Push the Envelope, Firaxis...

[Slingshot]

The Civ III screenshots were ... nice. The gaming concepts are better.

But I'd challenge Firaxis to push the envelope with Civ III.

Check out the following new release by the same fellow who created Populous, and see the direction that I think Civ III should go.
http://www.lionhead.co.uk/ The title is called Black and White.

Note that this game, although fully rendered in 3D does not require more than an 8Mb graphics card.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

i checked out that web site, and the picts of the city looks exactly like what i want to see in Civ III


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Its okay to smile; you're in America now

[Slingshot]

Note also, that this game boasts a zoom scale as fine as an apple and large enough to dwarf an entire civilization!

I know that the apple-resolution is a little much, but real-time zooming of maps would be cool! Especially if the limits of your zoom increased with increasing technology or improvements like lookout posts or satellites. In this way, technology affects your ability to manage large empires.

[EnochF]

I am thoroughly satisfied with the pictures I have seen, with the exception of the terrain squares. (And I assume, like most people, that the terrain uses "placeholder" graphics that will be replaced by something better in the final game.)

The city view and the city screen are great. In fact, the city view was fantastic. The borders look much as they did in SMAC, so they'll be easy to understand. The units are okay looking, not too fancy, but I wasn't expecting or even hoping to be impressed by the unit graphics anyway.

And there's going to be a council of advisors!

I find all of this encouraging. Civ III is going to be great.

[Zanzin]

The city view absolutely rocked - it's something thats obvioisly been redone, and redone well. The other screenshots were less impresive, and, as yin said in one posy in a differnt thread, worse than civ2. OBviously, they'll get fixed up before release though

[Adm.Naismith]

Well, Black&White, as good as it seems, it's another kind of game.
How can we really compare it against Civ III?

It's a bit too late to suppose Firaxis will put a new graphic engine into the game: Sid seems went back to isometric 2D from SMAC -less than good- isometric 3D maps.

Forget zoom, rotation, first person point of view... what's already in will be on the CD Rom too, keep all others wishes for dreamland!

I think the game will sell on (hopefully) great playability and genial model, as the Civ Culture mentioned into the CGW preview, may be as the adding of Great Scientist / Leaders / Explorer / Traders / Artists, too.
Let's Firaxis work more on great game features, on game balancing and bug squashing. And don't forget they have to spend some hours reading our posts, studying The List as a Bible, and updating Web site...

I'll love to see someone smiling as a foul, posting only a bunch of minor game flaws. I'm sure he'll enjoy to have more time to spend playing the game than bashing Firaxis

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Admiral Naismith AKA mcostant

[yin26]

Yes, he would indeed.