I was somewhat disappointed when I played the Beta and noticed that it is, in my personal private opinion pretty much Panzer General. Now I played PG for a long time and still do sometimes in the form of Panzer General Forever 1.0. I played the Poland campaign and it felt about the same, only a little easier.
That aside I like PG and I like PC as much as anything so on with some remarks.
The start screen and opening I liked. First the little screen (which didn't scare me because I know this from BFA) and then the larger Splash screen, looks nice. I could imagine that some people will doubt for a moment if their video resolution is OK (with the little screen) but then those worries will be gone very fast.
The menu screen works for me but the buttons are pretty small. I use a 26 inch screen @ 1920x1200, don't know if that makes a difference or not.
The play button in the lower left corner is in my opinion misplaced, it's small and looks like it doesn't belong there. The menu itself is very clear and logical.
Then Panzer General, uh, I mean Panzer Corps starts. Hey, I know that, it's PG, or no, it isn't. But it looks and feels the same.
I started the tutorial. The most important things I noticed was that it all looks really nice but I had a lot of trouble seeing brown units in a town or brown planes over some hex types. My screen is calibrated for photo editing but maybe that's not the best for playing this game. The browns are difficult and it took me a long while to see the difference between core units and extra units. The golden/copper glow is minimal and I get distracted by the different colors in the strength box. A little more difference in color would please me so I can easily recognize my Core units.
The next thing I noticed and got distracted by was that it was not as easy as I would like to find the unit info. The info tab (the one that you see when you press the i) gives all information but It takes pretty long to scan and find the info I'm looking for. Maybe if it was horizontal (optional) it would be better and faster to view. Or unit info with a hot-key or mouse-over?
Then the shooting started. this was the moment of truth. Hey? the units don't walk, don't turn and shoot in the wrong direction. This is weird, well it's a little weird if you're not used to it and think it's 2011. It felt strange the first 15 minutes units shooting the wrong way, no animation, no movement but after a half hour or so, I didn't notice it anymore, so the game got to me. Still I think it would be nice to see some more animation or visual feedback.
It would be really cool if the units turned in their target direction..
even if they turn back the wrong side after shooting.I played the tutorial scenario and it didn't give me much feedback on how the game works. The setting German vs German didn't appeal to me.
But the scenarios where easy enough (at normal setting) and they did teach me how to play so, no comment then..
When upgrading in the next scenario it was unclear to me why I couldn't upgrade or buy new units during deploy. Then in the Poland campaign it IS possible to upgrade repair during the deploy of the next scenario (at the start of Fall Gelb). I have to check this again but it was a little unclear. When deploying new units after buying you have to use the left mouse button. I pressed the Right button by mistake at least 20 times, feels unnatural but I will adapt I guess.
I had a couple of situations that I clicked to fast while I wanted to undo a move. After a second click it is not possible anymore but I still would like it as long as nothing is revealed. Sometimes you're just clicking to fast..
After an hour I knew I liked the game but still had trouble with the graphics. They are very nice but some are out of proportion, silly in a not funny way (the boat men) and overall I have trouble getting the overall picture due to the different sizes and hard to see colors. I hope this will get some more attention. Very positive is the strategical map, that gives back an excellent overview, and it's very helpful.
What i noticed in the gameplay in one of the first scenarios was a city defended by 4 antitank, 2 anti air, 2 arty and 1 troops. Is it possible to limit the use of different tank, men, arty units to a certain ratio, so that it can not be 1 troops and 20 anti-tank, it looks and feels silly.
About the gameplay I have some minor remarks. An extra zoom level would be nice, more close-up. Most units and the map look very nice and most fights are in a 4 or 5 hex radius so why not some in a little more and enjoy the art some more.
What I found disturbing is that their seems to be no warning when a unit is out of fuel, out of ammo, etc. I think a commander would be reminded of this by his staff without having to look at a really small gray column somewhere at the right of a screen. "You wanna charge, you know you have no ammo right?". I think an icon under the unit would do. An while we're on the subject it can have an extra box to inform me about movement and firing. Or can it be combined? I will see that the unit cannot fire, I ask myself why and notice it has no ammo. Better then after moving and hearing the not so loud click click click of an empty ammo mag.
Lat thing for now is the upgrade path. I read it already in another post but with some upgrades you lose most or all experience. I changed a 12,5 star Panzer 4 in a Panzer 3 and lost all experience. Is it meant like that? Same goes for some other combinations but this was the one that struck me the most.
Overall I like the game and certainly will buy it. Only I expected something new and had a large been there done that feeling. Even the strategy plays out much the same as PG1 forever that I played November last year. The last thing I scribbled down on my paper while testing was the remark: Will something funny happen? I liked the parts of Battlefield Academy France where you find some abandoned trucks and can use them or you have to try to shoot the high command in 8 turns. Things you run into during the mission, that would be fun and different from PG.
That's it for now. And yes, I played the game until 4 in the morning like the good old days