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PREVIEWS

World In Flames!

DEVELOPER : Australian Design Group
PUBLISHER : Australian Design Group
RELEASE DATE : Oct. 1999

World In Flames! FAQ and other info at Australian Design Group

Australian Design Group is angling for the primo place in WWII wargamer's hearts - they are porting their world-renowned WWII strategic-level wargame World in Flames to the computer. Currently scheduled for release 10/99, we got an peek at a late alpha (ver 0.0.60) and found good things in store.

For those of you who've spend too much time staring at your computers, or those too young to remember when "wargame" meant hours sorting little cardboard counters, World in Flames is by far the most successful world-level WWII simulation out there, ever. With the latest version the level of detail is staggering and the rulebook immense. The crux of WiF is that it seems to hit all the gamer's favorite hot buttons when it comes the hows and whys of WWII. Do you think the pilot shortage crippled Germany in the face of mounting Allied air pressure? Pilot management is an optional rule. Do you think that you could have managed the Russian position better by hammering Germany's allies early? There are rules for diplomacy.

The fortunate thing is that they appear to have gone for the gold in the computer game as well. As you can see by the screen cap's of the options screen, every option I could think of from WiF 4 (the last one I bought!) is there in the works. If their optimistic release date pans out this will be a testament to Chris Marinacci's skills and dedication as a programmer. He has a very large task before him. [Notably, they are not backed by a large publisher yet, so this is an amazing product for what is essentially a labor of love...]

Not to say he hasn't done a lot already. In our version, Barbarossa is the only scenario available and I was surprised to have played it for several hours without a crash. I've played WiF for years, through many incarnations, and I think this will even make this game available to eager novices - a necessity for commercial viability. Managing the entirety of WWII as any of the powers on the divisional level is a daunting task, and WiF's interlocking semi-simultaneous impulse phasing is one of the harder concepts for new players to grasp. However, the computer already effortlessly manages this, explaining pretty clearly in each phase what exactly is happening (even the different air phases are each touched on, which I always forgot when to do...).

Naval rules are not yet implemented, but will be shortly. Further, significant amounts of code are being rewritten to take advantage of DirectX6, which should greatly improve the speed and appearance of the graphics.

WiF is a huge game. Bringing this to a PC near you is a huge task, but if the remainder is done with the quality and skill evident in the first half, I think we have a winner here.

Previewed by Steve Lieb