The Wargamer

News from the Front

Things seem to be rather quiet on the front these days, with many developers recovering from the Christmas rush and up to their necks with preparation for May’s E3. Nevertheless, a few major developers in the wargaming industry still have a juicy tidbit of gossip or two regarding the projects deep in their software vaults. Let’s start off with the folks over at Battlefront.

Battlefront

Battlefront’s development teams have the most to report on the industry this time around with almost a half-dozen different titles under their auspices at varying levels of completion. First off, Drop Team, the real-time tactical simulation of armored ground combat in the far future, is now in the midst of public multiplayer beta testing which is reportedly “running very well.” The development team has recently released two auto-updates for the game providing a few tweaks and fixes. If the latest version “holds up for a few more days” they will most likely forward the game to gold status. The developers also sent word that they’re currently devoting most of their efforts towards finishing the single player campaign in addition to “some more spit and polish.”

Strategic Command 2 was announced gold just a few weeks ago and is expected to ship in "a couple of weeks” after they’ve produced a sufficient number of copies. My source in Battlefront also informed me that anybody who pre-orders will get a “neat surprise.”

Next up is Modern Naval Battles- World War II at Sea which has been under development for quite a while now. Unfortunately the folks over at Battlefront had “no major news to report” but I did hear a rumor that they’re moving the title towards the end of the year as Dan Verssen and team is working on the expansion for Down in Flames first (East Front adding the Russian and Polish nations), scheduled for spring.

Also in the works is Combat Mission Campaigns, announced late last year, which has recently lost one of its key development team members creating a major setback. Luckily the remaining team was able to pull resources and put the game back on schedule, but my inside source says that “We're still not quite ready for a release, but Bruce Poon and team are working hard to wrap it up.” The word on the grapevine is that Combat Mission fans will “forgive the waiting time [over four years] the moment they'll hold this gem in their hands... promised.”

And lastly, Battlefront also let a rumor or two leak out about a new game that should soon be announced very soon. Initially this announcement was slated for last week but crunch time over the Strategic Command 2 forced the gents at Battlefront to postpone the news. Word is: “The beta team is already working on it, though. It will be a wargame about the American Independence war.”

Shrapnel Games

There are three titles currently waiting in the wings for release over at Shrapnel. First up is Dominions 3 - The Awakening, Shrapnel’s first foray into the RPG genre, which has just started “final testing.” My source inside Shrapnel assured me that the title was currently on target for the summer release. Like earlier Dominions games it will be available for Windows, Mac, and Linux so operating system geeks can rejoice.

Also in the wings is Galley Battles a turn-based strategy title covering the early days of naval warfare, which is reported to be “a few months from going into beta,” but nevertheless “coming along nicely.” The development team commented that their most recent focuses on the game include “tackling animation and the AI.” They also included word that the visual aspect, especially the interface, is “pretty solid.”

Lastly, we have the perennial strategy title, All American: The 82nd Airborne in Normandy, a tactical level turned based wargame, which is “still alive” according to the folks at Shrapnel. Stay tuned for details on this sequel to 101: The Airborne Invasion of Normandy as development progresses further.