# coming up and recommended



## NikG

If you don't already know, which I'm guessing most don't, I'm a games reviewer and I thought I'd just open a thread to discuss new/imminently released PC games. I only get a handful as I'm one of a few PC reviewers on the team but certain weeks there's a huge selection to choose from, unfortunately Civ4 and AoE3 aren't up for review. Apparently they haven't been received blame on part of royal mail or the publishers especially when my copy of Civ4 is supposed to arrive tomorrow.



The previous few games I'd highly recommend to anyone would be Black & White 2, as it's simply amazing although semi-demanding and the new tribute system completely sucks. Another would be X3, which is a lot better than the original it's gone darker but looks amazing, although it's got a weird crash to windows bug.



My recent disappointments are Rome: Total War - Barbarian Invasion as it's basically new units and nothing new to the actual game, even the music is almost completely repeated and the new features add nothing to the game and it should really come with a time-back guarantee. The other would be Metal Heart: Replicants Rampage, it claims to be the next Fallout but apparently the Russian Company that made it works in an isolated community that still works coldwar style and hasn't had an RPG game ever imported, or stolen by the KGB, for them to see what one is supposed to be like.



Dungeon Lords looks okay but I haven't had time to play it yet, but it's more positive than negative. Psychotoxic from what I know about it, it looks like anyone seriously considering buying it needs some mental help or the developers were on acid when developing the game.


BTW most of the things I'll say in here is the stuff that can't be said in a review without loosing the review material from the developers. Just thought this might be of help to people who can't see if they like a game till a demo, or don't like the false politeness in reviews (like almost all gamespy reviews).


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## Ahdkaw

I got X3 on pre-order from Egosoft, not really played it yet, but after a quick sneaky peek into the game, I must say it's a much improved graphical engine as well as GUI. I just wish it didn't have to run in the very lowest settings on my computer so it doesn't jitter everywhere.

As for the crash, I dunno whether the patch they released fixes it, but there is a patch available from http://www.egosoft.com/ anyway.


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## Winters_Sorrow

I agree about Barbarian Invasions. I was very disappointed with it. Even the new 'religion' aspect is not as important/invasive as it's made out to be. It's also suppose to have new 'skills' for your generals - again I couldn't see the slightest bit of difference with this. The ability to (occasionally!) fight at night adds an interesting dynamic to the game but I would argue it's more of a gimmick. 

I've recently purchased Civ 4 but it's a bit too soon to make any informed comments on it's new features yet.


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## NikG

Thanks Ahd, didn't know about the patch. It's fixed the sector jump crash but it hasn't fixed it bombing out at stations, thankfully that's only annoying as it makes the autosave. I just recently doubled my hardware and X3 still jumps, but it supposedly happens even for top end computers so it's nothing to worry about and the SETA is jumpy because of how it's actually done and nothing to do with the system it's on. One thing that’s annoying me about X3 is all the rearranged station prices, it’s now nearly impossible to get the money to get a station but so far the Khaak haven’t attacked. I remember when playing X2 I was unable to complete the story because the Khaak attacked Argon Prime and destroyed the Argon Prime with my story mission in it, this about 1/2 way through the game so I gave up and just built an empire.

Civ 4 looks good and I think that's its actual selling point. The jump from Civ 2 to Civ 3 wasn't noticed by me until later in the game, I just took it as Civ 2 with better graphics. Hopefully it'll have enough in it to make it refreshing but nothing to experimental to ruin the fun of the game.

All I can say about Barbarian Invasions that signifies how bad it was for me was, I'm so glad I didn't have to waste my money buying it. The religions only served to slow the game down and the new loyalty system is a nice idea but I ended up fighting 4 Rome’s, but then I took up Eastern Rome and it took me almost 10 hours to even get my cities into a place where I could expand because it's so much micro-management when you've got lots of provinces. This would be easier if the computer was actually competent at city building, one of mine insisted on building the finest buildings while it was on the frontier to the roman empire but hadn't built a single military structure, it wouldn't even build walls!

I loved the normal Rome Total War, just hopefully I'll be able to love it again once the torture of BI wares off. Maybe they should lisence copies to the police for interrogations


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## chump

Age of Empires 3 is a very good game and I have heard that civ 4 is even better but I have yet to play it.


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## NikG

In AoE 3 have they fixed the appalling problems the demo had, like shooting through the brick walls or the buildings collapsing from someone throwing a flaming stick at them?

