I bought a new high end video card today, now I can play ST Legacy but have not even bothered as I got two kickbutt naval games where you can do strategics and tactical, it's nice making decisions then jumping right into the action. Yes, if you have a decent video card $200 - $300 then you can play and the graphics really are that good!
http://media.pc.ign.com/media/664/664548/vid_1888113.htmlhttp://www.battlestations.net/home/You really do get to fly all the aircraft, and let me tell you the sky can be full of them, like at Pearl Harbor. I also love the fact that while I'm busy doing one thing my crew automatically does the correct thing they need to do, at least those darn Hungarian designers know that a player cannot steer and fire torps from a PT boat and man the AA guns too!
Thumbs up on Battlestations Midway, after I finish the whole thing I'm gonna try online experience.
Only bad thing? Every game has one. This one's is that it follows a storyline revolving around 2 guys, one Navy, the other Marine. I'd much rather they have done up WW2: Battles of the South Pacific (1993) where what you do can change later battles and even the outcome of the war.
Next is Pacific Storm, and whoo doggy have games come a long way.
http://pacificstorm.net/en/description.phphttp://www.pacificstorm.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=1&pos=100http://www.pacificstorm.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=1&pos=73It's a great game too, You even get to do historicals like attack Task force Z and try to torpedo the Prince of Wales and Repulse. I never saw so many aircraft and anti-aircraft fire in a game before until I bought this baby.
Biggest bonus of all? You decide the fate of the war and you can be U.S. or Japanese! You decide research, material allocation, deployments, newbuildings for ships, planes, bases, and everything! It too is a strategy then jump into tactical mode game. The graphics are stunning and even though it ran ok with an old ATI Radeon card, I'm glad I upgraded today as now I can run all graphics and effects on maximum with no sluggishness or other problems whatsoever, and if you play a game and have to disable some visual stuff so you do not have problems then what fun is that? I also might add that you have to train your crews because war does not follow historical timeline. I like the fact that units gain experience (Sort of like SFC 1).
What do I not like? Resource and personnel allocation. Diehard and other hardcore Dyna people would probably love it for SFC, and I would too, but I think they went way overboard. I do not want to be checking and double checking a stupid strategic menu for a long time because the developers got me bogged down in B.S. when it could have been made a lot simpler, like with the release of new ships and repair meno of Great Naval Battles of the North Atlantic (1992). Research could have been simple by having so many resource points per areas of control that you have and their respective economy values (Much like the planets in SFC have). I want to have fun fighting, I do not have time to sit down and send an x number of engineers and paper pushers and pilots and God knows what all over the Pacific and to try to keep track of them!
BTW, Pacific Storm was only 20 bucks at Wal-Fart!
Battlestations Midway was 30 plus at Best Buy.
If you do not have at least a 256MB RAM video card with Pixel & Vertex shader 3.0 support, Intel P4 2.5 Ghz or AMD Athlon XP 2400+, and also broadband for downloads or one, I say again, only ONE small patch, then I would stay away from these babies, they are very graphics intense.
Oh yeah, P.S. is coming out with a new addition this month, Allies in the South Pacific where Russians can fly co-op with Americans or Brits, and the Germans can aid the Japs! All kinds of mixes and new toys to play with.
http://pacificstorm.net/en/video.phpWhy am I impressed with these people? They marketed their games worldwide and in all different languages, the Russians even get copies in their language! If only Star Trek had that back in the day, I imagine the servers would have been full to the max to say the least. Imagine a dyna setting of WW2 in the Pacific where the teams could decide the strategics, then we get into our warmachines and go at it and let the results speak for themselves for the next strategic planning phase! It may not be far off in the future.