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Has anyone played PTO IV

 
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Has anyone played PTO IV - 2/8/2003 7:33:47 AM   
Zeta16


Posts: 1199
Joined: 11/20/2002
From: Columbus. Ohio
Status: offline 		Just wanted to see what people who have played this game have seen so far.
Post #: 1
- 2/8/2003 7:38:52 AM   
Snigbert

 

Posts: 2956
Joined: 1/27/2002
From: Worcester, MA. USA
Status: offline 		It isnt released yet where I live...

_____________________________

"Money doesnt talk, it swears. Obscenities, who really cares?" -Bob Dylan

"Habit is the balast that chains a dog to it's vomit." -Samuel Becket

"He has weapons of mass destruction- the world's deadliest weapons- which pose a direct threat to the

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Post #: 2
- 2/8/2003 7:41:21 AM   
Full Moon

 

Posts: 201
Joined: 1/25/2003
From: Texas
Status: offline 		Hey, SoulBlazer
If you bought PTO4 already, shed some light on us here.

_____________________________

"War is a series of catastrophes that results in a victory."
Georges Clemenceau

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Post #: 3
- 2/8/2003 11:06:01 AM   
Drex

 

Posts: 2524
Joined: 9/13/2000
From: Chico,california
Status: offline 		Soulblazer is playing UV. He owes me a turn.:D

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Post #: 4
- 2/8/2003 11:12:07 AM   
David Heath


Posts: 3274
Joined: 3/29/2000
From: Staten Island NY
Status: offline 		I got it last night and its ok. I find the title odd since I played only in Europe. I going to give it another try in a day or so. I will say the game is VERY dark.

David

(in reply to Zeta16)
Post #: 5
- 2/8/2003 12:36:57 PM   
SoulBlazer

 

Posts: 839
Joined: 10/27/2002
From: Providence RI
Status: offline 		Oh yeah, that's right.....I promsied people I'd post my thoughts. :)

Well, I did'nt get to play at all last night, but I sank a few hours into it today.....

It's hard to write about the game without comparing it to PTO 1 and 2. If you know those games, you'll follow me easier.

The game actually covers the whole world now, and you can play one of four nations -- US, England, Japan, and Germany. Two campaigns are available -- Sep 1939 and Dec 1941, and you also have about 20 battles you can do and then go into campaign mode from it.

The game is less strategy then previous games. Each turn lasts a week and you have two parts -- strategic play and tactical play. In the strategic mode, you can move and assign fleets and commanders, build and design new ships and planes, conduct spying operations, trade money, resources and tech with your allies, do research on new models and weapons, deploy planes to bases and ships, and view a nice 3D model gallery of all the ships and planes in the game. In the tactical mode, you fight real time naval battles. You don't control each ship, though -- just give orders to the fleets and watch them slug it out, or let the AI handle the battle and just watch, picking from a free form, cinematic, or fixed camera.

There's also a monthly confrence where you pick your next major war goal, commanders get awards for 'levels' they earned (they get XP in battles), and that's about it, sad to say, as opposed to the previous games.

The game continues until one side is totally defeated. There's no land operations -- you invade a area, win the battle aganist ships and airbases, and its yours. There are transports that bring supplies to the front, and these can be attacked by subs.

The game also tends to flow at a very fast pace and is not the most realsitic in the world, but you can have a lot of fun with the naval battles and do some really interesting 'what if' situations -- like put the US with the Axis and slug it out with British ships. The naval battles are also a real treat -- graphics are very nice and sharp, the controler shakes as guns boom and shells hit, you can see the torpedo tracks and planes dogfighting above you, ships rock in the ocean, smoke from shots and take damage and burn, and thunderstorms can boom and erupt around you.

Good points:
Great Graphics
Nice tutorial to get you started.
Good pick of battles
Quick and fast game to play at a good pace.
WONDERFULL design ability -- for ships you can design the size of the guns, the mounts, how many, the range of airplanes, how fast they go, armor ratings, if they have scout planes, and all kinds of other stuff. Best options I've ever seen!
Watching 80 battleships slug it out with each other is a REAL treat! :D

Bad points:
Strategy aspects are weaker then other games in the series.
Lack of campaigns.....you just have as the war starts and before Japan bombs Pearl Harbor.
Naval battles can take a while sometimes, when searching for that last airbase.
Not the most realistic in some aspects
No troops in the game.

