So, has anyone been sucked into the WWIIOL fiasco?

[NotBillMurray]

If you haven't noticed any glowing reviews yet, I may have the reason.

The game shipped in an unplayable state. The team released a patch on the day and date of release. Then it was discovered they did not have a playable server infrastructure. Not that they were swamped with unexpected demand, they were not able to host 100 players. This may seem a lot by UT standards, but it is 1/100th their advertised minimum player load. Many players are not able to actually launch the game for offline purposes, and only find out after the 3 to 10 minute load time (verified as the expected loading time by the developers). Not that there is anything to do offline, as the only offline activity is driving/walking/flying alone.

I've presonally have 4 minutes of play logged so far (before an unexpected crash to desktop), but the potential is evident for the game. I really hope that there are some significant fixes in store, but if they solve the big issues before too long, they may have an incredible experience in store.

I HIGHLY recommend waiting to purchase this game until after it has reached a level of stability equal to that of the garden variety UT mod, but when it does reach that level I think it will be worth committing to.

[Kibbles-N-Bits]

I think it will be worth the wait.

[Major_Error]

Thnx for the advice, I almost bought it, but now im going to wait for more reviews and patches.

[AtomicAxis]

I have to say that eventually companies should get it right.

I understand how difficult it is to get games running properly but what I dont understand is why companies have to ship inferior products. I keep hearing about it. For example

1. Diablo 2 (not the game itself but battle.net, which was a big selling point was pointless for quiet a while).

2. Black and White - very buggy.

3. Now WW2online - which from what I understand doesnt even work.

I think that setting a release date and not meeting that release date is bad and can have negative effect on the games popularity (but if its it good it wont). But selling a inferior product of one that doesnt even work makes any future games a very hard sell indeed.

I think these executives in these companies are smoking WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY to much crack. :)

[[amel_#umper]

Im sorry but i think that all WW games suck none r of interest to me, i prefer present day war, its much more exciting:D:boom:

[Beagle_One]

Is this game sort of like Operation Flashpoint?

[poaw]

It's like Operation Flashpoint Online in World War 2. :)

The only thing different is that you can fly the planes and (eventually) command Naval vessels.

The only problem is that the vehicles and planes have much higher system requirements than the Infantry. Which means all of those Ace Luftwaffe pilots in their Athlon 1.5 Ghz machines look down upon the poor Tommies trooping it with 500s and strafe them with glee. :D

I've been following WW2OL for some time and I kind of expected this to happen. I remember when they started out saying "We're gonna do this one right". Then they started to chop features from the inital release like the majority of Naval craft and other arenas. Luckily I didn't buy the game and register and waste my free month of play while they worked out the kinks. But overall I'm disappointed that such a great team put out such a low quality release.

[PhD XaV]

They did halt the 30 day timer because it is so buggy.

The graphics are 1995 ish (so I've heard) which allows for more ppl in a game, when they get their infrastructure up correctly. I think the open beta that was cancelled would have solved many of these problems before an official release!

The first patch they released (release day) was 70M, how crazy is that. And all the 56k ppl are screamin like crazy cause the game is supposed to play on a 33.6. Certainly something is being smoked AtomicAxis ;)

I can't find a FAQ anywhere, will this thing work with Windows2000???

[Beagle_One]

looks though I should get my hands on a copy of OFP instead of WWIIOL:)

[NotBillMurray]

Finally got in some meaningful play. Here's a recap of the situation :
They've halted the 30 day timer until the game is more stable.
They've restricted the server limits and temporarily created multiple game worlds (6 as of now) that have a much reduced player limit. All the servers are running at 80 to 90% capacity.

I spawned at the battle of Namur. Several soldiers were rushing out of the barracks, which was damaged, and sounds of combat could be heard. I jumped out and saw the vehicle yard was a traffic jam. I headed out the gate and saw that only infantry were getting out of the yard. Then I saw the first German tank rolling through town. Let me tell you the sight of an enemy tank running through town was plenty cool. There was sproradic cannon fire coming from the vehicle yard in an attempt to hit him, but they were completely innefective because of the buildings around him.

I sprinted across the open field, and saw several ground hits around me from the hull mounted MGs of the Germans, into a burned out chuch. I figured the best thing I could do was occupy the tank before he had a chance to locate and fire on the vehicle yard. I went prone by the doorway of the chuch and opened fire with my rifle at the tank. It must have worked because he stopped soon after and began scanning from left to right to find me. He was obviously having no luck through the limited visiblity of the tanks portholes, so his tank commander opened the hatch and began a visual search. I began firing on the exposed tank commanded when the first Char (one of our tanks) came into view. A few well placed rounds exploded the tank and the first threat was eliminated. As the next several tanks cleared the yard they were able to effectively coordinate fire on individual tanks and the immediate German threat was removed.

I cleared the key buildings from German occupation (they have a radio table that Infantry must take to control the resource) and watched the radio for further news. Tanks were approaching from both the North and South (the Germans hald Ahnee and Champion, so Namur was definitely the target of a two pronged assault). I crossed a bridge and headed for the Northern ridge just in time to see German Submachine gunners and an approaching tank. I ran for some foliage cover and killed the troops without them ever able to fire a shot. The tank rumbled forward as one of our planes strafed the area. The pilot made some kind of an error during one of his strafing passes and crashed into the tank, taking them both out.

Not a bad way to spend a few hours in my opinion. This game has some serious potential to create a completely unique experience.

Key points -
- The graphics are simplistic in many ways, especially the buildings, but detailed in others. The tanks and Planes have a lot of detail, and the troops have some fairly detailed models. But the hedges and buildings seem like cardboard cutouts.
- The physics models for the ground vehicles can be subject to some bizarre behavior if packets are lost. I've seen troop carriers fly straight up into the sky and seen a tank fly like the Dukes of Hazzard over a ridge, although for the most part they behave somewhat realistically.
- You ARE able to use the iron sights for the Infantry, which is now a requirement IMO for any game claiming to be realistic. It should be noted that there are no crosshairs anywhere.
- There is no balance at this time to prevent every single player from spawning as a tank, but hopefully there will be some changes coming soon to prevent a lack of Infantry presence.
- The Interface for the game need a LOT of work. The Keymapper may possibly be the worst ever developed. It also doesn't help that the default key files were read-only, preventing any changes from sticking.
- There is a VERY steep system requirement for this game. It is recommended you have at least 256 MB of memory and at least 600 MB of swapfile allocated. A 500 Mhz or better processor should also be considered a minimum.
- The world is modeled at half scale, so a lot of time can be taken just going from place to place. Vehicles are a necessity for troops to approach a town.

Again, I highly recommend waiting for the bugs to be dealt with before committing, but when they are fixed, this could be a memorable game.

[Kuroshio Apocal]

Yeah, I played a bit at the local community college. Cool, but far too buggy to be enjoyed for very long (12+ hours).