Okay, that phrase predates World War Two even, but I hope to quell some unrest about World War Two Online here. I check the general forums fairly regularly and frankly there haven't been a lot of new threads I wanted to comment on, Sim seems to be the new voice of logic and reason, and the General Forum now seems to be his domain. But I still see threads about how there isn't enough green in Europe, the thumb of the trooper is too pointy, or how the graphics suck. The beta testers see these threads on the main forum and want to reply, oh how we long to answer, but we are afraid that it would violate our NDAs. The urge to respond it what is keeping many of them off of the WWIIOL forums. I hope that this article expresses some of the feelings that the Beta-Testers have about the game. We want you to know that we think you will be very happy with World War Two Online, we want to calm your fears. Don't worry be happy! There are many shades of green and the graphics can be downright scary at time.

I guess there are about two hundred Beta-Testers now and I haven't heard one of them complain about the graphics. Let me tell you a little play-testing story to illustrate a point. I almost always play as allied and we were moving from the Dinant to Spontin Firebase to attack Spontin. There was a fairly steady stream of Panzer IIIs rolling out of Spontin and holding off a determined attack by French B1s and British A-13 Cruiser tanks. I spawned as a French trooper, because you have to have infantry to take terrain in World War Two Online, and began the walk to Spontin. Just south of Spontin I found some nice cover under a large tree and began to call out the location and number of the Axis tanks in the area. As I watched the Axis tanks, waiting for a chance to advance without drawing their fire, I saw a lone German Infantryman about 400 yards off doing roughly the same thing I was doing. He was kind of out in the open and I had better cover so I aimed and fired. He dropped to the ground though I knew I had missed him. I adjusted my aim because I could still see him and fired again. He must have seen my muzzle flashes because before long I saw the indication that bullets were coming my way, and heard the soft thwip-thud of them hitting the terrain near me. I don't know how long we exchanged fire in that position. I couldn't exactly how close my bullets were hitting to him though I could see I was getting close and I could see exactly how close he was getting to me, too close for comfort. I thought to myself that cowardice is the better part of valor and I changed my position to keep him guessing. Unfortunately for me I was pretty close to the front. As I was taking pot shots at him he contacted one of the Panzers. I no sooner had fired from my new position than I noticed that the leaves over my head were being shredded by Machine Gun Fire. I could hear the impact of the bullets in the tree over my head and in the ground around me. It was pretty obvious that the tank didn't know my exact location, but that wouldn't last. I began crawling backwards and turned so I could see the tank in the distance perhaps seven or eight hundred yards off; a Panzer III bearing down directly on me. I crawled backwards until I could put a bush, the only other cover in the area, between the tank and myself. I then began to crawl backward directly away from the tank keeping the bush between the tank and me. Too soon for my survival that Panzer reached that bush and I was forced to find another and put it between the tank and myself in order to keep my cover. Meanwhile the German trooper had been taking advantage of my flight from the Tank and had been advancing on me. I heard him coming closer and firing at me. I began to turn to return fire at the trooper, but it was too late for me. I don't know if it was the tank or the trooper who got me, but I died.

The graphics are good enough to pick up an enemy trooper at pretty good range visibly and the cover is good enough that you can hide from tanks behind bushes. The intensity is there to cause you to be startled when you sit under a tree thinking you are gonna SN1P3R an enemy trooper, and the machine gun bullets from an enemy tank start to thwip, zoing, and thud into the terrain and foliage that you are hiding in. When I saw the branches start to disintegrate and heard those bullets, I didn't think "Oh, that doesn't look real," or "That doesn't sound like a bullet hitting a tree," I did think, "Oh I am so ." I honestly have worried at times that World War Two Online may cause flashbacks in Combat Veterans. It can get pretty intense at times.

