Ohh Niffy (Think of Suggly Freelance!) flashy start, Easy to start a game I wanted to play and the level of difficulty. Music's not repeative and annoying. Big plus there.
5 Mins:
Oddly I couldn't even click on the units to get it to move around. I thought I may have loaded a game that is not ready. All the units was unclickable except for everything else but I loaded the game twice with no luck. I closed and quit the game. I loaded it up again, this time it worked, and the difference was the screening of Turn left which did not show up in the first two game I tried to load. (It was all the same tutor campaign).
15 Mins:
Ok, unless I read the manual I wouldn't know that I need to right click to move the mouse. If its going to be a tutor game. You'll need to baby feed them the stuff, hold their hands. A little pop up icon or something explaining the interface and usage of the right and left click and game stuff. (Also give them the hint that if you hover the mouse over various icons you'll get labels) It was easy to figure out that I need to use right click to move and fire.
However for people who has no computer skill might not figure that quickly. Again, for most of us, we're a big fan of PG oldies, but you guys want to bring in new blood, that's where your money is going to come from and word of the mouth probably would spread faster from someone who never touched PG series before. Ensure that the tutors is for someone who never heard let alone ever played Panzer General or anything remotely close to it. If we do not like the tutor we can always quit and play the game for real, but make it more user-friendly/noob friendly.
I'm actually running this in a high graphic mode with big ass monitor, I have to sit up and close to read some of the texts, if you could give us the options to enlarge the texts that would be excellent. Also not all units that has moved showed the red line, sometime there was only one unit showing the red line and the rest didn't. And again I do agree with showing that units has moved should be changed. I did not like being able to see my unit strength due to red line.
60 Mins:
Man, so much fun
(I just saved and stopped at the part where I get to use planes. Look Boss! DE PLANE!) Went over 20 mins before remembering I need to post a feedback for an hour in. I like how the recon unit would stop to let me know there is a new enemy on the screen, however there is a few issue with moving my forces around. For most part I'm able to undo the moves when I make a mistake and I'm glad that I don't lose the chance to attack or move away when I click the incorrect mouse button. However that feature does not always work as I still lose the chance to recall. Usually with my scout/recon unit.I'm guessing that there is a subset program to stop me from abusing the recon or units to see possible combat resolutions I would check and often change my mind and recall the units? I still have trouble seeing or where I can locate if the units has dug in. Unless I'm missing certain icons. (Again I am using 46”monitor and some of the texts is quite too small.)
Is there also a way to ensure the units I am looking at (Mostly when it comes to upgrading or selecting between normal placement or elite replacement) is core units?
I know there's the unit toggle list, I am not certain if that is what I needed. During the unit listing, I could not tell if my troops has transport until I try to move it and the lack of truck icon tells me that it does not has transport.
Now I sort of understand why some units does not have red line crossed through the unit strength some of them may have fired or moved but not both and that is when the red line does not show up. Red line only comes up when you have fired and moved the unit in question.
Maybe if you were to provide some kind of extra icon marker to show that the unit only fired or moved? Red Line is good but not through the unit number.
Performance:
No issues at all, It does run on Windows 7 64Bits with no issue except for the hiccup at the start. I have full loaded system. I will check the game on my older system (Window XP service pack 3) to see how it goes tomorrow. Also 15”monitor to see if the text size is better.
UI:
It is easy for most part but again, you need to provide step by step with texts for tutors. Sort of a interactive presentation if you will. Since you may obtain fresh blood, not someone who know the PG series or their way around the computer interface. (Ensure to provide options to skip steps quick if some of us only need a little training) The interface feels at home due to knowledge of the PG series.
Only complain I would have again is the text fonts needs to be bigger or at least provide the option for people who use large monitors.
Marker for Units that has not moved or fired when the unit has already did some action would be useful. Again red line, maybe if you would move it else where or just change the unit strength box to be a bright icon to show its active and fade the box when it has finished using up the fire and movement action?
PBEM:
Will try it on Thursday coming up. Maybe sooner.
Modding:
I never modded a game in my life but I can always start, probably Thursday again. Its 2 AM in the morning and I got college to attend in few hours. LOL.
AI
A lot of games out there overlook the AI of the computer. I have to say I was surprised when I was just setting up to assault a city that the units actually moved out to attempt to counter attack. (During the Bridge Unit Tutor) That threw me off. Hat off to the programmer! Its nice to see the units not sitting around waiting for me to come after them.
Overall Experience:
Will be per-ordering this game for sure.
A BIG SUGGESTION!
This will be the only deal breaker that I would not purchase the game is if there was to be video with any speech (talking) that is not closed captioned (subtitled in English) I am hard of hearing and many of my gamers friend who know about this game is totally deaf, we all do depend on subtitles/close captioning for many of our media medium. In case you guys plan on using speech, please think of us poor folks. There have been many great games that does not include the options of putting subtitle on. (Oh yeah, if you're going to have a video intro, make sure we can get the option to turn on the subtitle and watch the intro again with the caption, there been many games that is indeed captioned but we are unable to view the intro captioned if it has speech of course.)
Thanks for letting me leave the feedback and the invitation to the beta testing. I sure look forward to do more of testing.
