Article by Ryan Lord.

Relic Entertainment returns to World War II with the first stand-alone expansion pack for its critically acclaimed RTS Company of Heroes, which brings British and German forces into the mix. Does Opposing Fronts live up to the Heroes' standard?

http://www.tomsgames.com/us/2007/1 [...] ts_review/

[Space reserved for an update from Dupre]

I recently got both games together but haven't played them yet. The demo of the original was quite good. I must say that you should try enabling big head mode at some point, it's hilarious. Although it distorts the lighting on the models, you get to see the facial expressions much more clearly. It deactivates when they die, but when that happens it can throw them around quite alot I expect someone will wonder why world in conflict wasn't added to the comparison, but I assume that's because it doesn't really fall into the RTS category (Real-Time Tactical or something I believe it is).

8/10 is an average-decent game is it not? After all, the scale starts at 7

We're investigating and working on some new review score guidelines to get away from the 7-10 issue that most sites and mags fall into. The 8/10 considered that for newbies the expansion is going to be a bit rougher to play.

You'll have a lot of fun with CoH, good to hear that you picked up both the expansion and the original.

The thing is, even if you do change the rating system, you have to deal with the mindset of the masses that anything below 7 means the game sucks. That will not be an easy thing to do. I shall commend you if you get a good system going, because you will be about the only site that does.

You really should try big head mode though, just for fun.

While playing, press [CTRL]+[SHIFT]+[~] to bring up the console, then type the following. Press [CTRL]+[SHIFT]+[~] again to exit the console.

ee_bigheadmode(1) - Big Head Mode ON
ee_bigheadmode(0) - Big Head Mode OFF

Screws around with some of the physics but in a good way

Great game, gotta love the King Tiger tank in the panzer elite missions (and fear it in the british missions)

No way, I've never head anyone mention this game, ever. Way to go. I used to play this game for dayz when I was a kid. It was the best out there. I'd even start a game with a friend, turn the TV off for a few hours, and come back and play with tons of money in our banks to start off with, it was the best! They need a remake!

Good to see another old shool RTS gamer here! Herzog Zwie, and Dune 2, were both great for their time, and caused me to become a complete RTS addict.

How do you do in RTS games these days? Is your skill level up to par with most others who play RTS often?

That little statement brought back so many memories. Aaaahhhhh *nostalgic* Wow, RTS these days? I feel like I abandoned my past. I mean, I pretty much buy and play almost all RTSs these days, but I haven't done much online play lately. As a result, my RTS skills aren't on par as they used to be and I feel behind compared to others online, but my love for the genre is still there. I'm always on the lookout for my next favorite RTS. Any suggestions?

Hmm, it's tough to give a specific recommendation, since we've seen some great RTS games in the recent years. Even going back a couple years, there was Age of Empires 3, Battle for Middle Earth 2, Supreme Commander, Company of Heroes, Command and Conquer 3, and World in Conflict. It's definitely been a good couple of years for RTS gamers.

Let me know what you're looking for and I'll try to narrow the list down to a specific recommendation.

I've been a C&C fan since the release day of the original game. I should break down and finally play that one, especially since I've read it's gone back to its roots and plays more like the first few games. I played WiC quite a bit and liked that as well some CoH. How does Supreme Commander ranks against those that you mentioned? If not towards the top, I'll probably go for C&C3 and more of CoH with some WiC on the side.

Supreme commander takes alot of patience IMO, it is pretty slow going until you progress through the tech trees.

You can definitely push a nasty rush in Supreme Commander, but I agree with randomizer that if there is not an effective rush in the beginning of the game you're in for a LONG battle. I'm talking sometimes like 4 hours battles. Resources are virtually limitless and good players can create stalemates that go on and on and on. Not that I'm saying that it's a bad game, but it will sometimes test your patience.

I prefer a C&C style build-a-huge-army-really-fast-and-overwhelm-the-enemy gameplay. I'm not really someone who likes the monotony of SC.