WWI Game Strategy Game

[Jarhead0331]

I would really like to give SC WWI a shot, but the map makes my eyes bleed. Its just so damn plain and boring. It really saps my excitement for the game. Not very "grognard" of me, I know, but I'm just being honest.

[Gusington]

I felt the same way but some of the scenarios really drew me in.

[Queeg]

After reading this thread I downloaded a WWI Gold demo from somewhere to try it out but it ran very slowly on my Win 8 64 computer. Map movement was very slow and jerky. I know WWI Centennial was supposed to work better on newer systems, anyone playing it on Win 8 successfully?

WWI Centennial runs much better for me than WWI Gold in Win 8.  Gold was always unplayable for me, but Centennial runs really well.  Like night and day, for me anyway.   

[OJsDad]

The graphics on SC WW1 take me back to my Atari 800XL days, 25 years ago. 

[Queeg]

To the OP, I've played pretty much every WWI game or mod out there, and think WWI Gold/Centennial is the best of the bunch.  It's a great combination of grand strategy and war game.  It's based on a board game, so it has a completely unique feel that nicely fits WWI.  Battles are a very hands-on affair, with a nice "over the top" feel to them.  And because of the way reinforcements work, offensives involve fronts instead of just uber-stacks.  It all just feels very WWI.   

Although AGEOD developed Gold, the game does not use the Athena engine; it's a different type of game altogether. 

[JasonPratt]

I don't recall having any problem playing Gold on my Win 8 system; Centennial feels a bit more jerky to me (on Win 8.1), but that might be because I elected not to preload the map during load which I read somewhere can lead to game crashes for Cent.

I honestly don't know if the demo for Gold from Matrix is up to the latest patch standards anyway. Heck, last time I checked (admittedly a year or more ago), Matrix still wasn't even linking to its own official latest patch on the product page for Gold! -- I found it on the Matrix forum for the game! 

I'm working up a VAR for the game to show how things stand with, well, Centennial to be honest, although how legal that will continue to be who knows. But Gold was playable, for me, with Win 8.1 once I patched it, and... {thinking} maybe once I told it, in the preload menu, to turn off hyperthreading or double coring or whatever: the game doesn't know what to do with that sort of thing. Notably, on Cent's preload option screen, I don't recall those as options to even try turning on. (Then again, I've never seen Cent's preload screen again and I'm not sure how to get it.)

Please note that Cent does not seem to have instructions! -- clicking the "manual" link from the library entry on Steam shows it a dead link defauting back to the Steam main store front page. I figured this out after deleting Gold. 

[Bardolph]

Thanks for the info Queeg and Jason.

[Nefaro]

I would really like to give SC WWI a shot, but the map makes my eyes bleed. Its just so damn plain and boring. It really saps my excitement for the game. Not very "grognard" of me, I know, but I'm just being honest.

I agree.. the map looks like pea soup coming out of Linda Blair's possessed mouth.

I kinda dig the pixel art soldiers but the map coloring.. meh.  I'm sure it makes the units stand out better than cluttering the map up with extra embellishments but we've seen wargames with subtle pixel art terrain that looks wonderful.  Hell, the CS Middle East thread, here, has shots of some that are excellent.  Another good example is the modded terrain for the Tiller PzC/MC series.

[Boggit]

After reading this thread I downloaded a WWI Gold demo from somewhere to try it out but it ran very slowly on my Win 8 64 computer. Map movement was very slow and jerky. I know WWI Centennial was supposed to work better on newer systems, anyone playing it on Win 8 successfully?

WWI Centennial runs much better for me than WWI Gold in Win 8.  Gold was always unplayable for me, but Centennial runs really well.  Like night and day, for me anyway.

My experience too under Win 7.

[Gusington]

I didn't find WWI Gold or whatever name it goes by on Steam and I actually saw someone playing a Steam version of it yesterday...is it no longer offered?

[Queeg]

I didn't find WWI Gold or whatever name it goes by on Steam and I actually saw someone playing a Steam version of it yesterday...is it no longer offered?

WW1 Centennial is available through Gamersgate, but not through Steam.  (Long story involving a lawsuit by someone against the makers of Centennial.)  I think you can register the GG version through Steam, though. 

[Dammit Carl!]

I didn't find WWI Gold or whatever name it goes by on Steam and I actually saw someone playing a Steam version of it yesterday...is it no longer offered?

WW1 Centennial is available through Gamersgate, but not through Steam.  (Long story involving a lawsuit by someone against the makers of Centennial.)  I think you can register the GG version through Steam, though.

That is how mine went; got it last year around this time-ish fwiw.

[Bardolph]

I didn't find WWI Gold or whatever name it goes by on Steam and I actually saw someone playing a Steam version of it yesterday...is it no longer offered?

WW1 Centennial is available through Gamersgate, but not through Steam.  (Long story involving a lawsuit by someone against the makers of Centennial.)  I think you can register the GG version through Steam, though.

It's also on Amazon as a Steam key. Been eyeballing it there.

[Gusington]

Aah got it, thanks all.

[JasonPratt]

Specifically, the Cent is only available through Steam.

But you can't buy it at Steam (anymore, yet). You can only buy it through Amazon or Gamersgate or something like that. But you're buying a Steam key. It installs as a Steam game, and plays as that, and up until the updates had to stop it was updated that way, too.