Gamer Escape: Gaming News, Reviews, Wikis, and Podcasts Gaming Community featuring News, Reviews, Wikis, and Podcasts. In Field Command each player controls an army of 40 units comprised of Artillery, Cavalry, Infantry, a General, and Guerillas. Cavalry and Infantry are divided into 3 ranks, denoted by a triangle, a circle, or a square. The battlefield is an 11x11 grid which contains forests and plains across 3 levels of elevation. Players can move up to 12 units per turn and movement is simultaneous.

We could do a lot of soul searching about whether strategy games work on a console - a handheld console at that. Ask anyone who's gotten cosy with the Advance Wars series - presentation, style, replayability, charm and deep strategic choices make it a beautiful thing. In horrible contrast, those of us who spent time with Aliens versus Predator: Extinction can only cringe at the pain. It left us feeling violated.Somewhere in the middle sits Field Commander, a decent stab at turn-based strategy in the palm of your hand. The basics are there, and it works, but it struggles to distinguish itself and is hampered by an identity crisis, annoying technical issues and a general lack of tension.

Maybe it is the nature of the genre clashing with the format, or maybe it's just not special enough. But who wants above average games that never reach greatness?From a distance it looks like there's going to be some realism, or at least a realistic atmosphere to help create tension. But up close - and there's nothing closer than squinting at a screen you're holding inches from your face - the graphical style is too muddled. The perspective of the troops on the battlefield, the icons and the size of the PSP, all render units cute and tubby instead of detailed and deadly.

It's not necessarily crippling to gameplay, but by not sticking to a particular style it gives the impression of being muddled. Imagine a tough-talking general barking his orders with a lollipop hanging from the side of his gob rather than a cigar. These soldiers need the hairdryer treatment from a drill sergeant about the state of their appearance. Just what you need in war - units with big red stripes on 'em.Framerate issues crop up too often as well. If you're trying to convince a new audience unfamiliar with strategy games that they should take a gamble and opt for a new experience, you won't do it with action that stutters.

By their very nature, strategy games call for patience and timing, so extending the waiting process with technical problems isn't something to endear it.But wait, we're giving you the bad news first. If you haven't been put off yet, Field Commander isn't broken, it isn't a bad game and it is something that you won't find elsewhere in the PSP library.Problems drop to the back of your mind when you've got the upper hand in combat, and surrounding enemy units to pump little rounds into their tubby frames is always a pleasure. Battles sway and flow like a giddy drinker, with a wide selection of land, sea and air units to deploy and crush the enemy.Maps aren't massive, but they are varied enough to provide alternative tactical options such as destroying terrain to surprise enemies, concealing submarines until critical moments and making the most of long distance weapons.

Cities can be conquered to provide finance, while factories are always a prime target for manufacturing new units. The way you use terrain can be much more important than the deployment of units, with mountains and bridges becoming more valuable than big guns. Deploy the exploding laptops and stand clear.For console gamers that aren't that familiar with strategy titles, there's an impressive array of tactics to take advantage of. Destroying neutral cities to stop your enemy from exploiting them, sacrificing your kamikaze pilots by crashing planes directly into the enemy and simply learning the vision and attack capabilities of each unit is enough to make the 30 different missions worth the effort. The more you play, the more the game opens up with little variations on a theme, and although every one of the missions have essentially the same goal (kill and/or capture), there is always an alternative approach with some fun experimentation.That's if you want to experiment. At times it's possible to crush the opposing forces with sheer weight of numbers.

Each unit has a Division Power, a special attack that builds from experience in battle, and once these come into play battles are quickly over. Being able to drop paratroopers onto any free square on the map seems to be too much of an advantage when you can land on enemy HQ and capture it within a couple of rounds.The fog of war restricts the players' vision and adds tension early on in a battle, but for single players, there's nothing exciting about watching, or rather not watching, your enemy's movements. The screen jerks as units move invisibly, and again it's something that stubs the toe of excitement.

Impatient gamers won't be impressed with the pace of the game at the beginning and end of the battles, where in your mind you'll see victory, but it takes time to finish off every unit or pummel a HQ to rubble. Invisible snipers. Bet Sony wishes it had some for the next-gen battle.Multiplayer is a strength of Field Commander, starting with a hot swap mode where two players pass the PSP to take turns, which obviously suits the genre perfectly.

With realtime versus mode, Transmission Mode and local Wi-Fi two-player head-to-head matches, there's plenty to choose from. There's even an impressive Mission Creator mode, where players can host their own maps online for others to download and upload their ranking data to a leaderboard.Although Field Commander has plenty of options, it's doubtful hardcore strategy heads will find enough to get lost in.

It's a cute enough PSP strategy game, but it's not going to be long lasting for a crowd that has been spoilt with the genre. If you're not that familiar with the genre and you're looking for an alternative to all those PSP racing games, ports and ports of racing games, Field Commander is distracting enough. But with a lack of distinctive character and only functional technology, with all the good will in the world it's never going to become a favourite. And there's no good will on a battlefield. There's only winners and the dead.6/10.

