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It uses a unique, entirely mouse-driven interface, with no menus or icons. You play a god in the game, and "miracle" actions are performed by mousing certain patterns into the ground. It's an intriguing, very clean interface, and it's a good game to boot. http://www2.bwgame.com/

engineer a Yorkie that won't constantly pee on my carpet.

In my experience its a problem with all small dogs, my mom has three small dogs which pee everywhere.

OT: funny story the post reminded me: A friend of mine claimed in the game Black & White he once beat his servant creature so badly that it never pooped again. (The game has a punishment/reward system used by the player to "train" the simulated creature)

he always dreamed about making games that give people total freedom, but what he discovered is that complete freedom in a game world is boring after about ten minutes.

http://www2.bwgame.com/?url=/studios/FEATURES

A few weeks later, another email. I was to come in for a two-day 'interview'. I'd be doing what I'd be doing if I got the job - writing scripts. When I got there, it was a case of "Here's the script language documentation, do something cool". And I tried. An army of skeletons rising from the dead to attack your town. I was surprised at how quickly I picked it up but I did, and I got a script vaguely near completion in my two days. That was in July.

Note: TWO DAYS to go from "here, kid, this is the API doc" to "look, skeletons rising from the dead." Everyone else either told him to take a flying leap or didn't even acknowledge his existence.

Then again, for my last test the company in question wouldn't provide the docs for their custom API. I had to divine everything out of their source. Rather unreasonable, but a damned good test.

at one moment of the game, you have to resolve this kind of problem in Black & White.

It's 2003. So where is he? AI has not seemed to improve much despite ambitious software projects and even games that would seem to require neural networks. Perhaps the most disappointing is the lack of much improvement in VR, with disappointing progress in input devices and 3D and other monitor technology. Voice synthesis has made some improvements though. Not bad, although it's still not HAL quality. Voice recognition seems to have matured quite a bit as well. IMO, the most significant progress has been in graphics cards with processors nearly as impressive as the main CPU. The impact this has had on games cannot be underestimated.

Well, I'm certainly happy to see that B&W 2 will be produced, despite the rumors. Hopefully, there will more thought put into the creation and maintenance of that game than was put into B&W 1.

For example, there are many problems still existant with the original game, despite the released patch. There are still crash and locking issues, as well as graphical corruption issues with some video cards. Gameplay was also affected-- the rules of the game were changed enough so that the game is not as enjoyable to some players as it is to others. In particular, as mentioned above, the multiplayer rules affect the single player game. There is no option to turn these rule changes off for the single player game without uninstalling the patch. Again, without installing the patch you are locked out of any of the optional downloads or expansions. You're also locked into going through a long, 30-minute tutorial at the beginning of each new game you start if you refuse to install the patch.

At least four (Maybe five, it's hard to tell) of the titans/creatures in game are not available. They can only be unlocked with the aid of third party utilties that are apparently not sanctioned by Lionhead games and are certainly not available for download from the official game website. On top of all that, it's still ridiculously hard to backup the creatures you do have in case of system reformat of moving them to a different computer.

You state that you have a detailed post-mortem document, but this must be a confidential, internal-use only reference document, because I cannot find it on your (flash-based) website or message boards.

While you state that many of the issues wil be addressed in the sequel, why should I buy a sequel to have issues fixed in the game I've already bought? If you completely disregard that line of thought, what's to make me beleive that B&W 2 won't ship with just as many game breaking bugs as its predecessor? Even if it does not, why should I buy a game from a company when I suspect that company will change the rules and then make future updates dependant upon dealing with those rule changes?

Bottom line, Lionhead really dropped the ball on B&W 1. My experience was so bad that I will probably never buy another Lionhead game again and will encourage others I know to do the same.

The hell of it is that I would love to be proven wrong. I would love to see that Lionhead was still supporting people who bought the original game and *not* the expansions. I would love to see the lingering problems fixed with both game system issues and in-game mechanics. I would love to see this 'post-mortem document' be made available to the public for inspection. Black and White was an incredible game, technology and concept wise, and I'd love to *want* to play it again.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen any of those things. I don't want to play the game. I don't want to buy the expansions or the sequel. I'd rather spend my money on stuff I know is worth it. I've lost trust for Lionhead, just like I'd lose trust in a store that always sold broken itmes or a restaurant that always messed up my order.

