I just found this interesting article in which the author claimed that for WWII first person shooters to be any fun they need to change the course of the war ie the axis win.

He says he is tired of fighting on D-Day and honestly I am too. I am not sure about an alternate history game but some changes in senario surely need to happen in any new WWII release.

Revitalizing World War II: An Alternate History

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"If you want peace work for justice" -Pope Paul VI

Jon

Jon,

I just read the article... very interesting. The author has definitely presented some promising ideas.

(But who wants to see the Nazis win anyways? What I do want to see though, is a revitalization of the WWII genre. And the only way this can be possible is by exploring many of the pathways of history that were not taken.)

I agree with this statement

Mark

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I approached everything, my job, my family, my romances, with intensity... Gene Tierney

An alternative WWII timeline game came out last year. "Turning Point - Fall of Liberty" It was a fairly good concept but poorly executed.

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Had no idea Piat, just checked it out at gamestop... didn't look too promising. I tell you what I am looking forward to: RUSE It is available for the PC, XBOX, and PS3.

Developed by Eugen Systems, R.U.S.E is the first strategy game where your ability to deceive and manipulate your enemies determines your nation’s fate. Lead your army to victory by camouflaging your troops, luring your opponent with decoy units, sabotaging enemy logistics and much more. Strategy has never been so intuitive and deep. R.U.S.E features cutting edge graphics and effects, the incredible IRISZOOM® Engine, immersive combat and a simplified interface that allows you to determine your nation’s strategy and fight to defeat your enemies.

270449brp.jpg

Mark

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I approached everything, my job, my family, my romances, with intensity... Gene Tierney

I like the idea of alternate history being introduced into a WWII genre first person shooter. In order to make it work I think it would have to be a home run, if you will. If they made a game with an alternate history (Germany invading Canada and the States) they would have to make it a great game. If they made it and it had a horrible plot, bad graphics and and terrible ending then I think it would discourage future development in the alternate history genre.

Personally I think that it would be very fun and interesting to follow the life of a German or Japanese soldier. Yes, it might be controversial but if you followed the life of a simple German soldier and not some Nazi following SS trooper then I think it would be ok. The general public think of the Germans in WWII as ALL being Nazis but you all know that this was not the case. The typical German soldier had a life before the war that did not include all the pro Nazi beliefs. Most of them didn't want to be fighting just like we did not want to be fighting.

Point being that it would be interesting to fight as a German soldier and see the German side of the 6th of June or any of the other campaigns. I would like to see what the creators would do to show the preparations and the actual battle of Normandy through the eyes of a German. It would put a new spin on things.

Just my .02 cents

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This (people finding controversy) has always been an annoying topic to me.

Honestly, if you don't like a game, or you don't like a movie, then just don't buy/see it! It is just fiction made for people to enjoy themselves.

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"If you want peace work for justice" -Pope Paul VI

Jon

rambo,

my thoughts as well... I would play that game

Mark

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I approached everything, my job, my family, my romances, with intensity... Gene Tierney

That is the way I feel as well. But as a general rule in the states people have very strong opinions. If you say or do something they don't like they will crucify you. They will scream against it until their throats are hoarse and they will march in circles until their feet bleed. Its just something that people in the States do for some reason lol. A lot of people in the states don't take change to well It seems like with anything you do over there you have to think about if it will offend anyone....you have to walk on egg shells.

I remember when I was living in the states and we were coming home from this reenactment. We stopped at this gas station to get some sandwiches and such. We had a German guy with us (not an SS trooper just a regular Heer) He was dressed up and the only thing he had on that had anything to do with Germany (symbol wise) was a standard issue cap with the eagle and swastika on it. When we went into the gas station this lady who was not a day over 25 told him straight up that she was offended by what she was wearing. She said that someone in her family escaped from Germany many years ago from the Nazis. He tried to explain that he portrayed the general German soldier not anything relating to the Nazis. She would have no part of it and started to get rather rude. We just ended up going down the road.

Thats just an example of the mind set some people have. Not willing to listen just yelling above you to get their opinion in there. That would be the only thing stopping any game companies from coming out with anything relating to the life of the Germans. Personally I don't see anything wrong with it unless of course it was depicting atrocities against other human beings or was trying to force Nazi beliefs into the game.

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You could do it from the Axis perspective. Simply include a need for the player to be scrounging food all the time, running out of ammo (or being stuck with lousy weapons options), trying hard to survive the elements, etc. With retreats and failures by higher commands, letters from home that tell of death and destruction raining down on his home, or other such woe thrown in it could be a half good learning experiance.

You must have lived up in the Northeast or out in the People's Republic of California?

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Best Regards,
JW

No I lived for 6 years in North Carolina, 9 in Texas, 2 in Tennessee and 1 in South Carolina.