Well, if you HAVE a PS2, I would say at least rent this and see what you think. I really do enjoy this, but not as much as PTO 2. Pure wargamers probaly won't care for it. Casual players will be able to get into it really quickly and easily. That's not to say you may like it or hate it -- check the game's forum at [url]www.gamefaqs.com[/url] for some extra comments.

(in reply to Zeta16)
Post #: 6
- 2/8/2003 2:55:08 PM   
Raverdave


Posts: 6520
Joined: 2/8/2002
From: Melb. Australia
Status: offline 		WTF is PTO:confused:

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Never argue with an idiot, he will only drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

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Post #: 7
- 2/8/2003 3:15:00 PM   
SoulBlazer

 

Posts: 839
Joined: 10/27/2002
From: Providence RI
Status: offline 		PTO stands for Pacific Theratre of Operations. It's made by a company called Koei, a top notch strategy/simulation company. During the late 80's to the mid 90's they made many games for both the consoles and the PC, such as Nobunaga's Ambition (Warring States Period, 16th century, Japan); Romance of the Three Kingdoms (late second century BC in China), L'Emperour (Napoleanic Europe, 1785-1815), Liberty or Death (American Revolution), Operation Europe (WW2 in Europe), Areobiz (Control a airline company), Gemfire (Fantasy strategy game), Genghis Khan (World conquest in the time of Khan), and Uncharted Waters (Age of exploration -- the second is another all time personal favorite of mine).

These games never did very well in North America, despite a small but very loyal group of fans such as yours truly :) I'm unsure if any came out in PAL countries. Most of the PC versions can be found on Home of ther Underdogs, but they often are inferior to the console versions, most of which came out for the NES, SNES, and the Genesis (there IS a unique version of Nobunaga Ambition that came out for Game Boy, though).

PTO came out in 1993 for the SNES and the Genesis. It's a strategy game where you control fleets and fight battles to win the war in the Pacific for either Japan or the US. While a nice game, it was REALLY surpased by PTO II, which came out in 1995 for the SNES, the PC, and the Saturn (I wrote the review of the PC version for Underdogs, but the SNES version is the better of the two). I've allready raved about this game in another thread, so I'll limit my comments. PTO 3 came out for the Playstation in 1997, but never left Japan. So when PTO 4 came out in March 2002 for Japan, we begged Koei, which had recently rentered the market in North America in 2000 to make new games for the PS2 (such as Kessen 1 and 2 and Romance of the Three Kingdoms VII), to bring the game to North America and they did. Again, I don't know if a PAL version is in the works.

If ANYONE has not checked out Koei's games from the 80's-90's, I HIGHLY encourge you find the console versions and play them (but you may need to use the instructions for the PC versions). Their recent PS2 games are a blast also -- Kessen is set in the Warring States Period of Japan but later, when Tokugawa was fighting for total control in 1600-1615 while Kessen 2 is set in the Three Kingdoms period of China. Hopefully someone else can back up my claim of the greatness of Koei's games. :)

Whew, enough information for ya? :)

(in reply to Zeta16)
Post #: 8
- 2/8/2003 3:35:00 PM   
Raverdave


Posts: 6520
Joined: 2/8/2002
From: Melb. Australia
Status: offline 		Thanks SB;)

_____________________________




Never argue with an idiot, he will only drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

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Post #: 9
- 2/8/2003 6:12:55 PM   
cola

 

Posts: 1
Joined: 11/21/2002
Status: offline 		Well' I got the game and I have to say that I think you will be happier saving your money than playing the game. Everything that SoluBlazer said is true, from his point of view, and I can not believe that he forgot about Bandit Kings of Ancient China as one of the best Koei games ever made.

