This is a game I thought I would post. It is about World War 2, and it is really fun, especially killing Nazi's is alot of fun! Burning Nazi's
According to Wikipedia:
Quote:
Company of Heroes (original)
Company of Heroes (CoH) is a real-time strategy computer game developed for Microsoft Windows by Relic Entertainment. It was announced on April 25, 2005, released on September 14, 2006, and was the first title to make use of the Games for Windows label.
A standalone expansion, Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, was released on September 25, 2007.
Gameplay
Resources
The resource management in Company of Heroes retains micromanagement details such as reinforcing troops, which has the effect of creating a more tactical RTS experience.
Players must take control of certain points on the map. The more of these points a player controls, the more resources they acquire. This concept demands constant expansion of a player's territory. These points are connected like supply lines, and so, during the course of a battle a player can capture one point in the supply line, isolating the rest which had been connected to the base through it, therefore severely reducing the enemy's resource intake.
Players collect three resources: fuel, munitions, and manpower. Fuel allows players to purchase tanks and other vehicles, as well as global upgrades. Munitions allows players to upgrade individual squads or vehicles and use special abilities. Manpower is necessary for all units. The player can decide, at a manpower cost, to place observation posts on his resource points in order to increase his production and make them more durable against enemy takeovers, which means sacrificing resources in the short-term for a greater long-term intake. Resource points must also be connected, if not, that captured point could not produce resources.
Game units generally require a sizable amount of resources to produce. This separates Company of Heroes from other games in the RTS genre, where large amounts of massed units are a common sight.
Units
As the game takes place in World War II, the player can decide to fight as either the Allied or Axis forces, of which require very different tactics to play. Allied units tend to be cheaper, more numerous, and more versatile, whereas Axis units tend to be more expensive and fewer in number, but often more powerful in their role than their Allied counterparts.
The main American army soldiers are riflemen squads, which can pick up certain weapons to give them the upper hand. Engineers can build defenses such as machine-gun nests, which are garrisonable by infantry units, and 105mm artillery guns, which can hit halfway across the map. The Allies can also deploy M4 Sherman tanks, along with M10 tank destroyers, and the Sherman Crocodile, which is equipped with a flamethrower. Allied tanks are more mobile than their Axis counterparts, but have weaker armor and firepower. With commander tree support, the Allies are capable of deploying the superior M26 Pershing heavy tank, call in airborne units, which can be equipped with recoiless rifles, and rangers, which come equipped with two Bazookas and can be upgraded with Thompson SMGs.
The Axis Wehrmacht forces include infantry, like the conscript Volksgrenadier militia, and mid-tier infantry like grenadiers, Waffen-SS stormtroopers, or elite squads of soldiers awarded the Knight's Cross. Axis field operations can be supplemented by specialized equipment like the Nebelwerfer rocket artillery. Axis armor is far less mobile, but in direct combat generally superior, fielding equipment like StuG IV, StuH 42 assault guns, Panzer IV and Panther tanks. With specialized commander focus, Axis forces can deploy superior units, like the Tiger I tank or a "King Tiger" Tiger II tank piloted by an elite tank crew.
Expanding on the cover system implemented in Dawn of War, units in COH automatically seek out cover (such as sandbags, walls, and destroyed vehicles) without orders from the player to give them an advantage over enemy forces. Units hiding in cover gain a defense bonus, making them more effective in combat. Green cover signifies heavy cover, while yellow signifies light cover. Units that are on roads will have red or negative cover and will typically take more damage while moving in those areas. Certain weapons, like flamethrowers work in reverse. They deal more damage to units in positive cover or buildings than they do to units with negative or zero cover. Utilizing cover effectively in CoH is essential to victory. The advanced AI is also aware of its surroundings and reacts realistically according to the situation.
Infantry units, such as an Allied rifleman squad, can pick up heavy weapons (Panzerschreck, M9 Bazooka), man heavy weapons like machine-guns, anti-tank artillery, or mortars, and pick up and use certain automatic weapons (examples are the Browning Automatic Rifle or for the Germans, the LMG variant of the MG42.)
Unlike Dawn of War, squads of units must be near a headquarters (HQ), forward barracks, or half-track vehicle to reinforce (replenish) lost units within the squad. American airborne troops are exempt from this limitation as reinforcements are parachuted to the field. Some units can be upgraded, for example, a .50 caliber machine gun can be equipped for a Sherman tank, or Panzerschrecks for Axis infantry units. Certain add-ons or upgrades affect unit abilities, like the Sherman's crab flail which can clear mines and destroy enemy infantry, but reduces the speed of the tank while in use.
The game utilizes a physics engine, different types of cover are more effective against certain units. For example, some types of cover can be destroyed by tanks.
Buildings
Units can occupy a building and convert it into a field barracks, allowing certain units or squads to be created by that building.
Medic stations can also be built on the field that host medics, who can recover fallen soldiers from the battlefield and return them to the medic station (4 or 6 depending on the side, 4 for German and 6 for American). When enough soldiers are recovered by medics, the medic station will provide a free squad at no expense of manpower.
Infantry units can also occupy buildings and use them as cover or a garrison to protect against attack, but this limits their firing range because the infantry are a stationary, immobile target, rendering them vulnerable to sniper fire and easy to surround. Also, while garrisoned, infantry units can only shoot out of windows or holes blown into a building. Certain weapons are immensely effective against units holed up in a building; satchel charges or infantry-carried rocket launchers can demolish a building, tank fire can blast the building, and infantry or tanks armed with flamethrowers can literally set the building on fire and burn out the occupants. However, there are advantages; infantry are well protected from small arms and most buildings are sturdy enough to stand up to limited tank fire before collapsing.
