There are a bunch of tank-based games coming out -some of them are simply shooters, but some are actual sims. Especially the Tiger vs T-34...
http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?automodule=gallery&req=sc&cat=67

Looking at the screenshots, it seems that there's a new source of reference pictures.

What's the name of the game? I've been looking for a WWII themed tank base sim and this looks promising.

I'd guess it just WWII battle tanks: T-34 vs. Tiger, judging from the title of the gallery.
Looks awesome. I couldn't help thinking of Operation Flashpoint with the focus on tank warfare.
It's peculiar how most American and western European game manufacturers push title after title of light-hearted shooters and trash-that-boring-realism style games into the market while eastern Europeans are making great effort in pushing out realistic simulators (and innovative and original games in general).
One example: IL2 Sturmovik.

[quoteLooks awesome. I couldn't help thinking of Operation Flashpoint with the focus on tank warfare.[/quote]

Operation Flashpoint 2 has been announced and a trailer released. If you haven't seen it, go to Gamespot.com and search for Operation Flashpoint 2. Personally I think Steel Beasts was my favorite (right after Longbow 2 - nothing like blowing up the tanks from the air )





Wasn't Lock-On an American enterprise or anything Janes made? The reason eastern-European companies are coming out with some innovate games is in order to survive in an American-dominated gaming market, their games have to be darn near perfect. And even then I think some really innovative games have or are coming out from the American side. Company of Heros and its upcoming sequel, Brothers in Arms and its upcoming third edition, Half-Life and especially the new Orange Box, Call of Duty 1,2, and the new 4 (3 sucked and wasn't from the original manufacturer), Battlefield 1942, and Battlefield 2, Command and Conquer 3, World in Conflict, Supreme Commander, Starcraft and Starcraft 2 (I've been waiting darn near a decade for that!), There are numerous others and while I'm sure some of those that I just mentioned are from international consortiums, most are developed here in the US of A. Not only that but most of those games mentioned above came out in the last 4-5 years. The face of gaming is a lot different than a decade ago thanks to American companies. Each of those games has if not revolutionized then seriously expanded the typification they represent. Now thats my rebuttal to your statement

Personally I don't think its an American vs European thing (everyone knows who made pong ), I think its that us Americans are impatient. By that I mean even the best games need to be put away for a bit and we need something to pass the time until the next game comes out. So we buy a $15-20 piece of crap that does nothing more than fill time and our insatiable craving for killing people-like pixels. Believe me, no respectable gamer here in America puts much stock in even half the games that come out nor do we care for them because we rant on them relentlessly. No, we are in it for the revolutionary gotta-constantly-play-it game and we don't care where it comes from.

Jeff

Isn't Armed Assault the "spiritual sequel" of OFP, made by Bohemia, and OFP2 named so because Codemasters owns the franchise?
I hope they stick with the realism of the original.
(and I hope I could even hope to play both, with this machine I can only dream )

You're right about great games coming from US. I guess it's that even mediocre games get published and widely disributed because the large companies have the cash to push them. But then, only the exceptional games from Eastern Europe and such regions are published here and across the pond. There's enough bulk games around from the major manufacturers, no need to import!

Blizzard is a good example of awesome US game maker, even since back in the day when they were called Silicon Synapse, I can't think of a bad game made by them. (Remember Lost Vikings and Rock 'n' Roll Racing? Man, the latter was, and stll is, sweet as a two-player game)
I've never made any kind of contact with WOW, but Star Craft 2 sure looks sweet.
As does Fallout 3 btw, I only hope Bethesda Softworks don't mess up or mellow out with it. Not having played any of the Playstation-only shooters sold with Fallout's name, but I've heard they're absolute rubbish. The first two PC games are simply awesome. Culture.

