Company of Heroes - bit-tech.net Forums

Garside · 6th Oct 2006, 10:59

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2006/..._Review/1.html

specofdust · 6th Oct 2006, 11:21

Great review of a fantastic game

Personally I havn't even touched the single player yet, I've just been skirmishing. Not intending on playing online because these things always turn out to need highly developed rush stratagies that make it crud, but the skirmishes are the best I've played in recent years. I guess it shouldn't be too much of a surprise considering it's from the guys that made homeworld.

Anyway, think I should go try playing the storyline

knyghtryda · 6th Oct 2006, 11:29

Totally agree with the review. I played DoW for a while, and I was a little skeptical that the DoW engine could work for a WWII game, but after playing the demo and now half the game, I see this as a very good direction for RTS. One thing that really stood out was the realism of the game. Its not simulation, nor was it ever intended to be. Instead, it is realism in the sense that things happen in ways you expect to happen. You shell a building, and it crumbles realistically. You try to rush a machine gun nest with infantry, and they hit the dirt once the rounds start flying. Hell, you hit a Panther with a tank round thats too weak, and IT BOUNCES OFF! One of my best moments was when during the third or fourth mission, on the attack on the V2 base, I sent in a fighter for a strafing run. Unfortunately, there was plenty of AA fire, and the fighter didn't make it far before it was shot down. But when it hit the ground, it slid and took out of the AA guns. Totally unexpected, but when you think about it, totally believable. Its stuff like that, on top of good all around gameplay and graphics that really lets you know the developers weren't kidding around. Anyone who likes RTS should definitely check out the demo and see what its all about.

Luukas · 6th Oct 2006, 11:58

It's a fantastic game indeed, but with (at least) two severe drawbacks. Well, or so I think:

1) the AI is absolute dirt. It has great trouble defending its own base, and at times it just seems to stop outside the player's base even when you're clearly outgunned.

To top that off, it seemed to me that the AI is basically omniscient when it comes to resource/victory points. Leave even one spot unguarded behind your lines, and eventually a team of engineers or something will pop out after having perfectly avoided the LOS of your units.

2) decent maps are few and far between. A whopping four 2-player maps in total, out of which two are tolerable? Christ.

specofdust · 6th Oct 2006, 15:55

I'm not sure I'd agree that the AI sucks to be honest. I was making an assault on an urban skirmish map(one of the two player ones) and the AI managed to get about 5 manned bunkers up in its base with a morter crew and a couple of paks, my crack infantary that'd up untill that point being owning the map got sliced to ribbons and then blown up, and that wasn't even on hard

Hovis · 6th Oct 2006, 16:11

I've played this game a lot. From the beta on to release and I reckon it is a hell of a good game but yeah the problems are there and they are a bit annoying. The AI is a cripple at anything less than Expert and it cheats. Don't play skirmish thinking you're playing a fair opponent.

Multiplayer is, sadly, a bit too focussed on the opening seconds for my tastes, like any RTS with multiplay in mind the developers want games done and dusted in half an hour. It's fun but it's not as much fun as it could have been and a lot of the nuance is lost in multiplay. For instance Axis Defence strategy becomes a dead loss because the static 88mm Flak guns that are the crowning glory of the Defence doctrine are sitting ducks. You get to kill something, you appear on the map, artillary has your number and you die.

The lack of maps is also a real pain. They needed to add a map editor if they were going to ship such a pitiful number.

A lot of this is me being jaded speaking though. End of the day though I've had it several weeks (ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies about how I got it) and I'm still playing it so it's got to be good.

Best fun to have in it is multiplayer with friends, not the weirdos off Relic online. My clan set up a Hamachi virtual LAN to bypass the iffy netcode on the Relic servers and we play games against each other or against computer opponents, no pressure for win/loss stats, no lame rushing tactics, just down home friendly shooting people.

More maps though, definitely needed.

Bladestorm · 6th Oct 2006, 19:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by review

I have never, ever, felt anxiety simply from the sounds of a game.

Never played system shock 2 ?

Paradigm Shifter · 7th Oct 2006, 13:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bladestorm

Never played system shock 2 ?

That's what I was thinking, too...

Just got this. Won't be able to play it for a few days, though.

billy83 · 7th Oct 2006, 14:30

'So as you can see I, like any other right-minded gamer in the world, think this game is amazing. " (from the review).

