Battles from the Bulge Is Updated

[SeanD]

Improved stability, bug fixes, and more keep this well-oiled war machine running smoothly!

Matrix Games and Panther Games (www.panthergames.com) are pleased to release the comprehensive 4.1.235 first update for their award winning WWII operational-level wargame, Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge. This major update includes fixes for a number of crashes and freezes that affected some players in addition to resolving some AI issues. Also coming in this update are a few tweaks to the scenarios and assorted other bug fixes.

Battles from the Bulge has made an impressive name for itself, scoring a fantastic 9 out of 10 on Eurogamer.dk, a Gamer’s Hall Silver Award, a perfect score on Out of Eight Reviews, and an 8 out of 10 on Cyberstratege!

David Heath, Director of Operations at Matrix Games, said “Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge is extremely popular with both gamers and critics and its no secret why. Those who have played it feel it is the most realistic simulation of operational command ever developed for the computer. This update is like a fresh coat of wax on a sports car - it polishes the gameplay and smooths out any rough edges that showed up in the initial release.”

Assess, Plan, Order and React – The Decisions are Yours!

Acclaimed developer Panther Games brings us to the bitter cold of Western Europe during the Winter of 1944 with Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge. Although the Battle of the Bulge is ground that has been visited by wargamers before, it has never been done with this level of fidelity and historical accuracy. The most advanced and realistic model of command decision-making implemented to date in a commercial wargame, combined with thorough historical research on the battlefields and forces involved in this campaign sets Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge apart from the competition.

Set during the hard fighting of the Battle of the Bulge, Command Ops lets gamers assess, plan, order and react at the operational level just like a real Corps, Division and Brigade commander. Hundreds of hours of gameplay await armchair generals who will be challenged to fight their way across 27 scenarios that stretch from the initial German surprise offensive to the powerful Allied counter-attack.

Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge also sports some of the most advanced and impressive AI ever devised in an operational-level wargame! It is your choice whether to manage every detail of your army, or have the friendly AI manage the war on a lower level while you plan the larger scale maneuvers designed to make short work of your enemy. Just as a historical commander, you can choose where you need to step in and when you need to stand back and let your subordinates do their jobs.

The enemy AI will use its skill to launch well-timed and coordinated strikes as it probes your lines for weakness while realistically reacting to your movements! In addition, for the enthusiastic mod community awaiting Command Ops, powerful tools like MapMaker and ScenMaker allow for the creation of maps and scenarios further adding to already near limitless replayability.

Get the update here. The update is comprehensive and will bring all versions of Battles from the Bulge to version 4.1.235.

[RayWolfe]

Anyone else having Norton problems when applying the patch?
Cheers
Ray

EDIT:
More detail:
Unpatched game, fine, no problems.
Scanned patch for viruses, none.
Run patch
Run game, CMDOPS.EXC, SONAR has detected a security risk, SONAR has removed file.
Game will not run.
... then it takes a dislike to mapmaker.exe and all the rest.
Windows 7
Any ideas?

[Shadrach]

WindowsXP, AvastAV, says the file is clean as a whistle. Norton has a tendency to be overly paranoid but thats only my experience using it.

[GBS]

If we have the last beta update do we need to download this patch?

[Arjuna]

GBS,

There were a couple of minor changes made between the beta and final, mainly to do with the Estab Images ( a couple of files added IIRC ).

[RayWolfe]

ORIGINAL: stian

WindowsXP, AvastAV, says the file is clean as a whistle. Norton has a tendency to be overly paranoid but thats only my experience using it.

Mmmm. Well I restored the files that Norton zapped and told Norton to ignor the "threat" it thought it had seen. So far, so good. I suspect you are right and my version of Norton is being paranoid. And that's the problem, it said there was a threat but gave no information on the nature of the threat.
Last week of the month, it's suffering from PMT! [;)]

[MarkShot]

Ray,

NIS 2010 is notorious for deleting files due to its "cloud" (customer consensus white listing as opposed to vendor black listing) technology. Thus, if you play obscure games, run uncommon utilities, or develop your own software, this is likely to happen to you. I actually rolled back to NIS 2009 to avoid these problems. Hopefully, NIS 2011 will handle this new approach to security better. This current trend in security is going to accelerate as the traditional vendor centric approach cannot keep up with new threats. This is supposed to stop zero day conflagarations before they get started.

See the following for all the problems this has caused:

http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-I ... d-p/160660

[MarkShot]

Note to Dave and Matrix ...

There are three options to avoid these problems with Symantec:

(1) Submit your executables to them for validation in advance of a release.

(2) Digitally sign your applications.

(3) After the fact, report a false positive to them.

[RayWolfe]

Thanks for that MarkShot. It's always reassuring to get the OK from the WiseOne and to know why these things happen. One of the daft bits of script from Norton was the fact that there were fewer that 100 in the Norton "community" that were using this file. The only merit in that statement was the correct use of English (fewer/less)!
Thanks again
Cheers
Ray

[Gandalf]

deleted - Matrix link placement confusion - duh