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"Adam Parker" <joadpar@bigpond.com> wrote in message
news:1111812742.572579.324560@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> JP wrote:
>
> > Weren't you a beta tester? I know your views of HPS games tend to
> gloss
> > over/ignore their faults.
>
> Not on this series JP, I paid for my Vietnam game. I've tested a few of
> the Panzer Campaigns and Modern titles, my forte is the
> small-small/medium scen vs AI. I've contributed art to the games being
> some victory screens and side/bottom boxes. There's an unofficial mod
> for the Nappy games with better 2d icons many people use. But my
> biggest official contribution has been writing a number of the Getting
> Started manuals.
>
> At this stage, I've taken over test leadership of the second Modern Air
> Power game. The original I had no involvement with whatsoever but that
> title has legs and needs to/can be improved as a game. Hence my
> invitation to join that team. I see immense potential.
>
> Modern Air Power right now is more of a basic air warfare lab rather
> than a competitive simulation. It's the genesis of efforts currently
> being produced for the USAF and these will have a ripple effect into
> retail. It's this ripple effect that I aim to help steer into even more
> of a warfare laboratory and most importantly a competitive gaming
> environment.
>
> My involvement with HPS came about purely as a by-hobby. I made a side
> box for Bulge 44 and people liked it!
>
> As for any suggested bias though, I think my statement as to AI above,
> is very clear:
>
> "Place the series in open terrain however and the weaknesses of many
> other an AI will show. Therefore, titles such as Vietnam and Eagle's
> Strike provide fine entertainment in scenarios where the terrain offers
> cover and multiple routes of advance. Scenario's such as Hue (Vietnam)
> and Rzhev (Advance of the
> Reich) show the AI's lack of finesse."
>
> No JP I really like Squad Battles Vietnam. The day the AI rushed down
> Hamburger Hill and attacked my hard won VP hex in close assault right
> on the last turn, was the day I was sold. But in the streets of Hue,
> where my Pattons can run amok amidst a lost gaggle of NVA, I cringe.
>
> Wild Bill ran the SB titles from Vietnam on. Some of his scen designs I
> like. Many of his scen preambles I think have been loosely crafted and
> as Giftz says there are some scens based purely on tricks of the design
> trade which I too don't like. Then I fired up SB Korea last night and
> played a scen whose name escapes me but sees the Communists right in
> the middle of a US Battalion's CP. A manic scen that.
>
> Is the SB series as a whole my cup of tea? Not really. Just as I'd
> wished that Talonsoft's Campaign series followed Panzer Blitz more
> closely, I wish that SB had taken more of a lead from ASL than its own
> track. By-pass movement, brevet leadership, top-down AFV graphics -
> these are things I'd have liked.
>
> But as for bias, that's for people who read my opinions to decide. I
> own War in the Pacific, Battles in Normandy, Highway to the Reich, Tin
> soldiers Alexander, Flashpoint Germany and Combat Mission because
> foremost I'm a gamer.
>
> And as a long-standing, long-buying war gamer I can tell you, I'm sick
> of bull - especially from reviews and previews that have made me waste
> my money for many years now.
>
> Will you always see an HPS game on my screen each time you take a look?
> No way! But they are reliable and stable. I'm still waiting for the
> perfect war game, most probably just like you. My next buy will be
> Grigsby's World at War - despite being disappointed by him now 3 times
> in Battle of Britain, Twelve O'Clock High and War in the Pacific. This
> one looks different. But already we're reading about bugs - from the
> game's reviewers! And the game hasn't yet hit the shelves. There's
> something to say about reliability JP.
>
> Game on,
> Adam.
<shrug> Fair enough. In terms of reliability, Model - t's were very
reliable too, but there's a reason they're not around anymore <g>