I just registered on this forum because of this comment. Without going on about it, why am I a wrong-minded gamer because I disagree with the reviewer? I think it's a pretty arrogant statement, and it annoyed me a fair bit.

gm_crop · 8th Oct 2006, 19:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bladestorm

Never played system shock 2 ?

I adore that game, it still holds up well when compared with the best of todays games.

The sounds of the hybrid still make me crap my pants.

Bladestorm · 9th Oct 2006, 02:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by gm_crop

I adore that game, it still holds up well when compared with the best of todays games.

The sounds of the hybrid still make me crap my pants.

I think its the midwife that caused me the most "anxiety" though I think just about anything in the game could do the trick, especially if it sounded close and from some direction you couldn't actually see.

kenco_uk · 9th Oct 2006, 14:08

I would love to enjoy this game, but the demo freezes up on me. The only thing that keeps going is the sound, otherwise it's total lockup. Before playing the demo, I had about four hours on Prey and after a couple of required restarts to try the CoH demo again, I gave up and played Flatout 2 for an hour or two, so something's up with the demo itself as it randomly freezes.

Are there a number of bugs in the full game that have been fixed? If so, I may give it a go as the demo was very good while it worked.

Techno-Dann · 10th Oct 2006, 15:39

I love the game. Having a weird problem, though...

The game registers a mouse-click as being forty-fifty pixels above the position of the cursor. It also registers the mouse's position as being the same distance too high. In effect, I move the cursor over one button, and the one above it lights up as though I'd moused over it, and when I click, it clicks on the higher button as well.

It's bloody annoying, and it happens both in game and in the menu structures, but in the last day and a half since I got the game I've already beaten the first three levels of the campaign, and will probably keep playing it until I get a fix. It's that good.

Crazyglue · 15th Oct 2006, 08:48

quick question real quick...

is this game more CPU intensive or GPU intensive... ive been playing around for a while with the settings and cant decide... it seems more gpu intensive but i cant really tell

the reason i ask is because, im prolly gonna upgrade (either cpu or gpu) just for this game.

opteron 165 if its cpu
x1900xt 256mb if its gpu

Crazyglue

Garside · 15th Oct 2006, 10:55

Crazy Glue what si your current system? Are those the components you are going to upgrade to?

Crazyglue · 15th Oct 2006, 15:23

right now i have

Athlon 3200+ Socket 939 Venice @ 2.5ghz
2x1GB Corsair XMS PC3200 @ 2.5-3-3-7
6800ultra AGP @ 456/1.17
X-fi Xtreme Music
520W PSU
2x250GB SATA HDD
1x300GB IDE HDD

im going to get one of those upgrades depending on wether the game is cpu or gpu intensive.

specofdust · 15th Oct 2006, 15:34

I can run the game fine with a very similar setup. My CPU is slightly better then yours but my graphics card is only a 6800GS - I run at 1600x1200, no AA or AF, medium settings for everything and get an FPS that's fine for an RTS game. It's not noticably laggy, although it is clear it's not running at 100FPS to my eyes.

Garside · 15th Oct 2006, 18:01

CrazyGlue the game should run at medium graphical setting on your rig.

If you were going to upgrade I would probably look at a stop gap AGP card. Here's a really interesting article about all the AGP graphics cards on the market:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=3359

Don't spend too much though as come 2007 and the arrival of Vista DirectX 10 will be released. This will mean all current gen card will see a drop in prices as a new generation of cards is released!

Short of updating the motherboard and hauling in a whole host of new components I think the above plan is your best option!

Hope that helps.

DarkReaper · 15th Oct 2006, 23:00

Just ordered it and DoW from play, should be fun

Garside, without wanting to make this thread too repetitive what shinyness should I be aiming for from a 2.5GHz C2D, 2GB RAM at 5-5-5-15 and a GT7800 OC?

Garside · 17th Oct 2006, 13:39

I think that setup should handle the game pretty well. You won't be able to run it full whack but experiment with the in game performance test (in the options menu) to get the best.

If you're really keen on getting it absolutely perfect start out with everything turned up and then turn things off accordingly, that's how I operate when testing.

Enjoy the game, it's a belter!

