Wake Island

Ocean, two thirds of the way from Hawaii to the Northern Marina islands. It was annexed in 1899 by the US for use as a cable station, and saw fisticuffs in World War II. It is currently used as a stopover and refuelling site for aircraft. The addon's layout is commendably true to that of the real island, the terrain is the same shape and the airstrip is in the correct location, as you'll see from the screenshots. Elevations, however, are different. Drawing much of its terrain, objects, and influence from the NAM series of addons, Wake Island is very similar to them in many respects. Due to its smaller size it will not place as great a burden on your system as the larger NAM islands and is perfect for smaller scale NAM missions as well as any Pacific Battles. The actual execution of the addon, however, is not quite up to scratch. The bridges connecting the two smaller islands to the larger island will ruin a car that tries to drive onto them unless it runs at a tiny speed because of the angle between the bridge and the slope. The roads terminate at the beginning of the slope from both sides down to the bridge. The roads themselves are particularly shoddy, as you'll see from the screenshots the tiles overlap and create alternating light and dark areas of road, and small areas of tile that stick out from the edges of the corners. On updating to V1.3 the Wake Island team said this: [quote] There is an ugly thing about the island, Udie must have accidently overlapped the roads and we have NOT redone them, but i think you guys can live with that :) [/quote] Well, I'm sorry, but I think I speak for most of the OFP community when I say we can't and won't live with utterly ridiculous road textures because the addon's developers could not be bothered to correct them. These roads ruin the island and it is impossible to immerse yourself in the game when they are on the screen. They are hideous, and since the developers know they look ugly they should have fixed it. I cannot for the life of me come up with any reasons why they wouldn't other than a complete lack of effort. Not acceptable. The introduction mission to play in the background of the main OFP screen is noticable because of its absence. This is highly irritating and adds to the distinctly amateurish feel and makes me question whether this should really be called finished. There is one area I particularly like with a road running through and area of dense vegetation, perfect for ambushing. The island can look quite beautiful at times, so long as you're not looking at the roads, but overall it leaves an impression of being distinctly average, lacking that extra bit of effort and polish.
---This review is adapted from that for Wake Island V1.2. It takes full account of all changes made between the two versions.--- This addon represents a real world island in the North Pacific