By Jim Rossignol on January 19th, 2010 at 1:11 pm.
Or to give it the full title, Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943. Paradox have just announced the strategic WWII tank game, explaining that it’s “a new war strategy title that places players in the heart of the Kharkov Defense Operation during World War II.” You’ll play as either German or Russian forces, and it’s got a bit of the Total War thing going on, with a turn-based strategic mode, and a real-time tactical combat mode on the ground. Tim Stone says he rather enjoyed the Russian demo last year, so it’s hotly tipped for wargamers. It’s looking rather handsome, too, as you can see in the trailer below.
19/01/2010 at 13:15 Dr_Ham says:
If by handsome, you mean craptacular, then it is indeed looking handsome.
19/01/2010 at 13:34 Ginger Yellow says:
Meanwhile, the Eastern Front mod for Company of Heroes is coming out tomorrow. Woohoo!
20/01/2010 at 00:26 Pod says:
WOOT
19/01/2010 at 13:39 HexagonalBolts says:
The idea of a (relatively) modern total war game definitely attracts my interest, but i’m not quite sure why you thing the graphics are handsome? The plants, mud effects and tracks look awful… but then, obviously, graphics are of secondary importance.
Also: why on earth would anyone make a trailer with the camera clearly being moved with WASD + mouse? Regardless of whether gameplay > graphics It looks lazy and awful.
19/01/2010 at 13:40 HexagonalBolts says:
*think (sorry)
19/01/2010 at 13:44 Ginger Yellow says:
What else are you supposed to move a camera with?
19/01/2010 at 13:54 JB says:
I think Hex means why do it (obviously) manually, as opposed to with a scripted camera or whatever.
19/01/2010 at 14:19 FhnuZoag says:
I guess then it’s more persuasive that it’s ingame footage, rather than a cinematic.
20/01/2010 at 00:27 Pod says:
I much prefer actual “ingame” footage — ie someone playing it, rather than some silly flyby cinematic.
WSAD+MOUSE FTW
19/01/2010 at 13:55 ulix says:
As a native German I have to say that this title is absolutely ridiculous. It sounds more then just stupid…
I mean what is it with German words and WW2?
Panzer Blitzkrieg would have sounded kind of okayish, I don’t know.
I can positively predict though that they are not going to sell any copies of that in Germany, not with this title.
19/01/2010 at 14:11 pedant says:
Acthung Panzer! sounds way better than say “look out for that tank mind you” or “regardez le tank” etc etc. German is the language of war. Deal with it? Imagine Rammstein in french, same thing, some things just sound better in German.
After all, which ww2 air-sim would you rather play, “Tally ho jerries up ahead” or “Achtung! Spitfeuer!”? Just saying…
19/01/2010 at 14:24 Okami says:
As a native german speaker I have to say that this title is absolutely fantastic.
And if you really think that “Panzer Blitzkrieg” sounds better thaan “Achtung Panzer!” than I’d strongly advise you to never consider a carreer in marketing.
Though I’d totally play “regardez le tank” too…
19/01/2010 at 14:41 yhancik says:
Although that would actually be “Attention au véhicule de combat blindé !”
(“regardez le tank” sounds more like “let’s just sit and watch that tank”)
19/01/2010 at 14:50 Okami says:
But isn’t that pretty much all the french did in WW2 anyway?
19/01/2010 at 15:13 yhancik says:
Come on, haven’t you played The Saboteur ? ;p
But “French are cowards”-jokes aside, I’d like to see a game set in war where you play a helpless civilian. ArmA2 mixed with Clock Tower. That should be interesting.
(I actually already feel pretty helpless playing ArmA2 :p)
19/01/2010 at 14:20 leeder_krenon says:
Really looking forward to this one. Hope they nail it. Gott in himmel!
What’s this east front mod for COH???
19/01/2010 at 14:31 leeder_krenon says:
oh, i found it.
http://easternfront.org/
at last, a chance to play COH away from the western imperalist side show!
