Tom vs Bruce: The Computer Gaming World and Games for Windows Articles

Games
1

About 15 1/2 years ago the first Tom vs Bruce article was published in the January 2002 (#210) issue of Computer Gaming World. There would be 49 more Tom vs Bruce articles in the pages of Computer Gaming World. Thanks to the Computer Gaming World Museum and the awesome @Left_Empty, who has searched out all 50 Tom vs Bruce articles that were published in CGW, here is what we hope is a complete list of the now ages old battle.

For those of you who are on a data plan, I’ll provide two links. The first will be to the page in the CGW Museum where you can see the cover of the specific issue and download the pdf when you want and the second link will be a direct download of the pdf of the entire issue with a little note of how many mb’s it is.

#210, page.135 - Rails Across America Direct download pdf 36.3mb
#216, page.108 - Warlords Battlecry II Direct download pdf 26.5mb
#217, page.098 - Freedom Force Direct download pdf 28mb
#219, page.140 - Age of Wonders II Direct download pdf 36.5mb
#220, page.146 - Magic the Gathering Online Direct download pdf 37.9mb
#222, page.147 - Medieval Total War Direct download pdf 36.4mb
#224, page.122 - Age of Mythology Direct download pdf 33.3mb
#225, page.136 - Combat Mission 2: Barbarossa to Berlin Direct download pdf 34.9mb
#226, page.114 - Asheron’s Call 2 Direct download pdf 30.6mb
#227, page.128 - The Sims Online Direct download pdf 32.2mb
#228, page.102 - IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles Direct download pdf 27.9mb
#230, page.130 - Rise of Nations Direct download pdf 30.7mb
#231, page.138 - Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Direct download pdf 35.3mb
#232, page.172 - Korsun Pocket Direct download pdf 41.2mb
#233, page.190 - Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic Direct download pdf 47.1mb
#234, page.160 - Age of Mythology: The Titans Direct download pdf 38.0mb
#235, page.120 - Dominions II Direct download pdf 30.0mb
#236, page.122 - Heroes of Might & Magic III Direct download pdf 29.9mb
#237, page.122 - Star Chamber Direct download pdf 30.3mb
#238, page.122 - Civilization III: Conquests Direct download pdf 31.6mb
#239, page.122 - Unreal Tournament 2004 Direct download pdf 29.8mb
#240, page.110 - World of Warcraft Direct download pdf 26.8mb
#241, page.112 - Rise of Nations: Thrones & Patriots Direct download pdf 27.1mb
#242, page.104 - Warlords Battlecry III Direct download pdf 27.6mb
#243, page.120 - Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising Direct download pdf 30.9mb
#244, page.110 - The Political Machine Direct download pdf 28.7mb
#245, page.126 - Kohan II Direct download pdf 32.5mb
#246, page.128 - Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War Direct download pdf 30.5mb
#247, page.128 - Star Wars Battlefront Direct download pdf 30.7mb
#248, page.114 - Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth Direct download pdf 27.5mb
#249, page.104 - Sid Meier’s Pirates! Direct download pdf 26.0mb
#250, page.114 - Starcraft Direct download pdf 30.0mb
#251, page.110 - Laser Squad Nemesis Direct download pdf 27.3mb
#252, page.110 - Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich Direct download pdf 28.9mb
#253, page.102 - Gary Grigsby’s World at War Direct download pdf 28.1mb
#254, page.086 - Guild Wars Direct download pdf 26.0mb
#255, page.094 - Battlefield 2 Direct download pdf 27.3mb
#256, page.116 - Crown of Glory Direct download pdf 32.9mb
#257, page.122 - Down in Flames Direct download pdf 36.2mb
#258, page.116 - Age of Empires III Direct download pdf 33.4mb
#259, page.094 - Civilization IV Direct download pdf 27.3mb
#260, page.094 - Ticket to Ride Direct download pdf 28.9mb
#261, page.094 - The Sims 2 Direct download pdf 26.7mb
#262, page.092 - Star Wars Empire at War Direct download pdf 28.8mb
#263, page.100 - Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth 2 Direct download pdf 31.6mb
#264, page.092 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Direct download pdf 28.2mb
#265, page.094 - Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends Direct download pdf 29.4mb
#266, page.100 - Civilization IV: Warlords Direct download pdf 30.1mb
#267, page.096 - Pox Nora Direct download pdf 29.5mb
#268, page.102 - Dominions 3: The Awakening DIrect download pdf 34.2mb

To see the list of Tom vs Bruce articles from Games for Windows scroll down the thread or click here

A big thanks to whoever keeps the CGW Museum going, @Left_Empty for finding all of these articles and sending where they were to me and of course, a big thanks to @tomchick and @Brooski for the great writing.