6th Oct 2006, 10:59	#1
Garside Supermodder Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: London Posts: 395	Company of Heroes http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2006/..._Review/1.html

6th Oct 2006, 11:21	#2
specofdust Banned Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Aberdeen, UK, EU Posts: 7,608	Great review of a fantastic game Personally I havn't even touched the single player yet, I've just been skirmishing. Not intending on playing online because these things always turn out to need highly developed rush stratagies that make it crud, but the skirmishes are the best I've played in recent years. I guess it shouldn't be too much of a surprise considering it's from the guys that made homeworld. Anyway, think I should go try playing the storyline __________________ Like marmite, only no-one hates it Mmm bop!

6th Oct 2006, 15:55	#5
specofdust Banned Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Aberdeen, UK, EU Posts: 7,608	I'm not sure I'd agree that the AI sucks to be honest. I was making an assault on an urban skirmish map(one of the two player ones) and the AI managed to get about 5 manned bunkers up in its base with a morter crew and a couple of paks, my crack infantary that'd up untill that point being owning the map got sliced to ribbons and then blown up, and that wasn't even on hard __________________ Like marmite, only no-one hates it Mmm bop!

9th Oct 2006, 14:08	#12
kenco_uk I feel your presents. Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Bourne, Lincolnshire, UK Posts: 6,297	I would love to enjoy this game, but the demo freezes up on me. The only thing that keeps going is the sound, otherwise it's total lockup. Before playing the demo, I had about four hours on Prey and after a couple of required restarts to try the CoH demo again, I gave up and played Flatout 2 for an hour or two, so something's up with the demo itself as it randomly freezes. Are there a number of bugs in the full game that have been fixed? If so, I may give it a go as the demo was very good while it worked. __________________ MSI X58M - i7 920 4Ghz - 6GB Corsair - GTX260 648/2520 ::: Vote for bit-tech T - theevilelephant - "it sounded like bouncing around on a pogo stick, screaming in chinese while occasionally throwing a cat at a door."

10th Oct 2006, 15:39	#13
Techno-Dann Disgruntled kumquat Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Pullman WA, USA Posts: 1,571	I love the game. Having a weird problem, though... The game registers a mouse-click as being forty-fifty pixels above the position of the cursor. It also registers the mouse's position as being the same distance too high. In effect, I move the cursor over one button, and the one above it lights up as though I'd moused over it, and when I click, it clicks on the higher button as well. It's bloody annoying, and it happens both in game and in the menu structures, but in the last day and a half since I got the game I've already beaten the first three levels of the campaign, and will probably keep playing it until I get a fix. It's that good. __________________ The intellitxt demon fell dead, Sir Tim's lance embedded in its heart. The fair land of Bit-Tech was free from its influence once more. And there was much rejoicing.

6th Oct 2006, 11:29	#3
knyghtryda Multimodder Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Berkeley, CA Posts: 77	Totally agree with the review. I played DoW for a while, and I was a little skeptical that the DoW engine could work for a WWII game, but after playing the demo and now half the game, I see this as a very good direction for RTS. One thing that really stood out was the realism of the game. Its not simulation, nor was it ever intended to be. Instead, it is realism in the sense that things happen in ways you expect to happen. You shell a building, and it crumbles realistically. You try to rush a machine gun nest with infantry, and they hit the dirt once the rounds start flying. Hell, you hit a Panther with a tank round thats too weak, and IT BOUNCES OFF! One of my best moments was when during the third or fourth mission, on the attack on the V2 base, I sent in a fighter for a strafing run. Unfortunately, there was plenty of AA fire, and the fighter didn't make it far before it was shot down. But when it hit the ground, it slid and took out of the AA guns. Totally unexpected, but when you think about it, totally believable. Its stuff like that, on top of good all around gameplay and graphics that really lets you know the developers weren't kidding around. Anyone who likes RTS should definitely check out the demo and see what its all about.

6th Oct 2006, 11:58	#4
Luukas Minimodder Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Finland Posts: 37	It's a fantastic game indeed, but with (at least) two severe drawbacks. Well, or so I think: 1) the AI is absolute dirt. It has great trouble defending its own base, and at times it just seems to stop outside the player's base even when you're clearly outgunned. To top that off, it seemed to me that the AI is basically omniscient when it comes to resource/victory points. Leave even one spot unguarded behind your lines, and eventually a team of engineers or something will pop out after having perfectly avoided the LOS of your units. 2) decent maps are few and far between. A whopping four 2-player maps in total, out of which two are tolerable? Christ.

