Gaming Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/2009/04/15/company-of-heroes-tales-of-valour-review/1

The new expansion pack for Company of Heroes has been deployed and we head to the front lines to check out the action. Boasting three new campaigns and three new multiplayer modes, could Tales of Valor be in line for a field commendation? Read on to find out!

 

Once again Steam prices themselves out of the market.

Just about any game these days is cheaper via Amazon or Play than Steam, which is a crying shame considering the costs of distribution are so much lower than their retail competitors.

Shame on Steam.

As for the game, I couldnt get into the first one. It felt restrictive compared to heavy weights such as supreme commander (a different league I know.. but thats where my free time went)

 

Men of War stabilished such a higher level for rts that everything coming after it will need to work really hard to stay in the competition!

All my bets are for MoW for best rts this year (as many will agree).

 

just as long as the judges don't take into account voice acting

 

@Baz: ahuehauehuaeh VERY TRUE!!

The worst voice acting since the port for PC resident evil!

"EEeeEeew, it's a monster!" - When the girl (forgot her name) first sees a zombie. Sounded like Microsoft Sam being raped by Stephen Hawkings!

 

Sounds like I should have waited for the reviews to roll in before i ordered my copy from play.com. Which still hasn't arrived! Maybe that's why steam is £12 more. They actually deliver the game within a week of release (I know, double bank holiday weekend but still).

 

I picked up my copy as a pre-order from Game online for £17, and even for that I feel let down by the shortness of the campaigns. Tiger Ace was over in a flash, and the American paratrooper campaign didn't last much longer either.

The final Axis "defend the town" campaign is actually pretty decent and the missions are more substantial (especially going for the medals), but even then, only three missions was disappointing. I hate how CoH misses out on huge things, like the Battle of the Bulge, and only selects a single mission from that period - you could have a whole campaign right there.

Here's to hoping we'll be seeing Company of Heroes: Eastern Front next time round. Somebody needs to get the Axis/Soviet thing going, along with the urban warfare of Stalingrad and the rolling (tank) plains of the open steppe.

 

NO.
DONT.
OPEN.
THAT.
DOOR.
!.

 

Soon we will have Starcraft 2, and all will be well in RTS-heaven

 

I believe the mission-selection was a choice they made. They tried to avoid the worst clichés of WW2-game campaigns, and thus tried to choose something less over-used. I just remember reading this somewhere, might remember wrong, though...

And back to the actual review:
I'm SAD they messed up the direct fire so bad! I've always been hoping they will make the tanks move around via WASD or arrow keys, and thought they'd made it in ToV, but that system just sucks and blows so much. Even in original CoH the control is better if you know what you're doing - atleast you don't turn the turret every time you reverse...

Too bad. BUT I still argue that MoW isn't the second coming of jesus for RTS gaming, it's just different from the previous CoHs... Both have their flaws, both take different approach, but on absolute scale, I wouldn't call one better over the other as it's so much about opinions. (I hope you don't compare mario kart and colinmcrae rally, basicly one takes a bit more arcade/easier to get into-approach on the subject)

 

Men of War, despite what you might be hearing from other sites, isn't perfect. Its ludicrously tough and the control system is very complex. It's most certainly not for everyone, but it IS a whole lot better than tales of valour for £17.99.

 

Yeah from what I've heard (I'm still traveling and haven't seen a proper PC for months) the ToV indeed isn't worth it. I thought they had made the Direct Con.. Fire system properly, but I should have known better. If the online stuff is fun, I may still get it as the price drops, but I'm not gonna pay £18 or even 18 € or that matter. So when I say CoH I mean the original CoH... And maybe the Opposing Fronts, despite it already seemed like a turn for worse.

 

Its a shame that Relic are missing out on a goldmine here. Quite simply, players love the base game, and would be delighted to see more missions, and more nations, more armies, and more maps. Dawn of War II seemed to occupy relic a great deal, and Tales of Heroes seems like an unloved project. I personally believe that if you like COH, and OF, then you should get this, because like those two, they add yet more stuff to an already good base. But we want so much more. Wether Relic wants to deliver that or not, its hard to tell.
I would like to see relic offer more support and help to the community if their heart is not in it, because some of the community work on maps and stuff has been typically brilliant.

 

O concur, especially as the game modes all come with just one map each!

 

Some community maps indeed have been even better than the supplied maps IMO... After all there have been bugs and design flaws in the Relic maps. It's such a shame they've made playing custom much such a... a project? Just post a case making competition, take the 5 best and make them playable online w/o any cryptic ********.

 

Tales of Valor feels more like a DOW II style SDK for company of heroes. It's a shame the series ends on a low point with Tales of valor, but the original and opposing forces set the bench mark pretty high, it was inevitable I guess.

 

Tanks do have directional armour (front, back, side and top IIRC). Not sure if that ws the point you were making tho.