Occupied buildings can be destroyed after taking fire from enemy units or any other attack like artillery fire or demolition charges. Civilian buildings cannot be repaired or rebuilt. However, both the Allied and German forces can construct garrisonable buildings (the Allies can build a .30 caliber machine gun nest, while the Germans can construct bunkers).
The Americans can build barracks and weapons support center to deploy infantry (foot soldiers), motor pool and tank depot for tanks, vehicles and anti-tank guns. The triage center can heal nearby units have been wounded from enemy fire. Supply yards are also required to be built before building motor pool and tank depot. The supply yard gives you upgrades to shorten resources on infantry and tanks.
The Germans can build a variety of structures. The Wehrmacht quarters, Krieg barracks and Sturm armory lets you create infantry. Krieg Barracks and Sturm Armory can spawn light vehicles and other infantry. While the Sturm Armory and the Panzer Command deploys German tanks at the player's disposal.
Multiplayer
For Company of Heroes, Relic began using a new online gaming system called Relic Online. Previous Relic games used GameSpy Arcade or World Opponent Network services. This new system includes many features that the previous systems did not have, including a built in automatch and ranking system.
This game allows multiplayer matches of 2-8 players via LAN or the Internet.
Company of Heroes allows you to fight as both the Allied and Axis forces when you play a multiplayer game.
Game modes
Victory Point Control
Victory Point Control games have several victory points around the middle of the map. These victory points can be captured similarly to strategic points. When one side has more victory points under their control than another, the other side's "points" start to decrease. When one side runs out of points, they lose. Alternatively, the player can simply destroy all enemy buildings to win the game. Before the start of the game, the host can choose between 250, 500, or 1000 points. The point function in Company of Heroes works much like the ticket feature in the Battlefield (series).
Annihilation
Annihilation games lack the victory points of the Victory Point Control game mode. To win, the player needs to destroy all enemy buildings including Observation Posts.
Story
Company of Heroes is set during World War II where the player commands two U.S. military units during the Battle of Normandy and the Allied capture of France. Depending on the mission, the player controls either the Able Company or Fox Company, the latter being from the 101st Airborne, and the former being part of the 29th Infantry Division.
Single player campaign
The single player campaign puts the player directly in some of the major American operations during the Battle of Normandy.
D-Day
The game begins with Able Company's assault at Omaha Beach during D-Day of Operation Overlord - Able must first breach the seawall, then take out German bunkers overlooking the beach, and finally disable the Flak 88 anti air guns. The game also introduces two of the game’s major characters: Captain Mackay and Sergeant Conti.
Battle of Carentan
The next three missions are about Fox Company and their actions during the capture and defense of Carentan. Fox Company must first regroup after the chaotic airdrops at Vierville, which occurred several hours before H-Hour on D-Day, and also disrupt enemy operations in rear areas to open new drop zones and prevent the Germans from reinforcing the beaches. This mission includes destroying or capturing AA Guns and conducting an ambush to a German convoy.
Fox Company is then tasked to capture the city of Carentan to secure a link between Utah and Omaha beach and to defend it against ferocious German counterattack. Though constantly bombarded by artillery, Fox Company is eventually relieved when Able Company arrives at the city and the link between Utah and Omaha beach is finally secure.
Battle of Cherbourg
Able and Dog Company form the spearhead of the Allied advance to secure Cherbourg and its deep water port. En route to Cherbourg, Allied supply route is threatened by elements of the Panzer Lehr division commanded by Hauptmann Schultz, and Dog Company is ambushed in the process. Able Company manages to drive the Germans back and defend the supply route for the "Red Ball Express" to pass through, but by doing so Able Company also becomes the nemesis of the Panzer Lehr division and Captain Schultz for the rest of the campaign.
With the flank secure, the Allies continue to advance onto Cherbourg. Able and Dog Company, supported by the 4th Cavalry and the USS Texas, are tasked with capture of the port facilities. Although Able Company successfully subdues the German defenders and captures thousands of prisoners, the port has been badly damaged and is unusable to the Allies.
However, after the battle, Able Company found documents from an Axis bunker which shows a V-2 Rocket launch site near Sottevast. Fox Company has been called in to conduct an airborne assault on the V2 facility, while elements of Able Company rush to the site with armor support.
Operation Cobra
American forces begin to approach the city of St. Lo and Able Company is arriving from the north. German defenders at St. Fromond hope to stop Able Company’s advance by blowing up the only bridge leading into the town. Able Company repaired the bridge under fire from across the river, and drove the Germans out of the town. German defenders regroup and organized several counterattacks with rocket battery support, but all assaults against Able Company are thrown back with heavy casualties.
Charlie Company is destroyed by the defending Panzer Lehr division under the command of Captain Shultz, while attempting to secure Hill 192 at the outskirt of St. Lo. Able Company is assigned to take the hill. Hedgerows around the hill and hidden flak 88 batteries provided formidable defensive position against the Allies, but Able Company managed to break through by employing bulldozer equipped Sherman tanks to plow through the hedgerows and flank the Germans.
German defenders at St. Lo decide to hold out against American forces by heavily fortifying the city center, but Able Company planned to surround and trap the German defenders at the city center rather than a head-on assault. Although the operation is successful, some German units, including the Panzer Lehr division, manage to escape destruction. Able Company call in the 8th Air Force in response and the escaping Germans units suffered heavily due to carpet bombing.
