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Emperor: Battle for Dune
webword writes "Westwood Studios has announced that Emperor: Battle for Dune has gone gold and will ship June 12 in North America. The game looks great. Get the screenshots, original music tracks, movies (MPG format), and desktop theme. I'm not a Dune fanatic, but I have to say that this game looks damn good. (I couldn't find any news on a Linux port. Argh!)"
I found a Palm Pilot Personal Port here.
I already have Myth II, but this would really make my day! Dune II was the first and only game I got hooked on for real. I remember playing it 3 days straight!! Yep, the Atreides, Harkonnen and Ordos house campaigns in that order. Of course I was ill for the next 2 days... must had something to do with monitor radiation.. dunno..
... please?!
Bring it on!!
-adnans
"In short: just say NO TO DRUGS, and maybe you won't end up like the Hurd people." --Linus Torvalds
The Dune novels represent only a small part of Frank Herbert's bibliography. He has written many other similarly amazing novels, some of which are much better than, say, God Emporer of Dune. Unfortunately, nearly all of them are long out of print. But if you really liked his Dune series, then it's worth hunting down some of these.
I personally recommend the following:
- Whipping Star
- The Dosadi Experiment (set in the same universe as above)
- Santoroga Barrier
- Hellstrom's Hive
- The Worlds of Frank Herbert (shorts)
- The White Plague
And, a very dark and disturbing trilogy, co-written with Bill Ransom, I also highly recommend:- The Jesus Experiment
- The Lazarus Effect
- The Ascension Factor
In fact, these represent nearly every Frank Herbert novel I've read. The only exception is Man of Two Worlds, cowritten with his son, Brian. I barely remember reading it.I can see the fnords!
Anyone has ever played Myth can tell you this. The art in a game has nothing to do with whether it is 3d or 2d. Bad art is bad art.
Dune and Dune II were separate games...but quite similar in style.
"That's Tron. He fights for the Users."
By the way, Cryo announced at E3 that they will put out a Dune MMORPG next year. It looks gorgeous, but time will tell.
AFAIK... I remember seeing petitions for C&C: Red Alert (original) games. I doubt we would see it for Emperor: Battle for Dune. :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
ftp://ftp.westwood.com/pub/emperor/previews/video/ EMP_LC_INTERVIEW.EXE
:)
It uses Blink for video, so you will need Windows to watch it! The CEO shows the game to us. I thought it was nicely done. He explains what the game will be like, did a few gameplays, etc. I would like to see more game companies do this. A little demo...
Note: The screen size is very SMALL, but it is still worth viewing.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
There just isn't enough there from the RTS perspective (that assumption is based on RTS's that are already out, maybe I'll be suprised). A game that were true to the Dune series would not fit in any genre or combinations thereof.
Dune II basically INVENTED the RTS genre. So... essentially what you're saying is true, it didn't fit any genre, but I think you've got the whole thing backwards...
sig fault
Does anyone else besides me question whether we need 3d in RTS games. I for one, think these new 3D strategy games look much worse than their 2D counterparts. I loved Dune 2000 and the original Dune 2, but this game looks plastic to me.
Has anyone read the whole series? Is it any good? I really liked the first three books, but my interest had sort of peaked 1/3 of the way through the 3rd book, and I never got past about page 50 in book 4. Is it worth going back?
The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
________
Does anyone actually have a Java program designed to control air traffic, or for the operation of a nuclear facility?
I'd like to play the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood - manipulating blood lines and controlling world with myths planted eons ago. Imagine if you could programme to operators of the tanks or nukes to turn traitor with careful breeding.
James
3d is just a technology, just like music, sprites, voice, networking, etc.
:)
Do you question the use of technology to make a better game experience? No, of course not!
The question is whether Westwood, in Dune3d happens to use 3d graphics to it's advantage.
3d has a few good points to it that cannot be addressed by 2d:
Zoom and scale, being able to see as much or as little of the map as possible.
