Customer Reviews

Panzer General 3: Scorched Earth

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Being a fan of the Panzer General series of games, I really enjoyed this latest enstallment. It builds on the existing game system greatly with new features with a new way of aquiring your army and promotions. The Video and unit artwork is a lot better. The new leader specials, awards and promotion system is great. It really gave you a better feeling of what it was like to use the many unique weapons systems of the day, all the way from a Panzer II to the King Tiger, and all other systems as well. It handles, finally, the dreaded German 88 in such a way that you really realize it's terror. The game also has a battle generator so you can make your own battles as well as online gaming. The game did occationally drop me to system, but these errors only occured seldom. Save games were good and I had no problems there. Video and animations of the units was very good with no problems. To me this is by far the best war game I have played, and I have played them all since the early 1980's. It has great replayablity as well. So far I have played about 10 campaigns. Just to do one took about 30 hours. I could have done it quicker but it was too great to rush through. And unlike the old Panzer Generals, there seem to be much larger campaigns and more scenarios.

PG III: Scorched Earth is the latest addition in a long series of turnbased strategy games. I have found the other games in this series very addictive and I find they strike a fine balance between depth and almost instant playability. That is to say, these games are not for hardcore wargamers but for people who love tanks and boardgames but don't want to micromanage too much. Compared to Peoples General and Panzer general II, this game has outstanding graphics. It is really nice to see your Tiger tank race down a road, beautifully rendered, to meet its adversary. The sound effects match very well, adding to the immersive effect without standing very much out. This also means at least I haven't found them to be annoying.

On the army management side PG III has expanded the leader side, actually putting faces on them and giving you a leader roster to choose from to command your new units. The units themselves don't gain experience but the leader does and as he becomes promoted his unit can perform more actions per turn. This is really powerful and lends more flexibility to your units. Your fighter plane can move twice, for instance looking for an enemy bomber, shoot and move again.

The missions are more varied than the ones previously encountered in this series. You will be required to fight breakout battles, search and destroy missions, as well as the good old take certain objectives. Having only just bought the game I won't comment on the campaign design but it is in general a pretty simple game to learn and I feel that it adds plenty of new sides to satisfy veteran players of the series.

I've played the other PGs before but this one is really outstanding. The 3D really has made the genre visually beautiful and more tactically relevant. Also, with the new format of taking different missions throughout the campaigns, no two campaigns are alike. Its fun to actually have a war game (I've played many) that tries to follow the historical battles/engagements of the Eastern front. One of the best touches is seeing how the experience of the Russians initially starts off poor and increases likewise with equipment. The only thing I miss from the original PG is having German or Russian audios of orders being given for various operations. This game engages one both on the levels of being fun and intellectually challenging. This is an outstanding game.

This game is a fine sequel to the PG series. I've played all of the PG games since the original release, and this one does not disappoint. SSI made improvements in each PG release; however, they also deleted some cool features from previous releases (i.e.: level bombing using HE-111s or B-17s in PG1). SSI eliminated the "prestige-points as currency to purchase equipment" system in PG III, and that takes a bit getting used to. PG III is a continuation of PG 3D Assault, so campaigns take place in the Eastern Front, thus no "Overlord" (D-Day) or the "Autumn Mist" (Battle of the Bulge). To play battles in the Western Front as the British and Americans, I got PG 3D Assault. The 3-D graphics in PG III is great (complete with rain drops and snow flakes), but your game pieces do some times blend in with the surroundings, which can cause you to leave units behind if you're not careful. PG III is more challenging than previous releases, and the AI does a much better job in flanking maneuvers. You can no longer build an unrealistically huge army to overwhelm the opponent during campaign play, and you better watch you flanks in this game. PG III also added the "leader" feature, which other reviewers have already mentioned. When playing the Germans, PG III gives you some historic sense of the strategic challenges that the Wehrmacht faced in WW II of trying to occupy a huge country such as Russia with a relatively small force. When playing the Germans, securing your flank while continuing to drive forward requires player to study the strategic map carefully. Even with equipment superiority, invading a country like Russia is a strategic nightmare, as the French found out in 1812 and the Germans again during the Second World War. Overall, a great game, and deserves five stars even though SSI should offer a price break for owners of PG 3D Assault.

If you enjoyed earlier titles in this series BUY IT! If you've never played a PG title before, but have an interest in WWII or strategy games--give this title a try. Ownership of earlier titles is unecessary to play or enjoy the game. It provides a simulation of WWII tactical warfare on the eastern front. The game places you as the commander of German or Russian armies: You select your commanders, equipment and the strategy. The game is highly addictive and the graphics & sound effects draw you into the game. You will tremble when a royal tiger rumbles over the hill in front of you(complete with the squeal of late-war German armor)!

PGII was a quantum leap forward in graphics/sound, user interface, and gameplay mechanics over the original PG. PGIII is an equally large improvement over PGII. It provides great graphics/sound and most of all brings greater balance & refinement to the game. Being a fan of earlier versions, I was initially disappointed at the apparent elimination of the Prestige Point system. However, after learning to play the game I realized that the prestige points are still there, they just are no longer used a bank account as in earlier versions of PG. Your leaders, available promotions, available equipment and roster slots are all based upon your prestige and success on the battlefield.

Although you will amass slightly smaller armies, this is actually an improvement: It allows you to concentrate on your individual units more and makes them more important. Mulitple moves,attacks and special abilities based on leader experience levels balance the reduced numbers and are part of the evolution of PG to a more sophisticated and balanced game.

In earlier versions of PG your armies snowballed from early successes enabling your armies to roll over your opponents with minimal effort. PGIII is more balanced and makes you sweat until the final objective of your campaign is completed. You also never run out of enemies: In PGII I frequently eliminated all opposing forces from the battlefield; in PGIII the enemy keeps coming at you until you complete your objective (which varies depending on the scenario).

In a word: AWESOME! I can't wait for Pacific General III & PG IV!

Do not buy this if you have Windows ME, game will not run, no tech support or patches are avaliable. Website listed in game documentation doesn't exist. company which makes this game doesn't support it any more, they have either been sold, or gone out of business

Do not buy this game if you have windows ME, the game won't run, no tech support of any kind or patches are avaliable. SSI says they don't support the game any more.

Panzer General III displays a battlefield that will put you in the mood to form serious strategies. The game is not overly complicated but you soon learn that what seems to be the most straightforward plan of attack will not always work! It gets you to think. Decent sound effects, good unit movement, nice display.

It's not a typical online WWII or shooting game, but the one that you play with computer enemy. It has turns limit, and you can control several units including tank, infantry, artillery, fighter, etc. The scene is 3D, but I recommend Panzer General 2 more. Because in PG2 there are at least 5 countries, however in PG3 you can only choose Soviet Union or Germany.

I like this game because it fixed the big problems of its predecessor PG3D Assault. Firstly, it only costs 1 slot for any unit regardless of experience level. This means I no longer have to put up with ridiculous 3 to 1 or even 5 to 1 odds.

Secondly, the crashes when I ambush the computer are gone.

The units also are better animated than before. Now, you see things like tanks traversing their turrets towards their targets to fire.

However, this game creates new headaches. I don't like the numerous exit-this-many-units-off-the-map-by-8turns or you lose scenarios. They are unrealistic. I don't know of any real WW2 battle where something like this had to be done. The time table for these operations are also way too short.

This game is also stingier than PG3D Assault in giving out promotions and extra roster slots.

This game is definitely superior to PG3D Assault.

Also, I wish it had more hypothetical US/Allies vs. Communists battles.