War Games

Special to MCC from the West Coast bureau, and correspondent Bayle Emlein whom you probably don't want to meet in a dark alley in any reality or empire.

"Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. North America and all the ships at sea. Let's go to press!" In the latest developments of World War II, 1C Company announces the Battle of Stalingrad. The latest in the IL*2 Men of War series is in early Alpha now and is promised before the end of 2013. The announcement of the game commemorates the 70th anniversary of end of the five-month Battle of Stalingrad with the final German surrender in February 1943. There are various scholarly theories about why both Hitler and Stalin were willing to commit whatever it would take to taking this city. The results of the battle significantly depleted the German Axis forces of resources and personnel, affecting their effectiveness on the Western Front and the final outcome of the war. Newly declassified documents added to developers' ability to create realistic and detailed scenarios. The graphics are stunning, particularly the depiction of the Soviet Ally, General Winter. The long, cold Russian winter affected food supplies and mechanical operations and makes a stunning backdrop for the battle scenes. New planes and vehicles add to the realism and sense of engagement that draw in players and keeps them engrossed. When planes are damaged or crash, they don't just uniformly explode. Instead, realistic damage is modeled.

Appropriately, the aircraft carrier Hornet was the venue for David Tractenberg's annual West Coast presentation of new game offerings from 1C, the Russian software giant. The Hornet fought for the last 15 months of the Pacific war, accounting for shooting down record numbers of enemy planes. Then she stayed active long enough to fish astronaut capsules out of the ocean. Now she is a museum where you can stand on the deck where Richard Nixon stood to welcome US astronauts safely home in a gesture designed to restate the balance of power in the Cold War and to associate his personal fortunes with this technological victory.

But what if the Cold War had heated up to the point of nuclear implosion? That is the premise of Nuclear Union, another offering in the IL-2 Sturmovik line. Developed by Best Way Strategy games and distributed by 1C, this post-apocalyptic survival drama takes place in an alternate world where the Cuban Missile crisis was not defused and all-out nuclear war has devastated the planet, including the still-existing Soviet Union. In the intervening half century, things have gotten tough--as have the remaining people and the mutants have had time to mature, as have the unusual fire arms that never went into mass production in the Soviet Union that avoided the nuclear holocaust. Look forward to Nuclear Union, which is in Alpha in July of 2013, to be in the hands of players by the 4th quarter.

The final offering of the show was another in the Sturmovik series: Assault Squad 2. Too early in Alpha to be playable, the stunning graphic effects will support the demand for quick tactical problem-solving on a multi-player platform.

The evening of product sampling was enhanced by the opportunity for guided tours around the museum/aircraft carrier. No single tour covered the entire ship. Instead, museum docents led small groups to areas that have been preserved and retrofitted with items from the Hornet's active days, including kitchen minutia.