pvtbones
Spy
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2005
- Messages
- 898
- Reaction score
- 0
What games have disappointed you? Whether it was because of a crappy publisher, too much hype/promises, or both? I have to admit I'm some times mystified at how games can break every promise they made and release something that doesn't deserve being called a crap.
The most current disappointment of mine would have to be Black and White 2, so much hype and with the publisher EA I should have'd known better, I didn't look at many reviews and didn't check their forums, something I usually do before I buy a game (so I'm somewhat to blame for it).
I never played the orginal Black and White, heard alot of good things about it but it was before I really got into pc gaming. To put it bluntly this game broke practically all it's promises. AI? where? the enemy is pathetic. it's just a pile of scripts for each map, and bad ones at that, they won't ever attack (well maybe once or twice in the later maps) all they do is wait outside your gates (and no it's not the smart kind of waiting outside of your gates, they only send 1 platoon of 20 men at a time and wait for them to be killed before they spawn another one and repeat).
The creature AI is decent but it lacks in most senses of the word personality. in BnW the community complain that the creature was to hard to control (or something to that effect) so from one extreme they went to the other, he's nothing more than a tool with some sliders than you slap and pet to create the perfect automaton.
Plot? again what plot? I'll sum it up for you, BANG! you exist because some chick prayed for a god to come save them from the advancing aztec hordes. so there you are, all existing and stuff as you hurtle through space towards earth and you find a nice interactive movie where you save some greek people, make some haybails roll over some aztecs (this is the only time in the game where traps exist) and after you saved 10 the aztec monkey stays toss some volcanoe mircles and it's time to make like the french. Thats basically it, the rest of the game is some levels that are just barely connect to the story line, first you go kick norse's ass (an extemely annoying feature that in introduced in this level is the ability to heard the enemy leader's [thats right leader, not god] thoughts, now if only he said something of worth and only once) then you kick the first japanese brother's ass, then the other japanese brother's ass and then their ass together, and then finally the aztec after you take out some worthless outpost of theirs. Now compare the complexity of the former plot to this: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/black-white-2/526423p1.html
bugs, this game has a fair few unique ones, like changing your creature from what it was to oh say a untrained lion or the infant version of it'self (which is also untrained). I've been lucky so far and haven't experience any, yet.
Military: yes you can create large armies... of swords, archers, and catapaults thats it, no ability to research new tech (unless you count using tribute to buy the buildings as researching new techs) and more often then not they are useless, my lion was better able to take out enemy platoons than the army was (did help the fact that the creatures attacks hurt everyone, friend or foe) the only thing I used them for was capturing enemy settlements (I played an evil god if you didn't notice).
You had the choice of 4 creatures, the lion, wolf, gorilla, and the cow (5 if you bought the CE edition which had the tiger unlocker, which EA left on their FTP meaning anyone can now get the tiger) now aside from different models they are all the same, just a bunch of clay for you to mold into the perfect tool, no hint of personality (since was does a carnivore like the wolf, lion, or tiger eat grain?!), but to be fair the creature fights are kick ass to watch.
Gametypes: theres just singleplayer, multiplayer was planned (mr Molyneux himself said there was going to be MP) now I don't perticularly mind it not being there as I can't really seeing it working well, but not having skirmish? thats a damned mortal sin in my books. I guess it ties in with the lack of any inteligence. so basically all you can do is play the rather poor single player over and over (you get to keep your creature and all the buildings you bought as a bonus)
The devs really need to talk to the community, I'm a community kind of guy thats why I like valve they know how to talk to the customers, it's almost a given in this age that the community and the devs need to work together and talk, this doesn't really happen, theres a surpise thats was supposed to come out month or two ago, no word from the devs why (which is a reaccuring theme) what this surpise is, no one knows but alot is riding on it, it could be anything from a new building, new spells,MP, skirmish, maybe the rest of the game. The mod tools as also supposed to be coming out soon but I have little faith they will actually come out or be of any worth.
In conclusion, this game needs alot of work from the devs before I would recommend it to anyone and and even more if they expect me to shell out for any future sequals/expansions and theres alot of things I didn't include in this little review A lot longer than I expected it to be, sorry for the rant.
