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Axis & Allies: Iron Blitz Edition

Axis & Allies: Iron Blitz Edition

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sponsor Needed!
Review: This game has the premise and potential for one of the greatest PC games. It was abandoned by, well, let's call them, less-than-motivated programmers at Hasbro Interactive and then MicroProse. The bugs have NEVER been addressed: Ships pass through the Suez when they shouldn't, aircraft suddenly go AWOL from a carrier sometimes landing on a nearby continent, and the lock-ups that won't go away.... but enough with these known and apparantly insurmountable bugs.

What absolutely ANNOYS me the most is the way the game takes control of what is supposed to be a 100% random number generator (16.666% chance of throwing a one, on a six-sided die) and yielding PREDICTABLE results in certain conditions that the game engineers must have felt were conducive to enhancing the "give and take" of the global war. The game will, at predictable points, take a look around and "enhance" the number generator for the person/team currently getting hammered. Certain key situations are almost SURE to fail, though the odds might be heavily in your favor. For example, how many times has THIS happened?: You systematically deliver blow after blow, when suddenly, a single transport shoots down three of your bombers! There's a ton of strategy that can be levied in this game, but inevitably, there will be several points were STATISTICS and pure randomness can be tested. So you put yourself in that condition 50 or 100 times, and do the math to see that a favorable outcome should result 78% of the time, for example. Record the results. Plot the results.... Sadly, time and time again, it is clear that conditions that should go one way 80% of the time are going 60% the other way, over 50 to 100 tries! Now, my "A" in statistics was a few years ago, but I think I still remember enough to know this is a tad OFF! Certainly with that kind of sample size, it is clear that the games randomness was "tampered with" on purpose.

The unfortunate wresting of control of the pure statistical aspect of a strategy game by software engineers (or was it management?) who felt this was a substitute for legitimate random number generating belies the professionalism of the program authors, the engineers, and the parent company. Hey, if one side is winning, the odds of three tanks against one infantry should be the same as if that team was losing!

I have had people tell me I am imagining this, but until they have played both board game and PC game several thousand times, there opinions do not stand up to my testing. If you arrange a key situation and play it over and over, for example, you will agree with me.

So I am calling for a daring company or programmer with some guts to buy the rights and market a FIXED game.... I refuse to believe it can be THAT hard....Why did people turn away from this game? The BUGS? I think not. I think most are like me and got absolutely frustrated with the excuse for randomizing and destroying the continuity of a well-planned campaign that has a properly documented success rate on the board game (with real dice), and absolutely no chance on the PC.

Any takers? Anyone with enough stones from Hasbro Interactive or Microprose wanna give up the rights to programmers who would purify the math and let the players have more fun?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sponsor Needed!
Review: This game has the premise and potential for one of the greatest PC games. It was abandoned by, well, let's call them, less-than-motivated programmers at Hasbro Interactive and then MicroProse. The bugs have NEVER been addressed: Ships pass through the Suez when they shouldn't, aircraft suddenly go AWOL from a carrier sometimes landing on a nearby continent, and the lock-ups that won't go away.... but enough with these known and apparantly insurmountable bugs.

What absolutely ANNOYS me the most is the way the game takes control of what is supposed to be a 100% random number generator (16.666% chance of throwing a one, on a six-sided die) and yielding PREDICTABLE results in certain conditions that the game engineers must have felt were conducive to enhancing the "give and take" of the global war. The game will, at predictable points, take a look around and "enhance" the number generator for the person/team currently getting hammered. Certain key situations are almost SURE to fail, though the odds might be heavily in your favor. For example, how many times has THIS happened?: You systematically deliver blow after blow, when suddenly, a single transport shoots down three of your bombers! There's a ton of strategy that can be levied in this game, but inevitably, there will be several points were STATISTICS and pure randomness can be tested. So you put yourself in that condition 50 or 100 times, and do the math to see that a favorable outcome should result 78% of the time, for example. Record the results. Plot the results.... Sadly, time and time again, it is clear that conditions that should go one way 80% of the time are going 60% the other way, over 50 to 100 tries! Now, my "A" in statistics was a few years ago, but I think I still remember enough to know this is a tad OFF! Certainly with that kind of sample size, it is clear that the games randomness was "tampered with" on purpose.

The unfortunate wresting of control of the pure statistical aspect of a strategy game by software engineers (or was it management?) who felt this was a substitute for legitimate random number generating belies the professionalism of the program authors, the engineers, and the parent company. Hey, if one side is winning, the odds of three tanks against one infantry should be the same as if that team was losing!

I have had people tell me I am imagining this, but until they have played both board game and PC game several thousand times, there opinions do not stand up to my testing. If you arrange a key situation and play it over and over, for example, you will agree with me.

So I am calling for a daring company or programmer with some guts to buy the rights and market a FIXED game.... I refuse to believe it can be THAT hard....Why did people turn away from this game? The BUGS? I think not. I think most are like me and got absolutely frustrated with the excuse for randomizing and destroying the continuity of a well-planned campaign that has a properly documented success rate on the board game (with real dice), and absolutely no chance on the PC.

Any takers? Anyone with enough stones from Hasbro Interactive or Microprose wanna give up the rights to programmers who would purify the math and let the players have more fun?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great game, hard to find
Review: This game is sweet, although it is imposible to find.....Well unless you want to pay the current rate of $129 for a used game that cost $19 new. My old copy was played so many times I wore it out. Since then it has been discontinued when there was so much potential for improvement. If I could buy the rights and new enough about programing I would make this game even better, adding atomic bombs and other upgrades to the pc game. I cant find were to contact Micropose or Infogames to get this game back out on the market. Seeing how hard it is to buy I know it would be wise for them to release it or another version. I need help please contact me at mheard@goamb.com

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great game, hard to find
Review: This game is sweet, although it is imposible to find.....Well unless you want to pay the current rate of $129 for a used game that cost $19 new. My old copy was played so many times I wore it out. Since then it has been discontinued when there was so much potential for improvement. If I could buy the rights and new enough about programing I would make this game even better, adding atomic bombs and other upgrades to the pc game. I cant find were to contact Micropose or Infogames to get this game back out on the market. Seeing how hard it is to buy I know it would be wise for them to release it or another version. I need help please contact me at mheard@goamb.com

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The game brought to the computer.
Review: This game is wonderfull if for no reason then the fact that it doesn't try to reinvent the game it just smiply brings the board game to the computer. The fact that you can set up the map in any way you want is wonderfull. The only drawback to the game is the fact that a human to destroy makes for a much more enjoyable game as the A.I. is easly fooled.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: OOOO Boy
Review: This game really pissed me off. While its true that A&A is the best strategy board game since chess, this game still managed to aggravate me. Whenever I would try to play, the game would slow down after a while. It would run great for a while, but after about 10 minutes there was a 1 or 2 second delay on every click that I made. And after 45 minutes it would just crash. If anyone has any suggestions on how to stop the slowing, then e-mail me at StubbsMcGriff@yahoo.com

Until I get this fixed, I won't be playing much Axis and Allies on PC.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Bugs...what else?
Review: This is the ultimate Axis & Allies, but boy is it bug ridden. I love playing, esp. with friends online, and I keep trying the added scenarios, but have never finished one of these due to some glitch or crash. There is no patch for Iron Blitz yet that I have seen, so if you're the type who loves A&A but hates bugs, wait for the patch!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome game
Review: Very well made. Needs help in graphics department.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome game
Review: Very well made. Needs help in graphics department.


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