Badly reduced and under constant air attack, the shattered Panzer Lehr division is being chased by American forces, and Able Company managed to intercept what is left of the division at Hébécrevon. A raid is conducted with fast moving M10 tank destroyers against the Panzer Lehr division's positions, and almost all of Panzer Lehr division's armor strength, including the last 7 surviving Panther tanks, are completely wiped out. However, during the course of the mission, Captain MacKay is killed when he gets caught in the blast of a tank shell fired by a Tiger under the personal command of Captain Schultz.
Operation Lüttich
After losing their commander, newly promoted Lieutenant Conti is taking command of Able Company. Able Company is taking a break from the war, and has been reassigned to Mortain to relieve Dog Company at Hill 317. Unfortunately, on that night, Mortain becomes the focal point of a German counterattack against recent American successes. Surprised and outnumbered, Able Company is forced to hold the hill until reinforcements can arrive in the morning.
Dog Company arrives the following morning with armor support and Able Company begin to dig in and consolidate their positions. German forces renew the counterattack in force after their surprise night attack has failed to take the hill, but all attempts are beaten back. Able Company successfully force the Germans to retreat after inflicting heavy losses, including the destruction of a Flak 88 battery.
Falaise Pocket
The last section of the single player campaign deals with the destruction of German forces in France. After suffering a string of defeats, the German army is forced to retreat in order to avoid encirclement. Allied forces are racing to trap the German army before it can escape. Baker Company is assigned to shut down one of the escape routes at Autry, but Captain Schultz's Panzergruppe, which escaped the destruction of the Panzer Lehr division, annihilates them. Able Company rushes to the scene with M26 Pershing support and destroys Captain Schultz's Panzer Gruppe in return. Captain Schultz's Tiger is among those tanks destroyed in the battle, and Captain MacKay's death has been avenged.
Chambois becomes the German Seventh Army's last hope for escaping the Falaise Pocket. With heavy air cover, Canadian, Polish and American forces, led by Able Company, secure all bridges around Chambois and close the Falaise Pocket. The German Seventh Army attempts to break free, but they are met with heavy aerial bombardment and are forced to surrender.
The campaign ends with the caption that Able Company had suffered 80% casualties at the end of World War II.
Distinguished characters
* Captain John MacKay
The commander of Able Company. He appears to be an Army Ranger by his character model, although he commands a regular infantry company. He is killed by Hauptmann Schultz as revenge, when Able Company successfully obliterated his unit after the battle of St. Lo. He seems to be based on the Tom Hanks character in the film Saving Private Ryan, Captain Miller.
* Sergeant (later Lieutenant) Joe Conti
Served as the First Sergeant of Able Company under Captain MacKay, and is a close friend to MacKay ever since boot camp. He is revealed to be the game's narrator. He is almost killed alongside Captain MacKay, and soon afterwards promoted to Lieutenant. Lieutenant Conti commands Able Company for the rest of the game.
* Joseph Gunter "Ace" Shultz
A German tank captain commanding the Tiger Ace from the Panzer Lehr division. He serves as the personal antagonist of Able company. He commands the Panzer-Gruppen (tank groups) that attack the Red Ball Express, where his unit first met Able Company and are badly beaten. Suffering from heavy losses, he watches Captain MacKay from afar while his unit is busy retreating. He later crosses path with Able Company while commanding the forces defending St. Lo, but managed to escape encirclement by Able Company. He kills Captain MacKay when his unit is destroyed while retreating from Hèbècrevon, and Able Company later conducts their revenge on Shultz while his 152nd Tigergruppe (a group of German Tiger tanks) is being destroyed at Autry.
Development
Graphics
An M10 Wolverine and American troops in the Essence Engine.
An M10 Wolverine and American troops in the Essence Engine.
Company of Heroes is Relic's first title to make use of a new type of engine, known as the "Essence Engine". This engine was designed and coded from scratch by Relic in order to make use of special graphical effects, including high dynamic range lighting, dynamic lighting & shadows, advanced shader effects and normal mapping.
COH is rendered in 3D with intricate detailing on the infantry, vehicles and structures while still retaining a solid frame-rate, without, Relic claims, the need for a high-end gaming system. It claims that there are nearly 2,000 different animations for a basic infantry unit alone.
Company of Heroes also utilizes the Havok 3 physics engine, giving it a more realistic physics system than previous RTS games. Parts of buildings can be destroyed by grenades, satchels or mortars, and tanks can drive through sections of walls or other barriers. Smoke created from explosions is programmed to behave as realistically as possible and can even be influenced by wind. Debris is also influenced by explosions; a blast can send barrels flying and shower troops in dirt, whilst leaving behind a large crater. When infantry are bombarded by artillery, body parts sometimes detach and are dispersed over, and some units even getting thrown about in the immediate area. Bridges and buildings can be destroyed by engineers using demolitions.
On May 29, 2007 Relic released a patch for Company of Heroes that included a new DirectX 10 rendering mode with enhanced terrain, additional world objects, and improved shadows and lighting. This patch made Company of Heroes the first commercial video game to support Direct3D 10.
The game received highly positive reviews from critics. On the review aggregator Game Rankings, the game had an average score of 94% based on 61 reviews[10] — making it the third highest rated game of 2006 and highest rated PC game of 2006. On Metacritic, the game had an average score of 93 out of 100, based on 55 reviews — considered "universal acclaim" by the site.[11] Currently, it is one of the highest-rated real-time strategy games.
