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Beware if Encore

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: December 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Beware of any game bearing the Encore trademark! These games are notorious for not having any tech support, and being very buggy. Do some research before you buy any Encore product.

EXERCISE IN FRUSTRATION

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: April 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I was so anxious to get this game. I mean really anxious. I'd been playing SSI's `Panzer Commander' for over a year and the buzz about Panzer Elite was so favorable and so electric, I just couldn't wait to get my hands on it!

I finally got the Panzer Elite game home and I literally ripped it out of the box and threw the CD into my computer. What ensued next was the beginning of a long series of headaches, disappointments and aggravating computer "down time". While the install itself went smoothly (the opening cinematic sequence was nice as well) it was all down hill after that. I attempted to jump right into game play only to discover that my video card was having some serious problems. Without hesitation I went to the Panzer Elite web site and then straight to the PE trouble-shooting forum. As I suspected, it was recommended that I download the latest drivers for my Riva 16mb 3D card. It took me nearly an hour and a half to find the right drivers (no fault of the folks at Panzer Elite HQ)! Once installed, I discovered I was going to have to "tweak" the settings of my 3D card via a 3D tool that came with the game as it was still not working properly. I downloaded a diagnosing utility from the Panzer Elite site, made a few more adjustments and the problem was fixed (!). I jumped right into game play and things SEEMED to be off and running. The frame rate looked a little sluggish and I considered tweaking my 3D settings again, but then I decided to live with the minor problems. The graphics looked great and the pre-campaign/mission briefings were absolutely outstanding. Panzer Elite gives you full control of your tank crew and I found myself immersed in the decision making. Then I began to notice that the audio in the game did not seem right. The only thing I was hearing during game play was the sound of my tank engine and nothing else. Ok, now I knew I was having a sound card problem. Again I went to the PE web site which suggested I get the latest audio drivers for my Turtle Beach sound card. After installing the new sound card drivers I was still receiving minimal sound. I even tried 2 different sets of speakers. No luck! The install and help manual that comes with Panzer Elite is wretched. One of the most vague, UN-detail oriented game manuals I have ever read. No trouble-shooting help to speak of, no practical tips or suggestions, nothing! I later realized that not only was I missing out on all the audible pops and whistles, cracks and bangs of warfare in Panzer Elite, but my tank crew members also spoke and relayed orders and directives. This of course is imperative to game play. Without it, you'll find yourself struggling to read the scrolling text that brings you up to date with what's going on in your tank.

The `Help Forum/Chat' at the Panzer Elite web site was a welcome trouble-shooting guide, but after trying numerous suggestions, my system (450Mhz, 128mb RAM, the works, etc!) could just not handle the game. I put it back in the box and took it back to the store and got my money back.

If there was one good aspect of the game, it was that the folks that make it are very helpful and very patient. "Teut", one of the designers was kind of enough to help me try to work through the bugs and glitches. This type of one-on-one attention is almost unheard of in the software gaming world. Hats off to the designers of PE for their commitment to their customers. That said, I did notice that A LOT of other people seemed to be having problems just like mine. The PE on line Help Forum was clogged with questions similar to mine, some even worse.

I know the designers of Panzer Elite delayed the release date of this game by almost a year, but it seems as if they should have waited longer. It should have been re-tested on a multitude of systems and then tested again. I consider myself to have a reasonably standard system, and one I've even enhanced for game play. I've never, ever experienced problems like I did with Panzer Elite.

My recommendation to persons considering buying this: Approach with caution, and save your receipt. The game is apparently breathtaking once you get it going -it's getting to that point that will try your patience.

Crash and freeze-up outstanding game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: November 10, 1999
Author: Amazon User

I've tried about 20 games since getting the game about a week ago and everyone of them have ended in a system freeze or crash. But the graphics and game play are teriffic. Once you master the six or seven key stroke combinations needed to get everything moving where and how you want it to it has a great level of involvment and need to pay attention to everything going on. This is a game that will be great in a couple of months once all the absolutly necessary patches are made available, but it's "not ready for prime time" just yet.