Here is a little about the terrain; the Beta testers chat amongst themselves while we move to the front in various forms of transport. Troopers riding in Opels or Bedfords, Tankers in the A-13, Char B1, R35, Pz III, or Pz38T, or the towed anti-tank pieces. We don't talk about the lack of hills, depressions and terrain features; we talk about the ones that exist. That gully looks like a good place to put an AT gun, that ridgeline should mask our tanks as we move toward the enemy town/base, that copse of trees is a great place to set up a tank ambush. We don't complain about the lack of green, we "Thank God for the Grass" and crawl along the ditch beside the road on our bellies in "Worm Mode." The terrain is mapped from Satellite Elevation data and accurately reflects the terrain of the North Eastern France/Western Belgium Area where these battles actually took place. If the terrain seems flat to you, which it doesn't seem to any of the beta-testers, it must be flat in real life. I admit it isn't Colorado at the base of the Rockies, the terrain more closely matches that around my home in Michigan. Every build of the Beta the Rats fill in more of the terrain with detail, it is a time consuming process and you can tell how hard they are working on it every build. The detailed area expands exponentially every build. There are enough trees and bushes that you have to spend a lot of time examining them closely when you see them. Are they really trees or are they Panzer tanks or A-13s (which has a very nasty gun by the way?) Do they conceal an English two-pounder or a German 88 (easily the most devastating weapon in the game)? Is there an SdKf7 or Bedford behind one waiting to dash to your base and take it over? If you don't scan those trees and the horizon when you start moving again, you are asking to be a target.

SN1P3R1|\|G! Folks there are churches with steeples, about four stories in height, and I think every tester had climbed the stairs and waited patiently for someone or something to Sn1p3r! I myself was fortunate enough to ambush a SdKf7 with four troopers in it as the Axis tried to reclaim Spontin. Carrot and RexRox were there also, and I am going to suggest that the obligatory High Five Motion/Command be added so we can celebrate a successful ambuscade. Unfortunately for us the Axis shelled the Church with High Explosive which wasn't conducive to continued existence of our avatars. On another occasion as the allies again held Spontin and the Axis put up a determined attack to take Spontin back. One of the annoying Axis Ground Attack Aircraft roamed the Sky causing havoc amongst Spontin's defenders. I watched as the Stuka bombed an A-13 and made several strafing passes on a Bedford until it was also a smoking ruin. I was a gallant French Trooper at the time and could only return fire with my single shot, bolt action rifle. The overconfident Stuka Pilot began to strafe me! I stood my ground and calmly returned fire, growing nervous as the tracers moved rapidly toward me and dust and debris obscured my view. Suddenly it was over; the Stuka extended and climbed for altitude preparing for another strafing pass. Again I held my ground and fire; again I saw the tracers, the dirt, the smoke. I felt fear as the bullets got closer, should I run or stand? I fired and suddenly he had gone overhead again, we had both missed. I watched again as he extended and turned back toward Spontin, again I held my ground and my fire, I aimed calmly, waiting for the Stuka to fill my gun site. I watched the muzzle flashes of the two machine guns on the Stuka. I could hear the tpwip-thwup, thwip-thwup, thwip-thwup of the bullets tearing up the earth around my feet! I stayed calm, aimed calm, waited, then I squeezed the trigger! I saw a sprite appear on the canopy of the Stuka, suddenly it pulled up sharply, it began to roll, the plane flew about 300 yards beyond me, nose up violently and stalled, then it slipped backward into the ground and exploded! I had Sn1p3r3d a Stuka! I was so geeked! I got on the text radio, and asked "did everyone see that, did anyone one else think they hit it?" A few minutes later Bmbm came on as allied and asked who the French Trooper in Spontin was. He congratulated me on that shot. Later I checked my log files and confirmed it. My one bullet went through the propeller of his Stuka, though the pilots arm and imbedded in his torso! I was the L33T3ST Sn1p3R!

The element of surprise exists also, one time I was cruising along in an A-13 when suddenly over the hill in front of me comes on SdKf7 loaded with Axis Infantry! I got on the main gun and put a well placed round through the engine from directly ahead. The SdK swerved in the road and I began to fire my Machine gun. I think I managed another main gun round and as the SdK rolled past me, I hit it in the flank with Machine gun, I saw the mess I was making of the infantry in the back of the SdK! To tell the truth the thought that flashed through my mind was that this was like firing down the length of pews in a church, Oh the humanity! Unfortunately for me, one of the troopers dropped off the SdK when I first open fired, he Sn1p3r3d my unbuttoned Tank Commander and my Gunner before my Driver was able to withdraw.

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