Pros and Cons - Current Tank Sims (and your recommendations?)

[frinik]

Zossy , just to add my grain of salt.Steel Beast is a simulator software developed by professionals working for NATO and used ny NATO countries.It´s way above the competition because it´s just that a simulator forst and foremost that became a game by default.It features current, state-of-the-art armour the like of which has never existed before.That explains the relatively high purchase price, the degree of sophistication and the somewhat understated graphics.It was not intended as entertainment or gaming; at least not initially.In my opinion compàring SB with the others is like the proverbial apples and oranges.....

The others whether Steel Fury, TvsT, Panzer Elite etc where never intended to faithfully recreate tank warfare in order to train people but merely as historical recreation intended to entertain sim fans and provide hours of fun either as single player or multi.I called them simulation games as opposed to SB which is simulation training software turned into a game. The sim games allows us to live or experience in a remote fashion what is was like to fight in behemoths like the Tigers, Panthers, T34s or Shermans in the greatest and bloodiest conflict ever experienced by mankind.The costs are also not comparable, SB is expensive whereas the others can be purchased cheaply.You get what you pay for which does not detract the fact that both TvsT and SF offer good value for their price as does SB but on different levels.

Once you accept those differences you can decide whether you want to go for the serious SB which will really allow you what it feels like to manoeuvre the best armour the modern world has to offer:the Leopard 2A6, the MA1Abrams, the Challenger 2 and their Russian counterparts or would you rather play entertaining but less realistic and sophisticated sim games...

Up to you.Although of you can afford SB as well as SF and TvsT then you can sample a bit of everything.

Hope we haven´t bombarded you too much with too many options but since you asked for a recommendation....

[Skybird]

I just want to add that SBP may be meant as a pro trainign tool, but it can be handled like any simple action game, if wanted. Also, the range of vehicles is consantly growing, and the MBTs now range back to the M60 and the T-62 and T-55 (plus plenty IFVs and APCs). If switiching off modern systems like laser, thermals, NVGs, and battling with optical sights only, you can do battle in WWII style with quite old tanks now - just with hopelessly superior tactical options and mission diversity possible - and in much bigger scenarios (if you want you can have batallions and regiments/brigagdes. Whether or not it make ssense to set up such big scenarios, is something totally different).

I also must line out that SF and TvT suffer from imo seriously flawed design features, in case of SF i mention a very incompetent AI, small mission scale, very bad sound environment (no distance-volume relation, no sound travelling delay, no differing of own tank from that tank 2 km away getting hit). with the original release, which I tested, I found mkissions to become very simplistic and repetitive very soon. Tactical challenge: zero. In case of TvT, which I only tested one afternoon on somebody else's system some time ago, I must mention the immense technical problems of the original release (preventing many people from even launching nthe game, and non-working internet play), and the simplistic, ver ylinear mission gameplay that rmeinded of any action game. Did I perceive it wrong ir do enemies even respawn if the player does not advance in the prefixed linear way to the next ingame progress point? I had the very strong impression, but I did not play it long. In what it does, the game looks nice, but it does not much, and other than that it left me unimpressed: tactical challenge: zero.

So, for the quick break in the office that may be good enough, like "Moorhuhn Shooting". More I cannot get from these two.

I do not wish to piss any modders here, to make that clear. If people like some game and invest time into adding skins and vehicles to it, there is nothing to say against that enthusiasm. but I think fairness demands to also reveal the deficits of a game to somebody still considering whether or not he separates from his money, since I see both games as problematic. The games may be cheap now, but they are not free. SBP may look more expensive than usual games, but the durability per buck ratio for SBP is extremely high, making it a cheap title, whereas even with the low price of SF and TvT, the durability per buck ratio is very low, making the games if not expensive then at leat not as cheap as they look.

Edit
P.S. Just realised that I partially repeated myself. Sorry for that, I did not mean to squeeze my thoughts into your jaw.