but at a cost to the game, the good news: the games come out, the bad news: the origonal PT sim is now buried under a Battlestations:Midway'ish game. Apparently that was 1C's fault according to a dev on a Russian forum. Some of the origonal stuff for the sim is still there to an extent but allot's missing or inactive, the game is very moddable though.

It's already out in allot of places in various forms (it's even out in Australia at the game stores, I saw it last week and was very surprised!). Reviews are unfavourable from what I've read, the main reason being what I wrote above and that what the game is now isn't all that great.

Akella have broken off from 1C I've read and are making a Medateranian expansion that is more like the origonal idea hopefully.

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We have partnered directly with Akella on this title, not through 1C. How much of the previous Russian release will be "adjusted" remains to be seen. As usual, there will be a demo out so everyone can judge for himself before taking the plunge (no pun intended).

Martin

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I'm certainly going to get it, I've been watching this for, literally, years now. I've wanted a good MTB sim but I'm very much afraid this one won't be it. Perhaps with BFC's guidance they'll survive to complete the Med version and make it a real sim ... and one with F-lighters and those snazzy Italian boats.

But we've got Fairmile Dog Boats, S-Boats and many others and for that alone I'll buy it. And maybe it can be modded up to a decent sim level ... stranger things have happened.

Joe

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Sergei,

Ohhhhhh... so that's what Svetlana looks like! Normally we don't want to know, but for every rule there is an exception. Maybe I should not delegate as many responsibilities for this project as currently am.

Steve

Well Steve, as your loyal customer base we appreciate the sacrifices you make on our behalf. Say ... if you could perhaps get some more photos ... you know ... for uh ... comparison's sake and so forth.

Joe

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So is the Australian release version the Akella/1C make? Or the Akella/ Battlefront release?

Battlefront has not released any version since they picked up publishing that I know of.

Any version, from any nation, you get right now will be the Akella/1C version.

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i have to admit the game´s GFX looks superb. but i wonder if this is just dressing to mask the uglyness inside. i mean thats the rule nowadays to have bad ass looking graphics and no gameplay,...at least it sells.

anyways, i gona follow this one but i dont think i will find anything here for me. i got my naval fix with jutland game and i am more than happy with it.

but im couriouse about one thing...are WW2 torpedo boats that "advanced" that you can make a sim around it wich is interessting? the WW1 TB´s i play with are suicide nutshells and when you attack with 10 you come back with 5. i wonder how this is fun in a sim only focusing on TB´s? i mean at jutland i can at least cream the torpedoboat and destroyer gangs with my dreads and light cruisers :D , but PT boats is just about PT boats...isnt it?

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I dont think it's a case of an "arcade steamroller" rather that the simulation elements have been "muted" to a degree to give the player access to a higher level of command ie while you control the PT-Boats in first person you can now also control destroyers and other large ships from a third person viewpoint.

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anyways, i gona follow this one but i dont think i will find anything here for me. i got my naval fix with jutland game and i am more than happy with it.

but im couriouse about one thing...are WW2 torpedo boats that "advanced" that you can make a sim around it wich is interessting? the WW1 TB´s i play with are suicide nutshells

The WW2 "torpedo boats" aren't same thing at all as the WW1 vintage TBs aren't. This game is about the small (70-110 feet), plywood, internal-combustion driven torpedo boats, not the very small traditional warships that destroyers were built to keep away from the capital ships. The classic TBs were still around in WW2, but really only the Germans and Italians used them.

I'd say there's enough sim value in PT Boats to be worth a major effort. An 80' PT boat is bristling with guns, goes 40+ knots flat out, has torpedoes and has no defenses other than sneakiness, speed or smoke. They fought all over the world and took the fight to the enemy every night. Count yourself lucky Akella didn't decide to copy the engine management from a flight sim and make you spin dials down in the engine room.

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okay i figured there must have been some progress on this from say 1916 to 1940, after all 24 years, but did the role really change that much?

i wonder how the game portrays it. i have seen several gameplay videos on youtube, there are plenty, and i dont talk about the physics, as the boat steers verry strange but that not what i talk about, thats a easy fix.

but in the videos it looked more like "firste person"/"third person" "boat shooter", dont know how else to put it.

but iam open to be conviced otherwhise. BFC said they put up a demo, i will try it.

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okay i figured there must have been some progress on this from say 1916 to 1940, after all 24 years, but did the role really change that much?

The WW1 TBs (the ones in Jutland) are a completley different kind of boat, fast displacment hull boats with torpedo launchers and light guns. The larger versions of these boats are commonly called destroyers and in WW2 the destroyers made up almost all of the TB class.

The MTB appeared towards the end of WW1 (it's not in Jutland) tiny often planing-hull boats with usually only 2 tubes built into the hull. These are the boats that people would think of when they thought of torpedo boats today.

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Can somebody please post something encouraging?

This thing has been on my must-have list since 2006 and now you tell me somebody rolled an arcade steamroller over it?

Having only played the Russian Demo I have limited experience. I do know that it can be dang fun! Each time I am amazed at how cool it feels...

To be standing at the helm (F4 view) while you steer towards the target, a fat transport, in a convoy, zig zaging as you approach, doing close to 40 knots. Just ahead of the transport a destroyer has opened fire.. It looks like a Times Square Light Show from all the guns firing at you.. Tracers fly past from multiple directions and shell bursts create water spouts all around you in near misses and still you press on.

Your gun crews are pouring hundreds of rounds into a defending S-Boot running parallel to the starboard.. As men are hit they fall back off the deck into the water but they are no concern.. All that matters is getting that ship-killing shot off. You crouch down by the manual torpedo director.. Just a simple sliding triangle with vertical bars for sights.. Firing from less than 1k won't require much lead... You line up the shot through the sight, angling to port slightly to get that starboard tube lined up with the front 1/3 of the transport..

And then you fire! The fish blasts out of the tube and heads right for the target! You bank you boat hard to port and order the smoke generator to make a screen... Thick white smoke pours from the back of your boat masking any view of the convoy and you from them.. though bullets and shells still pass through seeking your death.. their accuracy is greatly reduced and the misses are not so near.

As you continue to increase the distance behind a white misty shield you hear the booming explosion of a torpedo hit. The transport is going to the bottom and you lived for another day. Mission accomplished.

IMHO the sim part rocks!

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We have partnered directly with Akella on this title, not through 1C. How much of the previous Russian release will be "adjusted" remains to be seen. As usual, there will be a demo out so everyone can judge for himself before taking the plunge (no pun intended).

Martin

Well maybe after this one, you could help them get JA3 to see the light of day!

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@Flanker15

ah ok i see, thanks for the heads up, i will google a bit on this to learn more on that.

Well maybe after this one, you could help them get JA3 to see the light of day!

little offtopic;

I gave up hopes on JA3. its soo sad, the best franchise next to CM type games for me, is dead. Akella erased the release date of JA3 on their site since month. as far as i know F3 games has gone to hell in some way, the guys are back at nival, and Akella had to repay some funding to SFI, quiet a lot actually.

who got the rights on JA3 right now? i have no idea, iam not sure SFi still got them, i think it got sold to someone.

anyways i just answer on this as it happened that i started yesterday a new JA2 game with 1.12 gold version, 1.13 patch and the 6.06 wildfire mod for 1.13. it is as much fun as it allways was...hell where is JA3!!!

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