Panzer Elite will allow you to command platoons of 4 German or 5 American tanks. You’ll command all aspects of your tank and issue general commands to wingmen. The game includes single mission, campaign, and instant action scenarios, each of which takes place on a 5x5 km battlefield. Larger scenarios will include up to 70 vehicles, and in the campaign, resource management of men, ammo and supplies will be critical.

In all, the game includes over 80 types of units, including infantry. Over 22 types of tank will be drivable. On the German side, you’ll be able to command most models of the Panzer III, IV, Panther and Tiger. It’s a pretty good spread of late war tanks, though unfortunately you won’t be able to command from the cupola of a JagdPanther or Stug III. Of course, the Germans have all the good tanks, and the American will have to make do with the many Sherman models and an occasional M-10. While the tanks will be lovingly modeled in 3D, infantry units will be sprites. Frankly, the inclusion of infantry is one feature of the game I’m most looking forward to. As per real life, infantry will be very dangerous in woods and towns, and in Panzer Elite they’ll be armed not only with bazookas and panzerfausts, but with an AI that will keep them from running out in front of your tank’s machine guns.

Wings is developing a proprietary 3D engine for the game, and the terrain will not only look realistic but behave realistically, even allowing your tank to position itself in hull-down and turret-down attitudes. Woods will be made up of individual trees that you’ll be able to plow over, and buildings will collapse wall-by-wall.

This realism extends to the game’s interface and physics. Though scalable realism levels will allow beginners to get into the game easily—for instance, you can choose how realistic the ballistics model is—the game strives for extreme realism at the higher settings. Ballistic properties are modeled precisely and according to shell types, whether they’re HE or AP or HEAT—or any other type of shell used. Damage will be modeled with similar realism; over 30 areas on each tank will be mapped for damage, and hits can do anything from brew up your tank and kill your crew to just knocking out your radio. Optics are realistic as well; German crews have sophisticated range finders, the Amis have to fire and figure. And though both external and cockpit views will be available, in full realism the external view will not be accessible if you’re buttoned up.

Though realism is the watchword here, Wings has gone to great lengths to make the game playable and fun. To that end, they’ve created an easy to use interface that can be used with mouse, keyboard, and joystick, but whose niftiest innovation is the Tank Mouse, a feature that allows easy access to all important game functions.

Multiplayer won’t be scrimped on, either—Panzer Elite will include network mode for up to 8 players over LAN, modem or serial link. Minimum specs are P166, 32 MB RAM and a 2MB graphics card, though a 3D card is recommended.The game supports force feedback, and should be released sometime in the first quarter of ’99.