Hi Guys.
I somehow skipped this title.
Do any of you have played this?
Is it something worth checking out?
Thanks in advance.

i actually would really like to play this one! but try sd i might i cannot get it to run on either windows 7 or xp and not even on a virtualpc version of win98 could i get it to run without crashing as soon as it goes to the actual mission - frustrating!

Thanks.
Maybe your comment saved some money for me.
Luckily, as far as I see, there is a demo available, I wil give it a try and see how it goes.

It's not that good anyway- in my opinion. You're not missing much.

It was one of the 1st games I played with my then brand-new voodoo card.

I liked it, really enjoyed the different campaigns, although the lack of infantry other than fixed positions was a big omission.

All in all though Panzer Elite plus its mods does everything better then Panzer Commander.

Guys if you like tank sims and are looking for a good one with up-to-date mods then I suggets you try Steel Fury with the recently released Steel Panzer Mod 2.0.Lots of skins, mods , missions come with it.Check it out on the Steel Fury forum on Graviteamm.com.

Panzer Elite is still great with the PPX mod but let's face it it's an old lady, ageing gracefully but who can't keep up with the young chicks.;

there are mods for panzer elite? cool, where are they

I would like to give steel fury a go too i might check it out - has anyone here played that game T-72 Balkans on Fire - i got it cheap on steam, it looks okay enough, i had a go at it but it seemed difficult to actually target and fire with and i was destroyed by some m60 in the distance among some trees before i had any idea of how to even just aim the main gun at it

The bonus disk of PESE has a number of mods. A number of those mods continued to be developed well after 2001. A simple search can find them.

I agree with Brit '44 Panzer Elite special edition with mods is great..It's available at Good old games cheap..Tried the steel fury series but seemed the learning curve too steep,

Panzer Elite mods are available here:

http://home.comcast.net/~ab707/

http://pedg.yuku.com/topic/2141/PE-X-Realsed-Version#.UPcpSWdKSSp

http://panzerelite.yuku.com/topic/482/Pa...Pa#.UPcpeGdKSSo

The latter (BobR's 'Panzer Elite 3') is a fairly complete package based on Aldo's recent (PEDG) updates to the game engine. Aldo has succeeded in adding such essential features as visibly correct ballistic trajectories, better infantry behaviour and longer view distances. PE3 adds many much-improved vehicle models and skins as part of the package. Once you have the hang of its control system - which can take time! - PE still stands out amongst tanksims, new or old, as an exceptionally comprehensive effort, with many features that are better than Steel Fury or that it hasn't got (better 'wingman' control, ability to call in artillery fire missions). Plus you can play for or against the Western Allies, in Tunisia, Italy and Normandy. Having started playing PE again recently I remember now the only thing I didn't much like about it was the design of most missions - a 'platoon drive in the country' with a 2-way shooting gallery thrown in is fine, but while there is some effort to make your mission feel like part of something resembling a company-level attack, the level of opposition is often such that you end up using your wingmen as 'lives'; wheras I much prefer to get my men through the mission rather than use them in this fashion. I built a Normandy Churchill squadron/infantry platoon attack mission along more realistic lines with an abbrevaited but authentic set of 'oral orders' (PE gives you verbal and map briefings, tho the stock ones are a little cheesy) but this effort fell foul of AI pathfinding limitations, causing mission triggers as other units advanced, not to work, and things to bog down.

'Panzer Elite Special Edition' is the starting point and has all the original mods but not the latest versions nor the other new features which come with stuff based on Aldo's new game engine.

Panzer Commander I quite enjoyed, tho I can't get it to work on a modern video card. Better than contemporary rivals - until PE came along. But as stated, PzC had/has a lot of really major limitations - eg poor-looking AT emplacements, an effective but hugely-simplified targeting system (whereas in PE as well as 'gunning' you can play from the commander's cupola (buttoned up or not) or 3rd person view and designate targets for your gunner or wingmen). PzC also had very basic landscapes, environments and graphics, and no infantry at all.

Steel Fury with mods is a great experience as tanksims go, but it has a lot of limitations of its own compared to PE, not least, no western, north African or Mediterranean fronts, very little US or British kit and as far as I know the only maps are the smallish stock ones for the Kharkov area, so while you can drive and fight a King Tiger you can forget about defending Caen or even other parts of the Ostfront.

Re T72 - Balkans on Fire (or Iron Warriors in the UK) I like T72s and doubtless could have got to enjoy it but platoon/troop and company'squadron operations, not just driving around in your tank shooting stuff while the AI do their own thing, is to me the mark of a real tanksim - it's about simulating not just operating a tank as a system, but fighting a tank as part of realistic troop and squadron-level military operations, preferably in the role of troop/platoon leader. T72-IW didn't do that; your were in your nice tank and that was it.

True enough, Panzer Elite is the only WWII sim that offers you the chance to fight on all fronts.But PE 's got limitations of its own; the AI is represented by sprites with very little depth in terms of interaction, the graphics - while beautifully upgraded by BritAldo44 and Slomo - are still behind the times and the landscapes have a cartoonish feel.The ballistics and FX are also showing their age.

On the pro side as well the game is very light on cpus/gpus and can be played smoothly even with low end video cards.The variety of mods, maps and missions is increadible and it still have a active forum and plenty of loyal followers.It also plays well on Win 7 ( I have it installed on my desktop with Win & HE).