Now that you brought up the subject of Half-life, I got to tell my story of love and hate towards the title.
I loved the original.
I loved HL2 perhaps even more. Until early this year when Steam downloaded one of those mandatory updates, after which the game always crashes when I reach a point in which music should start playing. Disabling all sound with -nosound launch command is only thing that helps (since turning down music volume in-game just mutes it). I contacted Valve's support several times and they couldn't help (and stopped responding after they're usual advice didn't help). I suspect that patch screwed up something with the engine (episode one, same problem), which doesn't show up on most systems because it hasn't been fixed yet. (tried it, works fine on my sisters laptop, but not on this rig)
The game worked almost two years with very little, if any problems, and now this. Thanks to Steam and it's automatic mandatory updates, I can't play a game I paid 40€ for. As much as I'd liked to drool over Episode Two and rush to buy it when it's out, I've lost all my interest in Valve and it's products (and what runs under Steam).

But back to the subject from my venting. I think one reason those simple rushed games sell so well is the composition of the market. Nowadays when games are played by a larger number of people than before, the amount of people who don't have the time, interest or concentration to pick up a simulator-type game or an involved and complex RPG, is larger so it's profitable to make certain type of games.
A good example is the medal of honor and call of duty type shooters which are made sequel after sequel.
While I've enjoyed games from both series, they still have this way of keeping the player by the hand.

I've read that Hidden & Dangerous 2 didn't achieve great popularity in the USA, and having bought and played the game and the expansion disc this year, I wonder why. Awesome game. While not flawless, it's a very refreshing break from "tunnel walk" shooters with arrows pointing to objectives etc.

Ah, Commandos 2, the pinnacle of the series. Near perfection.
Man, I hope they just made expansion discs to this one.
But no. Commandos 3 was more action-oriented, with fixed 800x600 resolution, and the smartest "improvement" in user interface ever, removing the keyboar shortcuts to weapons and equipment!
I haven't even tried that yet, and I think I'm better off without it.
And with the newest title, they switched to the more profitable FPS sneaker/shooter.

Sorry, this is a thread about up-coming great games, and I'm ranting about ruined game franchises and remembering the old.
carry on with the subject.

I think that Call of Duty was designed by mostly Eastern Europeans! If you read the credits their names seem very Ivanish... I love and hate games from both regions. The always great Medal of Honor series for example. They came out with Pacific Assault for PC and a completely different game for console! The Pacific Assault for PC was by far the greatest MOH game to hit the shelf! I bought Airborne when it came out and was disapointed to say the least. Yes it has some cool features, but they gave up on historical realism. Call of Duty is one of the few remaining franchises that does not get its head stuck in its... I can't wait for 4 to come out.

What I would love to see is a WW1 game. It would be easily pulled off. Just think; the developers wouldn't have to worry so much about trees or foliage!

-Mike

The thing is that WWi games would not really offer that much of a gameplay. No submachine guns, no assault rifles, no real action (I mean the heart-pounding blitzkrieg-type rush), and so on. Just plain, mindless slaughter. If you go back, it gets even worse. Think about a Civil War shooter and that it'd take a minute to reload for your musket. WWII is a nice, safe subject; after all, the US won. (Well, in the European theater the Russians did in fact, but let's just forget about that.) Korea, not so much, Vietnam, well, ok, the US won that conflict in movies made after , but nowhere near do you find that good vs evil conflict than in WWII.
Lock On was Russian, by the way. Good American sims are the EECH, Falcon, X-Planes, and Flight Simulator.
(There are pretty good RTS' coming out of E Europe, too: Rush for Berlin, Codename Panzer, etc.)
But you're right; European games tend to be more involving. The thing is that the biggest part of the market is composed of young, adolescent boys, so the games tend to focus on action, boobs and big guns. (Not that I have a problem with that.) And Valve be damned for their paranoid, stupid copy-protection schemes and updates. After messing with it for months (and getting that annoying crash that was mentioned) I got the cracked version, too. It seems like they make the legitimate buyers life deliberately hard, not realizing that the cracks are usually available after a few weeks. (Just like the guys messing with us, who made Bioshock.) Using rootkits, forcing you to get online just for installing their games, limiting the number of installs... After a while I'll stop buying. They should look "fair use" up in their dictionaries.

