Civilization: Beyond Earth

[EyeKhan]

Speaking of Gal Civ, just went to their site and watched some of the beta play videos. The fleet warfare looked sweet. On a side note, their corporate offices are about a mile from my house, which is only notable because I live in suburban Detroit and their office is in a crappy little 1 story office park directly in the center of nowhere and about 250 yards from the clinic where my kid's pediatrician practices. I'd bet money it's the only gaming software company for two hundred miles in every direction. Not a lot of money, maybe five bucks.

[Wraith]

Stardock is about as indie as you can get without actually being indie.

[EyeKhan]

It's funny, for the longest time I would pass this teeny tiny sign with their company logo on my way to Ann Arbor and I would think over and over "that looks familiar, where the heck do I remember that from...?" It took a few years to connect the dots, mostly because this is probably the last place I'd ever expect to find a software company that developed a game I had bought and played. Last year on a lark I tried to drive up to the building but they actually have an automatic gate with key card access. It's not fenced in or anything, just a gate arm across the road but I would have had to get out of the car or something to walk up to the building and I'm too apathetic to make such an effort.

[Ominous Gamer]

Stardock has a crazy history. At one point they were posed to challenge Valve for digital distribution, but it only took 2 bad launches, Demigod and...something else to sink them. They had to sell their soul to Gamestop in order to not close up shop.

[Spenni]

Stardock has a crazy history. At one point they were posed to challenge Valve for digital distribution, but it only took 2 bad launches, Demigod and...something else to sink them. They had to sell their soul to Gamestop in order to not close up shop.

Galactic Civilizations 2 still one of the best PC games ever made though.

[Wraith]

Stardock has a crazy history. At one point they were posed to challenge Valve for digital distribution, but it only took 2 bad launches, Demigod and...something else to sink them. They had to sell their soul to Gamestop in order to not close up shop.

Elemental. Demigod was sunk by pirating, Elemental because they ignored their user base insisting that it wasn't ready for release. Everyone agreed what was there in the last beta wasn't good, but they let their white knights shout down everyone insisting there'd be a day-0 miracle patch that would make everything sparkle.

To Wardell's credit, he fessed up to his mistakes, apologized, and gave everyone who bought it free future games to make up for it.

[Ominous Gamer]

Elemental. Demigod was sunk by pirating,

Yeah, no server checks for a multiplayer game. Game leaked early and the servers were slammed before Stardock had everything prepared for a mass launch. So all the early reviews panned the game as unplayable

[EyeKhan]

Galactic Civilizations 2 still one of the best PC games ever made though.

I didn't much like it. I played it a few times then lost interest. Gal Civ 3 looks interesting though.

[Steely Glint]

Oh yeah, I tried this when I was free to play over the weekend. I agree with everyone else's assessment; the game is simply dull.

[RandBlade]

Not tried it but not going to now after everyone else's reviews. Rather disappointing, been waiting for a good sequel to Alpha Centauri for so long. Feel sorry for those of you who spent good money on this.

Though not too surprised, a few Sid Meier's remakes have been quite disappointing. Colonization was my favourite game of the 90's but Civ IV: Colonization was no more than decent which was a let down in comparison.

[Steely Glint]

The game has a number of worthwhile ideas, for example the depiction of espionage is one of the best I've seen in a 4x game. However, I maintain that the most important feature of a grand strategy game is that during play, things should happen. The main problem seems to be overly passive AI, it reminds me of early Rome 2 or Empire in that regard - it doesn't matter how cool your tech tree or mechanics are, if the AI can't be bothered to play the game the player is in for a dull experience.

The other classic mistake the game makes is that many key mechanics that might actually make the game, you know, fun aren't introduced until late-mid game or early end game, by which time the game is pretty much won or lost in any case. For example, the purity-supremacy-harmony didn't seem to matter a bit for the 200-odd turns that I played. You should be making decisions about that shit right out the door and those decision should have be major trade offs which have consequences for your play-style. Sadly, it seems Firaxis pussed out and went down 'tiny bonuses, late game' route.

Contrast with SMAC, where your choice of faction and social engineering settings have a major impact on your playstyle.

The games fiction is fairly dull, too. I managed to spice this up by deciding to make up my own faction based on China Mievelle's Bas Lag novels (I basically just like the place names), without which I probably would not have bothered to play even as long as I did. I certainly didn't care much that Whatsherface of the Pan-Asian-Whatdayacallit didn't like me or the Slavic Guys were my friends. Again, contrast with SMAC with factions like the Hive or the Gaians, the vivid personalities of the faction leaders and a setting that was interesting enough to make into a role playing game.

In the end, with 2 hours of free play left and still wanting to see what the end game was like I couldn't face more endless clicking of the end turn button and went to play Space Hulk Ascension instead.

That said, I think if I ever see it on sale for like £5 or something I might pick it up. It has some interesting concepts that might be fun to explore.