What do the veterans think of ww2 computer games?

Why in heavens name should an elderly old Veteran that has seen in his life; death wounds and misery on a scale unprecedented in modern times....Have the slightest interest in war games? It does seem to me that we have enough memories of what war does, without playing games about it.

With respect to the younger generation!

 

Sapper

can only second that - love to the saintly one - take care ! look like we are heading for another big one in the middle East.....never learn !

Cheers

 

Hi Tom old mate, hope you keep well. Yes the Saintly one is reasonable, she took a tumble the other day and it has shaken her. Not good for an 80 year old lady.... Yes the whole of North Africa and the middle east is in utter turmoil. I see no way for a settlement in the near future.

If our oil supplies are cut off we would have no choice but to go in and protect our life line... Or Starve. For there is no way the infrastructure of the country can be supplied without OIL.... It reminds me far too familiarly with the gathering storm in the late forties. Culminating in a bit of paper and "Peace In our time" if you recall. Get armed NOW and prepare for what ever we may need to survive..

I heard the political idiots talking about the possibility of war in Iran and going into Syria... Idiots stay out of it until we are forced to act. Then act decisively

 

The advantage of computer war games is that parents and grandparents can't stub their toes and twist their ankles falling over them, but that excepted, they're no different from a front room rug scattered with lead soldiers and Dinky toys.

 

Sapper -
seems to me that we tried to avoid all that in 1956 at the Canal but were stopped by the "good" guys and we have been paying the price ever since - ask the Saintly one to leave the Gin and Harpic alone as it will send her clean around the bend

Cheers

 

'Wargaming' with miniatures is perhaps only a rung or two up the ladder from your computer shoot-em-up games when comparing miltary-esque games to the real thing being more to do with strategy than action. But at least it looks pretty and as someone has mentioned, it can keep our 'favorite' periods of warfare or theatres of operation from sinking into historical oblivion.

But one thing nobody has said yet is that to be good at these (in my opinion) somewhat hyperactive shooting computer games your character dies many, many times before learning the way through each level. How different to reality is that when a serviceman can perish in fractions of a second from a single wound?

That really is 'Game Over'...

 

Sapper and Tom,
Fully appreciate your sentiments, why would you want to go back to horrific times?
I occasionally play things like Close Combat -A bridge too far and flight sim ww2 but never take it seriously, as it can never replicate the reality of fear and death.
Too easy to restart and replay the scenario.
It can only be a shallow attempt at the real thing, which I would never like to experience.

 

Nazi is also an abbreviation.

I play two games mainly on my pc and laptop. The first is pure fiction and am a 'goody' mercenary in a central african country, large game play and the player can do as he wishes which a lot of games do not allow. Its called Far Cry 2 and I have had it quite a while. FC3 is now out, but will leave that for a while until it drops in price.

The other is Silent Hunter 4. I command a submarine in the Pacific and am given a career, or single missions, or historical missions. I sank the 4 carriers attacking Midway on one game!!! The game is accurate and the sub does as you tell it, so do not exceed operational depths!! The one thing is that you can disobey operational orders if you like with no apparent repercussions. Excellent real time game play, with a time accelerator to speed up transit times. The computer can be a little bit too random at times with its allowances. Last night, taking USS Drum to Japan, I encountered a small convoy of fast liners (and three destroyers) carrying troops. Half of my torpedoes were duds!!! Two liners, 4 torps, ended up as 2 liners and about 12 torps, so ended up abandoning mission to go home to Pearl to refuel. Very good simulation (not game as such) and recommended.

Other versions of the silent Hunter series have you commanding U boats, but no way am I going to attack my own side, even in simulation, so did not buy them. Silent Hunter 2 was such, but some very clever lads made some unofficial modifications to it and, after installing the modifications, the sub arrived as a US boat in the Pacific again!!! Their site is/was subsim.com.