Chad Harrison
Posts: 1395
Joined: 4/2/2003 From: Boise, ID - USA Status: offline
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I thought I would drop in here and add my two bits to this ongoing thread. I was posting and active on Battlefront.com's forums long before I came here. I had not even heard of Matrx Games until Panther Games made the move from BFC to Matrix as their publisher. I was beta testing for them at the time, so I came on over too. Glad I did too. Thats how I discovered WitP :) Anyways, the point is I have been playing CM since the CMBO demo. When I first downloaded the CMBO demo, I played for 5 minutes, turned it off and deleted it. I was sure that it was garbage, especially graphically, and never thought about it again. A few months later, a good friend of mine mentioned it and how much fun he was having playing it. I decided to give it another whirl. When I slowed down and actually started to look deeper into the game (there was not tutorial back then either ) I was blown away by the game. For the next five or six years, I actively played CM:BO, BB, and AK, almost exclusively through PBEM. Being a long time Squad Leader and Advanced Squad Leader player, the CM series was the perfect fit for me. When they announced that the first real CM2 would be modern, I was very disappointed. I have no interest in modern combat as a game (personal taste really, the whole 'eggshells with hammers' doesnt appeal to me as much as WWII armoured/infantry combat). That being said, the more I read about what they were trying to cover, what would be included, the enhanced graphical features and additions that improved on CM, and that PBEM would be supported, the idea of modern combat grew on me. Now at this point, the day before release, I am just as excited to recieve CM:SF as I was to recieve CM:BO. Being a long time CM player, the one thing I can gurantee you is that the CM series is not for everyone. I also read the Quartertothree review and boy, he sure did not like it. Thats just fine. If there is one thing I have learned about games it is to not listen to one bad review (or one good review for the matter) and make your decision based on that. This is especially true if he was playing on a older version of the game; ie. not the version that is being released tomorrow. From talking to the other, original 'old timers' on BFC forums who are beta testing/designing CMSF, and who have been playing the CM series as long as I have, I know I will personally enjoy it. I preordered it the day it was available for preorder. As for the balancing in the game, I think of it like WitP. If you play as Japan, unless your Pauk or PzB, defeat is coming your way. The challenge is to keep your head above water as long as possible and inflict as much damage as possible on the Allies. 'Winning' as Japan in WitP means that you delayed the Allies advance more than it was historically and you inflicted more damage than was historically. In CMSF, Syria's forces are going to be hard pressed. But, much like Japan in WitP, you just try to bleed the enemy as much as possible. From reading the forums, and how each team has different objectives, the scenario designers will be able to give a much better balance to the game outside of just points for kills. Anyways, Ill quit rambling on. My point is simple: CM is not for everyone. Some will walk away swearing its the worst game they have ever played. Others will swear its the best game (myself included). Demo's are great to find out for free what you think. Just dont make the same mistake that I did and only play for five minutes. Much like WitP, CM true beauty shines not in the first five minutes If your not sure, wait for the game to actually be released, download the demo, read more than one review and decide for yourself. If you do end up playing, drop me a line and well get a PBEM game going Chad
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