Game News Strategic Command World War I: Breakthrough gets previewed

Looks interesting.

read through the AAR, looks cool

too bad battlefront's pricing is so crap

I usually wait for the Russian patched repacks for my Matrix and Battlefront needs. Fuck paying around $100 for a hex wargame, no matter the supposed depth when there's equally good and even more fun products released by other devs(even if simpler) for a tiny fraction of the price.

With this being basically a mod of a 12 year old game, charging anymore than $15-20 should be scandalous.

Yeah about $30 too much for the base game and paying another $25 for the expansion is taking the piss. Strategic War in Europe a game released this year and also based on those old games like Clash of Steel or High Command just as Strategic Command retailed for 15 clams(and is often on special) which is what this type of game should be.

Someone is millking this franchise. Which is odd because it wasn't even that great in the first place.
I got it in 2006 and was dissappointed.

Yeah, fuck paying 8 hours of work for a niche game that can be played for years and which required tons of work and research to make !

Exactly. Fuck paying a WEEK'S wages(Romania) for something like this when I've seen freeware games with as much research and depth and at least the same level of AI. I've played the Danube to the Don expansion scenario eagerly awaiting to see how well 'researched' it was and it's so well 'researched' and 'worked' that there's not even a hint of the Romanian backstab on August 23 1944 which caused the Romanian Army to switch sides and caused a greater defeat to the Germans than Stalingrad. Instead the Romanians fight on the side of the Germans to the very end. Great research indeed in a $100+ game.

Oh yea, I am fucking boycotting this shit!
I have fucking seen freeware games with as much research and depth and at least the same level of AI!
I usually wait for the Russian patched repacks for my Matrix and Battlefront needs though!
But instead of, you know, boycotting, I am gonna steal it and parade proudly on the internets!
Free culture activists parasites unite!

Oh, I thought you're in Australia.

Generally, I think that the cost in work of digital goods in developing countries tends to be way too high. I think it would be good to stop buying most of that stuff for the current prices and signal the problem to developers/artists/studios/publishers - spending several times more work for merely being allowed to play an easily reproducibly copy of a game or watch a movie or listen to music is ridiculous from economical point of view. While I'm not very fond of game piracy, I think it's still a lesser evil than people actually buying them for these prices regularly.

In the history niche, western books which cost for example 50$ in USA tend to cost about 50PLN when printed in Poland. Ospreys which cost 15GBP in UK cost 27PLN when printed in Poland (having to print them on high quality paper with a lot of colour illustrations often prevents equal work cost when it comes to books. On the other hand but attempts to make them more accessible are usually made, digital goods usually don't have such high reproduction costs) So, it's perfectly doable when publishers have some common sense.

Which ones?

That's pretty shitty. Still the whole volume of research needed for OOBs and hardware alone is staggering.

Well done quoting me. Applause. Is that how you justify stealing?
If you cant pay for it, its not for you. Stop waiting for "russian patched repacks" for your "Matrix and Battlefront needs", hypocrite scumbag.

What would these be?

And what are some good First World War strategy games?

How do you feel now about this, commie? It's not that it doesn't have the backstab. It's just that they took effort to make it conditional.

Well if the condition is to conquer all of Romania then sorry it's a shit condition. I broke through the line, annihilated a dozen Romanian divisions, captured Iasi and Galati and still the Romanians are fighting on which is bullshit of the highest order. Romania in WW2 had a virtual red line that if Romania proper(not Bucovina) was invaded that was it. Clearly the designer of this scenario did fuck all research as to the nature of the Romanian army and the political situation at the time. The German high command was already sending reports that the Romanians were about to give in at the drop of a hat and tried to mix German units amongst the Romanians to bolster them to little avail.

Anyway Awor I took a look at some other stuff they have on their site and games like Strategic War in Europe or Hired Guns are ridiculously overpriced when compared to what they sell for anywhere else so it's not cost of production or research that makes a game like this so expensive but pure greed. I bet the cost of production of War in The East would be recouped with a handsome profit at a base price half or a third what they are asking for it.

Well for $120 odd I expect a bit of quality control and Matrix in addition to being overpriced, are shit when it comes to releasing patches in a timely manner.

Well for $120 odd I expect a bit of quality control and Matrix in addition to being overpriced, are shit when it comes to releasing patches in a timely manner.

I was talking about Matrix and Battlefront games in general, and there are equivalents like Achtung Panzer that beats the fucking shit out of the Combat Mission series from Battlefront and one can pick them up for a song.

WW1 is pretty thin but this shit will pale when compared to Commander The Great War in a few months. Shame that Matrix has both these developers by the balls so it will be just as expensive.

I see.

Strategic War in Europe costs 15$ on the Matrix Site. It's because it's a Polish Game.

According to Dave O'Connor from Panther games hardcore wargames like these tend to sell in a few thousands of copies (it was in context of someone asking about becoming a wargame developer, not a pricing discussion).
Also, many developers make wargames after work and with crews partially composed of unpaid volunteers.