We're Airborne! We're meant to be surrounded!

I'm in a super WW2 mode this month.

Ever since I stopped playing COD4, the only thing I could think about was playing WW2 games.

But my first replacement game : Far Cry 2, had only ONE world war 2 era weapon, the Springfield sniper rifle. Which I used the hell out till it got boring.

So then came Brothers in Arms : Hell's Highway.
This isn't a game to be quickly dismiss. Sure, Activision does FPS better, but no one can make fictional characters fit as perfectly into a non fictitious era. I forced myself to play through the passable gameplay, just to get the best emotions in any video game ever made.

Seriously, Brothers in Arms series has always been #1.

An example from the 2nd Brothers in Arms, when your character and one of his best mates split up at the beginning of the final mission, then eventually link up at the last scene. Problem is, when you meet up, there are 2 German tanks and a few squads of SS troops. But mostly it's the tanks. So the friend comes out a few metres in front of you and shouts, "We really shouldn't meet up like this anymore". Then, everything goes slo-mo, as a tank fires and he just explodes all over the place and you get blown back. For half a minute, you and the character you play can't accept what just happened.

It was a shock to me too! I couldn't understand why he would just die like that. So emo. whats worse is, another friend called Paige realises that your in shock, so he pulls you to safety, before you both realise that Paige himself is shreded by shrapnel.



But other than moments like that, and characters that seem human like, also often very good cinematics, Brothers in arms is a lackluster game. Not that its a lousy game, just that theres much better shooters out there that can concentrate on being shooters rather than movie-like games.


Hell's highway had a sick sick story. I really liked how they could still find something a little original(in terms of story telling) in the WW2 genre. Usually games like Call of Duty, Medal of Honour and Company of Heroes just rip scenes from famous movies.

The boat scene, and Red Square charge from Call of Duty 1, were almost identical to the intro scenes of the movie 'Enemy at the Gates'. Even in the latest installment of Call of Duty, a scene from that movie is so obviously ripped off that I could guess what the next stage would be ahead of time. In Medal of Honour, the Omaha Landings were taken from 'Saving Private Ryan', but being a revolutionary WW2 FPS, we'll let that slip. Brothers in Arms doesn't actually steal scenes from 'Band of Brothers' but follows a very similar cinematic style, and some characters like 'Sink' look and sound the same. Company of Heroes however, has many scenes that feel like game-versions of movies.

I don't think any of that matters. Because sometimes when I'm watching a cool moment in a war movie and think, "damn, they should make a game that has a scene like this", I forget that there are all these games that do precisely that.

Another thing I find really weird.

I've played sooo many types of games.
And sooo many types of strategy games.
But I've only truly enjoyed a handful of them.
Supreme Commander felt a little overboard. Your main unit is a 100 storey tall robot which is given to you immediatly. It was really cool though to have control of a large scale map. But I'm not a fan of time consuming games, and Supreme Commander was just that.

World in Conflict is as close a match to Company of Heroes as you can get. It's a post WW2 era game. I think based around the early 80s, when the cold war was going on. Like Red Alert 1,and 2, World in Conflict had Russia invading the US and Nuclear warfare. But unlike Red Alert 1 and 2, World in Conflict was a VERY unique game. It was the first time a non-resource collecting game and non base establishing game succesfully flowed. In previous strategy games where you'd have to buid a base and establish a economic base before buying units, World in Conflict introduced continuous warfare. Your given a limited supply of points, which you can purchase units with. When your units get killed, the points return to you. Sounds simple? It really is that simple. Just keep fighting with what skills you have, because everyone on the battlefield has the same number of points as you.

World in Conflict has the best Nuke effect in a game so far.


Command and Conquer 3 was a blend. It was nice to see all those 'Tiberium Sun' units back in action, but they used a very bad engine. The 'Generals' engine. Which has aged BADLY. They used it in Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth I and II, which were both disastrous games. All those scenes from the movies including thousands of orcs and horses? Absent. Replaced by pastry looking character models that had painted on faces in low resolution. I really think they should have stopped using the 'Generals' game engine after the game 'Generals'.

Age of Empires I was the best. II left me confused. And III just didn't have enough substance to be worth a second play through.

The TOTAL WAR series however, was the most fun I've had in a non modern battlefield.

Medieval 2 : Total War is a STRATEGY game at heart, but delivers those humungous battles that you see in movies, down to the last detail.

Dawn Of War is undoubtable the most influencial game I've ever played. No other game(with exception of WW2 games) have got me reading and learning about the universe which the game is based in. It's just a plain and simple awesome game. The developers don't seem to understand that. Dawn of War was perfect when it was released. Now it's got 9 Factions from just 4. And it just doesn't feel very good anymore. However, I think, at its core, Dawn of War is a perfected Red Alert - type game, where all you need is speed and firepower. Basically, like most other 'Strategy games', there isn't much strategy required.

Finally, the venerable COMPANY OF HEROES. Two years I've waited, and only World in Conflict came close. Company of Heroes is a game that understands that infantry weren't used as cannon fodder in WW2. They weren't just marched up a battle field and forced to shoot. They had squad based tactics, with the availability of explosives and grenades. However, these explosives aren't free. So there's a continuous need for both sides to capture strategic points (a concept ripped from Dawn of War). Therefore, the more strategic points on a map you control, the more resources you get, the more grenades your squad can throw. Its simple, but works well.
Company of Heroes also realises that vehicles and infantry don't just go head to head and shoot at each other stupidly until one defeats the other. Its completely different now. If your Airborne units meet a German tank, you have 3 options : Fight, Run, or Die. If you choose to Fight, you have more options.
1) order bazookas for your units using your strategic points.
2)throw and explosive to disable the tank
3)draw the tank into an ambush.

Or, If you wanna run, you just click the retreat button. Immediately, your squad breaks any suppresive action caused by the tank and heads for your base. Clicking retreat can save your troops lives, because it gives them a temperory speed boost and as I mentioned, it breaks suppression. Later, you can restock and send them back in prepared.

Or you can wait around and die.

I love Company of Heroes.

More than you can imagine.