This game offers alot more than the FPSs out there.  There is ALOT more to it than spawning at the front, running up and start firing.  No hitpoints either.  Your weapon will either damage your target or it won't.  Shooting 500 rounds of MG ammo at the front of the enemy tank about to run you over won't soften him up for your buddy.  No laser sights in this game either.  Shots drop over distance, much like IRL.  To hit something at a decent range, you have to estimate the range, elevate your weapon, and fire.  if you miss, you have to adjust and try again. 

It's an awesome feeling to travel in a column of 20 tanks and deploy for an attack.  It's a great feeling when you spend 10 minutes working around the flank of an enemy and blast him in the flank or rear, where his armor is weak.  It's a scary feeling to be defending a town with your ATG when you see a dozen enemy tanks crest the hill in front of you....

This is the best PvP game out there. 

I just spent the last 4 months playing this game. I have had to unsub due to personal reasons but I assure you I will be returning. As a gamer and a combat veteran I can honestly say there is no better game out there. Tired of playing repetitive maps and not feeling you have accomplished anything? The only time you will see a reset is when somebody wins. Ive seen it take 20 days and i've seen it take 90 days. Keep in mind that it takes a good month to really learn the game and continually learn for your entire career. You cany just jump into a plane and zoom off like some arcade flik. It takes real skill to be a good pilot.

Alot of new players are frustrated by infantry being confined to the simple rifleman at first. There is good reason for this. It forces you to practice good marksmanship skills and learn to manuever properly. Also it can be frustrating joining mid campaign due to higher ranked players having more powerful armored vehicles. You just learn to sneak behind them to hit their weak points. It is a good feeling to destroy a tank with a puny armored scout car. It is not hard to gain enough rank to use more advanced equipment. There are also alot of players who are willing to help you learn the game and the quickest ways to gain rank. After the 6th rank there is not much need to rank up anymore.

If naval battles are your taste imagine being part of a battle with mutiple battleships, troop transports and gunboats battling it out on the high seas, all the while fighters and bombers are trying to sink them from above.

This game requires some patience but the rewards are great. It is a unique experience to see the buildings in your city reduced to rubble and be pinned down inside a bunker while bombs are dropping, tanks are pounding the walls and enemy infantry are rushing the door.

This game utilizes a supply system. Gone are the days of dying and respawning endlessly. If you die your rifle, tank, ship or plane is lost. In no other game can you fly to 30,000 feet and adjust your bomb sights to destroy enemy factories, then have it impact the enemy's abiltiy to produce weaponry. Keep the factories shut down and they cannot upgrade their equipment.

Help the cause by participating in resupply convoys and pray the enemy isn't laying in ambush, or set your own ambush to ensure those new tanks will never make it to battle. Climb aboard a C47 as a paratrooper and be a part of an airborne invasion. Enroll in Officer Candidate School and see if you have what it takes to lead the troops in combat. Be a lone sniper on a hill and pick off the enemy one by one, or join a squad and engage in coordinated attacks. There is no end to the possibilities in this game, not to mention the absence of haxors.

Go to www.youtube.com and check out some of the videos players have created of their ingame experiences, just search battleground europe. If you are looking for a game with substance instead of mindless hack-n-slash or bunnyhopping aimbot toting crybabies this game is definitely worth your while.

if you are interested visit my squad at http://clik.to/lrat please excuse the crappy website I havent had time yet to make something good. You can say hello in the security clearance section of our forums but the entire content is protected due to our specialized tactics we have developed. This might seem silly but in this unbelievable game, operational security actually matters.

I've been playing this game since the minute it became live. (June 6th 2001). I still play about 20-30 hours a week. 

It started as a horrible mess with lots of potential. Now it is vastly improved.

WW2Online suffers from bad press by those that tried it a long time ago and those who don't have the skill or patience to give it some time. It also suffers from the fact that if you don't try and find a squad early in the learning process you miss about 75% of what the game has to offer.

The thing that I love about it is there are a ton of different options of what to play. Air, tanks, anti-tank weapons, infantry, navy and a strong strategic element once you get involved in the game. I also love the fact that the campaigns are 100% dynamic and 24/7

So many games out there with little or no team work, but this game requires teamwork to be successful and that is why joining a squad and using teamspeak is so critical for the enjoyment of the game.

Not a huge download, right now its free for a while. Give it a shot and try to run with a squad for your time in game. You'll learn about 5x  faster using Teamspeak and running with a squad. You'll also rank up to get the better equipment about 5x faster.

