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When the computer goes, lead is estimated using Kentucky windage. A burn-out laser (it happens often after four quick lazes) forces the gunner from the primary sight to the auxiliary sight where range is figured just like in WW II. The worse possible scenario is a hydraulic failure. The gunner then must manually traverse and elevate the gun. Don't sweat this, you won't be around long enough to do this often in a mission. All this may make the gunner's position a stand-alone game.

Fig. 3. M1A1's Auxiliary Sight

The enemies in the missions usually have Warsaw Pact equipment. The numbers of vehicles and the presence of the T-80 make for tense situation. Infantry is present and can make life miserable for tanks in towns and woods. If Soviet technology is tame, one mission has M1s taking on Leopards. The mission and map editor allows for creation of even tougher battles. The AI is made tough through the use of scripts, eliminating the possibility of dynamic campaigns. For the ultimate opponent, the complete gamut of multi-player options is provided.

Graphics will be controversial. They are not 3D, which make them seem obsolete. However, initial responses from the 50,000 downloads from the demo appears to indicate that game play is not hurt by this. Time will tell about how the market reacts.

Fig. 4. A Leopard II stalks the woods

Steel Beasts is definitely a game to watch. In itself, it may fill the needs for a realistic playable modern tank sim. More importantly, its success may be a bellwether for the future of simulations. Several large companies have dropped out of hard-core sims because the market is to small for them to make a profit. Small companies have neither the need to sell thousands of units to justify a game to a board of directors nor a desire to please all gamers. On the other hand, they can't afford to take crippling losses. The sale of Steel Beasts may well show if smaller companies can fill the hard-core niche.

Click HERE to download the demo and HERE to visit the Steel Beasts web site.

System Requirements

266 MHz Pentium, 32 MB RAM, 2MB SVGA card, 20 MB available hard disk space, Mouse, CD-ROM, Microsoft Windows 95 or Windows 98 installed, Microsoft DirectX version 7.0 (or better) installed

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