Considering the game..

[Scott_WAR]

Hmm, I would have to say Gary Grigsby's World at War just based on the amount of time I spent playing it.
 
 I have been considering buying UV for what seems like forever, but I just cant convince myself I will have the time to invest in a game of its depth.

[willycube]

I am a little suprised at the comments on this particular post, most of you are very knowledgeable about game designs, most of you understand war games inside and out and I am in awe of your knowledge of WW2 planes, carriers, battlewagons etc. Why not let Matrix work this out, hopefully they will add scenerios and improve the AI, I doubt they will make a campaign add on. I have been playing war games since my first Atari computer. I loved the panzer general series. Now Matrix is promoting World in Flames as one of the greatest board games "ever" being converted to the PC. I have long given up looking for the great computer war game wheather played as solo or multiplayer from any company. They can if they want to, make outstanding graphics and beautiful physical models of WW2 equipment. What they cant do is program a very good AI, no way no how. Talon Soft promised it in the conversion of Avalon Hills Third Reich from the board game to the PC, a terrible disaster. Strategic Command 2 promised it and was only half succesful. Most of my game time is with COD2 multiplayer which I truly enjoy, but it was in trouble until the modders pulled it out of the fire with great mods. Hopefully Matrix will do the same or the modders will. CAW is up there in price I agree but hoagies dont cost $1.50 anymore [giving away my age] all games are expensive anymore, and like some of you have said I will pay good money for a good game, but give me that good game please. Hopefully Matrix has listened to you in the forums and will do something soon. Your feelings are what make these some of the best forums in gaming or anywhere.

Willy

[Prince of Eckmühl]

ORIGINAL: willycube

Why not let Matrix work this out

Matrix isn't the developer. [:)]

PoE (aka ivanmoe)

[BlitzDude]

ORIGINAL: LarryP

I bought all the above except Maximum Football. What do you consider your BEST Matrix purchase? Out of the over 22 games I bought from Matrix, I am not sure which I consider the best... [&:] Have to think on that one.

That's an easy one for me...Operational Art of War III is an outstanding value. You can play it forever and the scenario editor has done what it's supposed to do - CREATE A DEDICATED COMMUNITY OF HOMEBREWED SCENARIOS. Many of which are most excellent and Matrix usually includes the better ones in their patches (new one due out soon!) I imagine the rehash of John Tiller's Campaign Series is decent stuff but I am still playing the "gold version" releases from Talonsoft. I'm sure you would get a lot of value out of that one as well.

CAW is a mystery. I've never been a naval ops gamer though I have played several boardgames that have been fun and enlightening - especially the Second World War at Sea Series by Avalanche Press (excellent treatment of the Pacific War there). The original CCAW seems to have gotten great support and reviews. So far, unfortunately, it seems SSG hasn't been able to translate that into a decent PC game for Matrix. As I have mentioned, I'm a non-buyer until I hear better things on this board. BUT, when I search online for various alternatives there doesn't seem to be ANY. So...I'm waiting til you CCAW pros tell me the patch is great or start saying something more positive. I really want to add something about the carrier war in the Pacific to my PC game collection but so far I'm stuck rolling tons of dice in the Avalanche Press system which, though abstracted in many ways, remains satisfying it is details...just takes a lot of time to play. Now if someone could translate that to a PC game you'd really have something IMO. Still rooting for CAW...or waiting for something else to show up in the PC realm. I sense I am not alone. Maybe I should buy CCAW for $27 or whatever it's selling for??

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: Scott_WAR

Hmm, I would have to say Gary Grigsby's World at War just based on the amount of time I spent playing it.

I have been considering buying UV for what seems like forever, but I just cant convince myself I will have the time to invest in a game of its depth.

I play both of those. UV is great, a shorter version of WitP without the scenario bugs. I was thinking between UV and Flashpoint Germany as my favorites. I just started playing Grigsby's World Divided since a couple gamers here have coaxed me into it. I have enjoyed it immensely playing as the Soviets. It is a tough game to understand but after sticking to it, I am satisfied. Still not sure though about number one... [&:]

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: BlitzDude

That's an easy one for me...Operational Art of War III is an outstanding value. You can play it forever and the scenario editor has done what it's supposed to do - CREATE A DEDICATED COMMUNITY OF HOMEBREWED SCENARIOS. Many of which are most excellent and Matrix usually includes the better ones in their patches (new one due out soon!) I imagine the rehash of John Tiller's Campaign Series is decent stuff but I am still playing the "gold version" releases from Talonsoft. I'm sure you would get a lot of value out of that one as well.

TOAW3 is a deep game. I still have the original first two also. I have never used the scenario editor though. Maybe I should try that next?

[MarkShot]

I completed the second scenario out of twenty of CAP2 tonight.

I still have yet to formulate an opinion on the game. Is it an exciting struggle with worthy AI opponents or is it simply a simulator for pre-MBA types trying to understand the basic relationships and timings of key business concepts. I guess I still need to play more in order to reach a conclusion.