Awards
* PC Gamer: Game of the Year 2006
* Computer Games Magazine: Game of the Year 2006
* GameSpy: PC Game of 2006, Best Sound, Best PC Strategy Game, Best PC Multiplayer
* GameSpot: Best PC Game 2006[12], Best Strategy Game[13]
* IGN: PC Game of 2006[14], Best PC Strategy Game[15], Best Use of Sound on PC[16], Best Online PC game[17]
* E3 2005:
o Game Critics Awards: Best Strategy Game[18]
o GameSpot: 2005 Best PC Game of Show; Best Strategy Game of Show; Best Overall Game of Show[19]
o IGN: Runner-up, Best Strategy Game (PC), Runner-up, Technological Excellence (PC)
o GameSpy: Best of E3
Technical
With the release of Opposing Fronts, CoH owners were given a comprehensive 1.7 GB patch to version 2.101, required if they wish to continue playing through Relic Online. The patch unifies CoH with its stand alone expansion pack regarding the game engine and art assets allowing the two to play with each other online. A patched installation of the original CoH does not include the unit speech for the two new factions, while Opposing Fronts includes all content from both games. As Opposing Fronts contains both games the original will be uninstalled, if detected, during the installation to merge the two products
Content in both games is unlocked through online verification and CD keys. This created a small controversy as although the Company of Heroes box clearly says one set of discs is required per computer for multiplayer games this was not enforced until the release Opposing Fronts and the large patch for CoH which retrofitted this activation scheme into the original game.
Users of both games are required to log into Relic Online if they have an active internet connection, even if they do not wish to play online matches. Without an active internet connection CoH will fall back to traditional physical media verification. Also, forum posts from Relic employees have confirmed that both games now send various statistics back to Relic, without the possibility to opt-out[citation needed].
Patch 2.102, released on October 12, 2007, revealed that the preceding 2.101 patch introduced a requirement of having the game patched up-to-date if the user has an active internet connection. If the user disables their internet connection the game will not be able to automatically download a patch and will run as it did previously.
Patch 2.202, released on March 05, 2008 attempts to update from the incumbent 2.201 version. When the game auto retrieves the patch from the servers and attempts to update, the following message is displayed: "This patch updates CoH version 2.201 but you appear to have version 2.101 installed already. To download the latest patches, run CoH and login to Relic Online. (Error code 10244)" This was fixed with later patches.
Patch 2.300, released on March 17, 2008 addressed numerous balance complaints and fixed outstanding bugs such as allowing the Assault Grenades ability to target units in British trenches. The application of the patch also adds features to Relic Online, most notably the Team Automatch capability, which allows players to invite friends to team up for a ranked game.
That is from Wikipedia about the original.
Now if we look at Gamespot here is there review:
Quote:
The Good
* Amazing, cutting-edge graphics and remarkable audio bring the battlefield to life
* Complex, inventive gameplay gives you a ton of interesting things to do
* Fully interactive, destructible maps add depth and variety
* Slick online player-matching system makes it easy to get into a multiplayer match.
The Bad
* Long loading times
* Only two different factions.
Company of Heroes is a visually stunning real-time strategy game that depicts all the violent chaos of World War II with uncommon intensity. Set during the invasion of Normandy toward the end of the war, Company of Heroes takes its cues from Saving Private Ryan, by portraying both the sheer brutality of the war as well as the humanity of its combatants. Many other recent WWII games have also drawn influence from Steven Spielberg's landmark film, but Company of Heroes is even more graphic. This and the game's highly authentic-looking presentation are its distinguishing features, and it boasts some frantic, well-designed strategic and tactical combat to match. Company of Heroes trades a wide breadth of content for an extremely detailed look at WWII-era ground combat, and its action is so fast paced that it's best suited for the reflexes of an experienced RTS player. So if you're unfazed by any of that, you'll find that this latest real-time strategy game from the developers of Homeworld and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War is one of the best, most dramatic and exciting examples in years.
Provided you have a powerful-enough system and graphics card to fully appreciate the visuals in Company of Heroes, you'll quickly be struck by the level of detail depicted in the game. Infantry move in teams, darting from cover to cover. They may be ordered to occupy any building on the map, and you'll see them shutter the doors and take aim out the windows. Vehicles are shown to scale, so tanks and other armored vehicles look big and imposing, and, indeed, they are. Infantry seem almost helpless against tanks, and you'll hear the men screaming as tank shells explode around them, sending bodies flying, while lucky survivors dive out of the way. Yet by attacking a tank's vulnerable sides and rear armor with explosives, it's possible to turn the tables on these lumbering threats...turning one of the most basic confrontations in Company of Heroes into a thrilling cat-and-mouse game, much more than a typical clash between a couple of RTS units. What's more, the battlefields themselves have at least as much character to them as the various infantry squads and vehicles as your disposal. The quaint French towns that are the set pieces of many of the game's skirmishes truly look as if a war was waged there once the battle is done, since buildings will catch fire and collapse, telephone lines will topple, blackened craters will appear in the wake of artillery blasts, and more. These changes aren't just cosmetic, either. Those blast craters provide cover for your infantry, while the ruined husks of blown-up tanks might interfere with a machine gunner's line of fire.
The game focuses on the Allies' invasion of German-occupied Normandy in 1944, specifically on close-quarters skirmishes between infantry and armor. Company of Heroes presents a number of novel twists to real-time strategy conventions, but at heart this game works like other RTS games do, by putting you in charge of base construction, resource gathering, and tactical command of various military forces in an effort to defeat the opposition. The game includes a good-sized single-player campaign spanning more than a dozen missions, in which Able Company lands on Omaha Beach on D-Day, liberates a number of key towns and strategic points, disrupts German supply lines and secret weapons, and finally helps crush the remnants of the Nazi war machine in France. It's an exciting campaign, tied together with cutscenes and mission briefings coming from a variety of voices, which creates a few threads that help tie the missions together. In addition to the campaign, you can play skirmish matches with up to seven computer-controlled players on a series of different maps, and you can also jump online into the proprietary Relic Online service to challenge other players in ranked and unranked matches. The Relic Online service is a cut above most similar offerings, and lets you easily find a ranked match against players of similar skill or host a match with your own custom settings.
