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Black And White 2 Preview

Posted by Zonk on from the more-molyneux-for-your-money dept.

Eurogamer has up a preview of the sequel to Black and White, imaginatively named Black and White 2. In the article Peter Molyneux, the game's designer, admits to some faults with the original title: "'It had really, really really terrible, awful tutorials,' he admits. 'The creature itself was broken, you couldn't really build things and people really wanted to build things, there weren't enough objectives in the game, the story couldn't reflect what you'd like. The list goes on.' As designer, programmer, co-founder of Lionhead Studios and even now OBE, Molyneux can afford this sort of candid admission, especially when there have been several years of retrospection. But that doesn't stop it from being a surprising admission, smiling openly as he talks to us about his newest foray into the god/strategy genre, Black & White 2. And it's clear that for this sequel, he isn't prepared to make the same mistakes twice."

5 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. Please Peter Molyneux, No Gestures by tepp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Please, no gestures in B&W 2.

    They make my hands hurt.

    I can't do them fast enough to keep up with the pace of the game, and I can't do them well enough not to make mistakes and send the wrong thing to the wrong place.

    I have carpel tunnel and try to minimize mouse motions, having to do wide screen-sweeping motions hurts my wrists.

    I know some people like doing them, let them continue to do them, but please add in keyboard shortcuts for people like me who get intense throbbing pain in their hands and wrists.

    --
    Tepp
  2. My problem. by -kertrats- · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The main problem I had with the game was...it was impossible to win if you were playing 'white'! I couldnt get more than 10 minutes into level 3 as a good guy. Am I just [i]really[/i] bad at this game and just don't know it, or were there some serious balance issues between the two sides.

    --
    The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
    1. Re:My problem. by KeeperS · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If it makes you feel any better, I couldn't get past that damned third level playing as evil either. I seem to recall there being a huge gap between two of the cities, and without my creature I could never expand my influence far enough to do anything in the city I needed to reach. No amount of sacrificing children and throwing fireballs could do anything to help. In fact, they generally hurt since I needed as many worshippers as possible to expand my sphere of influence.

      At that point in the game, the pointless micromanagement of mundane tasks started getting boring, and my wrists started to hurt from repeating the same mouse gestures over and over. I gave it up.

      It's almost like nobody finished playing the game before release. The first two levels are great, but by the third level, the novelty of it all wears off and the game's problems become blatantly obvious.

  3. Re:'The list goes on.' by Malor · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well, Dungeon Keeper 1 was a great idea, but was badly flawed. DK2 fixed a great number of the problems, and was really a much better game.

    Because of that, I suspect B&W2 will probably end up being what 1 should have been.... and should be quite fun. There was the core of a great game in B&W1, but they shipped it too soon.

    It's the NEXT game, the Big New Thing, that will suck. :)

  4. Re:Sounds dishonest by imr · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It is dishonesty because he knew the flaws and didnt acknowledged them until now that his newt games his out.
    I myself bought the first from that, and I'm learning from my mistakes. I will use a pirate version from this game and if it is good, i will recognize it was a mistake to do so ... in a few years.