FGM review

[PoorOldSpike]

I've just begun my review at The Few Good Men club including screenshots if anyone wants to go take a look-

http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/FGMForum/s ... php?t=3420

It's an ongoing review and I expect to add more to it in due course.
At the moment I'm put off by the 'toytown' unit graphics and would suggest Matrix add an option to display the units in a more adult 2D 'boardgame counter' style.
Also the unit strength labels are red for German, blue for Russian, it should be the the other way round.
The scen creator/editor is very good though..

PS- join FGM if you like at my invitation and post anything in any of the forums, i'm an Admin/Mod over there

[Barthheart]

ORIGINAL: Poor Old Spike
...
Also the unit strength labels are red for German, blue for Russian, it should be the the other way round.
...

If you look closely, the strength labels are red for YOUR forces and blue for the OPPOSING forces reguardless of whether you are German or Russian.[;)]

[V22 Osprey]

I think we are just so used to Russians being red and the Germans Grey/Black/Blue no matter what side since that's how it's been most if not all wargames.

JTCS- German is light blue and Soviet is a reddish color not matter what side you play.War in the Pacific:AE, Japan is Red and USA is green no matter what side you play.I think that's all there is to it.

[PoorOldSpike]

Yes Red should always be Russian..

[Adam Parker]

Totally agree with the red for Russians thing, I just shrugged after what I'd seen.

I think your review would do a service to buyers by mentioning Ogre and explaining exactly what it is, what it means and that gamers should expect to see it pop up before even being allowed into the game.

I haven't seen anyone from the designers even bother to outline what each setting is for, how to set them and why we even have to do so.

[Kipper]

Hear, hear on the counters... as I mentioned on another post I automatically think fields of fire when I see toy soldiers whereas simple cylinders with a NATO symbol/strength counter on top would give a nice operational feel and would be very easy to do graphically; in its current state I could simply not play it.

[Wolfe1759]

Agree with keeping the Germans blue and the Russians red but could we make them the same red as the control flags. As it is at present I thought they were grey and for me are close enough in colour to the blue to have made me mistake them for my troops.

An option for Nato symbols would also be greatly appreciated.

[Hanal]

As I look at the additional screenshots provided since the game was released, I'm hedging away from buying it...Give me 2-D flat over the top counters and map any day rather then the eye candy....I think my eyes will tire staring at this playing field as I try to discern the counters and colors....

[PoorOldSpike]

..I think your review would do a service to buyers by mentioning Ogre and explaining exactly what it is, what it means and that gamers should expect to see it pop up before even being allowed into the game.
I haven't seen anyone from the designers even bother to outline what each setting is for, how to set them and why we even have to do so.

I wish I could explain the OGRE settings but i don't understand most of them myself..
Maybe Matrix can explain them in this forum

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon
As I look at the additional screenshots provided since the game was released, I'm hedging away from buying it...Give me 2-D flat over the top counters and map any day rather then the eye candy....I think my eyes will tire staring at this playing field as I try to discern the counters and colors....

Here are a few 90% quality JPEG shots from my system, FWIW.

First Berlin 1945, zoomed in view.

[Erik Rutins]

Berlin 1945, same view zoomed out.

[Erik Rutins]

Kharkov 1943, zoomed in.

[Erik Rutins]

Kharkov 1943, same view zoomed out.

Keep in mind that if you have any doubts about what a unit is, hovering the mouse over it tells you. The strength numbers are also high visibility and if you want full unit info, just right click on any unit.

[bssybeep]

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

As I look at the additional screenshots provided since the game was released, I'm hedging away from buying it...Give me 2-D flat over the top counters and map any day rather then the eye candy....I think my eyes will tire staring at this playing field as I try to discern the counters and colors....

I'm just the opposite. One of the reasons I bought the game was for the 3D graphics. I fine games with 2d counters boring, like watching paint dry. What I would like to suggest for Op Bar is some finishing touches on the units (sharper, more detail, more animation (treads, dust, etc)).

[Obsolete]

I think your review would do a service to buyers by mentioning Ogre and explaining exactly what it is, what it means and that gamers should expect to see it pop up before even being allowed into the game.

I haven't seen anyone from the designers even bother to outline what each setting is for, how to set them and why we even have to do so.

You don't have to do so.  They should be just fine left on their defaults.  But if you WISH to do any special tweaking, it's there for you. 

I'm sure this setting-window can be removed so the options don't show up at all, but then someone would find that to gripe about as well, ("Where are all the other screen config settings!!!").

[Adam Parker]

ORIGINAL: Obsolete

I haven't seen anyone from the designers even bother to outline what each setting is for, how to set them and why we even have to do so.

You don't have to do so.  They should be just fine left on their defaults.

Hi Obsolete. I gather you're a tester for this game?

If you leave Ogre at the default setting you get 800 x 600 resolution with no antialiasing.

Which is the reason why I first posted that your game's graphics were crap.

Don't listen to your customers. Fine by me - all I lost was $35 USD.

[RalfZenker]

Is it really so difficult to change the screen resolution?
You have just to do a left click on Video Mode and then to select a new resolution.

[JudgeDredd]

I think the point Adam was trying to make (sorry if I'm wrong Adam) was that the Ogre screen was not as intuitive as it could have been and was unexpected. As an example, using Adams issue, it's not immediately apparent that when you click on a setting on the Ogre window, that you will be presented with different options in the drop down list. Clicking on the screen Resolution fills the combobox with a list of resolutions...clicking on Anti Aliasing fills it with levels of Anti Aliasing settings.

I have been used to popup graphics screens before, but each setting I could change had a drop down box next to it. So it was different to the norm, I think.

I'm just taking a punt here. [:D]

[Erik Rutins]

Yep, we're going to see what we can do to make it more clear. If nothing else, we will document it better in the readme.

[Adam Parker]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

I think the point Adam was trying to make ... I'm just taking a punt here. [:D]

Thanks guys, you summarised that perfectly Judge.

It really was a shock and my first impression was written immediately and as a direct result of what Ogre offered me "out of the wrapper".

I had no idea I could click on anything other than the first rendering box until Junk2Drive told me so here.