Because of its limited scope of the Second World War, Company of Heroes has only the two playable factions, which it calls the Allies and the Axis--but really they're the Americans and the Germans. In the campaign, you always play as forces from Able Company and you're always fighting the Germans. There isn't a separate campaign from the German perspective, though the Axis faction is fully playable in skirmish matches and online, and turns out to be fairly different from the Allies despite the basic similarities between the two sides' weaponry. In fact, in a strange departure from similar games, Company of Heroes always forces you to play Allies versus Axis, even in multiplayer matches. Matches with more than two players are always team-based, with one side as the Allies and the other as the Axis, and so forth. While the game's units and battlefields are unusually detailed, it's hard not to wish for additional playable factions and a greater variety of settings, especially given how well Company of Heroes handles the American and German sides.
The gameplay in Company of Heroes is all about frontline combat, and forces you to quickly explore the map. You typically start out with a headquarters and a squad of engineers, who can build structures and setup defenses. Maps are divided up into territories that all have a resource point in them, and the resources you'll need are manpower, munitions, and fuel. Infantry may capture neutral or enemy resource points, causing them to indefinitely contribute a flow of the given resource to your military efforts while also increasing the total number of units you can have in your army. However, all your territories must be connected for the resource flow to continue unabated; if an enemy takes a key territory, this may cut off your supply lines. All resources are used for building more-advanced structures and vehicles, but you only need manpower for basic infantry, who may use special abilities like hand grenades or armor-piercing machine gun rounds for a one-time cost of munitions. Munitions may also be spent to upgrade individual squads with special weapons, like recoilless rifles useful against enemy armor, or Browning automatic rifles that can suppress opposing squads. Your infantry squads are highly resourceful, acting as single units that can be effective down to the last man. They'll last much longer when attacking from behind cover, such as a row of sandbags or the bell tower of an abandoned church.
If you've played Relic's last real-time strategy game, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, you'll note that many of these conventions were derived and extended from that game. However, Company of Heroes still plays quite differently from Dawn of War because of the nature of its densely packed battlefields and its even greater focus on unit tactics. You have some very interesting options to consider, such as how, when faced with an antitank gun manned by a squad of three, you may attempt to destroy the thing altogether with heavy weapons, or flank the gun and kill its squad, taking the artillery piece for your own. Heavy machine guns and other special weapons work much the same way. One of the great things about Company of Heroes is that, in spite of its somewhat glamorized portrayal of World War II, the game looks and behaves realistically, in how the sorts of tactical maneuvers that are central to the gameplay feel intuitive in practice. For example, you'll naturally want to avoid making your infantry rush a machine gun nest head-on, especially since the withering fire from a German MG42 will force your squad to drop prone, pinned down.
Relic's games have always featured clear step-by-step tutorials introducing you to many aspects of play, and Company of Heroes is no exception. However, you'll still have a lot to learn and much, much more to practice long after you've completed the tutorial and even the campaign. After all, the game gives you a great deal to think about and to manage during any given battle. You have to capture and hold resource points all across the map; build up your base, which doesn't take long since there are only a handful of structures; consider laying defenses like barbed wire, mines, machine gun nests, and roadblocks; micromanage any meaningful exchanges of fire since tactics are so important; and more. Company of Heroes features a cleanly presented interface that puts access to all your squads and production lines at your fingertips, but you'll still constantly feel like you need to be doing something more. Your squads can fend for themselves reasonably well in many cases, though the amount of micromanagement necessary to effectively manage your resources, resource and base defense, production, and combat will surely stretch your abilities thin. As a result, and thanks in part to the quality of the game's presentation, playing Company of Heroes can be a nerve-wracking experience.
In fact, even very experienced RTS players will probably find that the campaign quickly gets rather challenging at the default difficulty setting. Both in the campaign and in skirmishes against the artificial intelligence, the opposition will relentlessly attack and attempt to recapture your resource points, will harass your main base, and will deploy mixed forces to attack your main armies, strategically retreating when necessary. The easy difficulty setting is a must for when you're still learning the ropes, though by teaming up with hard- or expert-level CPU opponents or watching replays of matches, you can start to figure out how the computer is playing so well. You may also issue orders while the game is paused during campaign and skirmish missions, if the game's single, rather fast speed setting feels too hectic.
Company of Heroes has some other interesting nuances, such as the company commander system, which lets you choose one of three different upgrade paths that reinforce your faction's core strengths. For example, the Allies' airborne path lets you send in paratroopers and call for support from P47 thunderbolt fighters high in the sky, while the Axis' blitzkrieg doctrine lets you deploy the Nazi army's fearsome storm troopers and devastating Tiger tanks. Such reinforcements come in quickly, foregoing traditional real-time strategy build times and letting you turn the tables on your opponent in a pinch, as long as you have enough resources. You rack up experience points as you fight, letting you invest in new technologies from whichever commander path you select. While the game prompts you to confirm your selection of a path, it's not like there's any time to reconsider their relative strengths in a fight. Thankfully, the campaign introduces you to the different paths on the Allied side, at least. Overall, the company commander system helps make up for the fact that there are only two factions to play with, since each commander path seems quite useful, and their weapons and upgrades will certainly come into play when you're deciding how to spend your resources. In total, the six paths also underscore different, viable strategies for both the Allies and the Axis, including different combinations of these paths for team battles.