[RayWolfe]

ORIGINAL: Venator

Best Matrix game I've bought was Highway to the Reich. to be honest i wish I'd bought its sequel, Conquest of the Agean rather than CAW now. Ironically it was the lack of scenarios that put me off CotA...

WHAT?
Have you actually counted the number of scenarios that come with that game?
Ray

[Erik2]

ORIGINAL: LarryP

ORIGINAL: BlitzDude

That's an easy one for me...Operational Art of War III is an outstanding value. You can play it forever and the scenario editor has done what it's supposed to do - CREATE A DEDICATED COMMUNITY OF HOMEBREWED SCENARIOS. Many of which are most excellent and Matrix usually includes the better ones in their patches (new one due out soon!) I imagine the rehash of John Tiller's Campaign Series is decent stuff but I am still playing the "gold version" releases from Talonsoft. I'm sure you would get a lot of value out of that one as well.

TOAW3 is a deep game. I still have the original first two also. I have never used the scenario editor though. Maybe I should try that next?

The TOAW3 editor is very powerful, but it is also quirky. Best to start out creating a small scenario with not too many events. The event editor allow you to add lots of intersting options to a scenario, but the learning curve for this is steep.
I've done 6-7 complex scenarios and the reward when you finish one at it works to your expectations is great.

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: Scott_WAR

Matrix is usually better than that. Before the last few games, I have never regretted a  Matrix purchase. ..............[]This needs to stop now before Matrix starts getting a bad rep.

You are right. Matrix still has a good reputation, but they have to focus on the quality assurance. Employing 1 or 2 guys rating/tracking content and quality should do the job, so I'm not talking about a fully fledged QA-division here.
Other publishers who started out as rather small underdogs (like THQ or Take5, IIRC), ages ago, still managed to apply their own QA rules, although they weren't developers back then.

ORIGINAL: RayWolfe

ORIGINAL: Venator

Best Matrix game I've bought was Highway to the Reich. to be honest i wish I'd bought its sequel, Conquest of the Agean rather than CAW now. Ironically it was the lack of scenarios that put me off CotA...

WHAT?
Have you actually counted the number of scenarios that come with that game?
Ray

You're right Ray, COTA has 29 stock scenarios including 2 (short) tactical exercises, tutorial missions (2) not counted.
But each historical scenario has either 1 or even 2 variants (what-if versions). So, there are around 17-19 stock maps, where some are excerpts of bigger maps or where some cover overlapping areas, resulting in having around 14-16 unique maps. I guess that's what Venator had in mind there.

I, for one wasn't disappointed by an imaginary low amount of maps/lack of content, but i was somewhat disappointed by the scenario design, where only 2 maps put up a real challenge for me. The scenario design in HTTR was excellent, and I'd consider this to be the best Matrix game unto now, especially since the replayability is being boosted by this engine's brilliant AI, which acts differently each time. Each time you load a savegame, chances are high that the AI will come up with a different approach.
To be honest, I'd pay 70 bucks for such a game. I kinda squeezed HTTR but there was always room to deploy new strategies and different approaches, and I finally adjusted scenario settings/units to get an even stronger AI. I played HTTR for more than 2 yrs, every once a while. THAT's replay-value at its best.

I can be an excessive gamer who plays a game until it's "squeezed out". Most products in the game sector would not last longer than 2-4 days, I finish/beat them within that time frame. These games are like junk food, some with amusing gameplay but most provide rather short entertainment.
I didn't touch CAW anymore after playing it for several days, I've played all the scenarios on both sides ..... then I replayed it a week later, just to double check if there was some hidden game depth...... there wasn't [:D].

There have been so many types of games, and, as a developer, it's hard to come up with fresh ideas without being accused of copying others or even themselfs.

As someone pointed out before, carrying a full-price tag, CAW should have been released with all CCAW missions in order to score in the content department and to deliver value on a "Matrix level", or it should have had a randomization-function (scenarios and force pool) along with customizable TGs.

CAW isn't complete junk food, but the game still has to grow up, it's a youngster trying to evolve from a kid to an adult. Disturbing detail here, it's the customer who has to cope with a situation where this process did not finish before the product hit the shelf.

I've tested various games in open beta and closed beta, and now, while I'm thinking about the discussion in this thread, I can't help thinking that many of these Betas had more scenarios/content than the retail version of CAW, and everyone knows that a given game's Beta content usually isn't meant (nor able) to satisfy the testers' thirst for fresh and massive game content.

My 2cents.

[Scott_WAR]

I've been thinking. With all things considered, SSG would have been better off, and the customers certainly would have been better off, if SSG just re-released CCAW with no improvements aside from ensuring it would run on XP and Vista. It would probably been profitable to sell it at $19.99, then SSG woud have made money, the customers wouldnt feel ripped off, and the game would have had more than 1 weeks worth of replay value.
 
 Sadly, halfway doing a remake has made nobody happy, has brought into question whether an ancient software company has what it takes to survive in todays market, and has showed Matrix customers both old and new that Matrix NEEDS to do a better job of ensuring that their developers are putting out quality work.

