Remember Populous and Black & White?

Shakermaker

Shakermaker

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Well, a game along those same lines -you are god, do your bidding- is coming to XBL, PSN and quite likely Steam as well. It is called Project Dust at the moment but that is a working title. The lead developer is Eric Chahi (for the youngens) and Edge has interviewed him about the game:

Coming from a man who built his career on games with linear narratives, Project Dust's non-linear, sandbox play and reliance on the player to create their own stories is perhaps surprising. On first glance the game's presentation - an elevated viewpoint, looking down on a landscape inhabited by humans who require your help - suggests a god game. Indeed, Chahi has described it as the spiritual successor to Populous.

But players will find no politics or resource management here, and he is at pains to communicate its focus. "It's not like a strategy game where you can say to each unit, do this, do that - it's not micromanagement," he stresses. "You influence them more indirectly. It's a kind of god game, but one where nature plays an important part - you have abilities but they're not unlimited. You're not an individual from the tribe, but the tribe as a whole. You're not a god. If they disappear, you disappear."
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Link

A video has been out since E3 but it escaped my attention:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8nABQLSfmU

Looks very interesting.
 
uh this is just Populous. I'm looking forward to play it.
 
Barnz said:
Just Populous.
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That's like saying Just Elite. Or Just Myst. Or Just Half Life.


Looks like a very, very interesting game indeed to my tired old jaded eyes.
 
It should be a good game if it holds up to what they say. It's still pretty new so it could be really different by the time it releases. I loved Black & White and the sequel wasn't bad either... I'd love to have another game like this. What's Lionhead doing anymore by the way? Are they dead or bought out? I should investigate.
 
StarBob said:
It should be a good game if it holds up to what they say. It's still pretty new so it could be really different by the time it releases. I loved Black & White and the sequel wasn't bad either... I'd love to have another game like this. What's Lionhead doing anymore by the way? Are they dead or bought out? I should investigate.
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Microsoft bought it in 2006 and Molnyeux is still leading it. They're making a little game called Fable 3. You might have heard of it. ;)
 
Can you throw people?

If not, this is nothing like Black and White.
 
Hmm, well, I have great memories of Populous, so maybe this will be good. Looks a little meh tho right at the moment. Some of these classic franchises need to remain just that.
 
Shakermaker said:
Microsoft bought it in 2006 and Molnyeux is still leading it. They're making a little game called Fable 3. You might have heard of it. ;)
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Oh yeah I forgot they did that crap. I was never a fable fan.
 
I loved Future Wars from this guy, great adventure game.
 
Insano said:
Populous was godlike.
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I had a hard time getting into the first and second Populous, the one I got really into was the Windows/PSX one, can't remember its name, it was proper 3D anyway.
 
That actually looks really good to me. I don't even know what the premise of the game is, I just want to be able to do things like they demonstrated.
 
I kinda wish they had a bit more difference in environment and vegetation than demonstrated but still, it looks good.
 
Nice tech, but I don't see something like that going in a fun-for-more-than-a-hour game. /me doesn't get hyped before seeing more gameplay

Are Populous and Black&White still worth a try these days?
 
I tried playing through Black&White last year, it was fun but I got stuck because my creature was a dipshit(and I'm apparently a bad parent) which lead to my villages constantly getting owned by the enemy.:(

Black & White is more complex and harder than Black & White 2 but more fun.

If you want something easy to get into, Black & White 2 is the way to go.
 
I can see this having infinite replayability if they add an open ended story, RTS elements for villagers, and the ability to control a creature of sorts or a shaman.

****, I need to reinstall B&W.
 
Lucid said:
I can see this having infinite replayability if they add an open ended story, RTS elements for villagers, and the ability to control a creature of sorts or a shaman.

****, I need to reinstall B&W.
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I want it to be something like Sim City where your goal is merely to make a successful world within which your AI denizens will prosper. I wish I could successfully play Sim City 4, but everytime I try I fail miserably because it plays nothing like the previous versions. Why do I want to start out building an entire map of farm land? I like it more when you build an area and it grew though the phases as you improved surrounding area.
 
Never could get into the Sim Cities, too many things to take into account when building and a population of ungrateful whiners.
 
StarBob said:
I want it to be something like Sim City where your goal is merely to make a successful world within which your AI denizens will prosper. I wish I could successfully play Sim City 4, but everytime I try I fail miserably because it plays nothing like the previous versions. Why do I want to start out building an entire map of farm land? I like it more when you build an area and it grew though the phases as you improved surrounding area.
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You don't have to build any farm land. I haven't played it recently but you can pretty much make 3 strips of zoning then hit fast-forward and have positive cashflow with a minute.
 
Looks like a very interesting game, could be amazing if done properly. And considering this was just a tech demo, I'll put my reservations aside for now. I definitely like where they are going with this, though.

Speaking of RTSs, Pharaoh was awesome. :)

EDIT: Don't know if this was posted, but Gamescon preview: http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/111/1114490p1.html
 
I viewed Pharaoh as a city-building game rather than an RTS.
 
I suppose that would be more accurate. Still a great game, though.
 
Gargantou said:
I viewed Pharaoh as a city-building game rather than an RTS.
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Me too. Ceaser 3 I played more than Pharoah but they were basically the same game. I just liked seeing all my little people walk around doing important things.
 
Yeah me too, same reason I love the Tropico games, just watching people live their lives, get born, get job, get kids, grow old, die, rinse and repeat.
 
So, you're not going to be a shaman, but really a god? This means you don't have a limiting radius, which will seem weird to me.
 
So this is a bit like B&W except you can only influence your worshipers through manipulation of the environment? If so that would be pretty cool, especially since they seemed to present it as you protecting your followers from the world which is trying to kill them.

Definitely going to be keeping an eye on this.
 
Eurogamer has put a preview up that explains the gameplay a whole lot better than anything I have seen or read up to now. Supposedly it is out this spring. Can't wait.
 
The only thing I liked about B&W was throwing people, and I never played Populous.
 
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