On top of all this, the typical match in Company of Heroes isn't all about simply blowing up the enemy's base, though "annihilation" victory conditions are an option for skirmish and multiplayer matches. However, the default option puts you in a tug-of-war battle to capture and hold a set of victory points. The more points you control, the faster you achieve victory. But victory points tend to be centrally located, and unlike other resource nodes, they can't be fortified with observation posts to defend them against capture. So combat will naturally be concentrated around these locations, though that's not to say the opponent's base won't make a key target of opportunity, either. Essentially, what Company of Heroes' resource model and victory points system does is force you to think about the entire map, not just your base and the enemy's base. This makes battles more interesting but more complicated, and even though a typical skirmish may last close to an hour, the time just seems to fly by since there's so much to do. The victory point system also addresses a common RTS design flaw by offsetting the unlimited supply of resources on each map and therefore virtually eliminating the possibility of a stalemate.
The truly amazing visuals in Company of Heroes demand a top-of-the-line system and a cutting-edge graphics card to get the most out of them. Even on a machine meeting the game's steep recommended system requirements, the action can still bog down in a few spots when explosions and bodies are landing everwhere, and loading times between matches can be about a minute long. Also, a bug in the shipping version of the game caused systems with an SLI video card configuration to experience inordinately poor frame rates, which we resolved simply by unplugging one of our cards. On more-modest systems, you can strip away a lot of the detail to improve the game's performance, but seeing the game in all its glory is truly a sight to behold--especially its various types of explosions that fill the screen with fire, smoke, and debris. The default camera perspective is optimal for gameplay, but you can zoom right in to clearly see each individual soldier and his gear, or how a tank, turning a tight corner through a city street, might take a chunk right out of the side of a building. This level of visual fidelity far exceeds what's previously been done in a strategy game, and is much closer to what you might find in a flashy new first-person shooter. But it's not just for show, since the graphics' realism helps make the gameplay itself more engrossing and intuitive. The game also includes some surprisingly gory displays on occasion; an artillery shell, for instance, can tear men into pieces. However, there isn't nearly as much blood and gore as in something like Saving Private Ryan, so the game's M for Mature rating seems more fitting due to infantry's liberal use of profanity during combat. Unfortunately for those preferring and accustomed to a tamer version of World War II, you can't simply toggle off the strong language.
The audio in Company of Heroes is fantastic, and just about the only less-than-perfect thing about it is how units will cut themselves off repeatedly while trying to acknowledge your orders as you rapidly click around, micromanaging their movement in battle. However, the game makes excellent and subtle use of speech for the most part, such as how your units will acknowledge you in a hushed whisper during nighttime operations, how you can hear the panic in the voices of your tank commanders when their vehicles are badly damaged, or how speech coming from offscreen units sounds like it's coming in over a radio. The sound effects for gunfire, cannons, and other weapons on the battlefield are loud and clear, and the hornet's buzzing of machine gun fire or the thunderous crack of a tank's main gun never cease to be particularly intense. Company of Heroes also features an excellent symphonic score that's filled with foreboding strings and brass, just like you'd expect from a WWII game--or a WWII movie. The way it seamlessly blends with how the action unfolds makes the latter comparison more fitting.
Company of Heroes is technically remarkable and features some novel twists that make it unique among real-time strategy games. Yet while it's easy to get into, it's not just difficult to master but also rather difficult to manage, partly because the game does such a good job of evoking the sheer chaos of frontline WWII battles. The relatively small number of units spread across the two playable factions also means that this game doesn't have the sheer variety you might expect from an RTS, though the units themselves seem much more realistic and interesting than in most such games. In spite of these issues, remarkably, Company of Heroes still stands out from the glut of WWII-themed games released over the years, as well as the glut of real-time strategy games.
Editor's note 09/13/06: GameSpot learned after this review was originally posted that the sluggish performance we experienced while testing Company of Heroes on our primary high-end system was due to a specific bug in the shipping version of the game, relating to SLI graphics cards configurations. When we resolved this rare issue, we experienced substantially improved performance. As a result, we have updated portions of this review to more accurately reflect the game's overall performance and quality.
And theres many other reviews one can find on the web
I'll put the stuff from Wikipedia about the Expansion. I'm using wikipedia as basic information one can get more if they like:
Quote:
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts (abbr. CoH:OF or simply Opposing Fronts) is the stand alone expansion pack to Company of Heroes, a RTS game for the PC announced on 5 April 2007. Opposing Fronts was developed by Canadian-based RTS developer Relic Entertainment and published by THQ. The game was released on the 24 September 2007 in the US and on the 28 September in Europe.
Gameplay Features
Dynamic Environmental Effects System
The expansion implements a Dynamic Weather Effects system, which consists primarily of real time weather effects and day-to-night time transitions. In addition to these enhancements, certain birds sing at various times of the day and during specific weather patterns. Although Relic had initially indicated otherwise, the Dynamic Weather Effects system has no tactical impact on the battlefield.[1]
New Single-Player Campaigns
Opposing Fronts introduces two new single player campaigns. They are campaigns from the British perspective and the German perspective respectively. The British campaign is based on the Liberation of Caen. It features nine missions focusing on the attack by British and Canadian forces from Sword, Gold, and Juno Beaches to the city of Caen. The German Panzer Elite's campaign is based on the driving back of Allied forces during Operation Market Garden. It features eight playable missions following a Panzer Elite Kampfgruppe in occupied Netherlands that is bracing itself against the largest airborne invasion in history.
CoH with CoH:OF compatibility
Company of Heroes players are able to play against Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts users. As such, those who own both games can pit either the Americans or the British against the Wehrmacht or the Panzer Elite, choosing to play as any of these. Those who purchase Opposing Fronts without owning the original Company of Heroes, can only command the British and Panzer Elite armies. This follows a similar trait in Dawn of War.
