From: "longhair001" Subject: COMP: Combat Mission Beta Demo Available Just thought I'd pass this along to any who might be interested... The demo can be dowloaded here: www.battlefront.com It's a large file (15 MB), but I can say without resort to hyperbole that this demo has already gotten more play in the last few days from me than several of the full-featured computer games I own, despite the fact that it only comes with two simple scenarios featuring German and American troops. Comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.war-historical is full of glowing reviews of the demo, as well. Combat Mission began life much like the Close Combat games: as a conversion of ASL to the computer. After AH and Big Time Software ceased their association (which had to do with the impending Hasbro buyout), BTS began to develop the game on their own, preserving the scale of the board game, but creating an entirely new game. It's been in development for a long time; the company has stated (and restates it in the help file which accompanies the demo) that the game will not be released until they feel it is ready. This commitment to quality is very apparent in the demo. The most striking feature of the game is its use of a 3-D environment. Unlike most computer games, this is not a case of dazzling the player with unnecessary displays of hardware pyrotechnics; indeed, the graphics themselves can best be described as "functional" (a compromise to keep system requirements to a minimum...I have yet to experience a slow-down in frame rate while playing, and I don't own a fancy accelerator card). The game takes full advantage of 3-D; LOS is completely natural -- infantry squads can hide behind slight rises, trees and buildings block sight, shell hits on armor are calculated based on actual point of impact rather than on generic front-side-rear target facings...and the player can tour the battlefield using several camera views. In fact, this last is essential to good play of the game; sometimes, in order to understand why it is that Sgt. Peterson's squad turned and ran before hitting the tree line, one must view the turn from that squad's perspective. Another aspect of the game which immediately strikes the player is the absence of hexes. All distances and sight lines are determined pixel by pixel. Game turns are one minute long. They are WEGO, that is, they consist of an orders phase, in which each player assigns movement or combat orders to his units; and an action phase, in which both players' units carry out their orders to the best of their ability simultaneously and in real time. During the action phase, a player's units are out of his control; he must wait until the next turn to react to a new situation. Orders are easy to give; one simply clicks waypoints on the map for movement or traces a line to determine LOS or to target an enemy unit. Vehicles can be ordered to move at various speeds (or even to move in reverse), and infantry squads, teams and leaders can be ordered to crawl, walk, run or withdraw. Units may be ordered to fire, make smoke, set up an ambush, call in artillery (FOs only!), hunt for targets (AFVs only), etc. Orders may be chosen with flyout menus or with hotkeys, and a unit can be given a very complex set of orders (i.e. infantry squad is ordered to run 50 yards to the forest, walk through it taking advantage of trees for cover, crawl across the field beyond it to the wheatfield, walk through the field to the stone building, go to the second floor and hide...) which might take several turns to complete. Each player may view the action phase as many times as he wishes, switching from overhead camera views to "first person" perspective to an isometric view. There are eight camera settings and four zoom levels to choose from. It's really, really cool to view replays from a variety of angles, even panning the camera while the action is going on. There is an immense amount of detail in the game which I won't go into here (it's all on the website I've given, either on the preview screens or in the 1000+ messages archived on their message board): command control (including leadership and command delays), morale, armor penetration, individual unit psychologies which are randomly assigned each game, fanaticism, experience, even correct uniforms for the various types of units! I've barely scratched the surface here; the depth of play in the game is impressive, and the whole feels seamless. In addition, the AI is very, very good, trying different strategies with every play (enormous replay value!). I've yet to see a bug. Perhaps there won't be a patch-fest like the one seen with the initial release of Talonsoft's East Front. As I said, I'm enjoying this game immensely, and BTS promises much more when the full game is finally released, hopefully before Christmas. The download might be large, but I heartily recommend trying this gem to anyone remotely interested in tactical WWII gaming. When released, CM will deal with the Western Front, 1944-5. The Eastern Front will be covered in a subsequent release, and there are plans for many more modules (desert, med) if the first game is successful. The freshness of the game's approac h and its immersive quality makes me hope that it will be; this is the first compsim I've seen in a long time which takes full advantage of the computer medium to give maximum realism with no sacrifice in playability. Ken Rutsky -- Though it be broken -- Broken again -- still it's there, The moon on the water --Chosu