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Anyone know much about this new one from Ubisoft?  The trailer makes the graphics look spectacular.  Supposed to be coming out in September, and is to be available on PC, PS3, XBox.

Warning: this trailer is bandwidth intensive
http://xboxmovies.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/9972/Heroes-Over-Europe-Gameplay-Trailer/

Now that's a must have, PZ...  :)

btw, I downloaded the vid, much better... 20 MB in a couple of minutes...  :-X

I'm envious of your connection speed JRD!  Mostly I get barely enough to get by :)

I'll have to watch the vid later.  But I did read a small preview some time ago and then haven't heard a thing in a while.  Is it primarily dogfighting?  If my flying skills from BF1943 are any sign then I'll do ok in a dogfight but don't ask me to time dropping bombs on anything - I'll always hit the wrong spot!

Here, found two more vids at Gamespot.com

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/heroesovereurope/index.html?tag=result;title;0

... and a nice review at videogamer.com

http://www.videogamer.com/xbox360/heroes_over_europe/preview-1875.html

from the STEAM page...

About the Game

The sequel to the 2005 World War II flight combat game Heroes of the Pacific, Heroes over Europe takes aspiring combat pilots into the bullet-ridden heart of major World War II air battles in glorious high definition.

Developed by Transmission Games in Melbourne, Australia, and powered by an all-new engine, Heroes Over Europe is set to raise the bar for arcade flying games with the all new "Ace Kill" close combat action and four online modes supporting up to 16 players. Visually, the game takes no prisoners with meticulously rendered environments including faithful recreations of London, Berlin and the French Alps, and ultra-realistic iconic warplanes of the era, all presented in stunning high definition graphics.

Advanced WWII realism: 40+ legendary planes like the Spitfire or the Mustang, iconic environments like Berlin or the French Alps
Immersive dogfights features: Master the "Ace Kill" to blast your enemy with one shot, experience the thrill of rocket, dive bomb and torpedo attacks
Exciting online modes: Play in the two dogfight modes - solo or team dogfights - or choose to fight to the last man in survivor and team survivor

System Requirements
OS: Windows® XP/Windows Vista® (only)
Processor: 2.66 GHz Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon™ X2 3800+ (Intel Core® 2 6400 or AMD Athlon X2 4400+ recommended)
Memory: 1 GB Windows XP (2 GB recommended)/2 GB Windows Vista (4 GB recommended)
Graphics: 256 MB video card with Shader model 3.0+ (*see supported list)
DirectX®: DirectX version 9.0c
Hard Drive: 9 GB free
Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, USB controllers, USB flight sticks
Multiplayer: 128kbps Broadband connection (256kbps or faster Broadband recommended)

Quote from: JRD on August 28, 2009, 11:37:54 AM
close combat action and four online modes supporting up to 16 players. Visually, the game takes no prisoners with meticulously rendered environments including faithful recreations of London, Berlin and the French Alps, and ultra-realistic iconic warplanes of the era, all presented in stunning high definition graphics.

This.  :-X

What a beautiful environment (loved the snow scene) and meticulously detailed aircraft.  The flames coming out of the aircraft looks almost real, as do the tracers as they sip by.  It looks like it is primarily dogfighting which was a favorite of mine when I was younger, and a game that looks very promising - if it is as good as it looks, then I'll probably be forced into PC and PS3 versions (I'm going to go broke at this rate).

Quote from: JRD on August 28, 2009, 11:11:32 AM
btw, I downloaded the vid, much better... 20 MB in a couple of minutes...  :-X

out of couriosity I downloaded it too, like 30 seconds (download about 670kbit/s) and I didn't notice any lags during the stream. Has to be a nice server where that is hosted :)

Game looks cool, and I too liked dogfights the most when I was younger (Aces over the Pacific was my fave game for that matter)

Cheers for the heads-up, another game to consider ;D

For anyone interested in game talk at the Ubi forums, here is the link

Heroes over Europe forums (http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/6961076977)

A new trailer video where the planes are flying in a variety of different environments, day, night, winter, summer, etc.

Gamespot trailer (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/heroesovereurope/video/6216275)

sure looks nice, something for my HOTAS joystick  :) Haven't seen in in the store yet though  :(

I'm not sure when exactly it will be released, but Ubi claims sometime in September.

Finishing installation...  ;D ;D ;D

Gah, it's all in German! No language option :( And I bet you'll see the swastika where I see something else, like that iron cross there on the campaign screen. Well, I hope the game itself is ok :)

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Wow, I'm in eager anticipation - go, Art, go!  :-X :-X :-X

[drooling in anticipation over the upcoming screen captures]

right now I am pretty frustrated as the controls menu is strange. The manual recommends using a joystick or something that is not a keyboard, but the setup doesn't offer a joystick configuration. Just a general controls menu, many of the keys are keys, not buttons. I can't seem to adjust my joystick properly :( It doesn't recognise the axis movements in the setup, but in game it partly uses it. There is no option called "joystick" or any other device.  On top, it has a strange default key setting. Ie, select something with "END" and confirm changes with "HOME" - what the hell?

