City building games

[kbt]

Impressions games used to come up up with really good city building games such as Caesar III and Pharaoh. Does anyone know if this company even still exists? Are the working on any new titles? I would really like to see a new city building game in this same genre.

[Nikolai]

Caesar III... Those were the days! When you mention it, I haven't heard any more of them after the China game they were making a long time ago. It might of course just be the fact that I'm more attentive to other things of course...

[Alex]

According to this Wikipedia article, Impressions Games is now defunct.

Impressions Games was a computer game development studio founded by David Lester (currently of Firefly Studios), in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He sold the company to Sierra Entertainment, who was then bought out by Cendant and eventually, Vivendi Universal Games.

Impressions specialized in historical strategy games, and is most well-known for its City Building Series, which included the Caesar, Pharaoh, and Zeus.

Mike Ryder, former president of Sierra Entertainment, forced a change in management in October of 2001, during development of Lords of the Realm III. Rod Nakamoto was installed as the new director. Lords III became Impressions's final game, and was released to mediocre reviews in March of 2004.

The studio was shut down in April 2004 when Vivendi Universal Games closed most of their game development studios. Many members of the studio moved on to form Tilted Mill Entertainment.

Former notable employees of Impressions include Chris Beatrice and Peter Haffenreffer, co-founders of Tilted Mill Entertainment.

[Alex]

I have Caesar III but never installed it... bought it a few months ago. Is it really good?

[Nikolai]

It's old and might be outdated in some areas, I haven't played it in a long time, but I certainly had lots of lots of fun with it when I got it years ago.

[Urban Ranger]

Caesar III isn't so hot. I bought the game though I only played it for about 10 hours before removing it.

[Jon Miller]

I played a bit of Ceaser number 1

JM

[lord of the mark]

i enjoyed Caesar 3. Its alot of fun, though at the highest levels you have to be really exact with street layouts to win, and ends up less of that freeform city builder goodness. Not that i ever beat the higher levels, but thats what folks say.

Of course after that they did several others in different settings- Pharoah, Zeus.

As Alex says, they folded, but most of the talent went to a new firm, Tilted Mill.

Which recently released Children of the Nile, which is said to be a rather different kind of city builder, and very good.

[General Ludd]

What about After Life?


I wanted to get that when I was a kid, but never did... I've always been curious about what I missed.

[Japher]

I played and still have Caesar 2. Apart from Caesar and SimCity are there any others?

[Carolus Rex]

Originally posted by Alex

I have Caesar III but never installed it... bought it a few months ago. Is it really good?

I like it a lot! The prices you can pick it up for today (in Sweden it costs 50 kronor, which is about 5 euros)...

Since you already have it, try it! The one thing I don't like/understand is how markets function... You need to feed your population... Markets distribute the food and wine you have cultivated/traded for, but exactly how has always been a mystery to me...

You have to build them so they cover all houses and at the same time do not have too far to warehouses (where the goods are stocked)... Markets' "range" is an unknown parameter to me... So I always end up building too many...

Other than that, it has great addiction potential!

Carolus

[Adagio]

Originally posted by General Ludd
What about After Life?

I played it for some hours but it didn't catch on. I don't remember exactly what was wrong with it. IIRC it was released after SimCity 2k, but it's graphics was much worse (as in SMAC graphics compared to Civ)... or at least that's what I remember... maybe I should try it again, I do have the cd somewhere around the house

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Caesar III isn't so hot. I bought the game though I only played it for about 10 hours before removing it.

Yes, but you are slightly odd, you have to admit.

[Jon Miller]

there was outpost or something like that

it never quite worked right

JM

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Yes, but you are slightly odd, you have to admit.

Rats, where's that smilie when you need it?

I didn't like the way everything has a radius in the game, but the software doesn't show you any of those. It's the same complaint against Tropico, except that latter is a bit more fun.