Nemesis
02-13-2003, 07:28 PM
Love them or hate them, the world has been putting up with them ever since some brainbox sat in the corner at his companies christmas party and decided, in a drunken state "Lets con even more money out of people by releasing the same thing with different packaging".
This doesn't just apply to the poor gamers in the world, sifting through shelves and shelves of sequel after sequel, but also film goers and book readers, and it's a rare instance where a gamer can sit down, load up their new game and think to themselves "wow, this is so different, yet it's still got the great parts from the release before this".
For any of you that played the original Black and White to death like i did, you'll remember the hours of frustration as your overgrown pet runs through the lands, leaving giants turds up against your villagers houses, throwing sheep and other farmyard creatures into the distance, and stopping still suddenly, turning to face you, whistling loudly while waving it's arms in the air, with a stupid grin on it's face, your creatures way of telling you it wanted attention. The slap option was mainly for use as a way of helping to teach your pet the wrongs and rights of the things it did, yet watching it cower in fright after a good slapping (a blatant abuse of your godly powers of course) just made the whole thing more sadistic and fun.
Lets not forget the whole plot of the game, the evil Nemesis (Not all Nemesis's are evil gods by the way; ah who am i kidding) hellbent on being the only god in the world forged alliances with other evil gods, with the intention of capuring three creeds, which would provide him with ultimate power, and therefore the way to dominate the world, destroying anything in his path.
The whole look of the game was unique, gorgeous landscapes and a unique spell system (If your creature watched you casting spells he could also learn the spells himself and cast them) creating global devastating effects, If you've never stayed up til 3am in the morning, having coast to coast fireball fights with another god, or send massive boulders rolling over the landscapes, crushing everything in it's path, buildings, the landscape, everything, then you've never lived.
Lets not forget the villages, your spells ranges were based on your "Area of Influence" the more villages that worhsip you, the more range you have to cast magic on your opponents, it was a fantastic system and well implemented by Lionhead (most of whom come from bullfrog, famous for such games as : powermonger, Populous and Syndicate).
Changes implemented in the new game
The new game itself promises to be very different to the previous release, additional features also include using armies of your villages to attack neighbouring villages and settlements, a revamp of the control and spell system, additional graphics improvements are also included, and as these screenshots show, it's already looking to be a very impressive sequel:
http://storage.bwgame.com/static/bwgame/bw2/concept3.jpg (http://storage.bwgame.com/static/bwgame/bw2/concept3.jpg)
Lionhead successfully implements mans primal instincts : bow down and do anything to please a big ***** .
http://storage.bwgame.com/static/bwgame/bw2/concept1.jpg (http://storage.bwgame.com/static/bwgame/bw2/concept1.jpg)
One of your settlements, yesterday shortly before your creature trampled through the village and left a deposit of manure on top of one of your villagers
http://storage.bwgame.com/static/bwgame/bw2/concept4.jpg (http://storage.bwgame.com/static/bwgame/bw2/concept4.jpg)
The same creature a few minutes after killing the villages last remaining female with a giant lump of turd
Back to the new spell system, in the original release it was a case of choose the spell, choose the area of effect or a rough direction of how far you want to throw the spell,cast and then move on, this new release provides alot more depth to your godly powers, for example, casting a fireball and holding it in your hand, moving over to a hilltop near on of your enemies towns and squeezing the fireball, the molten lava from the fireball dripping onto the hillside, rolling down the hill, leaving your enemies with a mass lava river heading towards his town.
The battles that can be co-ordinated in the new release are the main big thing to this that makes it so special, being able to lead entire armies of archers, swordsmen, big battles of carnage being left on the hillside and in the vallies, sitting back and watching hundreds of people (each superbly animated) doing your bidding, enough to make anyone laugh in their most evil way possible.
Black and White 2 is an eagerly anticipated release by this reviewer, 10/10 for the changes they have implemented so far, definately a cert to make the word "sequel" proud.
