first german preview

[Oranje]

http://www.gamesmania.de/spiele/games/pc/magazin/vorschau/

and I don't like it one bit (already emailed the guy that made it, maybe he'll come to his senses).
For those that don't understand german:
in the preview the game is judged to be a mix of risk and chess, where the emphasis of the game is supposed to be moving your armies over the map.

greetings, Oranje

 

[Generalfeldmarschall]

not a very good preview, i agree with you oranje. hang the man that wrote the article!

 

[unmerged(328)]

Interesting, if I understood the review correctly the reviewer states that 1-to-1 translations from a boardgame do not make for exciting games. Has anybody played EU both as a boardgame and as a computer game? Is it the same? It appears to me (never having played either ) that real time play of the computer game would be much different from the turn-based play of a boardgame.

 

[unmerged(315)]

I checked this out and came to two conclusions:

1) The writer had not played this game very much, and

2) The article is great for comic relief, if you are using AltaVista Translations:
'Various disasters hunger NOT and economic crises make the life heavy for you as the head of state.'

 

[unmerged(258)]

Maybe the got a fan of pseudo-strategy games to do the review.

 

[unmerged(252)]

The altavista translator is so bad I can barely understand the English translation.

 

[unmerged(234)]

Originally posted by willip:
Interesting, if I understood the review correctly the reviewer states that 1-to-1 translations from a boardgame do not make for exciting games. Has anybody played EU both as a boardgame and as a computer game? Is it the same? It appears to me (never having played either ) that real time play of the computer game would be much different from the turn-based play of a boardgame.

There are quite a big difference betwen the Bg and the CG even if they are many simmilarities also. Its not at al 1-to-1 translation from BG to CG.

 

[unmerged(184)]

Originally posted by Janbalk:
There are quite a big difference betwen the Bg and the CG even if they are many simmilarities also. Its not at al 1-to-1 translation from BG to CG.

You are right, Janbalk. Although I have not played the BG personally, some of my friends have, and they have told me that the BG is somewhat 'corseted'; in other words, it may very well happen that the random events, not the players, rule the game. I have not played the CG either, but the AARs and the comments included in this forum make me believe that the CG is not at all corseted!

By the way, at http://members.fortunecity.com/klapton/europa/eusp.htm
you will find the description of a Grand Campaign game of the BG that is currently being played by some friends of mine in Madrid (Spain). This website is in Spanish; however, you will find a link to the English version. The page is updated weekly, as they play every Saturday and the events of every weekend are then included in the website. Enjoy!

Kind regards, as always.

Martin

 

[Doomdark]

Yep, the reviewer should definitely hang. He is clueless...

 

[unmerged(234)]

He is either the most stupid person i ever heard of or he has only read that it was a conversiton of a boardgame (not really true) decided that that not a good idea and just started the game without realy testing it.

Please can someone who is fluent in german write a replay and thread for the forum, prefarbaly with a link to the cdgames review.

Otherwise I have to do it and since my german is god enough to understand written or slowly spoken german but not good enough to write in it I will have to do it in english and that would not be so good in a german language forum.

[This message has been edited by Janbalk (edited 18-10-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Janbalk (edited 18-10-2000).]

 

[KRonn]

Maybe he got hold of the Chinese version, couldn't figure it out, so he trashed the game!!

 

[unmerged(234)]

Most likely he is one of this hardcore military guys who thinks strategy is only happening on the batelfield (and maybe on the way to and from it). He decided that the economical, political, colonial, technologian and diplomatical parts was just fluff and not realy necissary, if you play EU as a pure wargame ignoring the formentioned parts you would probably come to much the same conclusion as he has.


[This message has been edited by Janbalk (edited 18-10-2000).]

 

[unmerged(90)]

Although my German is not anymore as good as it used to be, I am sure that the author did not play the game.
The verbs and style he uses clearly denotes it. He has based his article on what he heard or see somewhere, not on actual game play.

Don't hang him though, he does not know what he says...

 

[KRonn]

Originally posted by yndenwal:
Although my German is not anymore as good as it used to be, I am sure that the author did not play the game.
The verbs and style he uses clearly denotes it. He has based his article on what he heard or see somewhere, not on actual game play.

Don't hang him though, he does not know what he says...

O.K. Yndy, you've given him a reprieve for now.
But I still don't appreciate him carelessly trashing the best game I have NEVER played (yet).

 

[unmerged(90)]

Yep, this is nearly totally stupid to write such things with so few ideas on the subject.

However, stupdity isn't anymore a case for death penalty in our civilized societies. It is good to have reacted very quickly so that he may correct his text and thus prevent his readers to get a really bad and biased impression on the game.

 

[unmerged(335)]

Meine Herren,

please relax about this weak but harmless preview.
Really worrying is the fact, that Cpt Kiff and myself seems to be the only germans on this forum.
I believe there are enough potental german, austrian and swiss players out there to provide EU with some (not huge) success.
But much more and intense PR-Work has to be done in all three coutries. At least the website must do better soon. I´m optimistic.