Rotation and height, being able to navigate the map more flexible as the need allows.
Lighting and shadow. 2d cannot cast shadows except in very limited scopes.
Tactical terrain; 3d landscapes allows for more variety, rather than just a flat map, or fixed height surfaces.
Take these advantages together:
Units that can hide in shadows
Minimaps that tell you correct location and orientation no matter where you are
Units that behave differently at different heights and locations
Being able to play more flexibly; zoom in on units for small squad combat, or zoom out to half the battle field to see scope and maneuvers, such as pinchers, blitzes, ambushes, etc.
It's not the 3d that is the problem, it's the project leads for not using it correctly
Geek dating!
GPL Deconstructed
- shield technology is ubiquitous
- and shields repel anything moving faster than a slow fist*
- so missiles and machine guns etc. are largely useless
- leading to war being waged by infiltration of saboteurs on the one hand and massed hand-to-hand conflict on the battlefield,
- NOT rockets'n'guns'n'stuff.
- (* although lasgun-shield interactions were lethal to both victim and gunman.)
From what I can see, most units are armed with guns'n'bombs'n'missiles'n'flamethrowers'n'general[That said, the Harkonnen did defeat the bulk of the Atreides army on Arrakis by sealing them in caves with artillery - but this was something that would only ever work once.]
'nother point: on Arrakis nobody went out on the open sand other than the Fremen and the spice harvesters - the worms ate everybody else and any harvesters that weren't picked up by the carryall in time.
Do I get my trainspotter's badge now?
You're right. IF this came is as good as it looks, or if it's half as good as the books, or 3X as good as the movie, it'll be a blast!
Let the spice wars begin once again!
--
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
I deserve to be shot for what I am about to say, but so be it.
While Herbert may be considered the God of Science Fiction, I personally do not find his writings desirable to read. I did wade through the entire Dune series. In my opinion, the best book was the prequel, written by Herbert's son. Each and every book in the true "series" got wierder and wierder, starting with the kanly vendettas, to Paul Maud`Dib turning himself into the sand-worm king, then being assassinated so to speak by immersion in a river.
I've also played the video games based on Dune. It's nearly impossible to reduce a world of such albiet twisted depth down into an RTS game with three races. It just doesn't work, no matter how many cinematics you put in and how good the writers are. Dune, for those who are willing to be somewhat bored and confused, should be read, not played.
These are my personal views, but I'm sure I'm not alone.
Just an FYI...
Dune 2 came out long before C&C, so C&C was essentially a Dune 2 ripoff.
I don't see why Westwood seems to think that the Dune series would make a good set of games, Especially not strategy games. Dune and its sequals were incredible books, some of the best I've ever read, but I really don't see a good game coming out of them without Westwood being, shall we say, "creative," with the license. There just isn't enough there from the RTS perspective (that assumption is based on RTS's that are already out, maybe I'll be suprised). A game that were true to the Dune series would not fit in any genre or combinations thereof. It would be incredibly complex and I don't think that anyone has the skill (yet) to make a game that would truely live up to such a great name. I'm a little biased I guess, look at the second word in my screen name. Oh yeah, I'd just like to say that Miles Teg was an Ubermensch, thank you.
"A witty saying proves nothing." - Voltaire
It might be the first good thing to come out of Dune since the books. Seems to me that anything they make based on the books sucks, but... this looks GOOD.
Time to control the spice, Muadib
Strategy games are coming out in droves now... good to see something other than 1st person shoot-em-ups.
Dune 2000 was never meant to be that great. It was just a straight port from DOS to Windows with spruced up graphics and multi-unit select bolted on to make it look like a new game. They've gotta make money somewhere, right?
They should've put that weird creator thing in there somewhere as a hidden character. Mind you, he didn't look so much like the tubby ninja back then, and I don't think he smoked as much pot back then either. He was probably too occupied with the whole creation-of-planets thing.