The Long-Awaited MOO!

Number13 writes "Quicksilver's Master of Orion 3, declared vaporware by Wired magazine, has gone gold! Set to hit the streets on Feb. 25, MOO3 is the the successor to what many consider the best space strategy game series."

Comments

The best?

[Anonymous Coward]

Then you must have never played Trade Wars 2002.

Will it live up to the hype?

[rblancarte]

That is the biggest question. I mean, as long as people have waited for it, will it be all that? So far I don't think any game that has been awaited THIS LONG has ever really lived up to it all.

RonB

Best series

[wednesdaywar]

The article said "best space strategy game SERIES". Methinks your little Trade Wars is a but a speck compared to the glory that was MOO and MOO II. Bring it on, we can't wait any longer...

please...let it be worthy of the series

[captainfugacity]

My fingers are crossed that it is not the type of sequel that MythIII was. They've had a lot of time...hopefully they played the first two to get an idea of what worked...

Re:From the requirments;

[SweetAndSourJesus]

Just because a game doesn't require a 1GHz+ cpu doesn't mean it's old or low tech. Maybe they just know how to give you more bang per cycle than the latest greatest blockbuster developers do.

Carmack, I'm looking in your direction...

PC game.

[ziggles]

Sorry, maybe it's just me.. but I find it hard to get excited about any newly relesed PC game. It's pretty much a guaruntee that it will have at least one major bug, and many minor ones. I'll get excited when the first patch is released.
Especially with a game that has been in development a long time. That generally means they want to get it out as soon as every major feature is in, and don't have too much time for bug testing and the smaller things.
It's a pity.

Re:PC game.

[Wraithlyn]

"It's pretty much a guaruntee that it will have at least one major bug, and many minor ones. [...] Especially with a game that has been in development a long time. That generally means they want to get it out as soon as every major feature is in, and don't have too much time for bug testing and the smaller things."

Your logic completely escapes me. How does longer overall development time equate to less time for bug testing? How does a very long development time mean they are putting it "out as soon as every major feature is in"?? Wouldn't that be something you'd expect from something with a SHORT development time?

Re:Development...

[markh1967]

Anyways, I saw an incredulous comment above that the system requirements are Pentium II @ 300 MHz... the game has been in development for so long, that the game engine is not based on modern 3D-accellerated engines. Instead, the engine is voxel-based, which has angered some in the past because the game's "smoothness" is software speed based, not add-on hardware or slickness of video card.

I don't know where you get the idea that the reason this game isn't using a modern 3D accelerated engine is because it's been in development for so long. The reason this game isn't using a modern 3D engine is because it's a strategy game, not a 3D shooter. I will be very surprised if this game has a single 3D element to the graphics anywhere and is anything other than sprite-based. This game's appeal is in the complex mechanics and strategic depth - the graphics are nice but functional.

As for the game running on a 300MHz Pentium II; what's so bad about this? It's not as if frame-rate is going to be an issue here. The only limiting factor to the game's playability is the time it takes the AI to make its moves. I would bet that some patience would be required to play the largest galaxy sizes on a minimum spec machine but it would probably be playable on lower systems than the minimum spec with a small map.

Re:Another golden oldie space game renewed

[Alsee]

Think of it as the core essential fun gameplay elements of MOO without all the extra complicated junk.

Dude! Real strategy players consider the "extra complicated junk" to BE the "core essential fun gameplay"!

:)

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