Hope to see ya there.

S!

The bottom line is this game may not be for everyone. If you prefer to fight small fast skirmishes to rank #1 in scores, or battle AI monsters to get uber armor and weapons to cherish, then this game may not appeal to you. During breaks I take from this game (explained below), I play other MMO's and map conquest games and enjoy them for what they are.

But if you also enjoy combat sims and are intersted in the history of World War 2, then this game has a lot to offer.

When you log in, you are entering a virtual online war. Point blank.

It's not a 10 minute map of capture the flag, nor a PvP battle where you're waxed by the Lvl60 dark Elf wizard before you even draw your sword. Even a day one Recruit can win over a 4 year ranking 4 star General vetern. I've done it, so can you.

The game does have stats, so you can see where you stand in the Top 100 and rank against the other players as you climb to the top. Player skill, patience, tactics and learning the strengths and weaknesses of the units is what makes the game great. LUCK plays a good part too at times.

Having played the game for almost 2 years, one thing I can say is that this is the only game where I've experienced "virtual" combat fatigue and NOT boredom. When that happens, I'll go off and play a few offline games or spend some time in other MMO's for a few days, and then I come back refreshed and ready to take the fight to the enemy again!

The visuals and audio in the game are more than enough to bring you into the virtual battlefield. I'll agree they are not as "grandure" as some other WW2 FPS games I play, but in honest comparrison, the shear scale of the game and the limitations of computers and the internet are major limiting factors as to why Battleground Europe/WW2OL isn't all cutting edge eye candy.

You'll learn to tell just by sound if a unit of friend or foe from engine noises and gunfire. However, footsteps sound the same! Are they the enemy's trying to get up behind you? Or a fellow soldier approaching your position? Get your weapon ready! Spot him before he spots you and BAM!

You can tell from a distance if the plane above you is a Bf-110, a Me-109 or a Spitfire or DB-7 bomber. But you'll have to get closer to tell if it's a Me-109E or 109F if you're playing Allied. If you are flying a Spitfire Mk1, and you encounter a Me-109f, then your pilot skills versus his skills are going to make a big difference!

All of this is what adds to the tension and excitement of the game.

A campaign in this game can last well over a month as both sides manuver and fight for an advantage as the better equipment enters the battlefield in Tier levels. New players won't be getting pawned by vets driving Tiger tanks just because of their rank in the first weeks of a new war. Entering the game for the first time once a campaign has been going on for a while can be very daunting to a new player, and still even the recruit level of equipment can be deadly if used right and you'll find yourself climbing in rank.

But as with every game, there are the ups and down. If you truely enjoy the game and have fun, you deal with the rises and falls.

The war rages on 24 hours a day 7 days a week. You can even check the state of the map online at the website and get a 24 to 1 hour playback of how the battlefront is moving. Eventually, one side will win and one side will lose. It's like the Superbowl or World Cup online. Root for your team and get in there and fight to make a difference!

I personally prefer to choose a side at the start of a new campaign and play on that same side til the end, win or lose. There isn't a campaign sidelock, so if you prefer to play Axis and then Allied, you can. It helps to get a feel for all the equipment in the game especially when you are first starting. And there is a lot of equipment to learn. Infantry units, tanks, planes, ships... you'll develope your own style of tactics and combat by learning what's best to use in a current situation as the battlefield sways to and fro.

There are a great people in the game and squads you can join. So if you're looking for a great game that is more than a quick map conquest or about having max levels and the +10 Sword of the Gods, come check it out

This won't be the right game for some of you.

It's a game starting from the actual situation in May, 1940, and progressing toward availability of mid-late-war weapons. There's a *lot* more to understand than there is in the typical fantasy shooter.

It's a combined-arms game. Those who only want to fly, for instance, may have other game-options that are less complex and don't involve ground targets that hide in cover and are highly motivated to bait you into a flak trap or call in their own air support.

The gameplay learning curve seems nearly vertical for new players, with all of the different realistically modeled infantry weapons, armored vehicles, towed guns, aircraft, etc. There's no way that a new player can just jump in and be instantly effective. Some people might find that frustrating.

This is PvP. Not everyone wants to fight against opponents that are as variable and unpredictable combat-skills-wise as other human players. It can be hard on the ego, if you think you're pretty good. And, everyone has those occasional WTH moments, when suddenly you're dead and you don't know whether it was your mistake or just bad luck. Of course, unlike real wars, you get more than one life.

