Okay, after four or five days of playing ever chance I get these are my impressions:
The three new maps seem so far to be excellent. I'd advise against trying to say for certain which side gets the shittier end of the stick because it's going to take a while for people to learn how to play them and after so little time since release anyone saying anything too definitive on the new maps regarding gameplay is likely talking out of their ass. But all three are simply beautiful. Sidi is probably my least favorite, but it's a bit like saying one supermodel isn't quite as gorgeous as the other two. Keren seems like a lot of fun and a tough one for the Allies as well, and I love the Hawker Hardy. A joy to fly and even more of a joy to listen to buzzing around, since it sounds like an old race car. Keren 32 and 16 play reasonably well from what I've seen so far also, and the 32 in particular is beautifully lit. St. Vith is probably my favorite new map, I'm a sucker for snow maps and from a purely visual standpoint St. Vith is a masterpiece.
Some other general likes:
- Tank combat is a lot more fun now, due to the decrease in likelihood of one-shot battles.
- Tank sounds are fantastic. Like the new reloading sounds and the audio effects of shells and bullets smacking off armor is well done.
- Ambient sounds on most maps are great as well. No need to give examples, they're all expertly done.
- The planes sound awesome awesome awesome, and I don't have a problem with the volume at all. If there's six planes flying all over the church and airfield on Cobra, it's supposed to be loud.
- Unlimited jogging works great, it was frustrating to have to jump five times to get over something a dead guy in a wheelchair could've easily navigated and then have to huff and puff to cover, and that is no longer an issue.
- Reworked old maps look fantastic. Falaise is beautiful now, wonderfully lit and prettier than ever. Cobra is another gorgeous one, I am so phenomenally impressed at the transformation of that map.
- Reworked maps seem to play better, Cobra in particular. Had enjoyable, ruthless battles on that map for three days straight now, I love the reworked airfield and the new flags were implemented perfectly. Objective Hyacinth is awesome fun as well.
- I am even more in love with Crete now than I was before. Favorite map in FH1, favorite map in FH2, and it looks more mint than ever now. Absolute peach of a map.
- Most/all minimaps seem to be sharpened up and look great now - especially like the gold lettering replacing the red, which was difficult to read. No problems deciphering flag names anymore.
- Compass is really well implemented, will take some getting used to since I either have to turn around on the spot to be able to say 'enemy south of church', or hit the full-screen map and do the ol' Never Eat Shredded Wheat in my head, but its something time in game will solve easily.
- Love the new system for anti-tank guns. Was a bit awkward at first but practice makes perfect and this makes them more into the threat they ought to be.
- Love the new loading song for Eppeldorf - that drum beat on Dogface Sodier gets stuck in my head for the whole round. The loading music for the three new maps are excellent picks as well, and I sincerely hope in future patches we look at changing songs for some more maps and hopefully get to a point where it's simply a handful that have Entering Battle or Elk Hunt as their song, rather than half the mod using them.
Naturally, a few negatives as well:
- Tank warning siren. Eugh.
- Ammo types being AP/HE/special AP/smoke is kind of awkward and will take some getting used to, instead of having the enemy tank rounds on top and the enemy infantry rounds on the bottom.
- Regarding non 64-maps: I like the King of the Hill mode on most maps that have it, but it's a genuine shame it had to come at the expense of some of the few bright spots that were the smaller maps before the patch. As an occasional novelty the Olympus death match is nice, but it kinda sucks we had to lose one of the best 32s in the mod to make it happen. Bastogne 16 still needs looked at, because the Americans get Mont first every time (they have a jeep, and the Axis do not), and there is also that irrelevant bridge flag no one but noob squad leaders ever goes to. Not really my place, but I'd love to see the bridge flag axed, and either both sides getting jeeps or neither side getting jeeps, in one big fight over Mont. I haven't seen every 16 since the patch since fortunately WaW's public server has been full enough we haven't played many of them, and thank God Luttich, Lebisey and Brest appear unchanged, but as far as I'm concerned Giarabub has been ruined and needs to be reverted back to exactly as it was before, with both the Village and Mosque flags cappable, and the Australians and Italians having uncap mains.
- Don't really like the new kill messages, and can't recall ever having seen anyone complain they take up too much space on screen, either here on actually online, especially compared to five lines of REQUESTING ARTILLERY BARAGE inevitably spammed in a much more valuable spot in your peripheral vision. There are a lot of different ways you could go about it:
Player 1 [Panther] Player 2
Player 1 [Panther G] Player 2
Player 1 [Panzerkampfwagen V "Panther"] Player 2
Player 1 [Pzkpfw V "Panther"] Player 2
and so on, but I liked the detailed ones with model names/ausfs etc. more than just Panther G or whatever it is now.
Overall though, an incredibly impressive piece of work and I look forward to wasting many more hundreds of hours in the future. If this is any indication of what is to come when the Eastern Front gets here then I am fucking well near apoplectic with anticipation.