I just remember hearing they were using the HAVOK physics engine and thought it'd be amazing like soldiers: heroes of world war 2, but when I played the demo I was appalled. It was like they'd killed all the people who worked on physics and replaced them with monkeys taken from lobotomy experiments. In AoE 2 arrows going over wall made sense, because you fire them up, but if you fire a gun at 45° it's going for miles and to be fair I have no idea how far even a poorly propelled bullet could go at 45°.

If they've fixed the physics I'd buy it, if they haven't then I think I'll wait for it to come up for review, if it does. I'm getting The Movies for review, which is a game I've been looking forward to since it started being advertised. I get it on the 7th and it releases on the 8th, they give us so much time to work


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## bendoran

Played through a good bit of quake 4 and have to say i was pleasantly surprised.  Began with not really liking it, but the game really started growing on me as the team aspect became more prevalent.  The scene were you get turned into a strogg is awesome aswell, very gory  would recommend this for the casual gamer lookign for some good fps action.

another good first person shooter is f.e.a.r. the game plays well on lower end machines, it is great fun and very tense.  The story is lacking, but the whole paranormal thing really works and with the sound up and lights off this game is atmospheric as hell.

on xbox, i played through fahrenheit, also known as the indigo prophecy in america. was alright i suppose.  certainly different although it could have been implemeneted better. theres too much of the whole simple simon following instructions on screen and not enough playing, plus its very telegraphed and liner despite its best efforts not to be.  the game is fairly risque aswell with a few sex scenes(one interactive too) and full blown nudity.  not one for kids then.  also a surprising amount of death for this type of game and some strong religous themes.  If your looking for a straightforward but different take on gaming i would recommend this, but if you want to really get in and play, look elsewhere.

ones to miss, batman begins, tiger woods 2006, brothers in arms, worms 4.


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## NikG

Fahrenheit in the US doesn't have the sex scenes, they were taken out as they aren't essential to the plot. I liked the game but I couldn't help but get the feeling that with all the simon says thing going on that it felt strange playing it on the PC, it felt like it should have been on an arcade machine or a handheld.



The thing that got me disinterested in f.e.a.r. was all the screen shots looked beautiful, yet they couldn't get the soldiers to look like they were even carrying the weapon. Half-Life 2 managed to get the combines carrying the weapons like they actually had a weapon, but from what I've seen of f.e.a.r. they hold guns like they're pieces of weightless plastic way out from the body where you'd hold one. Just seems to me all the time they put into the graphics they could have actually spent 5 minutes positioning the guns in their natural places.



I've just received The Movies. The first disk entitled 'All reviews embargoed until 11/8/05', which as first thing you see (besides the tree of paper) makes me a little cautious of what the game's going to be like. Well here goes the next 30 hours of my life, now where the heck is the CD key


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## Culhwch

Am really looking forward to The Movies, though I think I'll have to upgrade before I can run it. Also waiting for Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Gun, but again, not without a new computer....


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## NikG

The Movies isn't that demanding, only requires:
Pentium(R) III 800 MHz or Athlon(TM) 800MHz processor or higher 
256MB RAM 
8x Speed CD-ROM drive and latest drivers 
2.4 GB of uncompressed free hard disk space
32MB Graphics card

If they've given me the right requirements that is.


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## Culhwch

Shhh. You'll ruin my excuse to buy a new rig....


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## NikG

lol sorry. I've just managed to pull myself away from playing it, definitely worth buying a new rig for


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## Brian G Turner

Good to see you here, NikG - any more recommendations?


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## NikG

I only have so little time and so many games to review   Of course I'd have more time if I wasn't working voluntarily (free games, who can resist?!). Right now I can only recommend past releases, apparently we have trouble getting the review material early because we're online where as magazines get them a month before publication and that's generally two months in advance. Probably why the code for The Movies was out of date, and thank the lord for malware copy-protection it's beautiful...

As for past releases definitely get the LucasArts 'The Entertainment Pack' if it's still on sale, it includes; Sam & Max hit the road, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle and The Dig. The latter being what I got my first review on, totally a must play game as it's based on a would-be movie by Spielberg and is a damn sight more fun than a movie would be.


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## Ahdkaw

NikG said:
			
		

> Thanks Ahd, didn't know about the patch. It's fixed the sector jump crash but it hasn't fixed it bombing out at stations, thankfully that's only annoying as it makes the autosave. I just recently doubled my hardware and X3 still jumps, but it supposedly happens even for top end computers so it's nothing to worry about and the SETA is jumpy because of how it's actually done and nothing to do with the system it's on. One thing that’s annoying me about X3 is all the rearranged station prices, it’s now nearly impossible to get the money to get a station but so far the Khaak haven’t attacked. I remember when playing X2 I was unable to complete the story because the Khaak attacked Argon Prime and destroyed the Argon Prime with my story mission in it, this about 1/2 way through the game so I gave up and just built an empire.