Factions
* British 2nd Army
The British are the new Allied army in the game, and they are more defensive than the Americans. Their main emphasis is on defense, so a greater number of static defences can be built, such as trenches and anti-tank emplacements. These emplacements have an associated population and manpower cost to prevent the map being overrun with defences. Their standard unit, the Infantry Section, have stances that alters their speed and reactions. Most British infantry move slower in neutral or hostile territory unless led by a Lieutenant or Captain. The British mainly rely on officers, such as the Captain, Lieutenant and the Cromwell Command Tank, to improve effectiveness. British bases can also be redeployed, but at the cost of freezing resource income. Veterancy for the British is also unique, where only the officers can become veterans. As they gain rank, they gain new abilities and benefits for their surrounding soldiers. Infantry units can become more mobile if mounted in the Bren Gun Carrier, whilst engineers get support from the fast moving Stuart tank early in the game.
The command trees for the British army in the game are based on famous branches of both British and Commonwealth armed forces. The three trees are:
* Royal Canadian Artillery: this heavy-artillery based regiment allows the player to use creeping barrage, counter-battery fire, overwatch, and allows the player to deploy Mobile Artillery Platforms[3] and supercharge artillery shots.
* Royal Commandos: players who choose this regiment can deploy commandos[4], who are adept at harassing enemy infantry, and the light Tetrarch tank via a Hamilcar Glider. As long as the glider remains on the field, it is capable of producing specific units (depending on which glider was called in), as well as in certain cases reinforcing nearby units (Although all gliders apart from the HQ glider must be in connected territory to produce more units). Other abilities include having the ability to trace enemy troop movements, intercept Axis messages, and plant decoy flares. This regiment is inspired from the Parachute Regiment,SAS and the 6th Airborne Division, which saw action during the Normandy campaign.
* Royal Engineers: this regiment gives players access to three variations of the Churchill Tank (MkIV, AVRE and Crocodile), improves entrenchments and the mobile H.Q, and allows tanks to entrench themselves.
* German Panzer Elite
The Panzer Elite draws its inspiration from the mish-mash of German units that opposed Operation Market Garden, including the 2nd SS Panzer Corps and Luftwaffe paratroopers. The single player campaign for this faction focuses on this battle. The German Panzer Elite division named Kampfgruppe Lehr is based on Panzer Lehr Division and other Kampfgruppe Divisions that participated during Operation Market Garden. Kampfgruppe (German military term) refers to an ad-hoc combined arms formation, usually employing a combination of tanks, infantry, anti-tank weapons and artillery components. Such a formation is generally organised for a particular task or operation explaining why Kampfgruppe Lehr is thus named in the game and the resulting army's focus on vehicles units supplemented by infantry and artillery.
The Panzer Elite mainly focuses on speed and vehicles. They cannot build static defenses apart from a few doctrine-specific heavy weapons; instead they rely on the use of halftracks and similar light vehicles to hold territory and increase resource income. Unlike other players' halftracks, Panzergrenadiers (the standard Panzer Elite infantry) can fire heavy weapons, such as Panzerschrecks, StG44 automatic rifles, and mortars, from inside the vehicle. However, since the Panzer Elite halftrack doesn't have a closed top, the infantry inside are vulnerable to enemy fire. Panzergrenadiers are also unique for being able to upgrade to use Gewehr 43 semi-automatic rifles, StG 44 assault rifles, or Panzerschreck anti-tank weapons. Since there are no form of engineers in the Panzer Elite, infantry squads are capable of repairing vehicles, albeit at a slower rate than other armies engineers.
Another unique feature to the Panzer Elite is the fact that they can recover destroyed axis vehicles and tanks using the Bergetiger, provided the wreck of the vehicle had not been completely destroyed. A recovered vehicle that belonged to an ally will be returned to under their control, not the recovering player.
The three doctrines for the Panzer Elite are:
* Scorched earth: Allows the player to construct environmental defenses (ie, blocking a road, or sector artillery). Players can also completely disable or booby trap strategic points and use the Hummel Mobile Artillery Platform. Players can also booby trap buildings[5].
* Luftwaffe: Allows the player to deploy Wirbelwind flakpanzers, Henschel Hs 129 and Fallschirmjäger. Luftwaffe Ground Forces can also be used to make Flakvierlings and FlaK 88s, and areas can blanketed with Butterfly Bombs. Luftwaffe Ground Forces also receive advanced repair even if the player has not researched the skill yet. This allows them to repair vehicles far faster than the standard Panzergrenadiers.
* Tank Hunters: Allows the player to deploy the Jagdpanther and Hetzer tank destroyers, as well as improve infantry's ability to detect and combat enemy tanks. Panzergrenadiers also gain access to Tellermines and squads are issued a double number of Panzerschrecks and anti-tank grenades.
British 2nd Army Campaign: Liberation of Caen
D-Day +1
The campaign starts off as 3rd Battalion, aka, Boudica's Boys, as they advance along a road towards the town of Authie. However, they are ambushed by the German II SS Panzer Korps. The Battalion commanders, Major Blackmore and Captain Cutting, order the Battalion to pull back. After taking out the attacking force, the Battalion bombards the town, taking it after dealing with the remaining German forces.
Operation Epsom
British forces are remobilizing to take Caen, after the failed D-Day attack. 3rd Battalion and the Royal Scottish Engineers Regiment are tasked with taking the bridges over the Odon and taking Hill 112. Under the cover of a creeping barrage, they take the hill, and the Royal Scots stay behind to fortify.
