ATT wargamers, WINSPWW2 is out (and free)

[Icy]

I missed the relase day, on May 15th and just noticed about it. I'm downloading the game now and it looks nice. I'm a huge fan of the Steel Panthers series, played mainly the World at war version as it was more stable in Windows... until now. CAMO has released this new updated version fully ported to Windows so not any compatibillity issues anymore, you can play in better resolutions than 640x480 etc. And as always, the game is free (there is also a paid CD version with some extras).

http://shrapnelgames.com/SPCamo/wSPWW2/2.htm

This is a must have for all the HEX style wargamers who enjoy squad level action. Now i'm going to expend my gamming time on this until OOTP is out in a couple of days.

[hukarez]

If it's free...

it's for me!

[Dutch]

Wow, I didn't realize this was even in the works. But I have been watching 'effin Matrix Games for 6 years since they promised us an upgrade. Thanks for the link!

[Sweed]

I know this game has been talked about in many war-gaming threads but thought I'd bump this one as it has the name in the title.

I bought the enhanced d'load version from Shrapnel a week or two ago and just finished the first tutorial battle and have to say this game is great! We bought our first windows computer in '98 and I picked up "West Front" and later "East Front II" and played the hell out of them.

Moved onto Combat Mission Barabarosa (sp?) finding it more realistic yet somewhat tedious taking a lot of time to set up my soldiers movements and then see just a minute of battle time. Don't get me wrong I loved the game with soldiers being pinned, MG barrels over-heating etc. I'm sure at some time I'll pay the $5 to battlefront so I can run it on my Vista machine.

I guess I stayed away from SP, back in "98, because it didn't have the pretty new 3d of the Tiller titles. By the time I decided to d'load the free game resolution became an issue having to play in a tiny window on a widescreen monitor. I tried to play around with it but just couldn't with the low res. There also appeared to be issues getting it to run in vista.

Then Shrapnel produced the enhanced version with higher resolutions but a $40 price tag seemed steep for a 10+ year old game. In short didn't want to spend the money and never play the game. Then shortly before Memorial Day I got an email saying SPWW2 was on sale for $33 along with a discount code dropping it to ~$30, I thought what the hell time to take the plunge.

The game now has wide screen support and runs fine in vista or win7 with no workarounds other than installing outside of the "programs" directory.

The thing I'm loving about the game is it seems to give the detail of Combat Mission and yet plays quickly like Tiller's WF\EF2. Op-fire settings, artillery, and air strikes are a thing of beauty compared to the Tiller games. The details like being able to select only the tank's MG to fire while saving the main-gun for op-fire is awesome. Want to only fire your infantries MG at that far away target and save the rifles for op-fire? No problem.

I'm sure as I dig in I'll find some things I don't like but man, this game does so many things well. And while I don't have a lot of time to spend on war-games I do like the occasional battle. I can see myself coming back to this one time and time again.

[DaddyTorgo]

Free = good!

[Sweed]

Free = good!

Oh I agree but the enhanced version does give you some nice features. Foremost being the widescreen support, which IMHO alone was worth the $30 if I'm going to spend any time at all playing the game.

The list of enhanced version features.. BOLD part is my addition

♦ Higher resolutions! Play at up to 1600x1200, in either full screen or windowed. (Actually this was expanded to play at whatever your desktop resolution is)

♦ Cut and paste map editor. Create one large map and then cut and paste sections to create smaller scenarios all within the same area.

♦ Encrypted, secure tournament play along with 250 secure PBEM save slots.

♦ Encyclopedic sorting ability!

♦ ScenHack utility: Delete, move, copy, repair, and edit scenarios. Available in read-only mode in the download version.

♦ CampaignHack utility: Convert existing DOS based campaigns to work with winSPWW2, including renumbering the existing campaigns. The CD edition also allows extraction of a campaign’s scenarios into the main scenario menu.

FWIW their list of features for enhanced is not a complete list. A couple not listed that I like..

One button to view all hexes visible to selected unit (free version you have to click every direction one at a time go get their view)

Hot key that puts each units ID# on the unit and color codes it to it's formation\platoon

Not going to be worth the cash to everybody but I'm happy with my purchase.