Yeah, they actually released the patch before the game. Frankly I feel that they released the game far too early, I truly wasn't expecting the release of X3 until late summer 2006, but that may be due to the multi-player X being split off into X-Universe, making it easier for them to finish off X3, but who knows, I'm just grasping at straws here. Either way, it's still far too early by my reckoning and so haven't properly sat down to play it.

I have been told though that the second mission is bugged no matter what you do, and it's advised that you ignore the missions for now, and just build up your credits and stations/etc. (Another good reason to delay release).

Do like the improvements to the interface and environment though, and the _almost-drift-forever_ ship movement is nice, as is the way that the sectors seem to drift.

I really need to start on this game, but on the last attempt I got as far as the sector I had to patrol to (no Khaak presence), and just as someone who looked like Ban Danna appeared on my comms screen, I was interrupted by some damn cop scanning my cargo. After that the mission had gone with no way to trigger it again, so I shutdown in disgust (I have _shutdown in disgust_ with X2 many times previously, but it has that _something_ that makes you come back for more, no matter how punishing it may be).


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## NikG

You got scanned? I just get the message "thanks for cooperating" like I wasn't cooperating I had no choice, because the com system doesn't work properly. I have to initiate coms twice to contact a station and when talking to someone only the last line of dialog gets played, I didn't have a clue how much I was paying to get my station shipped and for all I knew it could have been something outlandish like the changes made to station prices. 4 million for a solar power plant, they were common as muck in X1 and X2.

I now have an empire of cows. I've discovered I can make more profit by buying other cattle farms argnu at low prices compared to relying on the solar power plants as there seems to be about 5 in argon space. Some changes are welcome, especially the controls but when it costs as much to join two stations as it did to build one in X2 it can be extremely annoying. Who runs their economy?!  

Well I'm off to continue reviewing The Movies... I wonder if my next romance film is going to end up as a lesbian sex flic, the mistakes in casting


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## Ahdkaw

I did write a huge post about my current X3 gaming situation, unfirtunately I stuck it in the Fast Reply part, and after clicking Post, got an error, only to click back and find the post entirely gone. 

Nevertheless I'll try my best to reconstruct the post from memory and CTRL+A, CTRL+C before I hit the post button.

I rarely ever communicate with space stations, as I simply rely on the autopilot for docking, which is just hit 'T' (or use navmap) and then when close enough (usually 10Km) i just hit Ctrl+D to activate the autopilot docking sequence. This is much quicker than going through the Automated Communications Service (or whatever they call it). So I haven't noticed these comms issues you mention.

I now have two traders running, who have earned me 1.5 million credits while I wandered the universe in my Discoverer, the first trader (now a lvl 23 pilot) started off Sector Trading in Rolks Fate and sometimes Queens Space, and is now a fully fledged Universe Trader, getting attacked by pirates and all that - yes he's gone up in the world. 

My second trader, a level 6 pilot, is now undertaking the Sector Trading that my initial pilot did, and he's making good progress so far (and money - which is the most important bit). I'm not sure whether Trade Command Software Mk. 3  was available in X2, I certainly don't remember it, but for 500,000 Cr, it's definitely worth it (the initial trading is slow, but it provides the perfect opportunity to go discovering without having to worry about having empty cargo bay).

It's said that SPP Stations are the way to go in Argon space, but then you have the issue of the crystal shortages...

I've yet toi decide where I want my station, and as yet and unsure as to how it will all go, I fear it is a disaster waiting to happen, which may explain my lack of eagerness at spending well over a million hard-earned credits on something that may well make me a huge loss.


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## NikG

I've not been on it in a while, was planning to break it out again and give it a play. I've been stuck playing The Movies and once I reached the 60's it got incredibly boring just trying to keep in the black, but I'm free now!

My position last time I played X3 was making a hefty profit with argnu beef, it's a good station to start with. It makes smaller profits than a SPP but if you're efficient you can make a huge profit, I was near buying a Cahoona bakery. Instead of relying on the crystals being in stock I planned on creating my own source and simply not sell to outsiders to keep my solar plants stocked. It takes more time but it'll make sure the cost of a solar plant won't go to waste and unlike X2 you won't have transports coming back with 2 crystals in their bay.


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