Lots of players will have to un-learn how they might play an ordinary shooter. This is definitely not the kind of game where you want to be bold and blast away...unless you want to end up dead at the hands of an opponent who was looking for that kind of easy kill. This game, like real life, rewards soldiers who think before they act.

It needs a pretty good computer. Lots of gamers will be OK on that, of course, but not all.

It's best experienced as a team game. It's fairly difficult to accomplish much on a solo basis, other than dying. You need to fight with a mission group, with effective communications, group tactics, actual planning and leadership.

Not everyone wants a game where the developers have been working continuously for five years to improve the immersiveness of the combat experience. Infantry missions in WWIIOL can get pretty intense.

Nothing about WWIIOL is ever "finished". Unlike most other games, this development team works on this game full time. There's no plan to stop that. So everything about the game is subject to eventual evolution toward more immersiveness, more realistic complications, more need for teamwork and leadership, more modeled weapons and equipment. And that means a constant need to review how to accomplish soldiers' tasks most effectively.

Oh, and the earlier comments about "mostly tanks and planes"...those comments are maybe a bit uninformed. Yes, it's a great tanks-and-heavy-weapons simulation, and an excellent air-warfare sim with actual strategic goals that affect hundreds of other players. But, the great majority of players play infantry.

WWIIOL is bad for your health.

In no other game has my heart beat so hard that it has threatened to leap from chest. Excessive sweating and shaking aren't much uncommon either! Other games feel pointless and empty when compared. No other game has ever even come close to giving me an adrenaline rush the way WWIIOL does.

It's a great game. It can be fustrating at times, and i threaten to unsub on a regular basis, but i have yet to really go through with it. I simply cannot find anything else to give me the same fix that i get from this game. Development is at a snails pace, but it is always there. The dev team has provided constant support and ongoing development since the game was born 5 years ago, which is a lot more than most other game companies offer! The community is great to be a part of, even though we are often at each other's throats ;) Every Christmas there is a present from the development team in the form of some new unit (ie. sniper, paratrooper) we can use ingame. It is a very special and unique community to be a part of. Newbies need not be afraid! Yes the learning curve is steep and the game WILL be hard as you learn, however all green tags (newbies have their names in green) are well looked after by the veteran players. Most squads will snap up and look after most green tag players anyway. Playing in a squad is by far the easiest way to learn.

But To be quite honest the game isn't for everyone. It is really quite hardcore. All weapons are modelled to behave realistically and all munitions comply to complex physics calculations! There are no "hitpoints" or accumulative damage. Teamwork and tactics are essential if you want to survive on the battlefield. So if you are into elves and faries or plasma guns, pulse rifles and monsters, then this game may not be your cup of tea. However, if you like a challenge, if you want realism, tactics and teamwork on a grand scale, if you want a WAR, then you need look no further than WWIIOL.

I look forward to seeing some of you on the battlefield.

S!

lapp

  WWIIOL/BE is without question a game above and beyond all others. Where it lacks in eye candy etc it over achieves in immersion. You find a WWIIOL game where the action actually means a little something and is never ever the same no matter how many times you fight in any particular city. You can fly in a variety of planes, drive a host of different vehicles, man many kinds of direct fire artillery such as AA guns or AT guns, patrol the rivers or English channel in the navy, or hit the mud as infantry and get your ownage "fix".

 If you think you're gonna master this game in a few hours forget it. It takes time to get good you're going up against 5 year veterans in some cases. If you really don't know what an R35 or Bf110c actually is then you're probably gonna need some time to learn. Give it a whirl. I guarantee that if you're yearning for a chance where you actually get a chance to see if you've got what it takes to be a player in the toughest MMOG in the world, this is it.

  ToTXfire

BattleGround Europe is a Love / Hate game And that all depends as to wether its the kind of game for you. If it was really as bad as some people make out, if it really was that terrible and poinless would it stil be going on strong 5 years later? Nope For me its just about the BEST MMOG there is out there.

I got Sooo sick and tired of the same old log in create character spend hours upon poinless hours leverling up just be able to battle the lowest level players. WWIIonline is a hard core, no noncess PVP online War simulation on a massive scale. You log in you jump in game and you can shoot and kill a 5 star general with your first shot. Simply because bullets kill. Is the best equipment reserved for the ubber players? NO, it really wont take you that long to gain rank for the higher vehicles that get RDP'ed, the reson you will die to a so called ubber player is the simple fact you can't kil a Tiger tank with a rifle, or MG fire.

