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Master of Orion 3 Released
Kintaro writes "The long awaited Master of Orion 3 is now in stores. The reviews so far have been unusually mixed, but rest assured the game is still complex - in fact that seems to be a recurring complaint among those that don't like it. And as an added bonus, the game actually runs on Linux right out of the box."
The "strategy Guide" was out months before the actual game. It should really be called "The Game Manual You Have to Pay an Extra $30 For Because We Want to Rip You Off". I guess that is too long and honest though. Just another way to drain their customer's bank accounts. Oh how I long for the old Microprose Manuals. They seem like textbooks compared to the 20 page garbage included these days.
Of course a game like this is going to get mixed reviews. First, the games feature list has changed numerous times, note that isnt necessarily a bad thing, but you say one thing will be in there, and then it isnt, well, thats not very good. Two, the release date got pushed back several times, which can have a negative effect on the reviewer. Third, its COMPLICATED... Pick up Diablo and you can play it in about 5 mins (if that) and after an hour or three you can have a pretty good feel of the game to review. MoO3 is long and complicated (Civ3 took me about 6-7 games before I started realizing how everything worked, and what I needed to do and when, which was about 25+ hours) and a reviewer with a deadline probably doesnt have that kind of time to sit with every game, so the ones that liked MoO2 probably got into it faster, and rated it better than the more casual gamer.
Of course, I am not a reviewer, but I was expecting (on my own personal scale) a 7.5/10 star game. The graphics arent that great, which weakens the rating, and if its like Civ, enduring long hours to play one game is not always a bonus, so it loses points there.
With that said, I cant wait to get my hands on it!
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
The biggest problems with Civ III were the ten minute turns of 50 tanks slowly moving across the continent to your enemy, and that minute amount of resources availiable. (Not to mention the shoddy AI as usual, and countless other problems). So I don't think the games are that similar, although I've yet to play MOO3.
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
Its a step. Why must it be 100% linux or I'm gonna bitch and moan?
My mom used to tell me to be happy with what I got. You got it on linux, quit whining.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
I noticed some of my favorite movies were like this. If it applies to this game, it is quite possible a very deep game.
From what I have read, however, the learning curve is really very high, which may be what is putting off many early adopters who havent had time to work through the curve.
I think the real test of this game will be the review it gets in one or two months, and then if it has enough to keep people playing it a few years from now, pushing it into "classic" statis. From what beta testers have said, however, it sounds like they may have a classic.
Hopefully the complexity will not prevent it from selling well.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
Either A) We do not want to buy a License for MS or
B) Why bother dual booting when everything else is done in Linux.
Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life
Requiring WineX does NOT count as 'out of the box,' especially considering how using WineX can require some serious tweaking before coming even close to Windows performance.
"Either A) We do not want to buy a License for MS or
B) Why bother dual booting when everything else is done in Linux."
Obviously your gaming's not done in Linux. So why cause yourself the pain?
Some guy gets a pre-release or beta version (check the post dates, 2-16) to run on a certain version of Linux via Wine, and suddenly it's "runs on Linux right out of the box".
"If I read it on the Internet, it must be true!"
He doesn't mean "out of the box Linux," he means "out of the box MOO3." You can install MOO3 and it will run, out of the box, on a Linux machine. No patches required.
That's one of the bad things about wineX, I guess. Now people are going to start claiming that their products run under Linux, even though they don't have native support for it. Ah well.
-If God wanted people to be better than me, he would have made them that way.
Linux nerds, it's time to put your money where your mouth is. I for one am going to show my support for games such as MOO3 that support Linux by actually buying them. No, I won't "dl l33t w4r3Z". I'm gonna pay $50 or whatever it is at my local EB for a copy of this game. Actually, I might want two copies. One for playing at home, and one for playing on my Linux laptop.
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
Hmm. I was a beta tester too, and I feel no need to remain anonymous. Are you afraid of NDA-related trouble, or are you pretending to be something you're not?
