Where would you have a WW2 game take place?

Rayce Archer

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Shpongled said:
My perfect WW2 game, which may be asking for a little too much with current technology, would be a RTS style game in the same vein as the Total War series. Basically, a combination of the Hearts of Iron series and the Company of Heroes series.

You can choose whichever country on the planet you want on the campaign map, control your nations industry and manpower and direct your nation in whatever goals you want. You can pick Germany, blitz across Europe and attempt a full-on invasion of the UK, Turkey and attempt to reform the once mighty Ottoman Empire, or even small Brazil and use the global distractions of WW2 to turn Brazil into a mighty world power, maybe even eventually contending with the USA to the north. HoI does all of this brilliantly.

But when it comes to individual battles and conquering provinces on your way across Europe, you can't just rely on having on having the bigger numbers and luckier dicerolls. As your divisions roll across the border you're warped into a smaller scale battle arena, where you control individual tanks and infantry squads and so on, chosen, built and put together by you on the campaign screen, and are forced to utilize tactics and have a direct influence on how the battle ensues. Basically like Company of Heroes.

Honestly a mash up of Hearts of Iron and Company of Heroes would be my most favorite game in the world. Basically i would like a WW2 game that is truly global in every sense of the word.

Modern FPS iterations of the old classics would be cool; d-day, stalingrad and so on. But it's the what-ifs scenarios that really capture my imagination.

Edit: a word
So CoH with the conquer-the-world system from Dawn of War: Dark Crusade/Soulstorm? Oh man, that would be awesome.
 

Evonisia

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I'd like one in Finland, when they were doing their shenanigans during the war.

Plus there's snow, lots of snow and nothing will get me to bend over for a game faster.
 

Techno Squidgy

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MirenBainesUSMC said:
If you really wanted to make an amazing step forward in a World War 2 game, you would do something dramatically different from the rest and that is to make separate single player campaign which lets you be either side in a sort of " What if..." mode.

Why not play the Germans during their blitzkrieg across Europe? Their first battles with the Russians?

Now I know the problems that such a game would create, I don't think the game media would allow such a thing to happen.
I don't know, playing as a young german man forced into military service could serve as an excellent commentary on the nature of warfare and the realities of WW2. Everyone talks about killing Nazis being okay, because they were evil, but in most games you don't fight Nazis. You fight Germans under Nazi rule, unless you're fighting the Waffen-SS.
 

bificommander

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I'm sorry for cheating a bit, but if I may move the game's setting a few years: The Korean war. Fought with mostly similar weapons and vehicles as WW2 (minus the more prominent jet fighters), a cool environment (lots of hills), virtually untapped in games, and with the potential for a great narrative. At the start of the war, the western forces (and let's face it, we WILL be playing as the western forces except for in multiplayer) were badly outmatched, and were driven to the brink of defeat. The landing in Inchon (Hey, we can do another D-Day-style landing, but this time one that people haven't seen yet.) reversed the odds, leading to a big march forward, until the Chinese reinforcements came and pushed them back again. I guess for some people it'll be disappointing that the battle doesn't end with a resounding victory, but it'd work fine for a game that doesn't try to glorify war. I'd be interested anyway.
 

kurokotetsu

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Meh let's do something entirely different. A life simulator. Life a civillian lo during WWII. Life a life, hear the news, go to work. Listen to propaganda. Trying your best to make a living, scrapping, living of stamps. Unusual visual style. A bit depressing. Twist comes when a flash comes from the Sky. You die, everyone dies. You were a Japanese civilian in Hiroshima or Nagasaki. After all your hard work, all your efforts to survivie, a conflict that has nothing to do with you, a decision form people that know nothing, that care about power more than your life and that of your whole city.
 

busterkeatonrules

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Techno Squidgy said:
MirenBainesUSMC said:
If you really wanted to make an amazing step forward in a World War 2 game, you would do something dramatically different from the rest and that is to make separate single player campaign which lets you be either side in a sort of " What if..." mode.

Why not play the Germans during their blitzkrieg across Europe? Their first battles with the Russians?

