Panzer General III: Scorched Earth
From the team that brought you the PG (Panzer General) Series—especially
PG 3D Assault, emphasizing strategy as its driving force, coupled
with a unique 3D engine that provides effects such as rain, fog
and snow—we have another chapter. It is called Scorched Earth.
The scene has shifted to World War II’s Eastern Front, added
four new campaigns (two German, two Soviet) and provided a random
battle generator allowing you to create scenarios with British,
American, German or Soviet units.
Strategic coordination of your units requires a lot of forethought
and planning, such as the option of promoting chosen "veteran"
commanders to give them units with more capability. But many of
the battles—the capture of Warsaw, for example—are basically
replays of PG I and II.
There is a 3D strategic map, which can be puzzling, since we are
used to 2D maps. A vertical view may be a unique experience for
the first-time gamer, but no great shake for the true military strategist,
whose goal is to see the entire battlefield and acquire a general
overview.
There are eight different equipment classes in PG III Scorched
Earth: infantry, tanks, recon, anti-tank, artillery, air defense,
fighter and bomber. Within each class, there are types (i.e., the
tank category includes the T-34 and the KV-1). You can create a
paratroop (fallschirmjäger) unit, and arrange an airdrop.
If you decide to save your game-play, plan on using 200 KB of hard-drive
space. More information is available at www.panzergeneral3.com from
Mattel Interactive. This wargame is better for new players than
for the sophisticated player, who might prefer this addition to
the series as an add-on to PG 3D: Assault. This is probably due
to the pop-up screen that helps to keep new players better informed
of the battle’s progress.
System requirements: 266 MHz Pentium or faster, 64 MB of RAM, 350
MB of hard-drive space, 4X CD-ROM drive, 8 MB 3D video card, minimum
28.8 KBps modem (which allows four-player games on Internet/LAN),
Windows 95/98, DirectX 7.0 (provided with game).
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000-Professional Edition
This is not your father’s flight simulator, but a whole new,
more capable, realistic and improved flight envelope. Yet, it remains
compatible with a plethora of add-ons and works with previous versions.
The professional version contains more aircraft and cities. It
adds Boston; Washington, D.C.; Seattle; Berlin; Tokyo, and Rome.
It has more than 20,000 airports and lots of editing tools.
Terrain details must be classed as amazing (considering that the
database is global), both in its accuracy, as well as day and night
textures that include city lights and vehicles moving on roads.
Fly down to Las Vegas, and as you pass over the strip, you’ll
see such landmarks as the Luxor and the MGM Grand hotels.
You get to fly everything from helicopters (Bell 206); private
planes that include Cessna, Mooney, and King Air; business aircraft,
such as the Learjet; all the way up the scale to commercial airliners,
such as the Mach 2 Concorde and the Boeing 777. Add to that list
the Schweitzer 2-32 Sailplane or the Sopwith Camel.
By the way, the Mooney and Cessna have IFR panels for instrument
flights with specific instruments (i.e., GPS receiver) that can
be made to fill the whole screen. You can even download real-world
weather.
What can’t you do? Air traffic control (ATC), somehow, got
forgotten. But you can add "Flight Unlimited III" or "Fly"
to this sim and get ATC. Now, that is real compatibility, and it
confirms that updates can be made via add-ons available from other
developers. More information at Microsoft’s Web site at www.microsoft.com/games/fs2000/.
System Requirements: Pentium III 500, 128 MB RAM, 12 MB 3D accelerator,
4X+ CD-ROM, 500 MB of hard-drive space, Windows-compatible sound
card, joystick, throttle and rudders.
Close Combat: Invasion Normandy
This series has taken you from the beaches at Omaha, the bridges
of Operation Market-Garden ("A Bridge Too Far"), the Eastern
Front, and the Battle of the Bulge. This is the fifth game, and
it takes you back to the beginning of the cycle at the Contentin
peninsula—Utah Beachhead and the siege of Cherbourg.
A mechanism called New Force Pool dynamics allows the customizing
of your battle group. Fighting among the dense hedgerows of the
French Boucage country means tanks cannot deploy properly and anti-tank
traps abound. Emphasis shifts to the infantry, which makes the title—"Close
Combat"—a truly operative imperative.
You can assign limited support assets, such as air strikes, mortars
or naval gunfire. This, in addition to variable weather and supply
elements, means that your options will be different each time you
play. Alternatively, you can choose to play strictly according to
historical conditions.
The improved campaign system allows movement of multiple, customized,
battle groups on a strategic map of the Contentin peninsula that
scrolls to conform to your unit’s progress. You can create
your own operations, battles and campaigns using a scenario editor
and retain the capability to review the action for improved battle
debriefs.
An especially appealing feature allows your battles to be carried
over to subsequent campaigns, thus affecting strategic play, based
on accumulated successes and failures.
A feature called dynamic map tracking enables the battlefield that
you create—including shell holes, vehicle wrecks and topographic
features, such as destroyed villages—to remain as it was at
the end of a session. That way, you can pick up where you left off
whenever you choose. More information is available at www.closecombat.com
from Mattel Interactive.
System Requirements: 200 MHz Pentium or faster, 64 MB of RAM minimum,
300 MB HD space, 4X CD-ROM drive, 8 MB 3D video card, 28.8 KBps
minimum modem (allows two-player games on Internet/LAN), Windows
95/98, DirectX 7.0 (provided with game).