19/01/2010 at 14:22 GB says:
LoL, “Achtung Panzer!” is a famous book by Heinz Guderian. Of course in pacifist Germany it is not as widely known as elsewhere in the world, despite the fact that Guderian is indeed quite German.
19/01/2010 at 14:42 Ghost Bear says:
Should have been a reply to ulix.
19/01/2010 at 17:56 leeder_krenon says:
not familiar with the free french then? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_French_Forces
19/01/2010 at 19:06 Hmm says:
Gosh, this place is full of freaking graphics whores. Those are not interested in, I don’t know, GAMEPLAY and how FUN a game is.
No wonder so many of you didn’t give Age of Decadence demo a chance, even if it’s terrific and puts recently released so-called “RPGs” to shame. Ah yes, but TEH GRAPHIX are better in Oblivion, so it must be a superior ar-pee-gee.
On topic – the game looks neat, hoping for an English demo.
19/01/2010 at 19:53 Vinraith says:
Ah, now this is a cool idea with a lot of promise. That Paradox is involved is an added bonus, as it strongly implies good post-release support. I’ll be keeping an eye on this.
Oh, and as to the graphics, I think they’re pretty solid for a game of this scale, type, and budget. Certainly they aren’t going to inhibit game play, which is all I really care about at the end of the day.
19/01/2010 at 20:16 Jae Armstrong says:
The 3D graphics are nothing to write home about, admittedly (though this is a sim, so I imagine it’s better than much of the competition), but the strategic map is getting me hard.
Pity I don’t actually like WWII. :/
Vinraith, P’dox appear to be involved here in a purely publishing capacity, so I don’t think they can really guarantee top notch post-release support. Remember Lost Empire?
19/01/2010 at 22:14 Vinraith says:
@Jae
True, which is why I said “implies.” Even that word is probably too strong, but Paradox isn’t a publisher that stands in the way of extensive post-release support, like some others, so any lack of support will be the dev team’s fault. They also have a habit of finding devs that are interested in supporting their work post-release, though as you show by example this is not guaranteed.
19/01/2010 at 20:21 Alez says:
Wait, an RTS game set in….world war 2? I simply cannot imagine such a thing being possible.
19/01/2010 at 20:23 Vinraith says:
@Alez
It’s not an RTS, it’s a TBS with real time combat. If there’s another WWII era set game of this type, I’m unaware of it.
20/01/2010 at 01:29 Fumarole says:
At least he gets points for being original. Oh wait…
19/01/2010 at 21:33 MadMatty says:
looks good, i allready saw this vid around new years.
Graphics are ok with me.
I dont have a machine that can run much higher spec graphix anyways, and you do get a huge view distance without the foggyness, with a little less up-close detail.
19/01/2010 at 22:06 destroy.all.monsters says:
Formerly known as “Front Roads: Kharkov 1943″ and mentioned here by Tim: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/08/02/front-roads-kharkov-1943-demochka/
I think a tag of Graviteam is appropriate.
Looks exciting to me despte the poor mud effects. Maybe if people realized this was from a eastern european team there’d be more tolerance for the graphics. After all Order of War *looked* nice but I had no interest in it at all.
Was never able to find the first game at any reasonable price. Glad it was Paradox and not Battlefront that grabbed this up.
19/01/2010 at 23:35 google says:
UFC
20/01/2010 at 01:22 Fumarole says:
The sight of a Panzer IV and a T-34 duking it out at point-blank range makes me cry inside.
21/01/2010 at 01:33 Norton says:
The graphics are excellent considering its a 6km by 6km battle field! If COH was played on a 6km battlefiefield you’d get 0.005 FPS. You guys crack me up rofl.
21/01/2010 at 02:37 MadMatty says:
yeah the mud, explosions, and gunfire effects could do with some tweaking as they kindof blemish the rest of the perfectly functional graphix
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