Nem
Some additonal info
Black and White 2 homepage (http://www2.bwgame.com/bw2/news)
Lionhead studios (http://www.lionhead.com)
This doesn't just apply to the poor gamers in the world, sifting through shelves and shelves of sequel after sequel, but also film goers and book readers, and it's a rare instance where a gamer can sit down, load up their new game and think to themselves "wow, this is so different, yet it's still got the great parts from the release before this".
For any of you that played the original Black and White to death like i did, you'll remember the hours of frustration as your overgrown pet runs through the lands, leaving giants turds up against your villagers houses, throwing sheep and other farmyard creatures into the distance, and stopping still suddenly, turning to face you, whistling loudly while waving it's arms in the air, with a stupid grin on it's face, your creatures way of telling you it wanted attention. The slap option was mainly for use as a way of helping to teach your pet the wrongs and rights of the things it did, yet watching it cower in fright after a good slapping (a blatant abuse of your godly powers of course) just made the whole thing more sadistic and fun.
Lets not forget the whole plot of the game, the evil Nemesis (Not all Nemesis's are evil gods by the way; ah who am i kidding) hellbent on being the only god in the world forged alliances with other evil gods, with the intention of capuring three creeds, which would provide him with ultimate power, and therefore the way to dominate the world, destroying anything in his path.
The whole look of the game was unique, gorgeous landscapes and a unique spell system (If your creature watched you casting spells he could also learn the spells himself and cast them) creating global devastating effects, If you've never stayed up til 3am in the morning, having coast to coast fireball fights with another god, or send massive boulders rolling over the landscapes, crushing everything in it's path, buildings, the landscape, everything, then you've never lived.
Lets not forget the villages, your spells ranges were based on your "Area of Influence" the more villages that worhsip you, the more range you have to cast magic on your opponents, it was a fantastic system and well implemented by Lionhead (most of whom come from bullfrog, famous for such games as : powermonger, Populous and Syndicate).
Changes implemented in the new game
The new game itself promises to be very different to the previous release, additional features also include using armies of your villages to attack neighbouring villages and settlements, a revamp of the control and spell system, additional graphics improvements are also included, and as these screenshots show, it's already looking to be a very impressive sequel:
http://storage.bwgame.com/static/bwgame/bw2/concept3.jpg (http://storage.bwgame.com/static/bwgame/bw2/concept3.jpg)
Lionhead successfully implements mans primal instincts : bow down and do anything to please a big ***** .
http://storage.bwgame.com/static/bwgame/bw2/concept1.jpg (http://storage.bwgame.com/static/bwgame/bw2/concept1.jpg)
One of your settlements, yesterday shortly before your creature trampled through the village and left a deposit of manure on top of one of your villagers
http://storage.bwgame.com/static/bwgame/bw2/concept4.jpg (http://storage.bwgame.com/static/bwgame/bw2/concept4.jpg)
The same creature a few minutes after killing the villages last remaining female with a giant lump of turd
Back to the new spell system, in the original release it was a case of choose the spell, choose the area of effect or a rough direction of how far you want to throw the spell,cast and then move on, this new release provides alot more depth to your godly powers, for example, casting a fireball and holding it in your hand, moving over to a hilltop near on of your enemies towns and squeezing the fireball, the molten lava from the fireball dripping onto the hillside, rolling down the hill, leaving your enemies with a mass lava river heading towards his town.
The battles that can be co-ordinated in the new release are the main big thing to this that makes it so special, being able to lead entire armies of archers, swordsmen, big battles of carnage being left on the hillside and in the vallies, sitting back and watching hundreds of people (each superbly animated) doing your bidding, enough to make anyone laugh in their most evil way possible.
Black and White 2 is an eagerly anticipated release by this reviewer, 10/10 for the changes they have implemented so far, definately a cert to make the word "sequel" proud.
Nem
Some additonal info
Black and White 2 homepage (http://www2.bwgame.com/bw2/news)
Lionhead studios (http://www.lionhead.com)