From: "Byron" Subject: Panzer Commander Comments I got the game on Tuesday. I've been playing it ever since and really like it. I have a P166 with 56 Meg of RAM and a Diamond Monster 3D card. The terrain in the game is great. Rolling terrain as well as the ability to be hull down. Recoil, muzzle flash. Lots of different tanks, which drive and shoot differently. The recoil on the 38t is really bad. Have to reaim each time. Engine can overheat going up really steep hills. You will roll backwards, slide on icy roads. I've heard some graphics complaints, but with my setup the game is fine. When you're looking from down low up at tanks on ridges, that's when the graphics break up. Not a big problem. Easy to control the tank and your platoon. First mission is easy but you can keep going and push it and try to rack up more kills. Run into nasty surprises that way. ;-) Infantry are just in fixed positions. No iPanzer stick men formations that just sit and die. The enemy tank shoot very well and move if you start shooting at them. Not like in iPanzer where its a Turkey shoot. Sorry to keep bringing up iPanzer. Where is the patch for that game anyway? Any other questions about the game, just post a reply. If I'm not too busy playing the game I'll reply. ;-) BTW, multiplayer looks cool. Anyone want to give it a try? If you don't want anything with the game spoiled as far as scenarios, please stop reading now. I'll just talk about the second scenario that I'm stuck on. ****************** SPOILER SPACE ******************* Right now I'm stuck in scenario 2 for the Grossduetchland [sic]. I upgraded to 38t tanks. They zip around nicely but aren't much in the artillery barrage and the French tank in the bend in the road is tough to take out. I am assuming he's spotting for the artillery as well. Those German truck go tooling down the road and get blown up and provide the French tank (can't remember the model now) with cover. If I sit in the road I get killed. If I head towards the treeline I have a chance. First thing to do is knock out that tank. I managed to do that and then went down the road. There's another tank just behind the hedge that you can't shoot until you get to a higher elevation. Meanwhile he's zeroing in on you while you're going up the hill. So I went around the other way. Down the hill and boom another tank below. Its a tough scenario so far. I've had my treads blown off. Engine killed. Tank commader killed from not being buttoned up. -Byron From: pamiller@plains.NoDak.edu (Patrick C Miller) Subject: Re: Panzer Commander Comments Byron (beyerun@ix.netcom.com) wrote: : I got the game on Tuesday. I've been playing it ever since and really like : it. I have a P166 with 56 Meg of RAM and a Diamond Monster 3D card. I have a P2 300 with 64MB of RAM and a 12MB Orchid Righteous 3D II. It looks and plays great on my system, as well it should. ;-) When I previewed PC for CGW, I was running the beta on a P166 MMX with 32MB of RAM and a 4MB Righteous card. Even then, I was impressed with the graphics and how smoothly the game played. : The terrain in the game is great. Rolling terrain as well as the ability to : be hull down. Recoil, muzzle flash. I agree. The terrain modeling in PC might not look as pretty as M1TP2, but I think it's far more realistic. Just last night, I had a German halftrack lined up for a kill when it literally dropped out of sight. When I advanced to the spot where the halftrack was last seen, I discovered that the German vehicle was stuck at the bottom of a large crater. I couldn't depress the gun on the KV-1 far enough to destroy it and there was no way I was going to risk getting my tank stuck in a crater for a lousy halftrack. : Lots of different tanks, which drive and shoot differently. The recoil on : the 38t is really bad. Have to reaim each time. I like the selection of tanks, too, but why no American Stuart? I want to be Jeb in the Ghost Tank. :-) : Engine can overheat going up really steep hills. You will roll backwards, : slide on icy roads. I played the Sidi Bou Zid scenario the other night and was surprised to see my tank sliding sideways down a sand dune. : Easy to control the tank and your platoon. First mission is easy but you : can keep going and push it and try to rack up more kills. Run into nasty : surprises that way. ;-) I have found the campaign battles far more difficult than the single-mission scenarios. However, I'm playing the 12th Guards campaign in Russia and have found the tanks in my platoon to be almost worthless. If they're not getting stuck, they're getting destroyed before causing any damage or accidentally shooting each other. It seems as if it's almost always me against the German Army. : Infantry are just in fixed positions. No iPanzer stick men formations that : just sit and die. The infantry is treated too abstractly for my taste, but it hasn't detracted from the feeling of fighting inside a World War II tank. : The enemy tank shoot very well and move if you start shooting at them. Not : like in iPanzer where its a Turkey shoot. They also seem to be good at moving into hull-down positions. The German StuG IIIs are very difficult to spot and kill when they're positioned behind a low rise. But the pathfinding AI is really poor. I have found that in close terrain, you can maneuver around enemy tanks until they eventually become stuck. After that, it's