Heroes Over Europe

[PZ]

Well, a couple of impressions:

• I downloaded a saved game which has all of the missions completed.  This was fun to use because I could go to any mission in any category and play from there.  Additionally I was able to use any of the aircraft of which there are quite a few.  I had a good time flying at night over a burning London in a Stuka.  You can get it and a trainer here.
  
• Although I would like to have had the cockpit view, the 3rd person is not too bad because the aircraft look really fairly good with their reflective surfaces.
• The ground graphics could be much better, as could be the video control.  Evidently Ubi thinks that everyone is using the same graphics card/monitor combination  ;D   
• The fact that the game opens automatically in a window lends credence to the above.
• I had fun strafing a couple of convoys and the explosions/fires were good.
• The game pad makes flying relatively easy.  Evidently the flight controls are two-fold: the WSAD keys control gross movements while the mouse controls the fine movement.  I have the left stick of the controller mapped to the fine flying controls, and will map the right to the coarse controls (or the opposite).  The flight controls seem to be quite responsive and the planes are relatively easy to fly with the game pad - however, this is the first real flying game I've played in decades.
  
• There is an "Ace" mode which I have only tried once, but it looks like a fun combat mode.
• The game starts much like COD5, COJ2 and Wolfenstein - and it plays much the same too - linear in that you need to go through the missions in the specified sequence with no variation
• The lack of a "Save" feature is equally bothersome, but now that I'm using the saved game that I downloaded, it is not too bad.
  

Because I paid $39 (approximately 27 Euros) I think I'll keep the game and play at least enough to get a feel for the landscape and the different aircraft.

[Art Blade]

clever, getting a savegame LOL  :-X Glad you found a way to play. Maybe a screenshot or three of some capital cities or something you think worthwhile would give the readers a better idea than what I posted.

[fragger]

Thanks PZ, for your impressions of this. I too love a good flying game, and I was really looking forward to this one. The last WW2 flight game I played was Jane's WW2 Fighters, which I quite enjoyed, except for the monotonous terrain and lack of ground details.

''Cabbages don`t drink, therefore they`re not''

:-X ;D ;D
Must have just imagined that felafel I had the other night!

[PZ]

My pleasure - like the other OWG members, I like to provide information so others would have more information to decide on a game.  I'm planning on assembling a few screen captures as soon as I can get some free time to get back into the game.

[Art Blade]

you know what made me wonder, the sensitivity of the controls. As long as you can adjust it to your device it's cool (and standard) but you can't. The keyboard and the joystick were too responsive for my taste. And I really miss a cockpit view.

[PZ]

... As long as you can adjust it to your device it's cool (and standard) but you can't. The keyboard and the joystick were too responsive for my taste. And I really miss a cockpit view.

I agree completely - you should not need to become creative just to use the game.  It is interesting however that there are coarse and fine controls for movements even though the animations are only partly correct - you can clearly see rudder motion, but not aileron movement.

I too would like the cockpit view, and the only saving grace is that the graphics for the planes are quite well done.

[Art Blade]

found something about that game I heard of, IL-2 Sturmovik, a UBI game from 2001. I think the graphics look astonishingly good, as good as HoE lol

Article on WiKi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IL-2_Sturmovik_%28video_game%29

Wiki pic
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edit: changed size of pic.

[PZ]

Those graphics are at least as good as HOE.

Here are a few screen captures of two missions.  One in Winter - Battle of the Bulge in the winter, and the other over a burning London.

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[Art Blade]

the graphics in your pics don't look half bad, but I'd never esteem them in a way that I think justifies a line like "visually, the game takes no prisoners." - I'd call them "nice," to use a polite term.

Again, like the lacking options for adjusting sensitivity, the game lacks any options to influence the graphics. One default setting for everything. Oh, you are allowed to change the volume of music, sfx, speech and something else I don't recall. I remember I had fun playing with the volume :)

[PZ]

The pics actually look better than the screen in some instances - especially when you rotate the camera view toward the front of the plane - they look awful at that time.  The damages the aircraft suffer do look nice though - holes in the wings, torn off bits and pieces, and the flames from beneath the engine cowl.  Funny thing is that I was able to complete a mission with my engine on fire.

Although I'll still play for a while (kind of like getting back into a pilot seat) I have to agree with you that the game is not worth the price Ubi is asking for it.  In fact, because of the lack of graphics display control, game pad, and joystick support it almost feels like I'm testing an alpha version of the software. - has promise but needs lots of w@&k.