*EDIT*
forgot to say something nice about it. The graphics are really really nice (especially on the newer cards) and the creatures are well animated along with your consciences which can be very funny at times.
The most current disappointment of mine would have to be Black and White 2, so much hype and with the publisher EA I should have'd known better, I didn't look at many reviews and didn't check their forums, something I usually do before I buy a game (so I'm somewhat to blame for it).
I never played the orginal Black and White, heard alot of good things about it but it was before I really got into pc gaming. To put it bluntly this game broke practically all it's promises. AI? where? the enemy is pathetic. it's just a pile of scripts for each map, and bad ones at that, they won't ever attack (well maybe once or twice in the later maps) all they do is wait outside your gates (and no it's not the smart kind of waiting outside of your gates, they only send 1 platoon of 20 men at a time and wait for them to be killed before they spawn another one and repeat).
The creature AI is decent but it lacks in most senses of the word personality. in BnW the community complain that the creature was to hard to control (or something to that effect) so from one extreme they went to the other, he's nothing more than a tool with some sliders than you slap and pet to create the perfect automaton.
Plot? again what plot? I'll sum it up for you, BANG! you exist because some chick prayed for a god to come save them from the advancing aztec hordes. so there you are, all existing and stuff as you hurtle through space towards earth and you find a nice interactive movie where you save some greek people, make some haybails roll over some aztecs (this is the only time in the game where traps exist) and after you saved 10 the aztec monkey stays toss some volcanoe mircles and it's time to make like the french. Thats basically it, the rest of the game is some levels that are just barely connect to the story line, first you go kick norse's ass (an extemely annoying feature that in introduced in this level is the ability to heard the enemy leader's [thats right leader, not god] thoughts, now if only he said something of worth and only once) then you kick the first japanese brother's ass, then the other japanese brother's ass and then their ass together, and then finally the aztec after you take out some worthless outpost of theirs. Now compare the complexity of the former plot to this: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/black-white-2/526423p1.html
bugs, this game has a fair few unique ones, like changing your creature from what it was to oh say a untrained lion or the infant version of it'self (which is also untrained). I've been lucky so far and haven't experience any, yet.
Military: yes you can create large armies... of swords, archers, and catapaults thats it, no ability to research new tech (unless you count using tribute to buy the buildings as researching new techs) and more often then not they are useless, my lion was better able to take out enemy platoons than the army was (did help the fact that the creatures attacks hurt everyone, friend or foe) the only thing I used them for was capturing enemy settlements (I played an evil god if you didn't notice).
You had the choice of 4 creatures, the lion, wolf, gorilla, and the cow (5 if you bought the CE edition which had the tiger unlocker, which EA left on their FTP meaning anyone can now get the tiger) now aside from different models they are all the same, just a bunch of clay for you to mold into the perfect tool, no hint of personality (since was does a carnivore like the wolf, lion, or tiger eat grain?!), but to be fair the creature fights are kick ass to watch.
Gametypes: theres just singleplayer, multiplayer was planned (mr Molyneux himself said there was going to be MP) now I don't perticularly mind it not being there as I can't really seeing it working well, but not having skirmish? thats a damned mortal sin in my books. I guess it ties in with the lack of any inteligence. so basically all you can do is play the rather poor single player over and over (you get to keep your creature and all the buildings you bought as a bonus)
The devs really need to talk to the community, I'm a community kind of guy thats why I like valve they know how to talk to the customers, it's almost a given in this age that the community and the devs need to work together and talk, this doesn't really happen, theres a surpise thats was supposed to come out month or two ago, no word from the devs why (which is a reaccuring theme) what this surpise is, no one knows but alot is riding on it, it could be anything from a new building, new spells,MP, skirmish, maybe the rest of the game. The mod tools as also supposed to be coming out soon but I have little faith they will actually come out or be of any worth.
In conclusion, this game needs alot of work from the devs before I would recommend it to anyone and and even more if they expect me to shell out for any future sequals/expansions and theres alot of things I didn't include in this little review A lot longer than I expected it to be, sorry for the rant.
*EDIT*
forgot to say something nice about it. The graphics are really really nice (especially on the newer cards) and the creatures are well animated along with your consciences which can be very funny at times.
