Sign of the times
G'Kar said:
I agree - both on the graphics and the "orgasmic grunts".
- I agree too. I'd say unnecessary, needlessly computer power intensive and in the case of the grunts, just plain silly....
The last Diplomacy board game I was able to get seven adults to stay put for a full afternoon and evening was... hmmm on my birthday in West Berlin of all places in 1984.
Since then economic "reform" :wacko: has left the people I know (including me) too time impoverished for this board game (though I applaud the community that keeps it alive in vivo!).
As a teenager in the early 70’s I used to have great Diplomacy parties in Sydney. But those were VERY different times. Times when people had TIME….
Sitting in the corner in my sutteran flat in 1984 Berlin was my dear Commodore 64 and sensing this would likely be the last time I might be able to enjoy this with people face to face a I looked forward to it being applied to computer.
Well the 1985 graphics were TOO horrible (remember the CGI [or whatever] old plastic blue and pink?) and other clunky aspects of the graphics?
It's obviously a game that needed
decent graphics, but never the grossly
over the top variety the developer went for here. Why the 3D fleet "anchor" icon is almost impossible to see from top down! A major back step from the old "ship shape" icon.
What is worse is that all the unnecessary graphics seem now to be why the game is so high end intensive in it's "Basic requirements"?
Before purchasing the game I had been going by some reviews that put all this obligatory grunt down to the “needs of the advanced AI.”
As a result the game will run on my high end machine, but I can’t play it over the LAN with my son’s still respectable PIII 500Mhz system in the next room. (I could get over the lack of direct human player to player comms with the mobile phone or shouting to him) :rofl:
Why have so many great games of the PC era had shoddy multiplayer function? More social atomization in action?
Well this Diplomacy Mk3 fiasco is just a sign of our times: flashy show comes before what’s inside. Corporation’s hording greatness in dark vaults while mediocrity is pushed on us instead.
While I mourn for Diplomacy, and hope against hope for something better there, I am HIGHLY impressed by Hearts of Iron II – Doomsday which I’ve just bought off EBAY. Here’s hoping for something better for the strategic gamer…. I was up half last night reading the first few chapters of the handbook.
I love that you can roam around a REAL and accurately portrayed world, (with RESTRAINED graphics – even to the “typewriter face” labels for the provinces) with countries populated by meticulously researched civil and military figures. They got my own Australian wartime administration so correct.
Well we’ll see - so far four stars Paradox!
But people who make these games should reflect on how much enjoyment the relatively simpler (and less time/learning curve/management intensive) game environment of Diplomacy or even “Axis and Allies” (another great game rushed to market rattling with bugs) can bring when done right.
The computer is definitely a necessary No 2 platform for the great game of Diplomacy in this time impoverished age.