[Art Blade]

I found out there is a graphics setup program that the game installs seperately. See the windows start button, go to the "new files installed" indicator - the folder with HoE. Checked the prog, it was all maxed out (not much to change there) but allows for a different screen resolution too. Didn't notice that when I had the game but still got that prog lol

[PZ]

That's interesting - I didn't even look at the program group - usually just navigate to the directory and launch the application.  I'll check it out when I fire up the gaming PC. 

Just in case anyone is interested, here is a link to info regarding the 1.02.1 patch

[PZ]

Here's a fascinating bit of news - I installed the 1.02.1 patch that is supposed to take care of the controller and joystick problems.  Cool, I thought - started the game and guess what happened:  not only does the controller still not w@&k, but now the mouse flight controls have also failed.  How's that for a patch?

On a positive note, I went into the graphics applet (funny but the game never installed a program group) and set it to full screen.  I also set anti-aliasing to the maximum and the planes look really spectacular.  You can see the reflection of the aluminum of the wings and the lines of the aircraft are smooth and excellent in appearance.

Also on the positive side, the tech support people on the Ubi forums site have been very quick to respond to people's questions and concerns, and are trying to help resolve issues.  Unfortunately there is something fundamentally wrong with the program.

[PZ]

Evidently Ubi designed HOE as an arcade-style game rather than as a flying simulator game which is the reason that there is no cockpit view.  While the technicians are valiantly attempting to solve the joystick/game pad problems, no solution has been discovered so far.  They are now distributing a patch and asking that people run it with command line parameters for diagnostic purpose, then send the resulting error logs to them for analysis.  At least to my inexperienced eyes, this appears to be one of the worst examples of releasing a game that is more of an alpha version than a finished product.

While I would enjoy playing this arcade style game if they ever fix the problems, I cannot recommend it until it hits the $5 bargain basement price.

[Art Blade]

I kept thinking about all this here and why I returned the game to get my money back. It's to teach them a lesson that their customers are not willing to accept so poor a product that apparently has no working Quality Assurance or a publisher that is WAY too greedy as in "You WILL release the game NOW, I don't fucking care if it's finished!"

[PZ]

Indeed, and the tech guys in the trenches that are trying their best to provide a solution are the "fall guys".  I feel kind of bad for the two representatives on the official forum that are trying to fix this mess.

Funny thing is that there are individuals that really like the game despite it's problems - I guess that there is something for everyone out there in game-land.

[Art Blade]

Absolutely. There are games being played out there that are more than 10 years old, as well as games that have nearly no fanbase. However, regarding fall guys, I think if the customer's reaction is notable, if there is a number of games being returned, questions will be asked. And the guys who will have to answer them won't be the techies or representatives.

It shouldn't be us feeling bad, but those bosses that force a release of unfinished product. Or, also a possibility, someone who can't manage to get things done in time.

[PZ]

Well, I can finally fly the planes in the game with the Saitek controller (latest version of the patch).  Still not completely correctly mapped, but at least the basic controls w@&k.

[Art Blade]

thats good news :) maybe one of the next patches fixes the last issues with your controller. Enjoy :)

[PZ]

Even if they get it completely worked out, it is still just an arcade style game (hence the lack of a cockpit view) so while fun to "shoot 'em up", I would have liked to see a more simulation style game.  Still fun though, and makes for an interesting diversion from the open world games.  ;)

[PZ]

Well, they're up to version 6 of the pre-release patch and it looks like they're making a small amount of headway into fixing the game.  I can fly now with the game pad, but I still can't map the keys the way I would like.  for instance, the primary fire button in all other games is mapped to the 'escape to menu' function in HOE.

I must admit that this is the worst example of a broken game that I've ever experienced.  I'm sure that there are those who have been able to get the program to w@&k well with certain joysticks or game pads, but I feel like an alpha tester on a game that is still in the planning stages.

On the positive, the adjustment of the graphics has the game look really marvelous.  The bullets, spinning propellers, fore and aft views are stunning.

[fragger]

I have to admire your patience and perseverance, PZ!  :) I think I would have thrown in the towel long before.

[PZ]

Well, I check the HOE site periodically to see what new patches are out and download the latest to see what it does.  Typically I see a bit of improvement in the function, which lets me play better than the last time so I guess that it's worth it.  Although I have little experience with flying games, this one is really pretty in the London burning mission which occurs at night - the night time lighting of the city reminds me of some time I spent in Paris several years ago.

[Art Blade]

the London burning mission which occurs at night - the night time lighting of the city reminds me of some time I spent in Paris several years ago

that sounds as if you bombed Paris to smithereens back then  ;D

[PZ]

More like Paris bombed me  ;D