When the reviews came out, I thought, What are they complaining about? It isn't that bad. Meanwhile I haven't played the game even once. I don't count messing around with it a few times during beta. I just don't feel any compulsion to play the game.
+1 [e digicons]v_v[/e]
Kudos! While I have been playing CIV V lately vs. Elemental, I think criticisms of both are overstated at this date. I have to say CIV V was certainly more polished, as it should have been considering the budget. Also I cannot give Stardock a pass on the first release of Elemental either, but I have faith they will fix it. The bottom line is, CIV V has a massive following and anything they do will piss off someone somewhere. Just the thread wars pre-release of which nations should be in/out was enough to make a developer hide in a cave with 10 cases of cheap vodka.
The beauty of Stardock is that they attract a niche following. In some ways, while it is great to have a huge title like Madden, CIV, etc., the penalty is the constant whining, bitching, complaining of every fringe group in the world. So Elemental, having no previous franchise, can change anything, anytime and not have to hear much about why something changed from 5 years ago. Not having to stick with nations, cultures, etc, they don't have to hear why they are slamming various heritages or ignoring others.
So in closing, CIV V is a solid game that has some improvements to make still, but the ceiling is limited by its own fame and topic. Elemental started out poorly, but has many things that are promising and no one really cares if the Krax are better at one thing than another nation, etc. As long as it is balanced, interesting and entertaining, that is all that counts. The ceiling is higher in Elemental.
Well, since he has a newborn, what else is he going to do with a few hours sleep broken into several segments a night until Brad 1.02 sleeps though the night? I can certainly attest to an infant with a 3 hour sleep-feed cycle can make your mind fell like you are wasted. The lines between reality and dreams are blurred on those tough nights. The mothers have it tough, don't get me wrong. If the dad is doing his part, it is tough as well.
I tend to agree with the enthusiasm disappearing. It's not a slam; just a statement of reality. The enthusiasm was founded on anticipation; now the reality has set in and Elemental is not in the top tier of strategy games out there at the moment. I'm not buying Elemental myself, just because other games have won out over it. HOMM5 is my game of choice, in spite of the dismal reviews of the expansions (which I totally don't get). But then after that it's King's Bounty:Crossworlds and Legends, and then after that I would probably go back to Starcraft 2, and then maybe a bundle pack of Dragon Age. No time for Elemental. Of course, there is always the possibility that after all that Elemental will be a completely different game (like many on this forum hope), but IMO the more likely thing that will happen is that other cool games will be released by the time I'm done and Elemental will have forever lost its window of opportunity. I'm open to being wrong, though.
I found a copy of Warsong for the Genesis today at a vintage store. Total geekgasm. Hope it's as good as I remember it being as a kid. Kids, never sell your video games, you will regret it and then spend years trying to find them again. Time to hook up the old Sega in the living room, might get out the CD and play Dark Wizard while I'm at it...yea, Elemental, I'll come back for the 1.1, until then, I've played the hell out of this game, and there isn't much more I can do until then.
I sold a lot of mine and I don't regret it in the slightest.
Burned some too.
HERETIC!! (j/k.... mostly)
Some games deserve burning.
I still go back to the games I view as classics now and then ... warcraft 3, age of empires 2, space empires IV, myth, marathon...Its early, but Elemental has potential to fall into that category. Enthusiasm hasn't really disappeared here. Actually if anything it was buying the game, realizing it was half finished, then realizing I could influence the direction of the game because of the Dev interaction on these boards and the strong modder community.... that has sparked my enthusiasm.
Age of Empires 2 had to be a highlight for me, right up with Diablo 2 and HOMM 3.... unfortunately the sequels didn't keep me in the series, well see about D3.
The ceiling has to be higher when you start off asking for a triple A prices but produce something that hits around sea level, at that point it's a lot easier to go up and, apparently, get a lot of credit for doing it. While it might be fun to have games evolve, I'd rather have my games be finished and quality from the moment the cash is exchanged.
You have a point. I certainly did not think Elemental deserved that price at launch.
The whole situation is awkward, but it isn't a bad game. I'll be glad to see the AI overhaul and content upgrades.
It's almost Christmas, so I imagine you'll see a sale soon. It'll definately be worthy then
Heroes of Might & Magic 5/Tribes of the East (version 3.1) is the very best game I have ever played since my first PC game, in 1994 -- it was MoO.
Its 3D graphics engine was coded by Russian developer Nival Interactive before the 1996 release of version 1.0, and I am sorry to admit that it generated a far more beautiful game than Elemental.
To really appreciate H5's beauty and gameplay, you need :
1. A powerful videocard, to set all graphical options to the max in a high resolution ;
2. A widescreen that is bigger then 19 inches, and a resolution that is higher than 1440 x 900 ;
3. To play "custom" maps, with MP maps selected -- preferably maps which have been edited by experienced users.
Gamespot gave the H5/TotE expansion a 55% score : like the poster I have quoted, the "dismal" review baffles me.
(You can buy Tribes of the East 3.1 on Stardock's Impulse for a very, very low price.)
Yeah i like the HoMM too.
Posting this will lead to a discussion on which one is the best, HoMM 3 seems to have a majory of players vote .
Personnaly i like 5 too.
That said, i am on pause from Elemental,but thought about it today and think i will give it another try.
I realised that the concept may be real good.The major lacking points have been discussed already.I will just add,(surely it has been already mentionned),but i would like a large quantity of loots, magical items etc.It would add some flavour to the game.
An xp tree would be nice too.(reference to Heroes 5 too).That's one thing i liked.
Well maybe i am a famous lootwhore but what is a good game without good loots to run after ! Well maybe it doesnt fit with the goal of the game but honnestly i think a lot of peoples would go my way (well i hope i am not the only one)
That's all, surely not really the good post to go with this but hhmm, who cares
Just let me know if you ever feel the same, or if i am really the lonely lootwhore [e digicons]O:)[/e] .
Thank you for reading,bye.
Have you found it again?
This "Let them eat mods" thing might be my single biggest worry/vexation with the Elemental project so far. The idea of moddability as an important trait makes sense to me, but so much of what I've read from Brad and others makes it sound almost like building an open, flexible engine is an excuse for leaving 'content' on the back burner.
Those shudder quotes on 'content' are because I'm pretty sure that a bunch of stuff Brad considers 'mere content' is stuff I consider basic parts of a game's identity. Maybe it's a tow-may-to po-ta-to thing.
The homogenized factions problem is not surprising to me because I bought GC1, put it down pretty quickly, and definitely like GC2 TA much more than the base game (although the tech trees still add more distinctiveness than AI 'personalities' seem to). I figure that at a raw AI level, Brad will come through with some lifetime learning and give us factions that reliably act like different cultures, but I still worry that even with the global mana pool change underway, the magic will be bland because the devs have so far only considered it as crude rulesets and eye candy, not an expression of a living game world.
Kael's work is unfamiliar to me also because I ditched the Civ franchise after they took the you-need-a-new-rig-for-our-new-game approach. If he has something like Brandon Sanderson's feel for inventing magical systems, then there might be good reason to be hopeful about the management shakeup. But as others have said, it might be nice to see 1.1 postponed substantially so the magic system revisions can get some much-needed 'content' love.
lol. A Heller reference coupled with logic to boot! Nice.
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