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I remember the day well...
I had just picked up a PCGamer magazine to look for a game
for my new P2-300 with its 64 meg! of ram and Asus Pure 8
meg Voodoo card! I opened it up flipped through it and the
ad for BattleZone immediately caught my attention. I was a
"tanker" from way back when I was playing M1A1 Abrams
on a 286 in the computer science lab at university. You can
imagine the looks you get when people are trying to do assigments
and you are dodging behind buildings and trying to get hull
down before the enemy arrives on the scene. If you want to
go back a little farther, I spent a *lot* of quarters playing....
Arcade BattleZone. I took one look at the ad, read the Weasel
words and figured this was the game for me.
As flawed as it was, I played the *heck* out of BattleZone.
It was slower paced than Doom™ but faster paced than
Master of Orion™. It had all the elements I wanted plus
one I hadn't expected. The multiplayer DM was a ton of fun.
Long story short, I'm sure that I've amortized the cost of
that game to a few pennies an hour.
BattleZone 2 - Combat Commander was hyped to be everything
that BZ1 wasn't. Better internet stability, better gameplay,
new tanks, new worlds and no cheating. We would see new styles
of play added to the game, including Capture the Flag, Kiing
of the Hill *and* team play strategy. Sadly, BZ2 was kicked
out of the incubator into the harsh glare of reality before
its time. Pandemic Studios proved they have the vision, Activision
proved they have no heart. If you talk to the community folks
who really know the game, you will find that what is present
is merely a facade for what could have been a truly amazing
game. As it stands now, the game is merely adequate in gameplay,
amazing in visuals and adequate in internet stability.
It Didn't Matter
To say that the community was somewhat dissappointed in what
become BZ2 would be an understatement. Others have gone into
the why's and the whatfor's and that is not my point of being
here. People have stepped up to the plate and made every line
of code within the game, worthwhile. Insomniax released a
multi-map pack, the Community Project is well under way and
dozens of other mods and projects are out there. Thats what
makes the BattleZone community the best damn community around.
Even with Asmo:) (Hi Asmo, just play the part).
Team BattleZone had a vision too and BZ2 didn't meet it.
Now, since our plan to raid Pandemic Studios and capture SuperProgrammer
Ken Miller didn't work (foiled when they turned Avatar into
a mole with offers of free Pandemic T-shirts) we decided to
add to the community.
My God, What Have You Done?
We brought some old friends to the party. All of the BZ1
death match tanks have been brought into BZ2. We also ported
over a good BZ1 map, Fuzzy's Used Tank lot. We've included
lots of tricks, treats and visuals. When you start playing,
be sure to turn all graphics setitings on high. Do it once,
just to look around, then turn them down so you can get maximum
FPS. We also used Amaleki's sound pack and added a few of
our own, I bet you like it.
The COW Pack Includes
- All BZ1 DM Tanks ported over into BZ2
- A Sound Pack
- Fuzzy's Used Tank Lot Map
Enjoy,
Team BattleZone
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