Ther eis nothign stopping you shooting donw a tier 3 190 with a tire 1 spitfire. yes the 190 will be faster and have greater fire power, but 1 bullet in the cockpit and thought the pilots head will kill the 190. Dose it take 20 mins to get to battle? Well you can start marching formt he rear town and itl take you about that time becasue th emap is so huge.

But There are forward bases and from them you can drive trucks and set up mobile spawn points RIGHT INSIDE an enemy town (though you prob will get found eventually) So no, you can set up yourslef a mobile spaw point then go grab a rifle mand and spawn right in the action. Battleground Europ is a KICK ass game, the main problem is it has a steap learning curve and takes time to learn where to spawn and read the map, where to go for the battle and how to use the equipment effectivly.

Most people who rate the game low often spawn in dont get into a battle in the first few seconds and log out. Try it, it will cost you nothing, make sure to give it some time to ask and learn the game mechanics. Its not rocket science, just take a little while lerning all the ins and outs. cutting edge graphics? no crap graphics??....No

 http://www.meristation.com/EPORTAL_IMGS/GENERAL/juegos/PC-Accion/68/IMG-cw43454fb0a323c/02%20Colinas%20Anocheciendope.jpg

http://www.players4players.com/fotosgaleria/BattlegroundEurope-PC/2.jpg

http://www.players4players.com/fotosgaleria/BattlegroundEurope-PC/3.jpg

thast a full 3D forest down there

 http://www.lithu.com/1/modules/Downloads/news1.jpg

This game is too big to describe as a whole expereince, so I'll just tell one small story that illustrates how addictive it has become for me.

As the "war" progresses over several months of realtime, the Germans everntually get the TIger tank. Its effect on the game is predictable: weaker players gravitate to the axis side and people who dont like getting the snot kicked out of them leave the allies. For the people who stick around playing British and French, its a matter of real pride to keep your head held up.

Everyone remembers the first time they killed a Tiger. For me it was on the outskirts of a big Belgian city called Gent. This one tiger was nestled in a tree line and had been killing any brit tank that got near for over an hour. He had our infantry pinned down and there was a group of maybe 10 german troopers who were picking people off and calling out targets to him. Behind him was a Bofors anti-aircraft gun that was protecting him from RAF fighter-bombers.

 I logged on to play, grabbed a Churhill tank in the city and innocently asked, "any panzers around town?". I was met with a barrage of  "F&$#*$& TIGER TANK wont die, its killing us!", followed by a stream of suggestions about what I should do to kill it. Most of these guys had already died to the Tiger at least once so I was not really listening.

I parked under a tree, went to get a beer, and then looked closely at my map. WHen I looked up there was a brit rifleman sitting on my tank, and he said, "Trout, I've been watching this guy and his buddies for over an hour and I know how we can get him, let me scout for you."

Hmmm...ok I thought. This guy is smart enough to be waiting HERE for sombody like me to show up rather than hiding out there being pinned down, so I took him up on the offer. He told me to drive north and take a forest road well to the west of the Panzer. Its not normally a good idea to drive a tank down a forest road, and when the German air force is around, driving down any road can be hazardous. But I did what he said.

As we emerged from the forest, about 4 kilometers from where the tiger was supposed to be, there on my right, about 200 meters away was a TIger hiding under a tree with a small group of infantry clustered around him. I resisted the urge to slam on the brakes because this tiger was not broadside to me, I was off his front quarter and I knew my shot would just bounce off him at that angle. THe trooper riding on me jumped off (you dont want to be riding on a tank under those circumstances) and I started to turn my slow turret in his direction. The Churchill is not a fast tank, but I was betting I could make it far enough down the road for a flank shot before he nailed me.

This was a race: the speed of my slow tank vs the speed he could turn his slow turret. FOr some reason the German troopers decided to stand there and watch rather than seek cover - my turrent was not pointed at them yet and they knew they had a margin of saftey. My buddy picked 2 of them off before they scatterd.

After what seemed like minutes, I had gained enough ground to have a nice broadside shot, and my turret was aimed at his hull. Just before pulling the trigger I rememberd that since I was moving forward , my shot would also be moving forward as it left my gun and would thus hit behind his tank. I cranked the turret again to aim just ahead of him and then pulled the trigger. In somewhat of a lucky shot, I hit exactly where somthing very explosive (fuel? ammo?) was stored and his turret blew off in a huge explosion.

