Master of Orion III

[ISiddiqui]

I’m going to wait. After the slashing of features I really liked (ethos and focus points) and the gutting of the team in the middle of the process (which was wierd), I’m in a ‘wait and see’ mode.

[Engywook]

Just hope it’s not another Sim City 4… complex, highly sophisticated, intriguing (conceptually), and about as much fun as watching astroturf grow.

At least it should run on machines that already exist… right?

[Ike_Witt]

*Originally posted by SolGrundy *
**No, it doesn’t work that way. Games don’t get delayed a year for bug-fixing and testing; it’s for developing or adding features, play-balancing, or changing the design. Even if you feel like you’ve been “subjected to” delays, realize that that was development time. Don’t have higher expectations for the game’s stability than you would for any other game releasing in February. (Whatever those expectations may be, is up to you. But “better not be ANY problems” is very unrealistic.) **

I would have believed this had the game made its early fall 2002 date. I, maybe, would have believed that if it made the xmas release date. I know that the game as it was made by the French group was way, way too much. If there was that much work to do than Infogrammes should not have continued to set unrealistic release dates.

Also, the “guide” book for the game has been is stores since about the xmas release date. I feel sorry for any sap that shelled out the bucks for a book that will most likely be useless.

[RickJay]

*Originally posted by Engywook *
**Just hope it’s not another Sim City 4… complex, highly sophisticated, intriguing (conceptually), and about as much fun as watching astroturf grow. **

Boy, no kidding. I find it difficult that not one playtester went to the SimCity guys and said, “Hey, looks great. But it’s no fun.”

MOO3 will probably be more fun just by virtue of being a game with a specific goal, whereas SC4 is a “Virtual toy.” Virtual toys work if they throw rewards in at the right pace - SC4 doesn’t.

[SolGrundy]

*Originally posted by RickJay *
Boy, no kidding. I find it difficult that not one playtester went to the SimCity guys and said, "Hey, looks great. But it’s no fun."

Maybe the playtesters (and me) have a different idea of “fun” than you. I get sucked right into SC4 and totally engrossed in guiding a town and watching it develop into a big city. Whether that can be described as “fun” or not, I don’t know, but it’s my favorite of the SimCity games so far…

[decafe]

I’m in the ‘wait and see’ camp.

Although things like Imperial Focus Points and Ethos were interesting draw cards which were cut, I’ll reserve judgement until I see the whole game, unlike those on the Infogrames message board who keep banging on about how much the game stinks since <insert feature here> wasn’t included.

On the Strategy Guide, the ‘guide’ pretty much stinks. With little to no strategy, vague descriptions in every chapter and ‘tips’ that are blatently obvious, the guide has as much to do with Strategy as the Pope does to Islam.