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IT`S CALLED THE WHAT?
(21 January 2000, 22:20 EST) Upon going to the Strategy section of EBWorld, one discovers a listing for a description-less "Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack", available for pre-order at a pricetag of $37.99US.
The only other information available at the present time, save its manufacturer being listed as Electronic Arts, is that it is "coming on 3/15/00".
More details to follow as it becomes available. -DanQ
PURCHASING SMAC-X IN THE UK
(21 January 2000, 22:59 EST) Ross Farquhar has informed us that he purchased Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire from Game Retail in the United Kingdom. Upon a visit to the site we conducted a search for the title and yielded its listing in the catalogue for a cost of £14.99. GR also includes a copy of the review of the expansion pack by GamesDomain UK.
Ross was able to unearth another site that carries the game, GamePlay, at a cost of £19.95 and ships it for free. -DanQ
PCZONE`S MILLENNIUM GAMES
(15 January 2000, 18:09 EST) The editors of PCZone have included the results of their Game of The Millennium contest in their February 2000 issue. Civilization II: Test of Time was #6 on the list, with Half-Life, being the game of choice of seven of the twelve editors who contributed to the feature, capturing the #1 spot. Dungeon Keeper 2 rounded out the list at #10.
One judge did comment in the article, however, that CivII was the "most addictive game" on the shortlist. To read up on who the other contenders were, and the discussion associated with these selections, pick up a copy of PCFormat today!
Our thanks to Smigs for informing us of all of this in the first place. -DanQ
NEW ENERGY MODEL PROPOSAL
(20 January 2000, 9:05 EST) Raingoon has made an interesting proposal for a new energy model for Civ3. It starts from the distiction of energy resources from the classic productions resources, changing and adding many aspects of the game. Check it out. -MarkG
VOTE TODAY AT PC IGN
(15 January 2000, 16:37 EST) The Civilization III Civilopedia is reporting that PC.IGN.COM is holding a vote for the Readers' Choice for Strategy Game Of The Millennium. The article is dated January 5th, and the voting continues, with both Civilization II and the original Civilization nominated, 3rd (11.7%) and 7th (5.1%) respectively at the present time. Starcraft has currently garnered more than double of the votes (36.6%) than Command & Conquer (12.2%), the latter of which is in second place.
Vote today! -DanQ
SID IN THE SIMS
(21 January 2000, 22:31 EST) You have  heard about The Sims? Well, it's the latest game of Maxis in the well known simulation series. Believe it or not, you could have Sid Meier in it! Head over to EBWorld for more details. And yes, that's Sid on the image on the right!! Thanks to AoA for posting about it. -MarkG
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Apolyton
&Friends News14-21
January
2000
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SMAC AWARDS AND REVIEWS
SMAC FINALLY RECOGNIZED
(21 January 2000, 22:44 EST) It's been a long time coming, but finally SMAC fans have something to celebrate. The game was awarded GameCenter's distinction of being their pick for Turn-Based Strategy Game Of The Year in 1999. Congratulations Firaxis!
SMAC was also nominated for PC Game Of The Year, but lost out to System Shock 2. -DanQ
SMAC-X REVIEW: HAPPYPUPPY
(14 January 2000, 20:30 EST/SMACX) Happy Puppy's Peter Suciu has given Alien Crossfire a thumbs-up 8/10 review. Some excerpts:
"AC is an expansion to a game that had very few flaws, thus it doesn’t bring enough to make it a "must buy." But having said that, it does have some elements that diehard fans might be interested in trying out.
The expansion has added some minor visual improvements here or there, but it is fundamentally the exact same game. And it’s too bad that the developers didn't look at the original expansion for Civilization II and add some scenarios to the game instead of trying to simply add new faces.
There are some great things about Alien Crossfire, but there’s an equal amount of problems. This is one add-on that is welcome because it brings some freshness to a classic game". -DanQ
SMAC-X REVIEW FROM SGO
(21 January 2000, 22:36 EST) Strategy Gaming Online has posted their review of Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire, and gave it a grade in the 'C' range: 6/10.
The jist of the review is that if you are a SMAC junkie, you'll crave the expansion pack, but if you're not an addict, reviewer Steve Lieb suggests you may want to pass it over.