Now I know the problems that such a game would create, I don't think the game media would allow such a thing to happen.
I don't know, playing as a young german man forced into military service could serve as an excellent commentary on the nature of warfare and the realities of WW2. Everyone talks about killing Nazis being okay, because they were evil, but in most games you don't fight Nazis. You fight Germans under Nazi rule, unless you're fighting the Waffen-SS.
Yup. Most German soldiers were just ordinary people drafted into battle by the government. The problem is to focus on this without the media watchdogs taking one look at the premise and go wild because 'ZOMG NAZI GAEM WTFBBQ!11ONE'.

Maybe a game based on the books of Sven Hazel would be more accepted?

Hazel's novels revolve around the exploits of a group of eccentric soldiers who are only trying to survive each day, and don't usually give a fuck about following orders unless the commanding officer is actually pointing a gun at them. The stories are both poignant and grotesque, somewhat disturbing, yet darkly comical - all the while painting a very vivid picture of what it might be like to actually be a human cog in a continent-sized war machine controlled by faceless lunatics.

And that's text, on a page. Just imagine it as a game!
 

Sniper Team 4

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I would like to play a game set at the very outbreak of World War II, before the United States got involved. I would like to play those missions where it's clear you're going to lose, but you fight anyway so that the others can retreat. Basically, I would like to play a game where the entire time you are on the defensive, struggling to hold back Germany but knowing it's impossible. The game could end with the Battle of Dunkirk, where you stay behind in order to buy the British soldiers more time to escape. The French fought like beasts in that battle.

Or I would like to play a game where the United States isn't involved, or at least very little. As the O.P. said, Call of Duty 3 did this a little, and I would like to see more. I know a lot about the U.S. campaigns. How about what everyone else was doing? How about we storm Juno or Sword Beach with the Canadians, or Gold or Sword with the British.
 

Spartan448

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I want to see a game where you play as the nazis. On the Eastern Front. Not only do you get to witness some of the worst atrocities of the war-you get to commit some.
 

carnex

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Ex Yugoslavia, but mostly Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Seriously, situation here was something like a Latino-American soap opera. I'm not kidding. With Germans and Partisans and Chetniks and Ustase and Italians and everyone on untrusting to hate terms with others. It was a nuthouse!
 

Lord Garnaat

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I firmly belief (based off of absolutely nothing but personal experience) that the best part of any WWII-game is the Russian campaign. I think that this is because - setting aside all of the horrible war crimes committed by the Soviets and the brutality of their leaders - no one can deny sheer badassery of the Russians in that war. Not to mention the scale: the single largest military operation in history, millions of bodies of blood and steel clashing across the largest nation on the planet, the legendary sieges of Stalingrad and Leningrad, where the Russians refused to surrender despite being surrounded for almost 900 days and having no food, no shelter, and no guns. You couldn't ask for a more epic setting to a game.

That being said, I certainly wouldn't mind a little alternate-history, like someone else in the thread already suggested. Being able to see what Operation Downfall would look like? Yes please.
 

Something Amyss

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Antarcti....

Keoul said:
Antarctica.
Oh, crap. Well....

Since I'm not for gritty realism and whatnot, I want to see more Space Nazi games. Or perhaps we can get a pulp-style game where Adolph Hitler and Winston Churchill duke it out on top of a Brontosaurs in the lost lands.

As far as actual historical games go, I don't care as long as it's not the same four setpieces over and over.
 

SinisterGehe

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Finland. Our little fights against Soviets would be interesting to see recreated in a game. Because technically we were at war against the allied in a point.

Also it there is lot of interesting material to explore.
But no one would dare to do the game, it wouldn't sell to US audience, and there would be a great fear of pissing off Nordic countries, Germans and Russian audience with misrepresentation. Also it is still a sour subject in Finland.

I'd like to see that, but I know for a fact that it wouldn't be done properly, things would be misrepresented and the result would be financial flop and lot of hate.
 

Scarim Coral

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Finland but mainly cos of Simo Hayha-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4

Imagine if they did a WW2 game were it's cross between sniper elite with survival playing as Simo? Granted it probably won't be accurate to how Simo did it but it would still be an interesting game.
 

Rabbitboy

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Switzerland! I don't know what genre it would be in yet but I guess a major gameplay element would be not pissing the Nazi's of to much.
 

