IN MY OPINION the most important trait to get into this game is to be able to die and lose without getting frustrated. I meet a LOT of players in every multiplayer game I play, who have a VERY VERY VERY hard time dealing with dieing and losing, and WWIIO:BE is not for these players. Uber 8-year-veteran-infantry-experts in this game die every day, because some enemy soldier was lying very still covered by a bush. The guy might never be able to know where the shot came from, but an experienced player might analyse the situation and deduct a possible position of the shooter…without ever being 100% sure.

Graphical glitches, hitching, blinking, faulty collision detection and such is part of most games out there, especially MMO games. I’ve tried games with so faulty graphics I simply couldn’t play them, and I’ve tried games where I just got numb towards the faults, because the rest was so great. I choose to believe that some of the bugs in WWII:BE still are there because the time to correct them, was used at something more important, like balancing and such. Ofcourse it’s a balance in itself to choose which parts of an MMO to better, and although I’ve seen quite some negative comments towards CRS’s priorities and implementations, I personally still find the game fun

Last thing: I need to mention that I am the most unlikely person to play this game….I like great graphics and fast action above all, but this game gives me something I am not yet quite sure what is. Perhaps it’s just that I’ve never tried a game like this before. It LOOKS like a game I’ve tried millions of times before, but it really isn’t. One thing for sure is that to me, the immersion-factor of this game is very strong.

The getting shot without hearing a sound, most of the time I hear a gun go off when I die, or some sound related to my death. In a heated battle you won’t hear your killer’s weapon as there is too much going on.

As for firing at someone and not knowing if you killed them, I like that part. It works both ways in BE combat, if someone shoots you and isn’t sure if your dead then they will often wait to see if there is any movement from you. If you shoot someone then rather than get a “you killed player” message you have to watch for movement, it adds excitement to the game and keeps you on the edge more than other games.

As far as camping, it’s not something I do, I prefer to be on the move even if slowly. When defending you might camp but that’s a part of defending an objective, as it should be in battles.

The best equipment doesn’t always mean the best results either. I’ve achieved my highest number of kills in one sortie with a Rifle, in fact the 3 highest number killed per sortie have all been with a Rifle as my main weapon.

There is no doubt BE is a game and many people enjoy it. If you don’t like games with a step learning curve then it’s not for you. BE takes work, when I started I was often shot without having a clue where the bullet came from. Now that still happens sometimes, but I accept that in a battle you would not always know that, though I’m much better at spotting the enemy now than I was in my first few weeks.

If you read Ffaff’s post you will see how hard it is to get used to air combat and flying in general, but Ffaff is persevering. I too need a lot of practice with that part of the game, as I did and still do with sappers. I downloaded a sapper guide to learn where to hit the tanks to blow them, even then I had to learn to spot the tanks from the guide, which is harder than it sounds. I can now set tanks aflame usually with a single charge, this is what’s great about BE. You gain more satisfaction from working to become good at something than instant gratification.

If you have patience and like a challenge rather than having a game where reactions alone determine how good you are, then BE is worth giving a try. If you can accept that you won’t be good right from the start and it will take time and effort to learn the game, then BE is for you.

And what is skill? The ability to know a piece of software (and that’s what this is…it is definitely not a game) well enough to own newbies that haven’t figured out all the best spots to camp out and rain down death with the best equipment? Plus, have a posse of squadmates to do it with? I mean, if you’re new to this game, not even being fast and accurate with your mouse can save you…you die without even seeing an enemy 90+% of the time.

I get your point about not knowing where the shot came from…but at least tell me how I died. It’s just like I’ll be creeping through the brush and all of a sudden the screen just goes black. No sounds, no explosion, no popup, no information. I never have even a clue regarding what weapon killed me. Not only that, but you fire at someone and don’t even know if you killed them.

I’ll have to give this software another try in a few more years. It really has potential, but I said the same thing the first time I played it in 2001.

The getting killed and not knowing where the killer was isn’t a problem at all. Why should you know where your killer shot from? If he or she is out of sight why would you be told where they were?

Also a game with the graphics of Battlefield 2 would not work on the scale of BE, very few machines if any could handle miles of terrain with high graphic detail.

I like BE because it isn’t Battlefield 2 or CoD, the FPS players who enjoy games like that often don’t have the attention span for a game like BE. I’ve played those games and always stop due to the playerbase. Can’t see me ever going back to anything like that. They would just turn BE into into a mass run or camp fest.

And that’s really a shame since I really, really wanted to like this game. I think a good, well-polished MMOFPS a la Battlefield 2 with 1000s of players in a huge area would be a massive hit. I can’t believe a major game studio hasn’t given it a go yet…

As a new player I can surely say that it IS hard to find anyone to kill, simply because you have to know the UI and a few gameconcepts before you are able to find battle. Any new player not familiar with these things will probably not find anyone to kill at first…I know I didnt! I’ve been playing for a week now, and I no longer have any trouble finding action as I now know what to click, what to look for, where to go and how to get there. All very crucial concepts to “getting into the game”.

These days people most people want instant participation (I’m one of those), so just downloading the trial and booting up will probably make many a new player uninstall after 2 hours of feeling lost and alone. This is probably one of WWII:BE’s larger obstacles in attracting new players, but that is just the way it is. And probably why Cornered Rat has implemented trainers and such social initiatives.

This game has better chances of getting a subscriber when it comes recommended either by friends or by ones favourite gaming media

And on a totally unrelated note: I friggin’ love Blackadder!

The UI doesn’t really help you find a battle very easily, you have to rely on other people to guide you to the action by monitoring the chat channels and knowing the short hand messages that the veterans post.

The other main hurdle for new players is actually spotting the enemy, your enemy doesn’t come with a marker over his head, neither do you get radar for your enemies, making the game intriguing, a new player once described the game as international hide and seek, he still plays afaik.

One of the best things that you can do is actually join a squad, many of them will guide you, even take you out into a field and teach you the intricacies of the game because they as well as the developers, a FNG is worth trying to keep hold of because they’ve already taken the hardest step that is to see past the graphics and download the game.

This YouTube video really does epitomise the game, it’s a parody of a Monty Python sketch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvs8HNE3488