However, considering how many people show a passionate effort to get an english version (some even a german one) - this topic became pretty ironic.

 

[Oranje]

Originally posted by Janbalk:
Please can someone who is fluent in german write a replay and thread for the forum, prefarbaly with a link to the cdgames review.[/QUOTE

Hello Janbalk,

Here is what I wrote to the author yesterday (no reply yet), as well as a post I made to the site's Forum (which is quite heavily visited by german gamers)

sorry folks, in German again

Hallo Mathias,

Ich habe Ihre Vorschau für das spiel Europa Universalis gelesen.
Es kommt mir aber vor, das Sie beim schreiben der Vorschau vielleicht
nicht über sehr viel Info verfügten. Ich nehme an dass Sie nicht
verfügten über eine beta Version, sonst könnte Ich überhaupt nicht
verstehen wie Sie zum Vergleich mit Risiko (Risk?) und Schach gekommen
sind.
Ihre Worte scheinen auf jeden Fall nicht an zu deuten dass Sie denken
dieses Spiel könnte ein richtiger Knaller werden. Ich möchte Sie bitten
sich das ganze noch mal intensief an zu schauen (das Spiel erscheint
diese Woche schon in Deutschland). Leider müssen wir in Holland noch
etwas warten


Kennen Sie die Website für das Spiel? www.europa-universalis.com (nicht die .de seite die von Blackstar
geführt wird -die ist nicht sehr gut-, sondern die von Paradox, die
Entwickler)

Wenn Sie sich das noch mal ansehen würden (auch die Forum Discussionen
auf dieser Website) bin Ich mir ganz sicher dass Sie zu einer anderen
Auffassung geraten.
Dieses Spiel wird nach meiner Meinung eine ganz neue Stufe herstellen
für echtzeit Strategie Spiele. Einfach grosse Klasse denke Ich.
Damit Sie nichts weiteres von dieser Email halten: ich bin einfach ein
hardcore gamer, und ich habe keinerlei commerziellen Verbindungen zu
Paradox oder Blackstar.
Ich hoffe nur dass dieses Spiel ein Riesenerfolg haben wird (dann kommt
vielleicht ein noch schöneres EU2)

Besten Dank für Ihre Zeit,
freundliche Grüsse,
Paul Vermaas


and the post on their Forum:

Hallo alle,
Ja, offenbar ist Europa Universalis noch ziemlich unbekannt in Deutschland, obwohl das Spiel hier als erste erscheint. Das wird sich aber schon ändern, es ist ein richtiger Knaller!
Das Spiel erscheint noch diese Woche.

preview: hier auf Gamesmania, aber nicht so gut wie gehofft
noch eine, viel besser: http://www.strategy-gaming.com/previews/europa_universalis/index.shtml (auf Englisch)
review, auch sehr gut: http://www.cdmag.com/Home/home.html?article=/articles/030/016/europa_review.html
(auch Englisch, CDMag gibt das Spiel 4,5 von max 5 Sterne!)

Bitte noch mal richtig hinschauen, es ist wirklich ein tolles Spiel.

freundliche Grüsse, Oranje

greetings, Oranje




[This message has been edited by Oranje (edited 18-10-2000).]

 

[Oranje]

Originally posted by Lodron:
Meine Herren,

please relax about this weak but harmless preview.
Really worrying is the fact, that Cpt Kiff and myself seems to be the only germans on this forum.
I believe there are enough potental german, austrian and swiss players out there to provide EU with some (not huge) success.
But much more and intense PR-Work has to be done in all three coutries. At least the website must do better soon. I´m optimistic.

However, considering how many people show a passionate effort to get an english version (some even a german one) - this topic became pretty ironic.

Hello Lodron,

I'm sorry, I don't agree with you completely.
I think previews and reviews are not harmless at all.
People read them and are influenced by them.
As they say a first impression is often very important in building your view.

I agree that the game needs a lot more (good) publicity in Germany (maybe in Sweden/Denmark/Norway as well?).
Bad previews don't help much then.

As for the chances of the game in the german market, wouldn't you agree that the game stands up very well against competitors in the market? The only real competition in this year's Xmas sales seems to be EW-Kossacks, if that game is ready in time.
Looking at the success of earlier strategy titles in the german market I would say there could be a big market for this one too.
As for your remark on the german website, I fully agree. Maybe you could let Blackstar know they should put a link to the eu.com site on their eu.de site?

Just my thoughts.
greetings, Oranje





[This message has been edited by Oranje (edited 18-10-2000).]

 

[unmerged(234)]

Thank you Oranje, you where a lot kinder to him that I would have been, but again that may be for the better.

 

[unmerged(349)]

This game is so little known in Germany that it is difficult to find a mail order company selling it, and the major computer game magazines still don't have reviews of it (the latest PC Player has mini-reviews of dozens of games from the ECTS, but no mention of EU). Still, I am going to go looking for it and get it. That way, when the English version comes out, I can get that (since I am an Ami) and give my German version to my brother in law, who is German. So I will do my part to make it a commercial success and get the word out!

[This message has been edited by von Curow (edited 19-10-2000).]