Fleeing your sinister jailors, Bacon Escape is your quest to break free from captivity and join your animal friends. But make sure you’re not guiding your piggy out of the frying pan and into the. Bacon Escape is a pretty solid auto-runner, truth be told. It's pleasantly cartoony, tasks players with manipulating the environment rather than the runner, and has lots of characters to unlock. It can sometimes be tough to spot the smaller hazards due to all the activity on screen, but all things considered that's a minor gripe. Fleeing from his sinister jailers, Bacon Escape is his quest to free himself from captivity and join his animal friends. But make sure you're not leading your little piggy out of the frying pan and into the fire. Bacon Escape takes you on an immersive and fast adventure as you try to escape from prison and reach the promised Happyplace. Fleeing your sinister jailors, Bacon Escape is your quest to break free from captivity and join your animal friends. But make sure you’re not guiding your piggy out of the frying pan and into the fire Bacon Escape takes you on an immersive and fast paced adventure as you try to escape prison and reach the promised Happyplace.

A field officer, field-grade officer, or senior officer is an army, Marine, or air forcecommissioned officer senior in rank to a company officer but junior to a general officer.^[1] In most armies this corresponds to the ranks of major, lieutenant colonel and colonel, or their equivalents. Some countries also include brigadier in the definition.

Historically, a regiment or battalion's field officers made up its command element.

Canada[edit]

In the Canadian Armed Forces, the equivalent of field officers are senior officers (French: Officiers supérieurs); they include the army and air force ranks of Major, Lieutenant-Colonel, and Colonel, and the naval ranks of Lieutenant-Commander, Commander, and Captain.

France[edit]

In the French Forces, field officers are called officiers supérieurs (Senior Officers). There are three ranks, in ascending order : Commandant, Lieutenant-colonel and Colonel (Capitaine de corvette, Capitaine de frégate and Capitaine de vaisseau in the naval forces), while brigadiers rank among officiers généraux.

Germany[edit]

In the German forces, officers from Major to Colonel in the Army and Air Force, or from Lieutenant Commander to Captain in the Navy are known as Stabsoffiziere which is translated as Staff Officers.

Russia[edit]

Field officer (Russian: Штаб-офицер, Shtabofitser; derived from German: Stabsoffizier; translation en: Field officer), was the designation of a particular officers rank category (OF-3 to OF-5) of the Russian Imperial Army and Navy until 1917.

United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries[edit]

The British Army (in which these officers are called officers of field rank), and some others in the Commonwealth (including the Australian Army and New Zealand Army), also include the brigadier in this category: the equivalent in other armies is a general officer (the brigadier general).

United States[edit]

Today, a field officer in the United States (here called field grade) Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force is typically a major, lieutenant colonel, or a colonel:

The [U.S.] officer corps is divided into 10 Commissioned Officer pay grades (O-1 through O-10) and 5 Warrant Officer pay grades (WO1 through CW5):

• Officers in pay grades O-1 through O-3 are considered junior, or company grade, officers in the Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force, and are referred to as junior grade in the Navy. These pay grades correspond to the ranks of: second lieutenant (O-1), first lieutenant (O-2), captain (O-3)^[2] as well as Warrant Officer 1 (WO1) and Chief Warrant Officer 2 (CW2).
• Commissioned Officers in the next three pay grades (O-4 through O-6) are considered field grade officers in the Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force. These pay grades correspond to the ranks of: major (O-4), lieutenant colonel (O-5), colonel (O-6). The divisions of company grade and field grade have equivalent groupings in the Navy or Coast Guard, namely junior-grade officers and mid-grade officers.^[2]
• In the Navy or Coast Guard, officers in pay grades O-1 through O-4 are considered junior officers: ensign, lieutenant junior grade, lieutenant, lieutenant commander.
• In the Navy or Coast Guard, officers in the following pay grades (O-5 and O-6) are considered mid-grade officers:commander and captain.

The highest four pay grades are reserved for general officers in the Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force, and flag officers in the Navy and Coast Guard. The ranks associated with each pay grade are as follows: in the Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force, brigadier general (O-7), major general (O-8), lieutenant general (O-9), and general (O-10); in the Navy and Coast Guard, rear admiral-lower half, rear admiral-upper half, vice admiral, and admiral.^[3][4]

References[edit]

1. ^'Field officer - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary'. Merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2011-10-03.
2. ^ ^ab'U.S. Military Rank Insignia'. United States Department of Defense. Archived from the original on 2019-09-22.
3. ^[1]Archived December 30, 2004, at the Wayback Machine
4. ^'Department of Defense - Officer Rank Insignia'. Defenselink.mil. Archived from the original on 2004-06-03. Retrieved 2011-10-03.