19-11-2001 05:45									#61
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

In defense of Black & White, which suffered from several date release push backs, which in turn raised the amount of fan generated hype to a near unbearable limit - the game just could not live up to such expectations. I consider those people who believed the creature AI would be the next best thing to sliced bread to be nothing short of naive fools - they deserve any disappointment they suffered.

I was quite pleased with B & W, still occasionally have a game. At the very least, the graphics are stunning. I do agree that the creature AI is next to pathetic, and once the illusion of it being a real, independent entity is broken, so is much of the pleasure of playing. I do not regret buying this game.

My choice of turkeys which I sincerely regret paying good money for are CTP1, Test of Time, Smac X, Creatures 2, Imperium Galactica 2.

I am glad to say that I have finally learnt my lesson. [Although it was probably Karma that I bought all those turkeys, for God knows I have indulged in hundreds of pirated games from my Commodore 64 days onwards].

	19-11-2001 20:29									#62
	Tired of ads?

quote: Originally posted by Carolus Rex I'm surprised to find two games mentioned here: Black and White and Tropico. I haven't played either of them, but the reviews were great, especially for Black and White. I was thinking about buying them, should I skip it? And why were they not so good? Carolus

Carolus,

You can see my comments about the game here:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthre...threadid=25944&

My post is the long one about half way down the page.

Ken

	20-11-2001 01:37									#63
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

Thanks for the replies!

Carolus

	20-11-2001 09:51									#64
	Suffering from ads?

quote: Tiberian Sun for sure, i'll never buy anything from Westwood again that's not in the bargain bin.

Agreed - I bought it the first day it was released and in less than a week it was sitting at the back of my cupboard. Yech. :rolleyes

	20-11-2001 10:04									#65
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

Microsoft Train Simluator. I may get into it at some point but there are far more insteresting things to do. Is it just me or are the graphics just not up to par that the box shows and the reviewers claim?

	20-11-2001 15:21									#66
	Suffering from ads?

quote: Originally posted by Carolus Rex I'm surprised to find two games mentioned here: Black and White and Tropico. I haven't played either of them, but the reviews were great, especially for Black and White. I was thinking about buying them, should I skip it? And why were they not so good? Carolus

Can't personally comment on B&W, since I have never played it, especially after I had read the huge amount of negative feedback on the game.

As for Tropico, it has a bunch a silly design decisions, and there are a lot of details at the wrong places. Of course, trying to find out things that the excuse of a manual that doesn't tell you didn't help.

	23-11-2001 11:23									#67
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: Originally posted by Russell Microsoft Train Simluator. I may get into it at some point but there are far more insteresting things to do. Is it just me or are the graphics just not up to par that the box shows and the reviewers claim?

Tell me more about this game please. My father is an avid model railroader and is considering buying the game. DOES it give you a feel of actually running the big trains or is it just hype?

As my personal purchase blunders. The biggest waste of money ever was SimEarth. It looked like an interesting experiment on the box

Other dishonourable mentions include X-Com Apocolypse (I SO LOVED THE FIRST X-COM TOO), Sword of Excaliber, and most recently, though I hate to say it, Civ 3. I consider Civ 3 an ok game and probably worth the money I paid for it, but it was such a let down compared to my hopes for it.

On the other hand I actually very much enjoyed Caesar III, so much so that I went and purchased Pharoah and Zeus. Zeus blew. Pharoah was both good and bad (interesting game but those temples took RL hours to build sometimes - I'd go for a walk and come back to the game... hehe that shouldn't be so)

Best PC game purchase I ever made: Colonization. I bought it when it first came out and I still love it. It embodies the beauty that was Civ 1. Simple game requiring very little tech, but brilliantly brought off to light my imagination on fire. Best other game purchases I ever made is a tie between Playstation's Bust A Groove and Final Fantasy Tactics (both worth their weights in gold)

	23-11-2001 16:48									#68
	Increase the size of your Attachments

Pilfur,

Microsoft Train Simulator is just what it sounds like - a train simulator from Microsoft. And yes, it does give you a real feel of riding in a train; it has nine trains and six routes. As well as simply riding the trains, there are scenarios where you perform tasks but, as I said, I haven't been bothered getting into it personally. However, there was somewhere in America where I think they wanted to ban it because it was too dangerously realistic and some were worried that amateurs would be able to learn the secrets of riding real trains and maybe take one over, and this was before the terrorist attacks!

So, in a nutshell, it's a real simulator and if you're into that sort of thing it may very well be the buy for you. For me, flight simulators aren't my cup of tea either but others love them so there you go.

You might be interested in checking out other train simulators which are either out or still in development. Go to http://www.trainsim.org.uk/. One called Trainz sounds promising.

Last edited by The Rusty Gamer on 23-11-2001 at 17:01

	25-11-2001 05:52									#69
	Colonization? Got spare money?

Pilfur said:
Best PC game purchase I ever made: Colonization. I bought it when it first came out and I still love it. It embodies the beauty that was Civ 1. Simple game requiring very little tech, but brilliantly brought off to light my imagination on fire.

me:
Really, Colonization? As much as I *think* I'm really into the colonial theme, I find the game really boring and tedious. I'd like to hear arguments to the contrary... But my own thoughts are that there are no interesting opponents in the game. Indians, in the long run, aren't much of a threat, and the European players, besides being really stupid and unambitious, aren't worth conquering because their colonies are out of the way. (And, if you conquer them, they can just reappear with another boat.) The only real competition is the mother country, and that's at the end of the game.

All in all I haven't bought a lot of games, but I can say that I've become bored to tears with the Sims.

Miznia

	26-11-2001 00:31									#70
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

Well, Miznia, even if you don't try to conquer other European colonies, at some point one or two of them will come after you. You do have to prepare for that, and deal with it when it happens. I've lost games because my colonies were taken by computer players.

But in general, you're right; if defeating a skilled opponent is what makes a game fun for you, you won't like Colonization. That game is about building an efficient, productive economy; resource management, basically. If that appeals to you, you'll love Colonization, as I and many others do.

	26-11-2001 02:12									#71
	Remove this text

quote: But in general, you're right; if defeating a skilled opponent is what makes a game fun for you, you won't like Colonization. That game is about building an efficient, productive economy; resource management, basically. If that appeals to you, you'll love Colonization, as I and many others do.

Hmm. Would you agree that that's a different kind of appeal than Civ's appeal? (1 and 2 anyway; I haven't played Civ3.)

Honestly, I'm really terrible at games. My Colonization impressions come mostly from letting the game run on its own. I usually "play" Civ2 the same way. With Colonization, though, it isn't even interesting to watch the computer players. They don't expand very much, and their territory never looks much like it could be a country. Oh well.

Miznia