That Command Review...more nonsense

[erichswafford]

Oops, he did it again...

Well, I'm sure the reviewer will have yet more likely excuses and "clarifications" for yet another hugely misleading statement in his "review" of Command MANO over on (the otherwise great site) SimHQ.

Here we have the usual Big Grand Sweeping Statement (No hotkeys whatsoever! It's a clickfest nightmare!) that the reviewer seems to enjoy. And yet again it's just plain misleading at best, and an outright lie at worst.

Is anyone noticing a trend here?

Because, as I promised, there's plenty more to come...

[Mac Linehan]

kondor999 -

I am not familiar with the gent in question; however he does seem, at best, to be singularly uninformed.

Command will stand on it's own merits because it is a First Rate effort, and because of the very knowledgeable individuals on this form, who do know they are about and are contributing much towards improving the game.

It takes no intellectual effort to criticize another's hard work; the measure of a man is the good that he does and contributes.

Mac

"Nothing impresses men more than self restraint"
Colin Powell

[kashirigi]

I may be wrong about this, because I don't have a copy of the game, but from the screenshots you've posted, I don't see any hotkeys for the map settings. If that's the case, then I'm afraid the reviewer is correct, as the first sentence is referring to the map options menu, not the entire list of pull down menus.

Regardless of what you may think of his reviews (and I have no stake in this either way), picking on this particular section probably isn't helping.

However, If I'm wrong and the map options do, in fact, have hotkeys, then I take it back.

[tevans6220]

As Mac just said, the game will stand on it's own merits. So what's your point? Why be so petty to continue attacking? Apparently you've bought the game and you think it's a good game. I think so too. I also think it's a little dumb to continue attacking one review that you don't like or don't agree with. Instead of going on a half-cocked crusade to discredit the reviewer, why not just play your game and enjoy it. These stupid Harpoon feuds that seems to have gone on for years have got to stop sometime.

[TonyAAA]

Personally I think it would be better to limit this discussion to SimHQ's own forum.

Why air their dirty laundry here?

[mjk428]

ORIGINAL: kashirigi

I may be wrong about this, because I don't have a copy of the game, but from the screenshots you've posted, I don't see any hotkeys for the map settings. If that's the case, then I'm afraid the reviewer is correct, as the first sentence is referring to the map options menu, not the entire list of pull down menus.

Regardless of what you may think of his reviews (and I have no stake in this either way), picking on this particular section probably isn't helping.

However, If I'm wrong and the map options do, in fact, have hotkeys, then I take it back.

No, you're right.

These attempts to prove the review wrong are batting .333 - at best. May even be hitless.

[Hertston]

He put that big red arrow there for a reason - it points at listed shortcuts to a selection of map options. The 'entire list' IS of map options, a fact cunningly hidden in the descriptive label 'Map Options Pull-down Menu'. As the stated aim was to disprove the generalized statement that "there are no hot-key functions whatsoever", the criticism of the criticism is therefore 100% correct. Whether it's profitable is another question.

That said, there are certainly not short-cuts for all the options, or indeed most of them - and mighty useful they would be. As would be noting the keys in the drop-down menu text.

[Xornox]

The review was one of the best game reviews I have read. The writer clearly knew the subject and was able to discuss important details and flaws of the game. Censorship and these new attacks are ridiculous actions. It is odd that when customers were querying reviews of the new game, Matrix was trying to remove them from web???

If there are problems in the game which the review reveals, it is just valuable feedback for developers.

[smudge56]

Now I've not been around when there was the harpoon dispute. But my god just ignore the people who have grudges etc. If there is a serious issue then let the creators deal with it. Lets us enjoy this new game which ok isn't perfect but who has ever had a game released that was perfect. What the guys are doing is listening to people and addressing things as they go along. From what I've read is that with some of the peoples ideas, that they had already been discussed but hadn't been included at the time. Because for one thing this game would be still in development for years to come. What I've learnt is you cannot please everyone. This game has so much potential and that can be achieved over time with incremental updates and input from this knowledgeable community.

So lets just move on and enjoy the future guys. [:D]

[BipBip]

Anyway, there is still work to do on hotkeys and menus :

How do you classify a contact as neutral, unknown or friendly ? I know the "h" key to mark a contact as hostile (and it's not in the manual), but that's all.

[ComDev]

ORIGINAL: BipBip

Anyway, there is still work to do on hotkeys and menus :

How to you classify a contact as neutral, unknown or friendly ? I know the "h" key to mark a contact as hostile (and it's not in the manual), but that's all.

A feature request on this is already in the bug/feature tracking database, so its on the to-do list [8D]

[BipBip]

Nice.

[Gratch1111]

1/ People should be free to have any opinions they want
2/ Just because there are some things they miss or dont like shouldnt mean the whole thing is crap
3/ I have worked in the software industry and never did we or anyone else for that matter ever launch a program that was finished from the start when it comes to features and never was it bug free.