I think the game is great. By no means perfect, and the learning curve is one of the steepest I've encountered in a "game", but it *definitely* grows on you. As I recall, it was little different for MOO2, just to a lesser degree.
In general folks, don't take a reviewer's word for it, unless they're VERY specific on what's not to like, and if that applies to you or not. I mean, the graphics will probably get slammed, but eye-candy isn't a must-have for everyone. Also, too many people will sell this game short because they haven't put enough time into it -- the first stages of the game aren't very compelling, and your first game or two might feel more like work than fun as you're learning the ropes.
I'll say this -- if you want something *simple*, this is not the place to look. You don't really have to micromanage in the MOO2 sense of the term, but there's a lot going on there, maybe more than some people will want to deal with.
Otherwise, it's a great game. The battles in the later stages of a game are amazing and fun; real-time combat means you FINALLY have a space strategy game where maneuver is a non-trivial factor in the outcome. Also, combined arms are there and fairly balanced -- you can't win with JUST fighter or missiles or beam weapons, you probably need all 3 against a savvy opponent.
Xentax
You shouldn't verb words.
I tested on this game from alpha until gold. I submitted my bug reports, as well as my CONCERNS, just like all of the other testers.
I tested the beta, and I played the game. When I stated I was extremely disappointed with the game. I was referring to the finished game. Not the beta. While I may have been equally disappointed with the beta, that is not relevant here.
I know that issues were not fixed in a final release, because we were sent potential gold releases, including the final build. Furthermore my issues with the game were not things to be fixed like bugs. They were problems with the fundamental game design at work. I could submit my opinion all I wanted, but by the time the game was at beta, they weren't exactly going to rewrite the whole thing at that point.
Maybe your post should have been modded (+4, presumptuous)?
"All my gaming is done in Linux. UT, UT2003, all the id titles, Tribes 2, all have native Linux support."
That pretty much defines all the gaming done under Linux.
So, out of curiosity, how long after the Windows release of those games did you have to wait? I'm asking seriously, not necessarily trying to counter-point you here. I honestly don't know the answer to that question. But if your answer is "well it took them a few months to port it", then my pain point is still very much in tact.
It's one thing if you're mildly entertained with what is available for Linux. But if you're a gamer, then don't kid yourself. Dual boot with Windows. Even better, have a second gaming machine around. They'z not that expensive anymore.
From the Link:
/me sighs
"I got it running on Mandrake 8.2 / Enlightenment with standard WineX installation and zero configuration."
I'd hardly call that "out of the box". It's not a Linux port. It;'s hjust wizards over at TransGaming That did the work, not the folks that wrote MoO3.
O-Well. It sounds nice anyway... I guess...
P.S.
Yes, I'm a transgaming subscriber, it's just that this doesn't qualify as "out of the box" in my eyes.
I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man,
I'm just a mortal with potential of a super man.
C) Give up on Linux, and allow Windows XP to be your desktop platform. Install Cygwin for the Unixy things you need, and then realize that most of your development work (as in, for pay) is Java-based anyway and that you might as well stick with Windows for a better desktop experience.
This isn't intended as an anti-Linux troll - I have Gentoo installed along with Windows XP, I got UT2003 running under Gentoo with almost no problems; but I found that for my day-to-day tasks, Windows was a far superior desktop environment than Gnome. (I personally like Gnome better than KDE, so don't try that route.)
Sorry, Linux guys - I appreciate Linux as a server platform (I have a dedicated Linux server). But it isn't ready on the desktop yet. At least for me, since I do a fair amount of gaming. On the other hand, my Dad (who's a software engineer) has completely switched to SuSE. It's actually kind of ironic - he switched to Linux at about the same time I returned to Windows.
(On the other hand, I still emerge rsync && emerge --update system && emerge --update world far too frequently considering I then have to reboot back to Windows to get actual work done. I even have a shellscript to help resolve new configuration files. So I have an up-to-date Gentoo system - that I don't use... I'm pathetic :))
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.