Please let me know if I’ve messed up any of the links or if I’ve missed any of the articles.

2

Dang, that’s impressive. I missed it the first time around because I wasn’t reading gaming mags, but have come across several over the years. Never had the complete archives, now I can fill in. Thanks @Left_Empty !

3

The classics, this is awesome!

4

Awesome post.

5

I really miss CGW. Also, Rails Across America…what a great game that was.

6

Thanks for posting!

Also, goddamn, that Heroes 4 shit is pretty much just the tooltips from the game. Such as it was. RIP.

7

Not having ever lived in America, I am amazed by that site and what it offers (if Frecnh speaking people are interested and not aware, there is this site that attempts to preserve each and every single French-speaking videogame magazines up to the late 90s - even TV shows!). One similar amazement came to me from archive.org’s collection of the Computer Chronicles. Hurray for the internet, sometimes.
My personal favorite of Tom and Bruce’s collegial writings is Freedom Force. It is so funny, informative, enthusiastic, I had to buy the game right away on GOG after reading it.
Similarly, looking up Star Chamber was quite a sad acknowledgement of time passing and games being sent eventually to the void. Damn, it sounds like it was a very good game.

8

Awesome!!! I loved reading these in cgw

9

My first bookmark in this forum so I can read these articles during my vacation tomorrow :)

10

I should probably do that, so I remember to go back and read them.

11

I once had a letter printed in CGW. I was irate, IRATE I tell you, that Wasteland had met all the requirements to be placed in the Hall of Fame but hadn’t yet been inducted! How dare they!

I had also written a letter to Scorpia asking for some hints for Wasteland. Blew my mind when I actually got a typed letter back with the answers I needed. Ah the wonder of my pre-internet days. Still miss CGW.

12

I always found them harder to read because of their font. CGM was always much more pleasing to the eye because their layout was better and the font was much better. Now I’m having the same issue with these digitized versions of the articles. Something about the way they laid out the page and used empty space really bothers me, and I get this irritation while I’m reading it.

OTOH, this is great stuff in the articles themselves! I had no idea Tom vs Bruce had done both Warlords Battlecry 2 and 3, my two favorite RTS games alongside Supreme Commander.

13

Great list. Funny thing is that I no doubt have all of these in a box in my garage.

14

I had forgotten that these used to be polite and civil with no trash talking.

The pdf of #235 cuts off before page 160 so the Dominions article isn’t in it.

16

Hi @Miguk. Thanks for letting me know about that. The numbering in the table of contents is different than the actual number in the magazine proper. That article is on page 120. Sorry about that and thank you again for pointing it out.

Anyone else, if you find anything like that pleasze let me know.

EDIT: Left Empty just beat me to the punch. Thank you @Left_Empty. :)

17

Thanks for putting this together, @marquac and @Left_Empty! There are some serious memories there.

It started out as tips/strategy articles from when @Thierry_Nguyen was in charge of that section. When it proved popular, CGW made it its own column. The back-and-forth trash talking grew out of that, since they no longer wanted tips per se.

18

PDFs. How QUAINT.

IMG_1069.JPG1223×1631 1.95 MB

IMG_1070.JPG1631×1223 1.91 MB

19

I loved the article on Warlords Battlecry 3. It’s so neat to read about Tom and Bruce playing a game that I love! I don’t think that’s ever happened before. Usually they play games I’ve never played before, or have barely touched.

Knowing what I know about the game, I could tell in the setup with the heroes and factions they chose which way this was going to go.

An interesting way to play though. I had no idea people played the game like that, with a level 20 hero that you build before the match starts. The way me and my friends played, we always played our own heroes, who we were leveling up until they finally died (since we always played Hardcore heroes). It sounds kind of neat that you leveled up level 20 heroes just for this one match, and then had at it.

20

Thanks.

I miss Shoot Club also. Get on that @tomchick :)

21

The CGW museum seems to be done here. Is anyone else having issues?