Steel Fury is about the only serious competitor for PE. Ma-wise in additioon to the 28 stock maps there are over 40 more maps made by modders, available.I have a total of 70 maps in one of my installations.As is the casse for Panzer Elites there are tons of mods and missions available( over 200 user-made missions)in the form of campaign( Rends' Kursk, Barbarossa or Kyth"s Panzer III and Panzer 38t campaigns) or single missions.There are sound mods, weather mods( Autumn, Spring, late Autumn, mid Summer, early winter, winter with snow ect).New buildings ( barns, windmills , hangars etc) have been added.After PE it's the WWII sim with hte largest variety of amrour and vehicles available including most of the known German( Pz II,III,IV,V VI and Stugs, Marders, Jagdpanthers, Jagdpanzer IV , Jadgtiger, Ferdinand) and Soviet ones ( KVs, JS, T-34s, SUs etc)and the Sherman M4A1, the Churchill Mark III, the Mathilda, the as well as the Willys jeep.Soon the M-26 and M-36 US tanks will be added to the game.because it's an East Front sim of coruse all the maps are of Eastern Europe though consideration is being given to creating maps with Western European landscapes.Map size is small - 4 sq kilometres - which in my opinion is a drawback.Gameplay and graphics and FX are good though.You cannot play as tactically as PE allows which is also a drawback but the AI is better.While PE is a more complete game I think SF is more immersive and more visually appealing. However I think it makes sense to have both ( as I do) to get a taste of each.

T-72 Balkans on Fire I also have but I find it bland, with small missions and a lack of polish. The interface ain't exactly intuitive. There user-made missions packs available ( I have 21 user-made missions which are better than the stock ones).The game can be purchased cheaply but there. Since the game was partly made by Graviteam , the company that made Steel Fury, it's got like SF a user-friendly Mission Editor which is a plus.However there are much better an d interesting contempary armour sims out there( Steel Beats and Steel Armour Blaze of War for example).

As Mr Reagan said, 'I will speak no ill of a republican'. Graviteam sims are great. PE is an earlier game that continues to develop, at a slower pace. Pe's AI is better then any mod released. I spent a long time evaluating the problems of 33lima's Hill 112 script for PE. The original PE script code was broken. Beta 16.5 fixed most of those, but BobR's and mine war over "you can't stop me" ground a halt to modders like 33Lima. PE is an entry level sim. PEx is a second level of PE. She is old and not so cute as modern sims

Hi Aldo, long time no see, glad you proved to have more PE staying power than I did!

Since trying out PE-X and PE3 I have been wondering if the changes made would make it worthwhile having another effort with missions like S. of Hill 112, in between railway modelling, occasional airsoft and flying First Eagles 2.

Despite PE's limitations and really appreciating SF42's many fine features, I still think PE is on balance the better WW2 simulation of playing the role of a tank troop/platoon leader and tank commander, which is 'where it's at' to my own particular eyes. From that standpoint, PE is let down mainly by too many 'waves of enemies' missions, ok for battles like mini-Prokhorovkas but not your typical tank company operation, especially in the ETO. With 'better' (=more realistic, to my mind) missions, which place you as a platoon leader in a reinforced-company-level operation (incl your tank company/squadron having realistic types, not the usual wild mix), with more realistic NATO-style 'oral orders' (Britain and USA used a British system which is almost the same as the 1970s-1980s NATO standard I am familiar with), PE seems to me to be the one and only WW2 tanksim that could really approach Steel Beasts levels of authenticity, with the added advantage of providing for decent Single Player campaigns across the main ETO/MTO theatres.

Re-learning the PE Mission Editor would be fun - in the widest sense of the term.

If you think it worthwhile, I might have a go. I must see if I can find a zip of S. of Hill 112, it's not on the backup CDs I can find, maybe that would not work but it might be a good and familiar place to start. Doesn't seem to be online anywhere any more; do you happen to have an original copy, Aldo, I wonder?

Ivor

It was more RL issues than anything else that saw me moving on from PE, especially after the probs with S of Hill 112 spilled over into the 'USPak' missions I was trying to script with US tanker Stugumby's help.

I decided to stay behind. I do not regret it.

I wish I could have contacted you when rebuilding the master build for Nordic Games. I had to leave your mods out because I could not gain your permission.

I spent a lot of time looking at the AI scripting and comparing it to what the SE docs say it should be and what you and I found it to be in S hill 112. I added debug log entries when the SE docs lie. The one thing that has little improvement is the indirect fire of motars. The ballestic arc is OK, but the AI logic for deployment is little.

I used your S of Hill 112 to create infantry Vs infantry 'close assults'. I learned PE does have overwatch logic between AI platoons (platoon collison needs to be on}. S of Hill 112 plays best if the AI movement is controled by it.

It is possable to see in game the movement of each unit, but I do not wish to tell the obvious way.

The scenerio scripting can be changed by text editing the scn file. This is the better way. Playing at multiple changes in the SE will result in deletion of previous scripts you have fixed.

I can not tell you how to spend your hobby time, but I do think you should take a minute to compare development of S of Hill 112 under PE and under PEx. I have your early 2 part zip on my win98 computer. The first zip I do not have.

Shoot me a PM or email me.

PM sent. I've now got a second PE install patched to 1.2, which seems to work, so I'll use that as a basis for a PE-x install, alongside the PE3 one. Off to check out the PE-x install instructions now, over at http://pedg.yuku.com/topic/2141/PE-X-Realsed-Version#.UPq_GGfDWSp

This is well off topic now! I suppose PEDG is the place for this at least that is still going strong!