Has potential but has too many bugs

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game has changed hands through several companies now. I received a "Panzer Elite Special Edition" by Wings/JoWood Productions. I was able to play for a while on an ME system not connected to the internet I have set aside for just game playing games. Then I started getting "beeps", meaning the game froze.
I reinstalled and the results were the same. I installed the game on my XP system that is linked to the internet and it caused all kinds of problems on the system. I uninstalled it. I have gone to the website and it appears to me that it is necessary to have knowledge, interest, and ability to download and perform software functions, which I do not care to do.
I just want to load a game and play it. I don't care for cheats or patches, which may contain viruses.
When I could play the scenarios for the German instant play there were too few. With the single scenarios, there were long periods of just driving with no action and targets seldom seen.
Bottom line: I really liked it when I could command some of the German tanks but am very disappointed that I could not continue to do so. If all the bugs were worked out to where a layman such as myself could play with ease then it would be enjoyable.

Panzer Let Down

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 22 / 23
Date: September 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The Germans have finally broken into the PC wargame market and this is one of their first offerings.

Comparable to Panzer Commander, except with slightly better graphics, the simulation just lost credibility with me when I found out that play seems to use a 'hit point' system to decide when a tank has been knocked out.

In many cases you must shoot tanks repeatedly to knock them out, even from very short range (even with very powerful guns) until their hit points run out and they burn.

This 'hit point' system lends itself well to internet play (which the game features) because participating players have to be hit more than once to be killed (otherwise, most of them would lose immediately---no fun there). However, as a solo simulation, this feature is a dud.

I had to repeatedly shoot the lower hull of an M-4 Sherman from 200 yards five times with a PZ-IV J high velocity 75mm gun for it to brew up (give me a break!)

I think the designers just got greedy and aimed for the internet gaming market and modified the features accordingly at the cost of a real battle simulation.

Another thing which quickly got on my nerves was the robotic and repetitious voices of the crew which seemed to describe their every single action. I guess they could have worked on giving a little more on realism on the voices than the stilted, robotic dialogues here.

My other peeve is the infantry, which looks like moving shooting-gallery target silhouettes.

Nice points?

Yes, one. The game lets you custom design your own keyboard hot keys, so that you can fashion your own controls.

Other than that,I hate to say I liked Panzer Commander better. The only good point is this game runs much smoother with windows XP than Panzer Commander does.

Good, but you need power

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: November 16, 1999
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game with the premise that Wings Simulations web site was correct, a minimum requirement was P166 with a 3D board; on the box, the minimum is a PII and a board. On my system [pentium pro 200 with Voodoo], it runs, but slowly. After tweaking the setup, it is acceptable, but lacking since the graphics move slowly and jerky. The game itself is well done, and the play-time is fun and seems to be pretty realistic. It is a 3 star overall, 4 to 5 with a power system.

Panzer Elite- Massive potential but poor delivery.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: January 06, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Another game released for the holidays still in Beta form. Massive potential but incredibly buggy, it didn't even work for me out of the box. Stupidly, I waited for the first patch, I wish I had just returned it. The good; definately the best treatment of WWII tank combat yet done and potentially the best tank sim period. Right now, IMO, M1TPII has it beat just because it is finished. Good graphics, original but very efficient interface, and great detail in terms of the weapons. The bad; Numerous graphics glitches including floating objects, seams in terrain tiles, and things like smoke and flame from burning tanks appearing in front of you, when they should be behind you. Massive terrain 'pop-up', turning apparent smooth terrain into nasty hills and cliffs. Coding errors in the armor files and AI shooting which frequently, for no apparant reason, starts shooting wildly. AI tanks which drive THROUGH each other and a tactical map which gets so small at higher resolutions as to become almost useless. Some of the radio messages do not play audibly, but only display on the screen and frequently, they don't tell you who they are from.