You have that same music-involved crashing too? Well, the issue can be "solved" by playing without sounds, but that's kinda like watching a silent movie blind-folded you know...
To be honest, I've considered getting a cracked version of HL2 as well. I can't think of that as stealing. In my opinion, a consumer has the right to be able to use a product he has paid money for.
Of course, then there's the small print saying "the company cannot be held responsible for problems caused by the users' hardware".
Dammit, it worked for two years, and then they just had to go and ruin it all with hasty game engine updates. And now when it doesn't work, they blame the users' incompatible hardware.
("Your game worked for two years before this new update? Oh, it's of course your old s****y computer with hardware problems, get a new one!"



What? Have they limited the number of installs you can do?! That's kind of comparable to buying a piece of music you can only listen to a certain number of tímes. (that's just the reason I'm staying away from bying music files. I could consider files in FLAC or other non-protected formats, but those WMA's and stuff, no thanks. "You've copied that file too many times, cannot comply, sorry")

Sorry for starting to dwell in nostalgia and remember the old again, but are you familiar with System Shock 2? Now that's one good game. To my knowlegde, Bioshock is made by nearly the same bunch of people. Even it's age doesn't matter, since several fan-made texture and character packs upgrade the graphics to the new millennium.

Yes Bioshock is from the same guys and incorporates more or less the same feeling. The review guys are absolutely giddy about it.

And OFP2 is legitimates. Armed Assault was to be the "sequel" but without Codemasters help, Bohemia seemed to come up short of the success that they saw in OFP1. I don't know if Bohemia is cooperating with Codemasters for 2 but I sure would like to see it. Plus Codemasters has the capacity to market such a game here in the states.

I feel you on the Half-Life problem. However I've lost the game codes for all the original so I can't play them and the graphic requirements for Episodes 1 and 2 mean that I won't get to play them (until I get a new computer), despite the fact that I can still play HL2.

Thanks for the correction on Lock On. In my book and in a comprehensive sense, Janes still made the best combat flight sims based on graphics and realism standards during its time. But MFSX and other Microsoft flight sims are definitely still the edge of the sword.

Jeff

Bioshock can only be installed twice. I read angry letters from readers in gaming magazines about H2: some didn't have online connection at home, and could not install the game, and one guy was particularly pissed off, because he bought it for his deployment, and they don't have internet-access in a submarine.
You'd be surprised. You are supposed to buy the same music for your iPod, CD, etc separately. (At least that's what the music industry is pushing for. I think it's considered to be illegal to rip a CD on an iPod. It was funny when Bush showed on TV his iPod with Beatles songs on it, because Itunes didn't carry Beatles -and it's not supposed to be legal. The French had a legal problem with the fact that stuff bought on the itunes can only be played on iPods, too. And they want your brother to buy the same music as you if he wants to listen to it.
With this way of thinking it'd be impossible to have libraries. These greedy @#$@#$s are trying to take away the internet's neutrality, too...
Sorry, rant off.
I only played System Shock I -and it was incredible. (As was Deus Ex.)

I'm not sure if you guys know about it, but the Operation Flashpoint game has a WWII tank extension.

[quote[I'm not sure if you guys know about it, but the Operation Flashpoint game has a WWII tank extension.[/quote]

Hadn't heard about it, but it would suprise me. OFP was a mod-paradise. I particularly liked an update for the Abrams that added M1, M1A1, and M1A2s in different camo schemes and different barrels. It added accurate engine noises, increased armor (it took like 7 hits from a T-72 to fully kill you) , increased ammo count (especially for coax) and better graphics for explosions. I loved setting up 20 v 20 battle attacking into each other and just watching the carnage!