I completly agree with you! Latley, I've been playing Space Quest V, and Day of the Tenticle. Somehow I find them more fun to play then the latest Quake, even though the graphics are below atrocious.
I believe gaming is becomming something like Television is now. Empty, repedetive, lack of creativness, and mind numbing!
I find it intersting that you point out that industries will only fund games that will make money, which usually is a mimic of another game.
We need more games like Black & White!

Yup, Black & White is what made me buy a Logitech iFeel mouse, and I've got to say it's pretty good (Logitech licenced Immersion technology for this).

While the Windows desktop feedback gets boring very quickly, and their "Businessware" software (feedback for Word & Excel) is just plain annoying, in games it does actually work really well. The Half-Life/Team Fortress/Counterstrike plugin is pretty good, and Black & White definitely benefits plus you get a few extra mission-quests.

Just have to mention one of the Immersion-enabled quests in B&W (my favorite one), it's on first level:- You find a hippie standing outside his hut next to a ring of magic mushrooms and a boiling cauldron (ready to get his brew on), and to help him you have to pick which one is "buzziest" by holding your cursor over the them and feeling how strong the vibes are through the mouse! A great and funny use of feedback technology if ever there was one :)

A list of supported games can be found here and game download mods (including Serious Sam 1 & 2, No-one Lives Forever, and Unreal Tournament, but no Max Payne unfortunately) are here

Stef

The Black and White website is force-feedback enabled, if you've got a shakeymouse.

Quick question...is Worldforge going slower or faster than Golgotha Forever (the game that is literally taking "forever" to get anywhere)?

Last time I heard anything from Golgotha Forever, they were "trying" to restart the development - the team wasn't too eager to continue anymore. The code is out there though...

Last time I checked the actual game, the engine looked pretty nice, the game was missing =)

And hey, the fact that game gets long development things isn't a factor - usually it's just an indicator that game may actually be pretty good. (or not.)

Computer games cause violent behaviour !

That's why I spank my monkey in Black & White.
:-)

AND I know not all of you believe that we evolved from another life form, so the alternative method would be to assume godlike powers, and do whatever gods do when they make intelligent beings.






Maybe Lionhead-studios will release a version of "Black and White" for the CYC .

This glove was invented solely for playing Black and White.

Wow, great idea, I wish someone had thought of that earlier!.

--

I hope that gestures take off. I've been using Opera for a few days now and have played a bit of Black and White too.

I don't know if it's just the novelty value, but I'm finding them useful. Hold the right mouse button and moving around is very easy and quickens things up if you're browing with the mouse (no need to reach to the keyboard again). It's a lot quicker to hold right mouse button and drag up and down than it is to find the reload button and click it.

I agree with the poster above, there needs to be a well defined set of gestures that will work in all applications before it really takes off.

What about programming it using gestures, like the miracles in Black & White, and other programs mentioned on /. a couple weeks ago. Its not GUI, doesn't need a desktop, but it does require use of a mouse...
If you could devise a standard, and if it could be taught quickly to the employees, it would make for a very very fast system (just how fast are you with your palm pilot writing? Same thing applies here). Plus, I'd like to see some code that uses this type of system...

...And switch packets in five seconds
...And compile mass libraries of MP3s and warez despite industry controls
...And put giant arms on space stations that make the space shuttle arm look like a grasshopper leg
...And sequence the entire human genome
...And make god games that can seriously damage your view of reality.

Why the HELL am I still getting emails that start like "Looking for HOT, HORNY Teens? Look no further!!!!!!"

http://www.bwgame.com/
http://www.lionhead.com/
http://www.planetblackandwhite.com/
Gamespot review (9.3/10)

You just described the gameplay of Black & White.

My ape left "happy face" footprints all over the place, as can be seen in the official site forum.

I even reported it to EA as a bug. :-)

Wolfox

I remember the Black & White website being a lot more informative, with screenshots and a game description.

Now it's got this weird celtic/native picture, and a bunch of guys chanting like it's a frat party and they're chugging beer... what gives?

I don't even want to think what that gnome is doing under the screen...