The battles in P.T.O. IV are some of the most confusing and unrealistic ever in a wargame.:confused: The first P.T.O. is a much better game.:(

(in reply to Zeta16)
Post #: 10
- 2/9/2003 8:40:41 AM   
Full Moon

 

Posts: 201
Joined: 1/25/2003
From: Texas
Status: offline 		I used to play a lot of Koei PC games. I never played PTO though. My favorite Koei games are Romance of Three Kingdoms III, V and Uncharted Waters II. They were just fun. I also played Nobunaga's Ambition and Genghis Khan. I still have some of them with me. It's sad that they don't make PC games any more.:(
Maybe I should start to save money for PS2.:)

_____________________________

"War is a series of catastrophes that results in a victory."
Georges Clemenceau

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Post #: 11
- 2/9/2003 9:39:58 AM   
Yamamoto

 

Posts: 743
Joined: 11/21/2001
From: Miami, Fl. U.S.A.
Status: offline 		Four years ago when I was in Japan I saw Romance of the three Kingdoms 6 and Genghis Khan 4, both for the PC. They have a lot of great games over there that never make it over to America. :( When I asked a Koei representative about it she said that it was a marketing decision; they didn't believe there was a market for those types of games in America.

Yamamoto

(in reply to Zeta16)
Post #: 12
- 2/10/2003 8:49:27 AM   
Von Rom


Posts: 1705
Joined: 5/12/2000
Status: offline 		[QUOTE]Originally posted by Yamamoto
[B]Four years ago when I was in Japan I saw Romance of the three Kingdoms 6 and Genghis Khan 4, both for the PC. They have a lot of great games over there that never make it over to America. :( When I asked a Koei representative about it she said that it was a marketing decision; they didn't believe there was a market for those types of games in America.

Yamamoto [/B][/QUOTE]

They probably never heard the terms "Strategy Gamers" or "Wargamers" before. . .

_____________________________


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Post #: 13
- 2/10/2003 9:33:04 AM   
Zakhal


Posts: 2494
Joined: 1/4/2001
From: Jyväskylä, Finland
Status: offline 		Dont tell me i have to buy ps2 now.

(in reply to Zeta16)
Post #: 14
- 2/10/2003 10:56:49 AM   
Snigbert

 

Posts: 2956
Joined: 1/27/2002
From: Worcester, MA. USA
Status: offline 		Save up for WitP instead.

This message has been brought to you by WitP.

_____________________________

"Money doesnt talk, it swears. Obscenities, who really cares?" -Bob Dylan

"Habit is the balast that chains a dog to it's vomit." -Samuel Becket

"He has weapons of mass destruction- the world's deadliest weapons- which pose a direct threat to the

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Post #: 15
- 2/10/2003 11:27:47 AM   
Zakhal


Posts: 2494
Joined: 1/4/2001
From: Jyväskylä, Finland
Status: offline 		[QUOTE]Originally posted by SoulBlazer
Well, if you HAVE a PS2, I would say at least rent this and see what you think. I really do enjoy this, but not as much as PTO 2. Pure wargamers probaly won't care for it. Casual players will be able to get into it really quickly and easily. That's not to say you may like it or hate it -- check the game's forum at [url]www.gamefaqs.com[/url] for some extra comments. [/B][/QUOTE]
Little snippets:

-I've had this game for a day and have beaten the game as the US and the Japanese. It is just way too easy. With the loss of ground troops, the assaults on bases just take way too little time. For what it's worth, the first game is still the best of the bunch in my book.-

-i beat Japan by February 1942, a mere 3 months after declaration of war.one big question, why are P-51D's available in December 1941?????-

-Has anyone else ever just trounced the enemy? It took me four turns to take Norway, the Baltic, and Italy, then Germany just gave in. I've only started playing the game, though, and I'm hoping that I somehow inadvertently set the difficulty level to 'cakewalk'.-

-I beat the game the second day I got it. Now I am using the Germans. All the british have are vast numbers of ships, but as the German Tech increases... I recently destroyed 3 whole fleets(CVL's,CV,CA etc) with a 2 fleet (16 ships each of) CA's. It is all about the commanders.-

-Now on to the things I didn't like...
-Ending sucks.
-One player
...-

Reminds me of paradox of HoI. Too bad you cant patch ps2 games.

