Hmm. It doesn't look related to Fall From Heaven or Fallen Enchantress to me.

I'll also say that I have gotten my money's worth out of Distant Worlds, even though I haven't played it in over a year. Even though it cost me about $70 with various discounts, I definitely got at least 200 hours out of it, which is a much better hour-to-dollar ratio than many modern games.

I want to like Stardrive as much, but it's still missing a special something. The race customization options and the tech tree currently need more variety, and ship design isn't too interesting yet. The AI doesn't do interesting things yet, either. I recently played MOO2 after playing Stardrive and I still enjoyed MOO2 more. Of course, Stardrive only cost me $15 for the Kickstarter and I've already played about 30 hours, so it had a good hour-to-dollar ratio as well. :-)

There is a strong correlation between the poor performance of SquareTaitoEnix and the last release of a Bubble Bobble game. Just saying.

If you haven't played it, you really don't have a valid gripe. Quit your nerd raging and go play something else.

Um...

There are only two ways to play it without buying it:

1) visit a friend's house and play it there. That requires your friend to have purchased it, but by now your friend would have already "nerd-raged" about how bad it was when he or she played it.

2) Pirate it. Except we're not supposed to pirate it, and there's some kind of controversial DRM to prevent such naughty behavior.

The "play it first before criticizing" argument is pretty weak in 2013, when many game companies refuse to release demos and we are able to watch YouTube videos of people playing a game.

Dev, It's been playable on Desura for the Kickstarter supporters for months. You didn't get a key for that?

Interesting... but Taito's Rakugaki Oukoku 2 already did the character creation in a similar way several years ago. That was an action RPG in which you could draw your own character (as opposed to this, where you build the creatures out of body parts and then modify those parts). Its attacks would be based on what you drew and what it could do with your drawing and how it interpreted your creature's joints and body parts.

Also, I'm so sick of the overused "distorted electronics" animation effect. If my technology is advanced enough to bioengineer these creatures, I think my devices have enough shielding to avoid interference.

Darn, I saw the headline and mistakenly thought that "Spaceward Ho!" was being remade.

The main difference between Panzer General's and Civ V's combat is the lack of morale effects. For the first few battles, I missed being able to hammer an opponent into giving up. And since units can't retreat on their own, you can't do stuff in Civ V like you could in PG, like surrounding a unit so it has to surrender because there's no escape route.

I got used to the Civ V's simpler battles, though. You still have to pay attention to terrain, zone of control, support from adjacent units, and other factors... as well as, of course, unit customization with all of the different experience perks.

I just finished my first game.

I played for 10 hours on a standard-size map. It might not have taken so long if it had not played slowly (I'm playing on a computer slightly above minimum requirements). I originally ran the DX11 version in fullscreen, but at one point, there was a 3D-rendering bug that corrupted the landscape, so I went back to the main menu. I closed the app and ran the DX9 version. I was able to play through the rest of the game without crashes.

I think the city-states add a lot to the gameplay, but their combat AI seemed pretty bad. They seemed to throw their units right at attacking units without any regard for their HP.

Unhappiness is tough to handle. I built four cities of my own, made all of my conquered cities (eventually about 16 more, since I conquered the English, French, and Romans) into puppets, and I still had trouble with unhappiness until I got some decent social policies.

I really like the social policies system. Being able to customize and adapt a civ to the game situation is really cool.

The combat is pretty fun. It brings back good memories of Panzer General. Naval power seemed a bit overpowered in the later game. With a couple of battleships, I was able to quickly weaken any coastal city enough to move an amphibious unit right into them with no damage (sometimes in one turn).

I'm hoping for some good Fall From Heaven-type mods, but seeing how Kael's first mod for Civ V brings back stacks, it may be a while...

Oh, boy!!!! SUPER MARIO SUNSHINE 2!!!

Given that Japan's prime minister publicly worried yesterday about a Greece-style collapse of Japan's financial system due in part to the 2.13/1 ratio of debt to GDP and their aging population they have to support with a declining overall population... perhaps you should rethink that.

I thought the trailer was dramatic, but too simplistic in its projection of geopolitics. Japan would not surrender to Korea without an actual fight. There's too much racism between the two countries. Even if the US economy collapsed, neither China nor the EU would allow Korea to take over Southeast Asia. Heck, given the six-year time frame between the Korean unification (only possible if done non-militarily, which wouldn't happen) and the annexation of Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam would still have four more years to build up both military and diplomatic resistance. I can't imagine any scenario where a unified Korea could take over all of SE Asia without any interference from any country. If the US, China, the EU, and Russia are all crippled by economic troubles, certainly unified Korea would be as well.

Maybe it's just me, but perhaps this game is trying to feed off of the "kill all Koreans!" mentality in certain gamer chat rooms.

Well, gee, if the iPhone had Flash support, it could have video chat NOW. :-p

Jay,

If you want a taste of what MoM is like, try the Civ IV mod "Fall From Heaven II". FfHII isn't quite as good as MoM, but it's a decent substitute. Creston didn't even get into the fun customization of your faction. There are five mana types, like in Magic: The Gathering, and you can distribute points strengthen your leader's spellcasting skills in those mana types, or you can use points to gain skills like alchemy (change mana to gold and create stronger items for your heroes) or node mastery (gain bonus mana for mana nodes you control).

I do disagree with Creston in one respect. First strike is king, except for first strike with invisibility, flying, and magic immunity! A single hero with first strike, invisibility, flying, and magic immunity is nearly invincible and can take entire cities by itself. (Which is why I like the alchemy skill: create god-like items. :-) )

Strange, I don't see Larisa Oleynik in any of the footage.

I agree, no more turn-based crap. Bring some turn-based excellence.

The "Life Cycle of a Videogame Franchise Addict" comic seems appropriate for today, given the announcement of Civilization 5... there goes another 2,000 hours of my life.

I'm surprised nobody has asked yet: Will the PC and Mac versions from the same DVD be playable at the same time? For one thing, it would make LAN play a lot easier.

WOW... that came out of nowhere. I wonder how many people actually know what Armada 2525 was. I'll miss the old conga line battles, but from the trailer, it looks like it's now Total War in space, which probably wouldn't be bad.

Yeah, it's a very good mix of grand strategy and RTS. I recently reinstalled it and it's still fun to play, although the UI feels clunky compared to modern UIs. Also, be aware that its highest possible resolution is 1024x768.

Also, if Steam's version uses the latest patch, there should be no more copy protection or other DRM on it.

Alien Breed 3D was actually pretty decent for its time, so a remake of the 2D games in 3D might not be bad (especially if the original members of Team 17 are involved).