Product Description

Day of Defeat: Source (DoD: Source) is the latest version of the WWII online action game from Valve®. Players join the ranks as Axis or Allies troops located in Western Europe during the height of the war in 1944. Gamers select a unique player class—from scouts to sharpshooters—as they are tasked, as a unit, to complete goals unique to each battlefield. DoD: Source leverages the Source engine technology, the same Valve created for Half-Life® 2 and its next generation of games. With this technology, DoD: Source offers state-of-the-art graphics, including support for HDR lighting.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18140 in Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Model: 014633098464
• Released on: 2006-02-07
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platform: Windows XP
• Format: CD-ROM
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 1.25" h x 5.50" w x 7.50" l, .28 pounds

Features

• Completely updated maps to take full advantage of the Source engine
• Integrated physics simulation for realistic gravity, friction, and bouyancy
• Greater detail in textures, models, and surfaces for added realism
• Improved lighting, shadows, and reflections through bump mapping, specular and HDR lighting
• Completely redesigned user interface

Amazon.com Product Description

Day of Defeat (a.k.a. DoD) is the latest online action experience from Valve, makers of Half-Life and Counter-Strike. Stationed in the heart of WWII's European Theater of Operations, players join the ranks of an elite military squad entrenched in battle.

Each team has several "player classes," that give each squad member a unique role. These include scout, infantry, sergeant, machine gunner, and more, each with a unique arsenal of historical weaponry at their disposal.

DoD includes an expansive collection of missions based on key historical battles. And a near infinite number of additional missions, created by the online development community, are available for download.

DoD takes the classic gameplay of the original Day of Defeat and improves the experience with Source, the advanced engine technology Valve created for Half-Life 2. With this technology, DoD: Source offers state of the art graphics (including support for HDR lighting) in optimized versions of popular maps, plus redesigned sound and all new player, weapon, and world models.

As war rages, squads must battle as a unit to achieve victory! Gameplay features include:

• A class system giving each player a unique role
• Historically-accurate weaponry and items
• Dozens of missions based upon WWII's greatest battles
• Built-in support for voice communication

Customer Reviews

Addictive and a bargain as well, good for old folks like me.
I'm a little ashamed at having to admit that I'm old in gaming years, well over thirty, so my reflexes are not what they used to be. Playing games like "Counter-Strike: Source" expose my degraded skills all too readily: I can see the enemy, I can predict where they pop up, and I can't seem to get my shots off quickly or accurately enough to save my life. So I usually spend much of a level watching as a dead spectator. Not fun.

"Day of Defeat: Source" offers people like me a better alternative. It relies more on strategy than CS:S because it's based solely on team-play and objectives. You have to capture five flags, and while it sounds easy, you have to keep them captured long enough to call it yours.

The result is that I can leverage my years of experience (and my years of gaming experience normally surpasses the ages of my fellow players). I can work in coordination with others to set up fire bases, provide cover, assault a position, and so forth, knowing that the objective is flag caps and not personal victory.

Granted, you will find games where personal glory is more important, and you will find games where cheats occur (spectators calling out positions to players, as one), but overall you'll likely find a good three hours of tactical and strategic play. It's easy to learn, you have enough variety of player class to attempt to master them all, and playing against people ensures you compete against the best possible opposition.

To the negative reviews, I would grant them their own experiences are valid, but I would tell readers to consider this: younger players have more time on their hands to master a game. Old folks with fulltime jobs just can't commit to 80 hours of study on a video game anymore, so while this game doesn't offer the fastest gameplay (Quake 4 apparently has that title), it does offer a load of fun. For the price, you can't lose.

-Fred

DoD:S A worthy successor to DoD but still a work in progress
Day of Defeat: Source (DoD:S) is not a port of the last pre-Source version of the HL-based mod-cum-retail-release of DoD. It is a complete, from the ground up, build of the game on Valve's (Half-Life 2) Source engine.

For those unfamiliar, Day of Defeat is a WWII-based FPS (first person shooter). You choose either the US (Allies) or Germans (Axis) and fight it out online, choosing from 6 classes. This is purely an online game. There is no single-player mode and there is not (yet) official bot support.

While not as nearly as popular as fellow Valve title, Counter-Strike, DoD:S is a lot of fun. The visuals are absolutely stunning and take advantage of the latest technology that Valve has made, most notably, HDR lighting. The gameplay is quick and the weapons are more lethal than the typical WWII shooter. The game has a very authentic feel, but if you're expecting a realistic shooter, look elsewhere.

So far there are only 6 official maps released, but at least 2 more are in the works and there is a strong custom map (and other content as well) community.

Overall:

Pluses
*Great graphics
*Fun gameplay
*Wide-ranging options for players to choose from in terms of classes and roles.
*Well supported by a company (Valve) that will continue to put out content for the game
*Price: Under $20 for a new game that uses state-of-the-art graphics
*Good community: There is a good DOD community on the official forums, there is a good amount of custom content, and many great community/friendly servers
*Relatively easy to learn. There are a couple classes that are good for new players to start with and learn and come along.
*as opposed to other WWII-oriented games that have poor online play, DoD:S has great online play.

Minuses
*State of the art graphics = will not run so well on older PCs.
*Limited list of stock maps
*While, overall, the community for DoD is a good one, its not being adopted by the competitive community. This is for a variety of reasons that I'll leave you to read elsewhere as they're lots of theories on this.
*online play only

Overall, I'd give the current state of the game a 4, but I think the potential is there that with continued support from Valve, it could be a 5.

For the price, its a good buy.

good...but could have been better
NOTE(July 18,2008):do to a recent update and some practice I have had on DOD:S i will try to edit this reveiw when I get the chance(for some positive stuff has happened to DOD:S)


I really enjoyed this game, however it had some probloms:

Pros:
1.Its the best multi-player WWII game i've seen-in short it's way better that call of duty 2 mult-player mode.
2.realism-the realism can be turned buth ways, if your one of those gamers who likes to play their games with the true super long reloading and the machine gun with the huge backfire and the no realoading till you've used all your ammo on the rifle, then it could be a pro to you.(but it defeinatly is a con for me)
3.the seanrey and water are nice.

...and heres the cons:
cons:
1.it takes a long time to load.(if you have a pc that ran hl2 you will run this with about the same speed as my pc ran it.)
2.the game gave you this nervis feeling that you don't get with counter strike:source or other multi-player games thus making the mormal player suck like hell.(don't block this HELL IS NOT A CUSS WORD!)
3.most of the maps felt pointless and the goal of most of them were to walk over to a flag or a tank with a flag and stand there till the area is "captured" though there are a two maps that I know of that have to do with blowing up a tank or some other machine.
4.the servers are slowly dying.
5.the people you play as look stupid(if you play it you'll know what I mean)

in short if you love WWII you'll be a fan of this game. But of you want a game with capture points play team fortress 2. If you want a game were you plant exploseves then play counter strike: source