Thats getting a bit off topic though

Also I think its safe to say that the Allies weren't always fully equipped either. In Bastogne they didn't have proper winter gear or a good supply of ammo. If you wanted a game as realistic as you are talking about why not make a game focusing on the Allies during the battle of the bulge. You would have to scrounge up food and medical gear, weapons as well. All while you are freezing to death and developing a bad case of trench foot :-P

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That's quite all right.

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Best Regards,
JW

I don't mind alternate universe, but its not something i would purchase but i would not scoff or be offended by the idea. there are so many flaws with first person wwii shooters nowadays its sad just a quick run down::

1. no dig in system, you figure games like halo and gears of war has it where you can dig in but no wwii game?

2. Super hero mode is boring. sure it is fine for the player to have to complete the objectives, but it doesnt seem like the cpu is evenly matched with the player and it makes it seem like the player is the one doing all of the work .

3. Each game rehash's the same missions and doesnt give us much more to choose from. Where is the battle of the bulge missions, arnheim, Rome, Sicily, monte cassino etc. there is so many places to explore i cant see why they go back to the main 3 or 4 that they do. MoH just touched the airborne in their last game i hope they really go all out in their next wwii game with the airborne.

4. I will end it on this the health system. This may go along with superman mode but if they adopt the Brothers in Arms health recovery I think it would enhance the overall realism, not just running through get hit 10 times and duck to heal.

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You were a rotten pilot when we flew in Russia you're flying a desk now but you're still a rotten pilot!

Personally, I would like to see a "Battle for Britain" made. It could be something along the lines of: What if Germany had followed a more greater naval arming plan and was able to force a landing in southern England?

I think it would be interesting to have a German campaign from Dover all the way to a Dunkirk style Scapa Flow battle.

Then perhaps you could have a British campaign from Scotland back to Portsmouth ( Not recycling locations from the German campaign ).

I think that would make a great game.

Thanks for the heads up on this. I'm surprised I've never heard it mentioned anywhere, especially after e3. I'll be keeping my eye on this one to see how it turns out.

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Alternative history titles are only good in small doses,
I gotta say its one of my big pet hates when people go on about there being too many WWII games.
Like there arent too many space marine and zombie games?
Tsch,i guess i'll never get my way.

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I think its unrealistic to expect the dover beachhead to succeed and it was probably only ever intended to protect the central beachheads right flank.
Portsmouth is the best bet,drive on to oxford and bristol from there

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The path to take would be to slip into British/Commonwealth genre. South pacific, asia, middle east, north africa, italy, greece, yougoslavia, france (twice) the low countries (twice) norway, int brigades in spain.

Just think of having the main protagonist drinking tea, and listening to vera lynn.
magic.

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'We march. The enemy is retreating in transport. We follow on foot.' Lt.Neil McCallum 5/7 Gordons 19th November 1942

I think the problem with that (from a fiancial point) is trying to sell it to an American audience where alot of the profit lies. I'm sure most people here (myself deffiantly included) would love to play them theatres/battles in a game instead of the usual D-Day missions, but I doubt the american general public and maybe even other parts of the world would buy a solely British Commonwealth game.

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You are probaly right.

It says a lot about the "special relationship" when alternate history or playing as the Germans is preferable than playing as the British/Commonwealth.

60 years of biased history does takes it's toll.

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'We march. The enemy is retreating in transport. We follow on foot.' Lt.Neil McCallum 5/7 Gordons 19th November 1942

Alternate History WWII doesn't always mean that the Nazis or Japanese have to win. It can mean that the Allied/Russian advance into German/Japanese territory was much slower for some reason (extreme allied casualties or weather conditions), long enough for both sides to update their airforces with jets, so it's kinda like an early Korean War. Or better yet, missile systems are installed on planes or ships, so it's long range death. Basically like a full-scale war today, but instead in the 1940s. :P

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Easily the most overpowered tank in history. Seriously - dual 280mm cannons?! It's not like the Allies had a tank with 200mm of armor!

I just wanna play as other forces, I'm sick to death of playing as the US, sure some games have thrown in Russians, but thats getting boring now, I wanna play more as the brits, the polish, the french, the italians, romanians, finnish and the germans in early war battles and fighting to later war, as game designers seem to forget it wasn't just Yanks fighting in WWII.

a 1946 game would be fun too, a sorta what if game.

but the likelyhood of anything like that ever happening is 0

I would love to see a alternate history game. All those who oppose it because it just "isn't right" or whatever reason, please don't complain, it is just a game.

Hey I'm with you!

It's ridiculous to think WWII games are "done" just because Call of Duty went modern, the series sucked anyway when it came to realism.

When are we going to see war games take on a more human approach, not just to your fellow squad mates but to the enemy as well? Velvet Assassin tried to do this by making the Germans more humane in a sense, you felt back for killing the good guys but couldn't wait to finish the assholes. Unfortunately no one bought VA and the developer shut down a few weeks ago.

Why not take a "All Quiet on the Western Front" or "The Forgotten Soldier" approach where the characters may be fictional but the stories are not?

There is a TON left to explore, developers are just being lazy and leaving a bad taste in peoples mouths.