From: Don Mikulec Subject: COMP: Muzzle Velocity/RtM and SSI Questions I've played the demo. Has anyone else? The full game will be a "first person" view of WWII ETO combat from Normandy to the Rhine. It is much more playable and smoother than AtR and gives you the ability to jump into any tank, vehicle, or squad on the map. On a P100 with 32MEG, there was a slight amount of jerkiness with the detail turned all the way up, but it was nothing like the jerkiness I experienced with AtR. It's also better than Campaign. The graphics are on par with Wolfenstein 3D. The tanks are polygon filled textured bitmap with shading. The tanks don't look that bad. You can tell the difference between a Stuart, M3 1/2 Track, Sherman, Panther, SdKfz250, Pz IIIm, and a StugIII. The soldiers are a series of bitmaps to give the effect of walking and moving. The game scoring is based number of kills and objectives taken minus casualties, friendly fire, and war crimes. War crimes consists of shooting civilians, their vehicles, and shooting surrendering enemy soldiers. However, civilian vehicles can run over infantry of both sides :(. Each vehicle has one gunner-driver station with a homogenious interface. Weapon selection is 1 - main gun, 2 - coax MG, 3 - hull MG, 4 - turret MG. When playing infantry, even though you are one man, you have all of the squad's ammo at your disposal. Weapon selection is 1 - SMG, 2 - Anti Tank Weapon (PzFst, Bazooka, PIAT), - toss grenade. It was a little strange seeing that I had 10 grenades and 10 PzFsts the first time I was infantry. My opinion of the game (sim?) is still up in the air. It is unique though. Too bad it doesn't take advantage of PC networks. Head-to-head would be exciting! Pluses - Armament matches historical vehicles. ie. If you are in a Marder II surrounded by infantry, you're dead. (see minuses below) - Building can be destroyed - Assets include arty and airstrikes. - Good fog of war. - War crimes. adds new dimension to the game. - Similar interface for each vehicle type. Jumping from a Pz III to a Panther is easy. - Logistics rules - Vehicle database. - Online Manual - Game is expandable via scenario disks. - Allows modem play, but I haven't noticed null modem. Minuses - All engagements are under 300m. (I think the designers could have done 1000 - 2000m visibility distances) - Infantry can't enter buildings. - Infantry can't go prone. - AI has civilian vehicles running over infantry on both sides. - No selection of ammo types. - No magnification on gun sights. - Questionable AI strategy. - DOS game. - Tank guns can be used like single shot rifles to kill infantry. Very unrealistic. Don Mikulec Boston Stock Exchange dfm@bosx.com PS. Anyone know the state of the RoadToMoscow demo? Does anyone know the release dates of Pacific General and PzGen2? Thanks In Adv.