A select category of us though, have placed their purchases for War in the East and may have just finished downloading. Woo woo! I'm one [:)]
Here's some thoughts that may summarise what others have already said but also add some nice titbits:
The New Matrix Store - Welcome to Plimus
Yeah, I came to love the reliability of Digital River when my relationship with Matrix began. Always reliable with a no hassle shop front. Surprised I was to find my experience with Plimus equally kind. Clean interface, just a few steps to order.
The store could use a "remove from shopping cart" button as initially I opted to buy the boxed version but then I remembered the need for a partial manual might be obviated by a toy that I had (see below). However, there was no way to remove the box and replace it with the download option (I had to exit completely from the site and go back in).
That said, what a smooth shopping time. Once ordered the download link immediately showed and the confirmation email arrived. I experienced an immediate download start.
The Download
This is a big 600MB file and even with fast cable, I could only garner a 102kb/sec transfer rate. That said, the rate stayed constant throughout and the total download time of 1.5 hours swam by. Still, I was reminded of the days of 2-3 hour downloads and I was happy this was not the case here and I pity those who can only garner a 30-50kb/sec rate.
My download could have been faster but for some reason my Star Downloader manager that I adopted long ago on the advice of Erik here wouldn't fire up. I'm unsure if this was a restriction placed by Plimus' servers and I did note a request from Erik that if using the program, to please configure the manager to a single stream (and I usually run with 4).
So the regular Windows save pop-up greeted me and the download went ahead using Window's own intuition. It was a nail biting experience. The reason why I adopted Star Downloader resulted from a download via Digital River one time, that just continued to die mid-stream. Without it, I was sure that this would happen here too.
An hour went by. 15 minutes more... Down to 3 minutes... 10 seconds... Hey, it all worked fine! Clicked the unzip, entered the serial and pfft! The game was ready to play within minutes.
The Documentation
My biggest worry was that this game offered a 400-page tome of rules - and I'm a wargamer that struggles past 32 pages, GMT Games style!
This is why I thought that a boxed game version would be essential here given the need for constant reference to a myriad of things (I'd seen the interface of "Uncommon Valor", "War in the Pacific" and "War Between the States" and greatly been stumped by the latter).
Yet, I knew a couple of things thanks to the marketing efforts here and from the advice of Erik and Joel. Firstly, that any printed manual would come black and white. Secondly, that only 140 pages of the whole manual covering the UI would be provided in the box.
Kindle!
Thankfully, the game comes with two types of manuals: An eBook that for some reason shows 2 pages spread at a glance; and the Print Friendly version, that simply graces us with one page at a time.
Lo and behold, the latter PDF looks superb on a 9.7" Kindle DX screen. Just like any game manual that I own and have uploaded (see screen pic below).
Note, some of the grey scales in the manual do clash. I'm certain that this isn't a side-effect of the Kindle and will likely transfer that way onto the printed format too. After all, the PDF manual is a full-colored thing of beauty - but my Kindle saved me a bundle in cash too.
The Price
Despite the Australian dollar trading at 99 US cents today, Aussies were asked to pay $86AUD for a download and $96AUD for the "download + box + manual". But wait there's more! Add to the latter anywhere between $12AUD for slow mail and $30AUD for priority FedEx and that's roughly $125AUD for the game.
My Kindle therefore saved me a bucket and those with a good e-Reader might want to take this into consideration. Sure, had the printed manual been a color production (especially since it purposefully covers the interface), I'd likely have proceeded differently.
The Beauty
Much like many operational level PC wargames, units are furnished without their divisional or organisational affiliations being clearly marked for ease of note. In fact, the only operational level wargame that I've seen pull this off, may be WitE's closest competitor in content - Schwerpunkt's "Russo-German War".
Yet, whereas Ron Dockall could pull off great counters, his UI suffered from an outdated design.
2by3 Games, on the other hand has pulled off attractive cardboard-like unit counters in the best spirit of the board wargame genre, a fully modern interface - but my goodness, does their map ever shine!
I'll try to post a pic after this post as a brief illustration but if one wanted a wargame both for entertainment value and the ability to impart a geo-military lesson, this would be it.
What's more, from the elegant smooth mouse wheel zoom to mouse scroll, even at its most extreme zoom out, the map loses non of its charm. In my gaming room I sit with a beautifully framed map of Normandy, courtesy of some gorgeous game art by Mark Simonitch in his recently released boardgame "Normandy '44".
If I could print the map of WitE out and could find a way to frame it true size, I'd gladly sit with it too. It is an exceptional piece of PC programing and will set the standard for wargaming art to come. Well done team.
Oh and as for the UI? To me with very little time at it, it represents a far improvement over "World at War" and a big shift from the click-centric experience of "War in the Pacific". But hey - I've still got a lot to learn.
Speaking of the Learning Curve
Firing up the game was easy. Setting the side to play (Soviets) was a no brainer. Choosing the Scenario was a little harder because the word "Tutorial" didn't come first in the scenario's name but it was soon found. Boom! Before I knew it I was playing!
The playable map area for the tute was surprisingly small. The unit count very manageable. I hadn't read a word of the rules (or tute) and I managed to move my first unit (left click, right click). I right clicked an enemy unit and my first battle launched! Airpower from both sides automatically flew. And a series of turns later - I had a Soviet Minor Victory [:D] (I have to laugh because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing - but the thing is - I WAS DOING IT!).
Anyway, if I was worried about a game that would not be intuitive in the slightest, my fears then and there were subsided. I can manage this beast, I will manage this beast and bless 2by3 - for tool tips across its UI abound.
Summary
So friends, that's it for the first 2 hours from buying to playing. I trust that the AI will prove robust, that the military decision making will prove engrossing and that my time in game will be well worth it.
In the tute, snow fell on turn 2. It looked weird at first obscuring some of the beauty of the map and at first I was irritated by it (I think this graphical effect can be turned off). But then I began to feel physically cold (and it's a tropical summer night Down Under)...
I soon realised that this irritation was apt for an empathy had developed with my pixelated comrades fighting in that virtual snow.
No previous game's snowscape had ever given me that sense of immersion before, PC or board.
This game I believe, will be something special.
Happy gaming,
Adam.
(Edit: Cleared up some typos and clarified a couple of words).