I wont bother you with the rest of the story. This was NOT the tank that was pinning down my unit, but with the help of my trooper buddy I got him too about 20 minutes later.  Our infantry advanced then on the german position we had been after, and with some help from the RAF (who FINALLY decided to show up where they were actually needed) blew it to smitherines.

Did anyone thank me for the pivotal role I played in the battle? No - they were distracted by other things, and who knows what THEY had done to aid me, and what I had not thanked THEM for.   But for me and the trooper, this was a VERY satisfying thing to accomplish. For the whole next day at work I kept replaying that "movie" in my mind; thinking about what had gone right, gone wrong, and if I'd ever get that thrill again.

I have, many times, which Is why I'm a subscriber.

Trout

note for new players.. you WILL die.. a LOT.. to unknown/unseen enemies... over and over again.. you will be frustrated as all get out...

then, you'll get your first kill.. you'll be ecstatic.. you'll pump your fist and shout out your accomplishment.. and then you'll die again.. LOL

this game isn't for the people looking for rambo action and racking up easy kills on n00bs.. i'm a decent player with years of experience and i still manage a 1.05 kill/death ratio.. that's mainly because i play mostly infantry and yes, you will get your butt kicked by some bombs and tanks.. do you really expect differently?

I've played almost every game out there.. until i started on this one.  I played the game in beta when it first came out.. it SUCKED.  No doubt.  but it was wayyyy ahead of it's time then and way too hardcore for the casual gamer.  I wasn't about to pay to play it like it was.  So, i didn't pay and i played everything else that came out over the next 3-4 years.. then i got sucked in by a welcome back soldier free trial.. and that's all she wrote.

I got grabbed by a veteran player (i guess my green tag name gave me away as a n00b) and he took me on a few missions and got me my first kills.. as the days/weeks/months passed by i became a better player and started learning what all is actually going on in this massive headache of a game... the rules and game mechanics are too much to take in at once.. it's like bringing on a new player to a D&D party that's been playing together for a long time.. you have no clue wtf is going on... eventually you will learn.. and you won't look back.

Sure, there are problems with this game.. there are with EVERY game.  The Pros outweigh the weaknesses by far.. why else is this game still alive after 5 years?  If it truly sucked, do you think people would still be paying to play it?

There's no way i can tell you all the reasons you should play this game.  You have to try it out.  A simple credit card requirement shouldn't be the reason you don't play this game.  CRS (the rats) have no desire to shaft you out of your money.. just sign up and you'll either be ready to unsub or you'll be to hooked to worry about it after 30 days is up.. just think.. no kiddies ruining all your fun either..

this community is the best ever.  you will find people VERY willing to help a new guy/gal out (yes, there's some women that play this too).  If you get in game and need some help, there's even a help radio channel where volunteers from the community will try their best to answer your questions.

Hope to see you in game!

If you suffer from ADHD.

If you suffer from terminal impatience.

If you can't go two minutes without killing something.

If you are unwilling to learn, unwilling to acquire some basic REAL WORLD knowledge about WWII era equipment...

If you only play games that are mind-blowingly incredible in graphics [no matter how poor the gameplay]...

You'll hate WWIIOL/Battleground Europe.  Simple as that.

Playing takes patience, smarts, and skill.

That's why I'm still playing after 5 years.

Oh, and the social aspect.  Playing in a squad is every bit as social as some of the guilds/clans/etc on other MMORG games.

This game is what you make of it, if you put nothing in, you'll get nothing back.  You cannot compare it to Battlefield 2, 1942, 2142 nor COD, DOD:Source.

If you want a throw away gaming session when you've got 15 mins to burn grab one of those.  If you've got 2 or 3 hours to burn where your every could potentially mean something in the bigger picture then try the trial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiFBD1tqT-M

This video by svedala for me shows the game in the best possible light, combined arms?  You got it

Try it today, 30 days trial?  You got it made in my book.

Best MMOFPS... sorry MMOSIMULATION out there.... cause thats what it is... a simulation and not some arcadish bullshit shoot em up.... dont compare it with regular shooters which you can only play on small maps with limited numbers. Try it out ... get into an organized squad... train up... and fight along the frontline for your side.

Here are some additional videos (that are from almost 2 years ago...the game is an entirely different visual look now, but these still give you an idea of the scope of the game.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otPfVfPoXic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8vISLZf7sM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UdoggbHyFQ

NOT is free trial!