[Venator]

[q]I guess that's what Venator had in mind there.[/q]
 
 Yes. I just didn't phrase it very well. I'll buy CotA in due course I think but as I say, I really feel I made a mistake in choosing CAW over it. It's not so much that I mind it being a quick and simple game - sometimes simple is good. It's just that I have the feeling that the game lacks replayability. And that (superficially) that could be corrected easily by having more scenarios and allowing task force customisation (before the scenario begins) as you said above. Thinks like tweaking arming/fuelling times to be more realistic and making the search procedure a bit more nerve wracking would be nice extras too.
 
 I don't by any means regard my money as having been wasted, I've had some decent entertainment from the game. Sadly though I'll only be buying from Matrix in the future after I've seen a few weeks worth of forum feedback on whichever title catches my eye.

[Gregor_SSG]

ORIGINAL: Scott_WAR

I've been thinking. With all things considered, SSG would have been better off, and the customers certainly would have been better off, if SSG just re-released CCAW with no improvements aside from ensuring it would run on XP and Vista. It would probably been profitable to sell it at $19.99, then SSG woud have made money, the customers wouldnt feel ripped off, and the game would have had more than 1 weeks worth of replay value.

Sadly, halfway doing a remake has made nobody happy, has brought into question whether an ancient software company has what it takes to survive in todays market, and has showed Matrix customers both old and new that Matrix NEEDS to do a better job of ensuring that their developers are putting out quality work.

Well, some of us might be older than we once were, although Alex Shaw, the CAW programmer is shockingly young, but none of us thought for a moment that a band-aided re-release of CCAW, apart from being a technical nightmare, was going to make the grade. I can just imagine the posts now complaining about the interface, fixed resolution etc etc, so it just wasn't going to happen.

More later,

Gregor

[Hertston]

ORIGINAL: LarryP

What do you consider your BEST Matrix purchase?

It's a hard question, really. I think WitP might be 'worth' the cost of the whole lot put together if I could ever find time to do it justice - which I can't. I think, despite their age, both the Campaign Series and TOAW3 both provide superb value for money, as does CoI to a slightly lesser extent, but I can't really consider any of those my 'best' purchase as I already owned all of them in previous incarnations. The Tin Soldiers games are favourites, too.. I still boot up Caesar now and again. A really class act (terrific MP AND challenging AI) that never got the credit or sales they deserved, and I'd recommend them wholeheartedly.

But... the winner would be HttR. CotA is probably the better game, but I'm less interested in the scenario so HttR has got played a lot more.

[decaro]

Maybe I have to rethink this game: I played CaW the other day, the same scenario about 5X, and it never played the same each time; that should count for something.

I also went thru the music tracks; they are really quite good, I just never paid much attention to them as the games go so quickly, as compared to UV et al.

I think one patch w/some needed tweaking and some new scenarios will put CaW up where it belongs; a simple game that delivers good carrier tactics, but not much more.

At least for now.

[Scott_WAR]

I can live with the bugs, and I am positive SSG will probably fix them. But what I HAVENT heard is when and if we are getting more scenarios,............ the ones that were in CCAW. The ones that should have been in this game considering the price we were charged.

[TheHellPatrol]

ORIGINAL: Joe D.

Maybe I have to rethink this game: I played CaW the other day, the same scenario about 5X, and it never played the same each time; that should count for something.

I think one patch w/some needed tweaking and some new scenarios will put CaW up where it belongs; a simple game that delivers good carrier tactics, but not much more.

At least for now.

I agree 100%, it's nail-biting at times and doesn't play out the same. I think the game is a real beauty and i would not be satisfied with a CCAW remake, the game/interface is top notch. But after Battlefront i can't help but feel we are being shortchanged again when it comes to content. I don't mind blowing $50 for CAW as it is, but not everyone has money to burn on games and less customers means less games in general for all of us.
A patch with some beef and we'll all stop complaining...right?[;)]

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: TheHellPatrol
I agree 100%, it's nail-biting at times and doesn't play out the same. I think the game is a real beauty and i would not be satisfied with a CCAW remake, the game/interface is top notch. But after Battlefront i can't help but feel we are being shortchanged when it comes to content. I don't mind blowing $50 for CAW as it is, but not everyone has money to burn on games and less customers means less games in general for all of us.
A patch with some beef and we'll all stop complaining...right?[;)]

After Battlefront? I thought players complained about that having a lack of scenarios and graphics? I must be confused here. You mean we can't complain once we get some beefy patch?! [;)][:D]

[TheHellPatrol]

ORIGINAL: LarryP

After Battlefront? I thought players complained about that having a lack of scenarios and graphics? I must be confused here. You mean we can't complain once we get some beefy patch?! [;)][:D]

<ahem> I meant shortchanged again[;)].

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: TheHellPatrol

ORIGINAL: LarryP

After Battlefront? I thought players complained about that having a lack of scenarios and graphics? I must be confused here. You mean we can't complain once we get some beefy patch?! [;)][:D]

<ahem> I meant shortchanged again[;)].

Dumb me! I get it now... go on living and ignore that original reply please. [X(][8D]