A little bird told me the poaching has actually been going on for some time. Many of the earliest CO alpha testers were CoX veterans who were well-known on the forums. The same bird mentioned that folks should make sure to try out the open beta of CO when it's released before forming opinions of the game.

This is an Ascaron game. It's gonna be buggy as all hell when it first comes out, and Ascaron will do everything they can to blame all technical issues on cracked copies of the game. Happened with Sacred 1, happened with Darkstar One.

Let me add on to what Frijoles said...

When I started in beta several months ago, the game was really run-and-gun. Felt more like a third-person action shooter than a MMO. Combat was fast, levelling was fast, and even if 2/3 of the game was broken or not implemented yet it was still a lot of fun.

Then somewhere along the line they started slowing everything down. XP gains got a huge nerf that they only partially removed. All weapon damage got nerfed hard. Bad enough on the DPS classes but if you playing one of the support classes? Grind grind grind grind supergrind. Logos effects, as Frijoles said, got slammed by the nerf bat too.

Whereas the game used to be fast and fun, now it's slow and plodding. Stopped playing the beta back at the beginning of August when it became clear that this was the way the devs wanted the game to be, and that release was coming up a lot quicker than anyone would admit to. Lo and behold, there's the October release announcement.

TRY BEFORE BUY, FOLKS. Do a demo or free trial first. The game may still be up your alley, but it certainly isn't up mine.

Was the game fleshed out, or is everything post-Chapter 4 still just a one-way dungeon crawl?

I fondly remember the old Lucasarts sim Afterlife. Had to work both Heaven and Hell at the same time in a SimCity-like environment.

The question none of the interviews with the developers have answered is whether the large amount of bugs in the XBox version are fixed in the PC version. The AI's pathfinding took a large step backwards between 1 & 2, as well as its general intelligence. I never had a problem with my party members running through minefields in #1, but in #2 they were constantly suiciding themselves. Plus the metric tons of scripting errors, including several possible infinite loop conversations.

The game and plot is quite fun the first time through. Hopefully they'll have added some more plot to the endgame, which turns into a mindless dungeon crawl and has the entire plot explained to you by the end boss after you kill it.

Buggeration.

Did they fix the networking code? I was also in the beta, and remember quite well the infamous networking patch which turned the game into a slideshow for a lot of folks like me. Used to have no problems in 60+ player combats. Post-patch, I lagged in anything over 10.

Also take into consideration that the US version of the game is being censored for violence. Encore forced Ascaron to tone down the blood-and-guts in order to get a "T" rating. You can check out the discussion at http://www.ascaron-forum.com//showflat.php?Cat=&Number=30302&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=all&vc=1

Torrent at http://66.90.75.92/torrents/1185/sacreddemoeng-exe.torrent for download. Just getting started, but it's got 2 seeders already.

<< Oh and to whoever said that the game doesn't work on non MS joysticks was wrong, I play it with a Saitek Cyborg 3D Gold and it works fine. >>

Try to read what I said next time. I said non-MS FORCE FEEDBACK joysticks. Your Saitek is non-FF, and thus works fine.

Please note that "full joystick...support" currently does not include any non-MS force feedback joystick. The game shipped with this huge bug, plus the performance problems which the devs believe is due to the campaign AI.

X2 looks great, but it's definitely a wait-until-the-first-patch-before-you-buy game.

I feel for the Europeans who aren't getting this until next year. This looks like a great game and I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Another classic developer dies a lingering, unneeded death.

I still play the first two X-Com games.

While I'm happy to see this go gold, this is the first in the series I'm gonna try-before-you-buy rather than scooping it up on sight. Not sure if the new tactical battle system is going to be my cup of tea.

Well, according to the readme, this ain't it. Aside from the companion crash fix, I don't see a thing about the other big outstanding bugs. Netplay is completely broken on all computers, not just "slower" ones. Not to mention all the interface issues (like the HP bars getting turned off every time you load a game), and the serious engine issues like the attack speed slowdown bug.

<< Second, it's not really feasible to pirate an X-Box game, as compared to a PC game, so the profits are going to be higher since you're forced to pay to buy the game if you want it (because of design). >>

Considering the huge amount of XBox rips I see around, it seems pretty damn easy to pirate XBox games.

I actually enjoyed the first twelve or so levels. There were some moderate annoyances (that damn speeder bike level was freaking annoying), but generally it was fun rampaging through levels, cutting down everything in my path. Then I hit the second storyline mission, Darth Vader's Castle. Fighting multiple super powered-assault-armor Stormtroopers who wield the Concussion Rifle (which just kicks your ass and you can't saber block it), who bash you about 20 feet back if you get in front of them, and take 10 or so saber hits to kill. Oh, and you're fighting them outside in an acid rain which constantly saps your shields and health. That was bad enough, but in the third storyline mission when you have to fight SIX of them, at once, in a pool of lava, that pretty much did it for me.

I like a challenge, but I don't like ghey uber-monsters.

Oh, did I mention that the AI Dark Jedi *can* saber block the Concussion Rifle? Wow, that's nice.

<< That doesn't make sense, is it multiplayer or not? >>

It's "hotseat" multiplayer, which all of the Warlords games have had. Very much a dying breed, and supplanted by PBEM as well as standard network games.

Enlight are the folks who did the Seven Kingdoms and Capitalism turn-based strategy games a few years ago. I think they're also the ones doing the Joan of Arc RTS.

Still, great to see this title getting a NA distributor. Been waiting for it for a long time now.