I started a campaign to see how it works before I realised the joystick didn't quite w@&k, so I RTFM (hehe) but there only was the lapidar comment "make sure you set your game to joystick" - but not how. ARGH!

Going to google a bit now.

Good luck with it - sounds like it might be a challenge  :-\

well, on the UBI forums (general forum, not even a specific HoE forum there) I just read some complaints and agreeing comments that there is no joystick option. They say that the game was out in the States 15Sept09 and that they were waiting for a patch there. I found a post "there is a US patch, link somewhere in this forum..." great. Going to find that US patch.

Well, it's not a good sign when you need to patch the game just to make it w@&k, and from the sound of it, anyone interested should probably get a joystick in addition to the game - might need to make another Amazon run.

The german forum has various posts of people who claim to have returned the game to the stores. Due to "missing joystick function" and one wrote "amidst a campaign the game reset the (only) savegame file to zero" - and if you look at the HoE forum... oh dear. I'm really considering to return the game too... but will try that US patch which I have just found.

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/6961076977

wow, the game just crashed in the background, I still hear the music but there is no process in the task manager... nice  :-\

LOL the music is from the HoE homepage (flash player)  ;D I was just about to shut down my pc, and on closing FireFox, suddenly the music stopped. <slaps own forehead with flat hand> ;D

rofl, that has happened to me a couple of times!

I'm off to see if I can find HOE today (U.S. version obviously).  Then see if we have the same issues as the European version - probably need to find some kind of joystick though - any recommendations?

sure: here (http://openworldgames.org/owg/forums/index.php?topic=731.msg9255#msg9255) :)

Installed patch 1.01 from here:

http://static3.cdn.ubi.com/heroes_over_europe/Heroes_Over_Europe_v1.01.exe

now at least it works, albeit it is not fully customisable (due to the game) - leave all settings to default and it will w@&k fair enough.

Like this... trying to steer on "pro" (vs arcade) and taking a screenshot while rather low is not recommendable ;)

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Is that blood in your eyes, Baron?  ;D

Thanks for the stick recommendation  :-X

welcome, thought you might need it one day :)

And no, that's not blood in my eyes. It's my churned guts vomited into my visor  ;D

Looking forward to your impressions of the game when you get a chance to immerse yourself a bit.  With my limited experience with modern games, I've come to realize that I need to give myself a while in the game before I can fully appreciate it's merits (or demerits).

just something in between:

the patch seems to delete itself after updating your game. I was surprised to find the folder empty when I checked again. Just downloaded it again, in case... hehe

Also, you can't purposely save. The game doesn't do it after checkpoints (apparently it does allow you to try again from a checkpoint) - so I reckon it will only save after a mission. Since you've got only one, better take good care of it and occasionally make a backup.

your saved game location is

%USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Ubisoft\Heroes Over Europe\HOESAVE.DAT

And, you can't change screen res. The game gives me 1280*768 without ever asking. No gfx setup.

Oh, the game starts in windowed mode. Nice... just hit ALT+ENTER to go fullscreen.
***

Alright, been playing a bit now. You start the career by viewing your aircraft from a couple of feet away, third person. No cockpit view  >:( You then have to prove you can take off, and have to perform a low overflight in the area, above some buildings. Then your buddy (whoever that is) in another plane tells you to find some Jerries which you miraculously do just after being told to do so. A swarm of bombers which are to be shot down.

Funny thing, I am quite used to flying WWII planes in games like those, but I find it rather difficult to master it in this game. I am simply too fast and lose oversight. No coolie-hat (look around with joystick), no feeling for the plane due to 3rd-person perspective. However, I am on Pro rather than Arcade, which might be a good idea to check now. I shot down some bombers (all on my own, where the heck is that buddy. Tells me what to do but avoids helping me?) but not all, the comment "they're up in the clouds, we can't get them there" is rediculous since I have them almost rear-ended.

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However, the radio is never silent, my buddy keeps telling me stuff that is sometimes amusing, sometimes useful, sometimes I don't even listen to him.

I think I need some time to get used to this :)

Art Blade, playing games so Fiach doesn't have to

Sounds like a difficult game to master - not sure I'll like it unless the European environment is going to be my cup of tea.  Probably going to give it a go anyway.

Quote from: Art Blade on September 25, 2009, 12:07:30 PM
Art Blade, playing games so Fiach doesn't have to

rofl  :-X :-X

hehe, sorry, Fiach  ;)

Quote from: JRD on August 28, 2009, 11:37:54 AM
from the STEAM page...

[...] in glorious high definition [...]
[...] Visually, the game takes no prisoners [...]
[...] ultra-realistic iconic warplanes of the era, all presented in stunning high definition graphics [...]
[...] Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, USB controllers, USB flight sticks[...]

Well well well... Don't expect that ;)

so far,

- 1280*768 fixed res
- you do recognise planes as such
- joysticks partly w@&k after first patch 1.01 (1.02 is already being worked on)

I think it could serve as a quick change of games. It is nice, after all, to be able to fly around WWII Europe, and dog fights are always fun.

I'd like to know how PZ, JRD and particularly spaceboy think of this game (get it mate)

I am not saying it's crap, just not a stunner from the start.