"As I've stated before, I loved SMAC, but the weakest part of the game was clearly the enemy AI - it would leave the Unity Pods (usually filled with goodies) untouched, freely ignore my incursions, and then overreact to the stupidest thing. Diplomatically, none of the AI factions had much character, nor logic.
Of course, I fully appreciate the conundrum with which Firaxis was faced: once they built a game of great depth with a great storyline and a nuance gameplay, the AI programming became that much more difficult a hurdle.
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In SMAC, it was ignorable and heck, multiplayer is where it's at anyway. In SMACX it's ALSO something you *can* overlook, but it was disappointing nonetheless". -DanQ
CAST YOUR BALLOT TODAY!
(19 January 2000, 22:17 EST) Alpha Centauri has been successfully nominated for the best game in the Strategy genre, as well as for Best Game overall, in the Gamer's Voice Choice 1999 Awards. GV is relying on public participation to make the process a success! To vote simply sign-up for an account on GV, free of charge, and mark your X's --- 'er radio boxes :) --- and let your voice be heard. -DanQ
GONE GOLD`S RUNNER UP
(18 January 2000, 20:42 EST) Gone Gold has posted their Best of 99 feature to highlight the gaming success stories over the past 12 months as they saw it and, has been in the case in numerous other articles of this nature in recent weeks, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri was outshone by other titles in what became to be a very competitive field this past year.
SMAC was Runner-Up to Heroes of Might and Magic III in the Best Turn Based Strategy Game category, and Gone Gold's Game Of The Year award went to Age of Wonders.
On a final note, Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire was given, for all intensive purposes, an "Honourable Mention" for its performance within a listing of more than a dozen other expansion packs and games in general. -DanQ
TUCOWS: FOUR MOO`S
(19 January 2000, 22:35 EST) Tucows, one of the world's most respected and revered "shareware" websites, has launched a gaming section which includes a brief overview of Alpha Centauri.
The game has been rated four cows, and acts as a mirror for the SMAC demo. -DanQ
GAMES DOMAIN TALKS SMAC-X
(14 January 2000, 20:45 EST/SMACX) Games Domain has their review of Alien Crossfire dated December 9, 1999, followed by a second opinion piece dated December 22, written by separate authors.
Both contain some sharp criticisms of the expansion pack, but the latter is more optimistic that Firaxis can tie up the loose ends and make it "an excellent addition to one of best 4x empire-building games ever built". -DanQ
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SMAC FOR MAC: ALMOST GOLD
(21 January 2000, 20:38 EST) We copy from the latest Aspyr eNewsletter from Aspyr Media, publishers of the Mac port for SMAC.
"Brad Oliver and the Westlake Interactive crew are using the final Beta testing information to get a gold master this week. A glass master (the copy we send out for duplication) will soon follow. In English, S.M.A.C. will be hitting shelves SOON.
Mac gamers could see their S.M.A.C. preorders, and their cool new Aspyr mouse pads, by as early as next week!
Folks at Macworld San Francisco got to take a crack at the latest Beta version of S.M.A.C. Everyone was impressed with the superb conversion job done by Oliver.
"People were lining up to catch their first glimpse of this addictive strategy game. It was exciting for them as well as for us," says Amy Smith, Event Coordinator for Aspyr.
After S.M.A.C.'s great reception at the show, a S.M.A.C. demo was released, late last week, so everyone can now see what all the excitement is about. Download the S.M.A.C. demo from great online sites, such as MacGameNews.Com, Mac Gamer's Ledge (http://www.macledge.com) and Inside Mac Games (http://www.imgmagazine.com).
For those who missed last month's Aspyr enewsletter, S.M.A.C.'s minimum system requirements are as follows:
-Mac OS 7.5.3 or later
-Power PC 603e at 150 MHz or faster
-16MB RAM (32MB recommended)
-4X CD ROM
-Hard drive and color monitor
-Quick Time 4.0 (included)
-Plays on any iMac or G3
S.M.A.C. preorders are currently being accepted. Mac gamers can still take advantage of our preorder special, getting Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and our cool NEW Aspyr mouse pad (while supplies last) shipped to their door, the day the game is released." -MarkG
APOLYTON FRONT PAGE | NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
Apolyton&Friends News 8-13/Jan/00
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