(in reply to Zeta16)
Post #: 16
A radical change - 2/11/2003 10:26:41 AM   
Peever


Posts: 196
Joined: 3/17/2002
From: Minnesota
Status: offline 		Why does Pacific Theater of Operations IV include Europe? :confused:

I am very disopointed in the latest PTO. I was hoping it would be able to tide me over until WitP comes out but it looks like UV will have to keep me entertained a little longer.

PTO has become just another RTS. It has its moments and like others have said is great for some what if battles but after one or two games its boring.

Its too much of a change from the first two and shouldn't really be called PTO since you can fight in Europe.

(in reply to Zeta16)
Post #: 17
- 2/11/2003 9:34:16 PM   
Les_the_Sarge_9_1

 

Posts: 4392
Joined: 12/29/2000
Status: offline 		PTO and the term RTS, hmmm my interest just plumetted off the scale.

Europe included in a Pacific Game? That doesn't increase my confidence in the competency of the company.

I have Operation Europe (thanks to a compilation wargame set I bought eons ago).
I likely have numerous wargames I no longer associate the names with thanks to my having gotten them eons ago though.

I hate it when companies will make a game, then not market it globally errr.

And they market games like PS games in a fashion so that they won't run on machines outside of their own region errrr.

Since when did wargames need cultural protection, it ain't porn damnit errr.

I support the sentiments "wait for WitP" I would rather buy a game made by people I feel know what they are doing.

_____________________________

I LIKE that my life bothers them,
Why should I be the only one bothered by it eh.

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Post #: 18
- 2/12/2003 4:45:47 AM   
Fallschirmjager


Posts: 6793
Joined: 3/18/2002
From: Chattanooga, Tennessee
Status: offline 		The sad truth is that even if this game sells horribly it will have sold 10 times the number of copies it would have sold on the PC.




But koei is an excellent company....too bad their last 2 titles have sucked...

_____________________________


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Post #: 19
- 2/12/2003 5:53:08 AM   
Raindog101


Posts: 1209
Joined: 11/17/2002
From: Hole-in-the-Wall
Status: offline 		[QUOTE]Originally posted by SoulBlazer
[B]PTO stands for Pacific Theratre of Operations. It's made by a company called Koei, a top notch strategy/simulation company. During the late 80's to the mid 90's they made many games for both the consoles and the PC, such as Nobunaga's Ambition (Warring States Period, 16th century, Japan); Romance of the Three Kingdoms (late second century BC in China), L'Emperour (Napoleanic Europe, 1785-1815), Liberty or Death (American Revolution), Operation Europe (WW2 in Europe), Areobiz (Control a airline company), Gemfire (Fantasy strategy game), Genghis Khan (World conquest in the time of Khan), and Uncharted Waters (Age of exploration -- the second is another all time personal favorite of mine).

These games never did very well in North America, despite a small but very loyal group of fans such as yours truly :) I'm unsure if any came out in PAL countries. Most of the PC versions can be found on Home of ther Underdogs, but they often are inferior to the console versions, most of which came out for the NES, SNES, and the Genesis (there IS a unique version of Nobunaga Ambition that came out for Game Boy, though).

PTO came out in 1993 for the SNES and the Genesis. It's a strategy game where you control fleets and fight battles to win the war in the Pacific for either Japan or the US. While a nice game, it was REALLY surpased by PTO II, which came out in 1995 for the SNES, the PC, and the Saturn (I wrote the review of the PC version for Underdogs, but the SNES version is the better of the two). I've allready raved about this game in another thread, so I'll limit my comments. PTO 3 came out for the Playstation in 1997, but never left Japan. So when PTO 4 came out in March 2002 for Japan, we begged Koei, which had recently rentered the market in North America in 2000 to make new games for the PS2 (such as Kessen 1 and 2 and Romance of the Three Kingdoms VII), to bring the game to North America and they did. Again, I don't know if a PAL version is in the works.