Operation Windsor
The airfield at Carpiquet was the next objective of 3rd Battalion. Under the veil of night, a Royal Commandos regiment lands outside the airfield while Royal Canadian Rifles assault with light tanks and infantry, as it is bombarded by the Royal Scots Engineers. The commandos destroy German H.Q s in the area, and move to secure the German defenses surrounding the airfield. However, it is discovered that the airfield is still operational. The next morning, the Germans launch an attack on the Canadians, but fail. The Canadians push to the airfield, and secure it after clearing the hangers. As Cutting radios the Royal Scots, he and Major Blackmore find that Hill 112 is under attack.
Operation Jupiter
German forces attempt to take Hill 112 from the Royal Scots. At night, they attack with heavy Panzers and Stormtroopers, trying to overwhelm the Regiment. With armour support from 3rd Battalion, the Scots retain control of the hill.
Operation Charnwood
3rd Battalion, along with C-Coy company, enter the city after it had been carpet bombed the night before. Instead of destroying the German forces, it has only caused them to dig in deeper. Boudica's Boys push inwards and secure part of Caen, believing that the Germans will have retreated.
However, a recon force shows that the Germans are still in the city, and have placed mines, snipers and machine guns everywhere. The Battalion, along with the Royal Scots, move in and take the Caen cathedral, as well as three other points.
That night, the Battalion digs in, and defends against a German counter-attack by heavy Panzers and elite infantry.
It should be noted that like the previous mission if a certain squad dies a soldier will yell that Corporal Degnan is dead, Degnan being an unseen character that various lieutenants seem to mention (esp. in Mission 2)
Operation Goodwood
With Caen in Allied hands, 3rd Battalion mobilise south of Caen. They arrive at Bourgebus with B-Coy Company, and after destroying Flak 88s looking over their line of advance, they destroy the remnants of the I SS Panzer Korps. 3rd Battalion, having done the British Army a great favour, are allowed to rest as 2nd Battalion continues the advance.
The campaign ends with the caption that after the war, Major Blackmore retired, and died in 1983.
The opening cinematic for this level parallels a scene from the film Saving Private Ryan, where you can see an infantry squad walking through the countryside with a thunderstorm occurring in the background.
Panzer Elite Campaign: Operation Market Garden
Wolfheze
Kampfgruppe Lehr, are training in Wolfheze, only to be interrupted as Allied paratroopers descend from the skies. The Kampfgruppe use whatever men and forces they have to repel the invasion. After the attack, the Kampfgruppe commanders Major General Voss, and German brothers Aldrich and Wolfgang Berger, find plans for the entire operation in a British glider.
Oosterbeek
As part of the 'Market' phase, the British 1st Airborne Division attempts to capture bridges across the Rhine in Oosterbeek and Arnhem. Kampfgruppe Lehr is tasked with intercepting the British Paratroopers before they reach Arnhem, by destroying the bridge at Oosterbeek and defending against an Allied attack.
Hell's Highway
Critical to Operation Market Garden, the British 30th Corps advance along Highway 69, known as 'Hell's Highway', to relieve the paratroopers. Kampfgruppe Lehr is mobilized near Valkenswaard, and their objective is to occupy the town and delay 30th Corps.
Cleaning up
After successfully thwarting the British 30th Corps at Valkenswaard and at Best, Kampfgruppe Lehr needs to remove all enemy forces inside the Netherlands. First, they move to secure Arnhem and recapture the bridge, the last bridge that the Allies need in order to start pouring into Germany. After that is successfully completed, the Kampfgruppe recaptures Valkenswaard from the British 30th Corps, and finally remove the last paratroopers from Oosterbeek in the final mission of the campaign. Of the two brothers, Aldrich dies in the battle, determined by how the mission is played. Aldrich is placed with a random infantry squad and if that squad dies, a soldier will tell the player that Aldrich has been killed, or revealed dead in the ending cutscene with his older brother acquiring his belief that the war is over and doubts what's he's really fighting for. The epilogue reveals that Wolfgang survived the war and lived on in the repaired Berger family estate until his death in 1989 and is buried in the family graveyard. Extra Content revealed in the Guide book stated that that he had a couple of sons, one named Aldrich in the name of his fallen brother
Interplayability
Opposing Fronts is not a classic expansion in that it does not actually require the original game. As a stand-alone game, it allows partial access to the original game's assets in multiplayer mode. This allows players of the original game to play with those who have Opposing Fronts, even if only one of the players own the expansion. In the same way, players who own both games can play as and against any faction. However, Opposing Fronts players also have the option to play with only those who own the expansion. This stand-alone setup is similar to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, another Relic title, and its subsequent expansions.
Opposing Fronts requires an online account and internet connection in order to play multiplayer games. In an effort by Relic to counter piracy, the game will request account authentication should it recognize that you have a capable internet connection, and also require that the user downloads all subsequent patches until the current version. Should there not be an internet connection when the game is started, it will then perform a standard DVD check. The system has drawn heavy criticism from many of its earlier fans, much because the original Company of Heroes didn't perform a disc and/or patch check at all unless you enter the multiplayer section.
Screenshots
Thats alot of stuff so enjoy reading!!
ITs a Wonderful game, its really really fun and I love destroying Nazis and making them burn
If a certain amount of WOT gets this then we can start a mini-cohort on this game.
Cheers and all the best, may you kill as many Nazis as possible
Emperor Vladimir
MehmetTheGoatherd
Great post Vlad!
Im finding this a great game! (looks great on my new pc), I'm really getting the hang of America's infantry commander
We can play more some time after Thursday, back at Mums, and I was even thinking of bringing it here for the no-cd multiplayer.
