By Eric T. Baker

World War II Online™ is both the best and worst simulation of WWII combat ever created for the PC. It brings air, ground, and sea combat to a massively multiplayer online game. The game happens in real time in a persistent game world where a real human being commands each infantry man, each tank crew man, each fighter pilot. There are no computer controlled units. This the first computer game ever where your character can stand on a hill and watch two planes dog fight above him, and you know that both of those pilots are controlled by real humans and that only one of them is on your side.

The plan is for WWII Online to eventually model the whole world, allowing all of World War II to be fought in real time by gamers live from their homes. For now, the game only covers the Blitzkrieg with the major battle points of the invasion of France included: strongholds, fortresses, forests, and rivers, just as it was in 1940. Players take roles on both sides as the RAF and British armies help the besieged French forces defend against the German advance.

The game features combined land, sea, and air operations on a single virtual European battlefield with accurate terrain modeling. There is first person perspective in all gameplay: infantry see the war down the barrel of their guns, tankers through the slits in their tanks, and pilots out the canopies of their planes. The game includes character advancement and career paths plus strategic systems driven by player missions and command structure. The aircraft, tanks, anti-aircraft guns, trucks, rifles, and grenades are all historically accurate and detailed.

World War II Online™ is not accurate in the way that it simulates details of the war, but it does feel like the war. Because no one character can win a battle alone, there is real comradeship and team work. Playing WWII Online™ really gives the feeling of being on the right team, fighting the good fight.

The first commercial video game from Rival Interactive (published by Simon & Schuster Interactive) is Real War. It is the commercial version of Joint Force Employment, which is sold exclusively to the military. RW is a real- time strategy game, but instead of having a science fiction or historical background, RW focuses on our modern day world and current technology. All units in the game are actual units used today by the military.

In the game, players choose to be either the United States or the Independent Liberation Army (ILA). The story begins from the premise that the U.S. has just been bombed by terrorists and has suffered many casualties. The U.S. military discovers where the bomb was actually made and plans a counterattack.

There’s no harvesting in RW: Players don’t have direct units to mine coal, gold, or whatever. Players instead request supply points that can be spent to create units at any of their various supply bases. The bases, however, can only produce if their supply lines are open, so those lines have to be protected.

The battle is fought in the air, on land, and at sea. The player commands a combined force that is put together from an arsenal of various aircraft, land vehicles, and water units, 60 different unit types in all. All are currently in use by militaries around the world. The vehicles are rendered in 3-D although the game is 2-D with foot soldiers as sprites. Combat occurs on extra-large maps to allow simultaneous battles.

Real War in some ways feels much less real than WWII Online, but it is much more accurate. Its units behave much more like their real world counterparts and overall it is a much better simulation.

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