And I loved BAS's addons for MH-60s and MH-6 Little birds plus textures and weapons for Delta and Rangers.

Jeff

If you want realism try Falcon 4.0 : Allied Force. You will not find a more advanced flight sim anywhere. Its is very hard, but then again, so is flying a real F16

I love it, although it makes every other so called sim feel like the old 8-bit Nintendo Top Gun game. Just wish someone would come out with a similar game for choppers, now that would be sweet!

COD2 is an awesome game, still play it online from time to time, there are several tactical realism servers which is perfect for those of us who prefer a more realistic sort of game rather then running and gunning around.

Yeah, I've heard that's one HC simulator, if you want it to be such. In a review they said it can be played as a light & easy shooter, or in the other extreme, played like the real, where you have to go through 40 steps before you can even take off.



Have you tried the FDF mod?
It's a full conversion mod, adding pretty much all the Finnish stuff from WW2 to modern days you could ask for. Includes both new modern & WW2 soviet troops. The good thing is that you can play the original game as well, with all the improvements of the mod, like updated sound effects for most of the weapons (one thing that really lacked in the original IMO were the bad weapon sounds), explosions, etc. Physics are also tweaked. Like, weapon recoils are increased for more realism, firing from angled surfaces affects the recoil as it should (ie. not always straight up). The mission editor is also improved.
I think it's called a full conversion because of the loads of stuff & improvements it adds, it doesn't take away any of the original content, only adds up lots.
You can play the original as well (the mod is located in it's own folder, none of the original files are changed), but I haven't done that, since the mod enhances the game so much.
Take a look over here: http://www.fdfmod.org/
With Armed Assault out there, it looks like the folks are concentrating on it now. There's already a sound pack released, and I think they're up doing the same FDF thing with ArmA as well. (now if only I got the PC to run ArmA...)




Whoa, two installs! What a load of...
Feels like the paying customer is considered an enemy nowadays.
Is ripping cd's to put into your iPod/mp3 player/whatever really illegal in the states?

The new copyright laws that were introduced here in Finland were also quite irrational and hastily made up.
They supposedly banned circumventing anti-copy measures that require deliberate effort to do so. But then, an earlier part of the same law also says a customer has the right to convert/re-record/copy music to another format or device for his own use, and also take a couple of copies for personal use. I think also stated that a person has the right to make a copy that can be used (like in a car stereo, that sometimes refuse to play protected cd's).
Looks like the record companies are giving up on copy-protection, at least I haven't seen much of them lately. Good, they were nothing but an annoyance. In the end, if a record is converted to an analog signal, it can be copied.

About those digital downloads, I haven't bought any.
Do the online stores usually have an account, where the customers information is stored, like what songs have they purchased etc? So in the case of hard drive failure, they could re-download the music they have bought the listening rights for. (Like Valve's Steam, where you can download your games to any computer after logging in.)
But I'm still clinging on to my record collection. Records are physical, they're real, not some files I have limited rights of usage and copy. Materialistic me...



I also got Deus Ex, one of the best ever.
You haven't played SS2? A word of advice, go get it somewhere, you'll love it!

Oh, were still going OT...
Please, don't get me started on old console games (nes/snes)!

I don't think the world could survive with such a chopper flight sim

But truly I do love Falcon 4.0, its nice every now and then to have a challenge....so I complete the startup up procedures! Seriously any game with a 700-page manual translates into realism. What I love the most is the real-time dynamic campaign manager - the holy grail of flight sims.

Jeff

EECH is a pretty realistic sim. Don't forget, there is a reason why attack choppers have two-man crews. A full-real chopper sim would be a bit too much to handle.
(Lock On -especially with the Flaming Cliff extension) is pretty damn accurate. (I never bothered to buy the new Falcon - I have the 4.0 with all the updates, but honestly, I odn't have time enough to learn it completely. WWII sims are a good compromise. (I'd love to have a new WWI, too...)