Our long march is nearing its end. With a development time about equivalent to the whole of World War Two itself, Blitz II has finally hit a major milestone - the closed beta testing is over and we are going to open it up to a slightly wider group of people - you! While this isn't exactly a public beta, we will now accept fans to the beta crew on a first-come first-served basis. Basically if you want to help us iron out the final few bugs in the skirmish game play before we go for a full public release then send me a PM on our forums and I will add you to the beta team. This will let you see the beta forums, give us feedback and more importantly see the links to the 2.7 beta installer.

We have never given release dates because Blitz II is a project and a hobby, not a professional paid for game with time tables and schedules. If it wasn't this way then we wouldn't have made it but it meant that we really had no idea how long it would take. However now we are in this stage it is possible to make a conservative estimate that the game should be out for full public release some time in early July. This still isn't final but barring a total disaster we should be able to meet this target.

Covering all the new content that we have added is going to be totally impossible because there is so much of it. We would need a manual or something... and so that is exactly what we have!


Blitzkrieg II Commander's Manual

As well as a ton of new units there will also be a huge list of new features. At the risk of repeating earlier posts, these include:

• Snow camouflage for all units
• Custom buildings for each side
• Over 20 missions including video briefings
• Fully functional AI on all skirmish maps
• Custom scenario maps for single and multiplayer
• Co-op comp-stomp maps
• Fully revamped tech tree

There is an absolute ton of new content, over 50 units per side covering the full breadth of the war. Indeed the skirmish game is meant to be WW2 in microcosm. This is going to be the definitive version of Blitz II and is probably one of the most complete WW2 games ever made, at least in terms of the European theatre, we cover just about everything (as the manual will show).

So yes all was quiet on the front lines but progress went ahead unbounded. The reason to keep it all concealed? Well we had no way to know when it would be ready so it seemed best to wait until we did. Now you know that there is less than a month to go and you can play this awesome mod. I will thank everyone properly when it is finally released, but thank you to everyone who has helped create this mod over the many years it has been under development. What a journey!

In the manual there is a video section but since this post lacks some pizaaz I will repost them here. They are basic tutorials with lots of nice annotation spam (although hopefully these are vaguely appropriate). They cover some of the new and not quite so new game play concepts that emerge with the new content.

Relase is being so close now... it doesnt even feel right after these years...

YAY!

Finally, we can begin to open up to a new crowd. Its been a fun trip to this point

The vets know how fun it was when the Blitz machine was running at full speed...But this new car is running with a boosted engine...The best is yet to come...just try it you'll see it by yourself !

Simply amazing, kudos to all you crazy bastards and your dedication.

This post has been edited by DrShrinker: Jun 16 2009, 5:04 AM

lol congrats to crew, but the Long March isn't over just yet...we can see the hill though.

After all this time.... I have been looking every day on this page for this update since March 2008. Indeed, it is a loooong march.

I want my white tigers and red T34s back, dammit!

I checked my calender to make sure it wasn't April 1st or something. Blitz 2 nearly done? Incredible news.

"Hot Damn" pretty much covers my emotions right now.

Well done to the developers and I hope for a smooth pre-release stage.

yeah no jokes this time



White Tigers are there on snow maps, red T-34s are sadly utterly fictitious... I liked that skin a lot too...

Wow, been a long time, it looks great

I can only imagine what ive been missing...

Never too late to enjoy the show comrade Raptor

i dont think my phone can run blitzkrieg.

yeah get a pc raptor. use the onboard computers of those aircraft if you have to.

Gr. Harry