Okay here are some sites where you can look for info on the game. ign.com has a message forum and gamers.com has it reviewed with a 6/10, and there is its homesite at koeigames.com.

Anyone play this game yet? I'm still waiting for my copy so I don't know if its any good yet, how good it is or if its complete crap like Fleet Command for PC.

This message was edited by JT on Feb 21 2003.

Heres gamespot link they gave it a 6.8/10

http://gamespot.com/gamespot/filters/products/0,11114,563569,00.html

I'm playing it. I think of the bunch gamespot has the most rational review. IGN's take is about the opposite of mine. I find P.T.O. IV's graphics are pretty amazing - perhaps not in technical terms but in aesthetic ones. Battles look just like paintings and film footage from W.W. II. The environment and numerous detailed ships models seem to bring naval combat back to life. Conversely, I have to take issue with the idea there's any real strategic depth or eductational value to this game. If fails to recreate realistic tactics, formations, operations or strategic considerations that drove naval action in W.W. II - instead substituting very KOEI, and very gamey, conquest, roleplaying, and research models. None of these are executed in any depth and seem more tacked on to the game in order to offer some illusion of complexity. In reality, if you simply attack consistantly and somewhat intelligently you'll never have to worry about resources, officer experience, or technical innovations. The A.I. handles the chores for you and even chosing to micromanage developments is an excercise in frustration because you get zero feedback on how much any strategic element is contributing to a given battle (is it my captain's gunnery skill, the improved radar, the better shells, or the enemy's inferior armor that helped me in this engagement?).

Resources are no problem either - as a byproduct of attacking regions you'll accumulate so many of each that no one will really become an issue or an important strategic objective. The A.I.'s combat, and strategic, skills aren't exactly lame but neither are they inspiring.

I haven't really felt very challenged yet.

That said, the graphics are pretty gorgeous, and you /must/ spend your time in cinematic camera mode to truely appreciate the beauty of the design, and good enough that I'm still playing.

When I read about how lame the graphics are at IGN and in the next breath how great and deep the strategy of P.T.O. IV is, I just want to sit the kid down with a book on naval history. I'd show him the paintings and the still photographs that look very much like the images generated during battle in the game and then I'd teach him how to read so he could understand how divergent KOEI's 'game' is from the real depth and situations that made WWII naval combat what it is. Lastly, I'd sit him down with Alpha Centauri or EU2, with a dose of Carriers at War or Great Naval Battles on the side, so he could see a game in which player strategy and planning impacts gameplay in a vivid manner, and on the side learn how historically accurate gameplay can be just as entertaining as cooked up artificial gameplay if not moreso.

Thanks for the review, I got it around 4-5 days ago, playing it alot lately. I'm having a pretty good time with it playing like 5hrs in a row. I'm playing as the Germans since I am German, Um yeah its given me alot of play time for my money. I know it doesn't really tell what commanders do on your ships, but you can tell when they dodge aircraft bombs etc, or get slightly better hits on the enemy etc.

I think its not as good as PTO II was though you had alot more stuff in that game, like marines, docks to bombard, factories to bombard etc, it was turn-based though and not real time. I wish they would've added PTO II on the same or extra disk or something that would've been cool.

I can look by most of PTO 4s faults and 16hrs of gaming and still a few more left 20+ probably untill I totally annihilate the enemy.

I currently have Dover cut off and they aren't getting any oil or aluminum from their regions. Also steel and funds are lowered too they still have plenty of those though. I've sunk and damaged abit of their fleets CVs too, taking over Gibraltar. Almost makes me feel guilty that my dudes are supporting the Holocaust, but its only a game.