If ANYONE has not checked out Koei's games from the 80's-90's, I HIGHLY encourge you find the console versions and play them (but you may need to use the instructions for the PC versions). Their recent PS2 games are a blast also -- Kessen is set in the Warring States Period of Japan but later, when Tokugawa was fighting for total control in 1600-1615 while Kessen 2 is set in the Three Kingdoms period of China. Hopefully someone else can back up my claim of the greatness of Koei's games. :)

Whew, enough information for ya? :) [/B][/QUOTE]
SoulBlazer, is PTO2 a DOS game? do you have any idea if it will run on XP?
Thanks.

_____________________________


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Post #: 20
- 2/12/2003 9:56:05 AM   
Peever


Posts: 196
Joined: 3/17/2002
From: Minnesota
Status: offline 		I run WinXP and PT02 worked just fine. If you do run into problems you can always get a SNES Emulator and play it that way.

(in reply to Zeta16)
Post #: 21
- 3/3/2003 6:19:54 AM   
LyleGorch

 

Posts: 22
Joined: 4/22/2002
From: NYC (Queens)
Status: offline 		Friends,

"Genghis Khan II" was a hell of a lot of fun and a challenging, as well -- look for it on one of the "Definitive" wargame collections put out by SSI some years ago. I think the disk has Romance III on it. Another great strategy game, and turn-based.

Did anyone else ever play "Shingen Takeda" on NES? I spent many an hour with that one, and I wish there was a pc version.

I loved Koei's awkward English, too.

_____________________________

"That's what we was doin'!"

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Post #: 22
- 3/6/2003 5:19:34 AM   
Cap Mandrake


Posts: 23184
Joined: 11/15/2002
From: Southern California
Status: offline 		FJ;


Who is the TOP guy on your post? I know who the bottom guy is. BTW...that is just about the harriest (sp?) guy I have ever seen. It looks like he takes a weed-eater to his neck to keep the brush down :D


I had already suspected that the Al Quaeda types had their development arrested in the 14th Century. This guy looks like his development was arrested in the late pleistocene.

(in reply to Zeta16)
Post #: 23
- 3/10/2003 3:15:48 PM   
NefariousKoel


Posts: 2930
Joined: 7/23/2002
From: Murderous Missouri Scum
Status: offline 		That's sad to hear about PTO4. I still have an SNES packed away somewhere with PTO and PTO2. I had a blast with those. I guess they're the reason UV just seemed so familiar.

I tried running the PC version of PTO on Win98 a couple years ago.. and the damnable screen was so small I quit. I kept hearing the SNES version was better anyway. I wonder if mine still works.

(in reply to Zeta16)
Post #: 24
- 3/10/2003 8:01:38 PM   
Les_the_Sarge_9_1

 

Posts: 4392
Joined: 12/29/2000
Status: offline 		Ya know I have heard so many nostalgic references to so many wargames that were made for machine X from pre PC era days.

But the one thing I always recall, was how the graphics on a then console machine were always so incredibly pixelated to the point that rendering the image or viewing it was just such a chore.

I recall for instance Civilization on a console, and how the image was completely incapable of competing even with a 386 system.

That and the games were often modified so that it wasn't even the same game fully.

In my own opinion, console games since the Playstation (and similar machine level tech for consoles) have only just become worthy as visual competition for PC based games.

Not that I want people to think I have always been entralled by PC based games of course. If you go back any further than a 386, you might as well forget my enthusiasm entirely.

_____________________________

I LIKE that my life bothers them,
Why should I be the only one bothered by it eh.

(in reply to Zeta16)
Post #: 25
- 3/11/2003 9:11:49 AM   
NefariousKoel


Posts: 2930
Joined: 7/23/2002
From: Murderous Missouri Scum
Status: offline 		Far be it for me to actually pick anything on a console system over a PC, but this is about the only case. Sure, PTO looked like crap on a TV, but it was the gameplay that made it fun. On a PC the resolution would have to be so low it didn't really make much of a difference between the two.

I haven't had a console since the Playstation and I really don't miss them at all. Pretty much only good for playing some football head to head with someone IMO. But I'd say PTO was the one bright spot I've seen and I've had various computers and consoles since the early to mid 80s.

(in reply to Zeta16)
Post #: 26
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