I reinstalled the latest drivers, then installed the newest A3D reference drivers. My sound card wasn't crashing the game, but there was no mention of the sound clipping problem. The same page on the Wings Simulations site which discussed the CD-ROM issues explained that A3D sound cards (such as the Diamond Monster MX300, which happens to be what I have) could easily crash the game if the proper drivers weren't installed. This also plagued the order acknowledgements from tank crewmen in the game proper. Specifically, the last word in the sentences spoken by the briefing officer in the mission briefings was consistently cut off, with a second or two of pause inserted and then the word spoken with the beginning chopped off. Since then another patch has been released that claims to fix some (or all) of the crash bugs, but this was too late for this review.Īfter installation I noticed that there were some problems with the sound. In my case the problem was remedied by a visit to the game's web site, where there was a patch addressing exactly this issue. This is happening more and more, it seems, with various games (at least if complaints and bug reports I have heard are any indication). The simple reason for this was that after installing the game without a hitch, the copy protection scheme prevented the game from recognizing that the legitimate copy of the CD from which I had installed was still in the drive. Panzer Elite does a lot of things right.īefore describing my experience with the game, I should touch on my experience before playing the game, which consisted of not a small amount of cursing, invective, and general ill feeling towards the developers as well as publisher Psygnosis. (I am one of the people with that last complaint.) But experience has taught that games which try to do too much often end up doing very little right. There will be people who will be turned off by the fact that there are no Russians, or that you can't drive a King Tiger, or that while the game does include North Africa, it's only the later battles in Tunisia and there is no chance to drive a tank across the wide sandy seas to Sidi Rezegh or Beda Fomm or El Alamein. Nevertheless, the game does what it sets out to do: create a convincing, fun, historically accurate simulation of tank combat in World War II. There are some problems, however, notably in the graphics and stability departments, and the reduced scope - while clearly done for a reason - can end up feeling a little restrictive. If this was a conscious decision (which I have to believe it was) it appears to have paid off: within the limits in scope set by the design, the game succeeds admirably in depicting the weapons and tactics of the period. In fact, the biggest problem with the game is also its greatest strength: by restricting the game to a few actually playable tanks (as opposed to those controlled by the computer) and sticking to just the Germans and Americans over a few similar campaigns, the task was reduced sufficiently to allow the developers to concentrate on the details, such as getting the gunnery, armor, and handling characteristics right. If this seems rather limited in scope, that's because it is. Panzer Elite covers roughly two years of war between the Germans and the Americans, from late 1942 in Tunisia until the D-Day breakout and pursuit. Scenario selection and the headquarters menu. With an extra year in development, have German developers Wings Simulations put the time to good use? Panzer Elite is very much along the lines of Panzer Commander, and in this regard can be seen as the new challenger to the tank sim throne. While iPanzer '44 had a more interesting tactical aspect which allowed the player to control multiple platoons at once, Panzer Commander was generally recognized as the superior tank simulation, even though it restricted gamers to a single tank platoon. Both games were reviewed by our Strategy Editor and secret sim squirrel Tim Chown (click on the titles above for reviews of these games), and both were found wanting in various respects. In the World War II niche, the past eighteen months have seen the release of Interactive Magic's iPanzer '44 and Panzer Commander from SSI. Historical tank sims don't come around that often, and when they do they're subject to a lot of scrutiny.
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