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Maybe it is crap. Until we get to see Paris, London etc, this is not really appetising. Takes ages to complete the first mission because it is so hard to get, not keep (forget that), in line with those enemy planes. We're talking bombers that are not supposed to outmaneouvre a fighter plane.

I'm now playing on Arcade. Still the first mission (take 20,493, oh god, cut. CUT!) and arcade just strips you of some abilities (like roll etc), I might try the keyboard next. Maybe you guys with gamepads are better off, in case the game recognises them, that is.

just thinking, I had more fun flying ArmA2's planes  ;D

I must admit that your last screen capture of the in-game environment is not impressive.  Looks like ARMA2 on one of the lower resolutions.

wow, used a zoom, therefore you see only a bit of my plane, and got quite close to the gound. I think those spots are actually buildings... :) Playing with keyboard is not really helping, though. I am seriously considering to return that game.

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Considering that a great flight joystick like my Thrustmaster is not recognised by a FLIGHT game, and that you need to use the keyboard for essential functions, how the hell is that supposed to w@&k let alone provide fun? And you don't have anything but what you see on those screenshots. Not even a compass. No cockpit. IN A GAME about PLANES. And telling me this was glorious high definition and about ultra-realistic iconic warplanes is just a bad joke.

Alright, I will try to get my money back tomorrow.

My oppinion: AVOID THIS GAME (PC).

Edit: maybe consoles are better off.

Was just thinking, the PC version is a portation from console, but MAN how bad is this. And they charged 50€ for it when Need For Speed: Shift only costed 39€, nice game. Cockpits. Even doable with keyboard only.

Looks like another potentially great game bites the dust. What a letdown!
Thanks for all your troubles, Art - and I do mean troubles!
Maybe you should have concluded with:

Art Blade - getting exasperated so nobody else has to

hehe, I'm more disappointed as in sad, not that much exasperated. I think it's plainly impertinent to sell a product that doesn't even feature warranted characteristics. Speaking of which, about to leave the house to get my money back :)

I got my money back. No fuss.

I like my favourite game shop even more now  :-X

Gee... too bad it sucks, I was really looking forward to this game... I love flying games... you should take a look at HAWX... not sure if it is that good though, maybe search a few reviews before you try it. At release it was a highly expected game, a few months latter things may have changed!



Hey fragger... nice avatar and sig...
May I add...
''Cabbages don`t drink, therefore they`re not''  ;D ;D ;D

not really interested in that game, but I've heard someone talk about "I.L.2" but not looked into that.

lol, I guess that I checked the forum a bit too late - picked up the PC version yesterday evening!  :'(

best chances to return a package unopened... or refer to the same legal circumstance everyone else has, absence of "warranted characteristics"  ;)

Too late for the unopened package too - opened it last night to read the pamphlet.  However the later is something that might w@&k  :-X

However, I couldn't stand it and am installing it right now - will deal with the fallout later  ;D

good luck, link for patch 1.01 see above, 1.02 on its way as they say. Hope it works for you, chances are with a game pad it might  :)

We'll soon see - Wolfenstein was designed with the game pad in mind - the Saitek unit I have works as well as the controllers on the PS3 - very smooth and precise with regards to the steering.  It remains to be seen whether or not the HOE programmers did the same, because without deliberate programming it will be no better than any of the other games like FC2, ARMA2, COJ2, etc - none of which were designed for the game pad.

In any case, this is the first flying game that I've played since the old Flight Simulator 1.0 days

I'm willing to edit my "avoid this" line (making it a little smaller perhaps hehe) if you approve functional game pad AND if you say graphics are ok for you. Please let us know your oppinion about the game :)

oh by the way, can you make a screenshot of the first mission screen (see my first shot) to compare German vs US? :)

Don't need to - it is the same as yours with the iron cross - kind of disappointed - it is probably Ubisofts cheap way out of changing the game for different audiences. 

I'm going to program my game pad because the game as it is (without patch) does not support it - just like you mentioned with the joystick.  Fortunately I can do a quick test because the Saitek does a standard FPS profile.

I like the music and the effects when you shoot down planes - just did the training mission where you shoot down the Junkers - the flames and explosions are good as are some of the other effects like the occasional Fallschirmjäger and wing falling off.

Will keep you posted, and no need to change your recommendation just yet...

thanks for the comments :) Keep it going and coming  ;) :-X

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 (http://m0002.gamecopyworld.com/games/pc_heroes_over_europe.shtml).
  
• 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.

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.

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.

Quote from: JRD on September 26, 2009, 07:25:48 AM
''Cabbages don`t drink, therefore they`re not''

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

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.

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.

Quote from: Art Blade on September 27, 2009, 01:19:41 PM
... 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.

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.

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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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 :)

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.

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

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 (http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6961076977/m/5421039297) to info regarding the 1.02.1 patch

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.

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.

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!"

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.

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.

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.

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

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.  ;)

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.

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

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.

Quote from: PZ on October 09, 2009, 09:24:13 AMthe 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

More like Paris bombed me  ;D

hahahaha  ;D