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Sid Meier's New Games
Next Generation has an article discussing some of the newly announced titles Sid Meier introduced during his Walk of Game Induction Ceremony. From the article: "Following a time of kabobs and schmoozing, the projector flipped on, the movies began to roll, and the assembly of journalists and industry insiders was introduced to a trio of new Firaxis products (one down from the advertised four): the modern-day remake Sid Meier's Railroads; the CivIV expansion Warlords; and the major new curiosity of the evening, CivCity ROME."
You would think after all these years he would get tired of recycling and improving the same old material year after year. Or maybe he doesn't have any great new ideas and is afraid of falling flat on his face?
Hey, sounds like he's taking a page from an old Impressions Games franchise... hmm.
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I'm surprised they are not updating Colonization. It's as if the game is shelved and abandoned for good.
I was shocked and annoyed recently to discover that Sid Meier didn't actually design many of the games that bear his name. Civilization 2, probably the single most popular one, was actually designed by Brian Reynolds, as was Alpha Centauri. Reynolds now has his own company, Big Huge Games, makers of the only RTS to approach the depth and awesomeness of Civilization: Rise of Nations.
...this time it gets a decent amount of QA before release. Civ IV felt very rushed, and wasn't even playable on my machine until after the first patch. Looking forward to the railroad game though, I always like those :D
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Civilization 4 felt really sluggish and cumbersome after Rise of Nations. Can't wait for the next game in the series, Rise of Legends.
Cool! As fate would have it, I've just spent the last day playing the original Railroad Tycoon under Petit Dosbox on my Mac!
(It's a little choppy on my 800MHz G4 though - gameplay is OK, but the sound clicks about once every 10 seconds. Still totally playable. And I'd forgotten about the $32 million 'bug'...)
What part of "a well regulated militia" do you not understand?
I've been playing a fair bit of the recent Windows remake of Pirates, it's actually quite nifty. However, the relative quickness with which it hit the discount bin makes it seem like it didn't do too well in stores. Anyone have any hard data?
Oh, and since the plug got pulled on that dinosaur game, how about open sourcing the code?
Liberals call everyone Nazis yet they are the closest thing to it.
You might like Blue & Grey, built on the Myth II engine. I'm not a Civil War buff, and never played the game you're talking about, but the engine I'm talking about has all your desiderata and the people who put together b&g weren't just kiddieing around.
As always, all IMO. Insert "I think" everywhere grammatically possible.
http://www.freecol.org/
Not perfect, but a good start!
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
In general, I like how the civ games have progressed over the year and disagree strongly that it's just been tacking better graphics and cut scenes on the same old game.
I started playing with civ2.....played a lot of civ3 and now have been playing a bunch of civ4. What I like about the game...and what is rare in a computer game is that each game you play will be unique, there's so many different variables and so many ways to win.
For example, civ2 (as I recall) focused on aquiring land, technology and military. Civ3 came along and added culture and diplomacy to the mix....and civ4 added religion and really did a good job refining everything that was added in 3 and making it less tedious at times. All of these represent ways to win; you can focus on one and ignore the others, but it's often at your peril.
It's a complex game and one that I keep coming back to.
-Chris
--an unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys--
....and the Beatles suck cause they haven't had new material in decades.
Please.
I'd put Sid Meier on the level of Will Wright or Shigeru Miyamoto even if all he did was Civilization. It's a game that encompasses all of human history while being as addictive as crack. Add to that Railroad Tycoon, which actually makes an economic simulator fun and Pirates, or Ye Olde Grande Theft Auto, and you gotta show some respect people.
From the article:
"Fresh from his indoctrination ceremony..."
Perhaps they meant "induction." Or maybe it's a slip that reveals the REAL powers at work behind the so-called "video games industry." Fnord!
don't you mean grande theft gallion?
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Between "You touched the right village, here's a bajillion settlers" (the Fountain of Youth?) and the effects of some of the founding father specials, I thought Colonization's play balance was badly out of whack. A piece of minor luck would change everything, and the order in which you went for the fathers got to feel like you didn't have any reason at all to choose Paul Revere...
The game had its strong points. I've never played a game that bogged down more dramatically in the late stages, though. Micromanagement -- oy. Every turn it was "I'll move my miner over to help make the tools or the guns, and then move him back in two turns when the ore's down a bit..."
Any "refinement" would necessarily involve some basic reworking along those lines.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Fortunately, the Civ series allows you to pick which victory conditions will be available. If you want to play without the space race active, all you have to do is deactivate that check box in the game options when you start.