Albino Boo

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Techno Squidgy said:
I don't know, playing as a young german man forced into military service could serve as an excellent commentary on the nature of warfare and the realities of WW2. Everyone talks about killing Nazis being okay, because they were evil, but in most games you don't fight Nazis. You fight Germans under Nazi rule, unless you're fighting the Waffen-SS.
busterkeatonrules said:
Yup. Most German soldiers were just ordinary people drafted into battle by the government. The problem is to focus on this without the media watchdogs taking one look at the premise and go wild because 'ZOMG NAZI GAEM WTFBBQ!11ONE'.

Maybe a game based on the books of Sven Hazel would be more accepted?

Hazel's novels revolve around the exploits of a group of eccentric soldiers who are only trying to survive each day, and don't usually give a fuck about following orders unless the commanding officer is actually pointing a gun at them. The stories are both poignant and grotesque, somewhat disturbing, yet darkly comical - all the while painting a very vivid picture of what it might be like to actually be a human cog in a continent-sized war machine controlled by faceless lunatics.

And that's text, on a page. Just imagine it as a game!
I strongly suggest that both of you read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht
 

Quazimofo

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Rayce Archer said:
Shpongled said:
My perfect WW2 game, which may be asking for a little too much with current technology, would be a RTS style game in the same vein as the Total War series. Basically, a combination of the Hearts of Iron series and the Company of Heroes series.

You can choose whichever country on the planet you want on the campaign map, control your nations industry and manpower and direct your nation in whatever goals you want. You can pick Germany, blitz across Europe and attempt a full-on invasion of the UK, Turkey and attempt to reform the once mighty Ottoman Empire, or even small Brazil and use the global distractions of WW2 to turn Brazil into a mighty world power, maybe even eventually contending with the USA to the north. HoI does all of this brilliantly.

But when it comes to individual battles and conquering provinces on your way across Europe, you can't just rely on having on having the bigger numbers and luckier dicerolls. As your divisions roll across the border you're warped into a smaller scale battle arena, where you control individual tanks and infantry squads and so on, chosen, built and put together by you on the campaign screen, and are forced to utilize tactics and have a direct influence on how the battle ensues. Basically like Company of Heroes.

Honestly a mash up of Hearts of Iron and Company of Heroes would be my most favorite game in the world. Basically i would like a WW2 game that is truly global in every sense of the word.

Modern FPS iterations of the old classics would be cool; d-day, stalingrad and so on. But it's the what-ifs scenarios that really capture my imagination.

Edit: a word
So CoH with the conquer-the-world system from Dawn of War: Dark Crusade/Soulstorm? Oh man, that would be awesome.
There was actually a game which did something similar that came out about 10 years ago. Axis & Allies. Yeah, the one based on the board game.
For the life of me I can't tell you how well it holds up since I lost my copy way back when, but all I can say is I remember having fun with it, even though it's not nearly as good an RTS as Company of Heroes.
 

A_Parked_Car

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The entire CBI (China, Burma, India) theater has been completely ignored by games. There are a lot of possibilities to play as the Chinese Communists, KMT, British, etc.
 

Inglorious891

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Fimbulvetr3822 said:
Really though, I would love to see some sort of Total War game covering the 1st World War especially with it being 100 years ago this year.
There actually is a mod for Napoleon Total War that covers the first world war. It's pretty OK due to the fact that TW's engine doesn't really allow for excellent trench warfare, but it's one of the only WWI RTS games in existence so I'd check it out if you're interested and have NTW.

optimusjamie said:
I would think either the Eastern Front or China, but if we're bringing in alternate-history scenarios, something based on Operation Unthinkable [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Unthinkable] or Operation Downfall [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall] could be interesting.
Operation Downfall sounds interesting. So interesting I'm surprised there hasn't been a movie on it yet; seems like movies cover the more obsecure areas of WWII better than games do.
 

Techno Squidgy

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albino boo said:
I strongly suggest that both of you read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht
Well that was a depressing eye opener. As were the articles on British, U.S. and Soviet War Crimes in WW2.
An aspect of the war that no one ever talks about, and sadly war crimes are still committed and not talked about today.

Still, could one not make a game from the perspective of a good man, caught in the chaos of Nazi Germany and WW2? I doubt you'd find many people coming out of that game with a burgeoning love for Adolf.