[thewood1]

It is not the review itself, but the fairly well known information that the reviewer has a running feud with the developers, including accusations of IP theft. Not only that, the reviewer has engaged with government projects using Harpoon as the platform. Either of those should have disqualified him from doing the review for an independent site. He obviously had not put a ;ot of time into even remotely understanding the game and its interface and that makes the review, combined with his history with the developers, have an odd tome to it.

If someone else had done the review I could easily look at it and agree with a lot of individual points. There have already been a couple reviews out similar to it. But the fact that none of the background was considered or disclaimed borders on either incompetence or malfeasance from and editorial standpoint.

[mjk428]

ORIGINAL: Hertston

He put that big red arrow there for a reason - it points at listed shortcuts to a selection of map options. The 'entire list' IS of map options, a fact cunningly hidden in the descriptive label 'Map Options Pull-down Menu'. As the stated aim was to disprove the generalized statement that "there are no hot-key functions whatsoever", the criticism of the criticism is therefore 100% correct. Whether it's profitable is another question.

That said, there are certainly not short-cuts for all the options, or indeed most of them - and mighty useful they would be. As would be noting the keys in the drop-down menu text.

You left out the words "in the menu". Changes the meaning. Is there a hot-key for turning on the sensors? No. The author isn't saying there are no hot-keys in the game. That's obviously false. He's saying he has to constantly click on that particular menu because there are no hot-keys for those menu items. Is it a nitpick? Absolutely.

We can attack the author for his past. We can attack him for being biased. We can even attack for poor grammar & writing skill but there was nothing dishonest in this case. There are no hot-keys whatsoever for that menu.

[ExMachina]

If someone else had done the review I could easily look at it and agree with a lot of individual points. There have already been a couple reviews out similar to it. But the fact that none of the background was considered or disclaimed borders on either incompetence or malfeasance from and editorial standpoint

Agree. The SimHQ review made a lot of criticisms that are on point (including the one being disputed here--HH was actually correct that the pull down menus do not list associated hot keys)

IMHO, the most damming criticism that can me made of the SimHQ review (outside of the author's intractable conflict-of-interest), is the omission of how the game's many positives offset the pettiness of the criticisms of its. While the nits that the SimHQ review picks are there, they are not of the same scale or quality as CMANO's many and immense positives.

[thewood1]

Yeah, that's what I meant by tone. It was bug hunting at its finest. I see a lot of people talking about buying command after that review. It's kind of like..."if that is the worst that a guy like this can find, it must be pretty good".

[tevans6220]

ORIGINAL: thewood1

It is not the review itself, but the fairly well known information that the reviewer has a running feud with the developers, including accusations of IP theft. Not only that, the reviewer has engaged with government projects using Harpoon as the platform. Either of those should have disqualified him from doing the review for an independent site. He obviously had not put a ;ot of time into even remotely understanding the game and its interface and that makes the review, combined with his history with the developers, have an odd tome to it.

If someone else had done the review I could easily look at it and agree with a lot of individual points. There have already been a couple reviews out similar to it. But the fact that none of the background was considered or disclaimed borders on either incompetence or malfeasance from and editorial standpoint.

Who cares? Did the review stop you from buying? Herman may have been a little biased in his review but no more so than those of you who automatically discredit it because of who wrote it. There's bias all around and it all stems from some stupid feud going back to Harpoon days. He may have got some things wrong in his review but it seems to me his review was pretty detailed which tells me he had to spend a fair amount of time with the game. Nitpicking about things he got wrong is just plain stupid. Name one review that gets 100% right, 100% of the time. There is none. And reviews are just opinions. This game is going to live or die based on it's merits and the support it gets. So far the support has been excellent and the game is too. Why worry about one review?

[thewood1]

Again...its about disclosure and the editorial process. A couple have written if they had known the connections of the author to Harpoon and the developers, it would have changed their view of review.

[Hertston]

ORIGINAL: mjk428

You left out the words "in the menu". Changes the meaning. Is there a hot-key for turning on the sensors? No. The author isn't saying there are no hot-keys in the game. That's obviously false. He's saying he has to constantly click on that particular menu because there are no hot-keys for those menu items. Is it a nitpick? Absolutely.

We can attack the author for his past. We can attack him for being biased. We can even attack for poor grammar & writing skill but there was nothing dishonest in this case. There are no hot-keys whatsoever for that menu.

I don't have the slightest idea what you are babbling about. No there aren't hot-keys for the sensors. Yes, there is hot-key to toggle the datablocks, for example. Both are items in the Map Settings menu, not in any other game menu. Hence, some. Hence, the claim there are 'none whatsoever' is 100% false.