Phone switched off? Bladder empty? Puffed corn snacks to hand? I only ask because last time The Flare Path ran a Combat Mission battle commentary, I seem to recall you missed that amazing turn where I dropped a mortar bomb down the hatch of an unbuttoned King Tiger then wiped out an entire squad of Fallschirmjäger with a single ricocheting ATR round.
I can’t promise jammy Tiger II kills or preposterous PTRD shots today (Combat Mission Black Sea imagines a contemporary conflict involving Ukraine, Russia and the US) but the combination of CM’s hi-res ballistics and my tactical hamfistedness is sure to generate the odd “Gosh!” and “Well I never!” Read the rest of this entry »
You’ve read Tim Stone’s battlereports from Combat Mission: Red Thunder. You’ve studied his strategies, his tactics, his strengths, weaknesses, personality, most-played songs, favourite biscuit, childhood pets, sleeping habits, teenage LiveJournal, and the contents of his bins. You’re ready for this. You can do this, we all know you can. The demo is out for Red Thunder and by Jove, you’ll out-war that ruddy Tim Stone.
Anyone eager to spend a modest portion of their Friday shaking their head and tutting while a tactical halfwit sends virtual Soviet soldiers to their deaths, is in luck. A lend-lease version of the close-to-release Combat Mission: Red Thunder has just been craned onto my bustling quay by my bustling stevedore, Steve Dore. Give me a second to finish my molotov cocktail, quietflowsthedon my ushanka, and retrieve my Bumper Book of Annoying Russian Clichés, and we can get started. Read the rest of this entry »
If you ever find yourself in Hell, do check out the Empirical War Museum. Their tank collection makes Bovington’s look paltry, their 1:1 scale ‘Little Pearl Harbour’ diorama will literally take your breath away, and their seemingly empty Landmine Gallery is pure genius. Last time I visited I bumped into a couple of Battlefront.com researchers outside the Hall of Flamethrowers. The pair claimed they weren’t there on business, but their camera bags, tape measures, and smouldering eyebrows told a different story. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m free! Using a straightened coathanger, a blob of chewing gum, and an old Broken Sword walkthrough, I’ve managed to escape the fetid dungeon that is The Flare Path. God, the air out here sure is sweet. And the views – wow! – that must be Mount Manshoot over there, and that can only be the Temple of Fairly Tiresome MMOs. A man could totally reinvent himself in a land like this… he could ditch decades’ worth of baggage and inhibitions.
Alternatively, he could have a panic attack, and decide to calm himself by talking to the nice people* at Battlefront about their staggeringly bold Combat Mission roadmap.
Gosh! I’ve just read the small-print in my RPS contract. It seems Flare Path’s remit includes sports simulations. Strictly speaking, for the last 45 weeks I should have spent as much time in dugouts and bunkers as dugouts and bunkers. My weekly screenshot selection really should have featured as many wingmen, props, and Tigers, as wingmen, props, and Tigers. Thank God the Hivemind usually naps on Friday afternoons. All the same, a change of tack would seem sage. In today’s column not one but two games with cast-iron connections to current sporting events. Read the rest of this entry »
Did you know that Flare Path had an older brother – an older brother that met an untimely end? Tarquin Flare Path hated change and hatched a plot to purge it from the world. If it hadn’t been for a vigilant off-duty bobby, a faulty Schottky transistor, and an escaped circus tiger, you and I would dwell in a perpetual June 14th 1997. Poor old Tarquin. Perhaps it’s a good thing he’s not around today. Watching as wargame devs flirt with new platforms, and Joseph Mangan plans the reinvention of civilian flight simulation, even the most progressive progressive could be forgiven the odd flicker of unease. Read the rest of this entry »
Rocked by mortar blasts and raked by small-arms fire, the heavily-laden Bren Gun Carrier comes barrelling down the track towards us. Any second I’m expecting it to explode like a Roman candle, or lurch, mortally wounded, into a ditch, but somehow it keeps coming. A cheer goes up as it finally bounces into our shrapnel-strewn farmyard and the driver – a dusty sergeant major from the 9th Cameronians – clambers out. “I believe you gentlemen require 6pdr ammo and PIAT bombs. Private Stone?” When I step forward, the visitor tosses me a battered canvas bag. “What’s this, Sir?”. “It’s your old passion for Combat Mission, laddie. Don’t you recognise it?”