an easy matter to pick them off. My other major gripe is that enemy units tend to give away their positions prematurely by attempting to fire through hills and forests when they have no chance of hitting their target. The AI would seem even better if this was constantly happening. : Sorry to keep bringing up iPanzer. Where is the patch for that game anyway? Don't hold your breath. :-) : BTW, multiplayer looks cool. Anyone want to give it a try? You bet! Name the time. ------------------------------- Patrick C. Miller Freelance Writer Computer Gaming World & GameSpot ------------------------------- From: dusek@cadsun.corp.mot.com (James Dusek) Subject: Panzer Commander Review I've player a few scenarios and started a campaign, here is my review of the game. My faithful companion. K6 200 80MB ram Monster 3D AWE 64 Graphics: The graphics in the game are good. The tanks are well done, and the terrain has great detail. When you move off road, your wheels will actually move up and down with each little bump in the ground. Smoke looks like smoke and the explosions are okay, nothing earth shaking. I have seen some floating buildings and tanks, esp. if I am lower than the object. Sound: The sound is very good. Nice explosions and gun fire. Your tank clanks and stutters, and if you push it you can hear the engine whine. Cut-Sceans: The cut-sceans are very lame. Static pictures, for when you get promoted or get a medal. The into if also lame, they show static WW2 pictures, no cool animation. ESC blows past them. Contolls: Very good. Keyboard command and the ability to use custom configurations is a big plus. Manual: Very good, not skimpy. Explains the controlls, and give history on the tanks in the game. AI: Weak. missions appear to be scripted. The AI tanks will blindly follow that script. If you intercept an enemy tank before he makes it to whatever spot he is supposed to go, it is a turkey shoot. I had three enemy tanks drive by me, and I picked them all off without return fire. One time a computer controlled friendly tank stopped, an enemy tank turned a corner, and ran into hom from behind, the both just stood still. Neither acknowledged the other. Tanks will get stuck sometimes, sometimes they will take action and move around whatever is in their way. There is one big bug in the game. The computer drive will alwas advance to the next waypoint that HE has not reached. If you assume manual drive of the tank, pass a few waypoints, and try to turn autodriver back on, the driver will turn around and dive over any waypoints that he wasn't in controll of the tanks, before moving on the to next one. So if you manual dive a tank, forget about returning controll to the auto-driver. Gameplay: Despite the weak AI, the gameplay is pretty good. The atmosphere is excellant, giving you the expirence of being there. The physis model if done really well. Tanks slow down on hills, sometimes going backwards if enough power is not applied. Smaller tanks rock back with the recoil from their guns, tanks shudder and bounce around when hit or when they explode. There are some really challenging missions. The only major letdown is a lack of campaings for the U.S. and British sides. Scenario Builder: There is an excellant scenario builder, let you make single and multiplayer levels. Overall: The weak AI and lack of campaigns for the U.S. and Britan are major letdowns. Overall the game is one to get, I haven't tried multiplayer as mplayer does not support it yet, I'll see if Kail does. This game should be alot of fun multiplayer, barring any major bugs or problems. James Dusek From: "Byron" Subject: Panzer Commander Ammened Comments To eveyone who is considering buying Panzer Commander, please read this message in addition to my inital thoughts. I'm writing this so it'll be more balanced. I still enjoy the game, but: The platoon AI is really bad. They easily get stuck behind walls and hedges. Don't take the PzIV/D if you are playing Grossdeutchland. It will be impossible to win. The PzIV/D cannot kill a Hotchkiss H-39 even at point blank range with AP. I'm not sure how that got through the playtesting. I'd argue that even though its a short barrel 75 it should be able to score a kill at point blank range. There has to be something wrong there. Friendly fire kills me quite often unless I leave the platoon behind. I didn't realize this was happening at first but even if I use a formation where we aren't in a line I eventually get it from the crossfire. The targeting mechanism is flawed. When I have something selected with red cross hairs and I turn it over to my gunner by hitting "engage" he always finds some target way far away instead of what I want shot at. In some scenarios that's just enough wasted time to get killed. Tank graphics break up when they are on a hill and you view them from below. Especially bad in the scenario where you have a Tiger II against the JS-IIs. The aiming is too omnisceint [sic]. I shouldn't be able to hit the tab and target things that I can't even see (tanks behind a treeline, etc.). Those are the main problems I've had so far. I still enjoy the game. The multiplayer is fun. If you are interested in the strategy guide, make sure you look at it before you buy it. If its shrink wrapped ask to open it up and look at it. I'm sorry I didn't. I hope that balances out my enthusiastic first posts. -Byron