6th Oct 2006, 16:11	#6
Hovis Multimodder Join Date: May 2006 Location: London Posts: 120	I've played this game a lot. From the beta on to release and I reckon it is a hell of a good game but yeah the problems are there and they are a bit annoying. The AI is a cripple at anything less than Expert and it cheats. Don't play skirmish thinking you're playing a fair opponent. Multiplayer is, sadly, a bit too focussed on the opening seconds for my tastes, like any RTS with multiplay in mind the developers want games done and dusted in half an hour. It's fun but it's not as much fun as it could have been and a lot of the nuance is lost in multiplay. For instance Axis Defence strategy becomes a dead loss because the static 88mm Flak guns that are the crowning glory of the Defence doctrine are sitting ducks. You get to kill something, you appear on the map, artillary has your number and you die. The lack of maps is also a real pain. They needed to add a map editor if they were going to ship such a pitiful number. A lot of this is me being jaded speaking though. End of the day though I've had it several weeks (ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies about how I got it) and I'm still playing it so it's got to be good. Best fun to have in it is multiplayer with friends, not the weirdos off Relic online. My clan set up a Hamachi virtual LAN to bypass the iffy netcode on the Relic servers and we play games against each other or against computer opponents, no pressure for win/loss stats, no lame rushing tactics, just down home friendly shooting people. More maps though, definitely needed.

7th Oct 2006, 14:30	#9
billy83 What's a Dremel? Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 5	'So as you can see I, like any other right-minded gamer in the world, think this game is amazing. " (from the review). I just registered on this forum because of this comment. Without going on about it, why am I a wrong-minded gamer because I disagree with the reviewer? I think it's a pretty arrogant statement, and it annoyed me a fair bit.

15th Oct 2006, 08:48	#14
Crazyglue Multimodder Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Elmhurst, IL Posts: 183	quick question real quick... is this game more CPU intensive or GPU intensive... ive been playing around for a while with the settings and cant decide... it seems more gpu intensive but i cant really tell the reason i ask is because, im prolly gonna upgrade (either cpu or gpu) just for this game. opteron 165 if its cpu x1900xt 256mb if its gpu Crazyglue

15th Oct 2006, 10:55	#15
Garside Supermodder Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: London Posts: 395	Crazy Glue what si your current system? Are those the components you are going to upgrade to?

15th Oct 2006, 15:23	#16
Crazyglue Multimodder Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Elmhurst, IL Posts: 183	right now i have Athlon 3200+ Socket 939 Venice @ 2.5ghz 2x1GB Corsair XMS PC3200 @ 2.5-3-3-7 6800ultra AGP @ 456/1.17 X-fi Xtreme Music 520W PSU 2x250GB SATA HDD 1x300GB IDE HDD im going to get one of those upgrades depending on wether the game is cpu or gpu intensive.

15th Oct 2006, 15:34	#17
specofdust Banned Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Aberdeen, UK, EU Posts: 7,608	I can run the game fine with a very similar setup. My CPU is slightly better then yours but my graphics card is only a 6800GS - I run at 1600x1200, no AA or AF, medium settings for everything and get an FPS that's fine for an RTS game. It's not noticably laggy, although it is clear it's not running at 100FPS to my eyes. __________________ Like marmite, only no-one hates it Mmm bop!

15th Oct 2006, 18:01	#18
Garside Supermodder Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: London Posts: 395	CrazyGlue the game should run at medium graphical setting on your rig. If you were going to upgrade I would probably look at a stop gap AGP card. Here's a really interesting article about all the AGP graphics cards on the market: http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=3359 Don't spend too much though as come 2007 and the arrival of Vista DirectX 10 will be released. This will mean all current gen card will see a drop in prices as a new generation of cards is released! Short of updating the motherboard and hauling in a whole host of new components I think the above plan is your best option! Hope that helps.

15th Oct 2006, 23:00	#19
DarkReaper Alignment: Sarcastic Good Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Belfast, NI Posts: 1,750	Just ordered it and DoW from play, should be fun Garside, without wanting to make this thread too repetitive what shinyness should I be aiming for from a 2.5GHz C2D, 2GB RAM at 5-5-5-15 and a GT7800 OC?

17th Oct 2006, 13:39	#20
Garside Supermodder Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: London Posts: 395	I think that setup should handle the game pretty well. You won't be able to run it full whack but experiment with the in game performance test (in the options menu) to get the best. If you're really keen on getting it absolutely perfect start out with everything turned up and then turn things off accordingly, that's how I operate when testing. Enjoy the game, it's a belter!