Because there’s a demo out. Granted, this thankless wargame won’t be for everyone, but for desktop generals with a bit of grit there are three demo-specific scenarios in there, as well as a not-quite functional version of the scenario editor, to show you how all that stuff works. Lovely AAR video below. Read the rest of this entry »
The simulatory war-men of Battlefront send word that they’ve crafted a Theatre Of War 3 demo for you to download and play on your computer-machine. Excitingly, it’s a time-limited version of the full game, so you can try to win the Korean war in an hour. Now that’s what I call a speed-run. “It allows access to all the missions, features, editors, save games and even multiplayer as the full version. The only restriction is that you are allowed only 60 minutes total gameplay running time before the demo will expire.”
Then, if you like it, you can buy it. Or just say “I like this,” and give a big thumbs up to the empty room in which you sit.
Hampshire – well, my little corner of it – is all fire and brimstones at present. A Spring-enthused Mother Nature is providing the Brimstones. A preview build of Battlefront’s Combat Mission: Battle For Normandy is supplying the fire. Beyond the html hedgerow below, you’ll find a first-hand account of my second brush with this realism-rammed game-o’-war. Fingers-crossed, you’ll also find numerous pictures of kaput Panzers and surrendering Stormtruppen. Read the rest of this entry »
In June 2000 a metaphorical Tiger Tank burst from a metaphorical Norman wood and proceeded to blow the turrets off 14 metaphorical Shermans. I was those 14 metaphorical Shermans. Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord was the Tiger. Nobody is quite sure about the Norman wood.
Handsome sailor and shooty boat simulator PT Boats is getting an expandalone, which is to say it’s getting a sequel that doesn’t quite justify the sequel tag, because it’s more of the same. And more of the World War II toys, too, including new aircraft, and plenty of new boats with guns. The expansion, called South Gambit, about which you can get of details just here, buffs up the graphics and the AI, as well as setting the scene on new seas. Battlefront inform us that the game will take place along the North African coast, and in the Black Sea, where there will be some new Russian units to play with. It’ll go on sale later this month, and owners of the original game get it for just $10.
These masters of military strategy appear to have snuck up on us and delivered a surprise attack. We’re onto them now. The new stand-alone Combat Mission game – Combat Mission: Afghanistan – is available to buy now. It’s Battlefront’s first collaboration with a third-party studio, and consists of a couple of campaigns, with another ten standalone maps and a mission creator. There’s a demo available now, which comes with demo-unique two missions, so is probably worth downloading even if you’re already buying. It also features the full level editor, meaning you can play around, but just not save. They’ve also entered a VIDEO FRENZY. Six (count ’em!) videos follow… Read the rest of this entry »
By putting on my Tim Stone hat – which is a handsome cross between a deerstalker and a camoflaged Brodie helmet – I can bring you news of the Strategic Command WWII Global Conflict demo’s release, in advance of the full game. It features the whole world circa 1942, at the high water-mark of Axis power. Will the allies pull it back? Well, they won’t in the demo, as it’s limited to two months of game time. Poor Western Democracies. Sad face.
A demo for the recently-released naval combat game from Akella and Battlefront, PT Boats, turned up while we were off-air. You can grab it here for a price of 838mb. Battlefront report that: “The demo includes 3 airplanes, 16 naval units, 3 tutorial missions, as well as a demo campaign playable from both the Allied and the Axis points of view.” So that sounds interesting. Recentish game footage posted below.
Not a good week for Combat Mission creators Battlefront. After waiting donkey’s years for Jean-Michel Mathé to finish his ground-breaking Napoleonic ‘First-Person Commander’ wargame HistWar: Les Grognards, the scamp has jumped ship at the eleventh hour and decided to self-publish. Battlefront are sticking doggedly to a ‘we cancelled because of repeated delays’ line, but the simmering annoyance radiating from their statements suggests subtler shenanigans. Read the rest of this entry »
Are you excited about the forthcoming turn-based wargame from Battlefront? Here’s a chance to continue to be excited (and/or be crushingly disappointed). Are you not aware of it? Here’s a chance to have your expectations created. Are you still reading this paragraph? Well done. The beta demo of Empire of Steel can be downloaded from here. As the name says, it’s beta, so expect issues, but it includes two full maps to play, with no restrictions, and a chance to nose at all the other features. To get a feel for the game, there’s a game footage video below… Read the rest of this entry »
