Well.. having tried the demo version (only 20MB! nice to see a reasonable download size
for a change
) I have to say, I'm VERY impressed!
I can see why everyone says it's the best modern tank sim there is.
Though it's very complex, the tutorials do a good job of familiarising you with the various sighting systems,
orders, aiming, waypoints etc.
I have to say that though I am a tank/AFV enthusiast I never knew that the sighting and aiming systems in the
M1 Abrams were so good - it basically does the job of both leading and rangefinding for you. No wonder their
combat record has been so good so far (Do the T-72 and T-80 have a similar system? I'm assuming the T-72 doesn't,
but I'm not sure about the T-80)
Graphically it's not nearly as bad as I expected, whilst it isn't comparable to more recent games,
the vehicles look reasonable (textures are high-res enough to avoid too much pixellation) and the terrain
is reasonably varied and realistic-looking, apart from the very bright green grass (is there a mod for this?)
The mission editor is also very easy to use (rather Operation Flashpoint-like). I discovered that the various other
vehicles in the game were controllable in custom missions (with no internal views), which was a pleasant surprise; it would be interesting to create a mission where the player controls a Bradley or BMP platoon for example.
I also noticed that the vehicle skins, terrain textures etc. were non-packed and in .bmp format, for easy moddability.
I might try making some vehicle skins myself, when I get the game.
Thanks for the link valleyboy - though I have spent quite a lot of money recently (mostly second-hand models/kits on Ebay)
I think I can spare an extra £9.99 (free postage apparently) for a sim as good as this.