Poor design choices; Very poor graphical representation of your round impacts, making it very difficult to determine where you are hitting. A terrible manual that doesn't even include all the keyboard commands. As I mentioned above, the gunnery portion is very involved and detailed, yet there is not a single mention of the gun sights in the manual! You basically have to experiment as even the documented commands don't work the way you would assume. Especially bad is that there is no way to back up your AI wingmen tanks. Order them to a new location and they frequently drive in circles, exposing their vulnerable flanks and rear to the enemy. Inability to switch between tanks meaning if your tank flips over, is destroyed (and your persona survives, even unscathed), or bogs down in a river, game over, even with 4 other tanks in perfect condition.

The ugly; The patches themselves have caused problems. The first patch caused unforseen problems, and it was then modified. The updated patch also caused problems resulting in a new, subpatch. Then, due to the problems caused by prior patches, a program was offered to check your install and this also caused many problems, the third version is now available. Many users still cannot get it to work, and many joysticks and other controllers cause problems such as the tank turrets spinning uncontrollably. Luckily the mouse interface works well (I know it sounds strange to use a mouse in a tank game, but the interface is done very well.).

This game has massive potential and Wings will provide continuing support until it shines. Without the bugs and glitches I would have given it 4 stars. Take out some of the poor design choices (Several of which Wings has said they will change in future patches), and I would have given it 5. It's just a matter of whether you want to be a Beta tester and wait the several months until this thing is really done. I know many of you will say that M1TPII had problems out of the box also. Believe me, the problems that title had were nowhere near as bad as even the current patched version of PE has. With continued support, this game will eventually be one of the defining sims in this genre. Many hardcore users are jumping into the fray and publishing documents and files to improve, explain, and modify this sim. For now, my advise is, stay away from it.

Panzer-Elite

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: March 10, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Panzer-Elite has finally done what most software manufacturers try to do, deliver a playable yet entertaining game. The graphics in this game rival those of WWII fighters, the campaign game is very entertaining to say the least, be prepared to lose quite a few platoons as the game progresses. Remember to play the long campaign and if victorious you will be given a chance to get some surprises from their website(even though it is not ready as of yet).

This game needs to be played with at least a machine that has 266MHZ at least and a 3D accelerator card is a must. After some tweaking I was able to get my Voodoo 2 card to work well and I also was able to use a Riva TNT card as well. One thing that the game lacks is the lack of fighter and bomber intervention. During WW2 Panzers had to deal with many raids by P-38s, P-47 and many other aircraft. I believe this is going to be addressed with add ons or maybe a new campaign disk. One last thing if you have played

Panzer-Commander, this is a game that is head and shoulders above it. Closer to M1 Tank Platoon but a smoother better paced game.

great simulation, needs a bit work

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: November 15, 1999
Author: Amazon User

Panzer Elite is a detailed WW II tank, platoon size simulation.

After a few days struggle /crashes & lockups/ with videocard drivers I finally found the right ones /in my case nVidia Detonator 3.53 for my Viper 550/ and since then the game rules!

Graphics, sounds and gameplay are very good, didn't play another game since then.

The game still has some bugs, but thanks to absolutely exceptional tech support from WingSimulations development team led by Teut Weidemann /yes, these guys are actually listening what the players are complaining about, and fixing the things accordingly, in a fast pace; pretty amazing! ; there is a PE forum running at their site, responding very fast all the gameplay and tech aspects/ the bugs will be sorted out in a short time..

Game is a bit hardware hungry; fast CPU plus 3D card is a must for a smoother gameplay at higher resolutions.

Would recommend this program to anyone interested in the WW II armor battles; some patience in order to fine-tune it on player's computer might be needed as well.

Overall, PE rules and will rule even more after the rest of small glitches will be removed!

The first true tank simulator

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 15, 1999
Author: Amazon User

This game brings out the worst in me, I tend to chase infantry with blazing guns, and laughing as I see them fall. This game is the first tank sim ever giving me the right feeling, and it is a ww2 sim! The tanks are beutifully modeled, but could have been better if this was a action tank cheater game, where they just think of FPS. I must admit that there are a few bug, but the support from producer(Wingssimulations) is awesome, and what games nowadays have no bugs? I wanted to give it 5 stars, but gave it 4 because of the bugs, and that there were no russian units.

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