Guild - Universe

[El_Cid]

http://www.gamerankings.com/itemrankings/launchreview.asp?reviewid=922464

That is the only review I can find on this compilation. I bought it last weekend for £15 from my local store. Anyway it is a box set of:

1. Europa 1400 - The Guild(the first guild game)
2. Europa 1400 - The Guild expansion pack
3. The Guild 2
4. The Guild 2 - Pirates of the European Seas

I was interested in the game when I first heard about it, but all the bugs put me off buying it. This seems like a good deal if you never got into the series and like the idea of a medieval 'build everything' kind of game.

Anyway I haven't started to play it yet, I'm keeping it as a 'reward' for next month! So anyone play these games? What can I expect from them and which are the ones worth playing?

I get the feeling this is a game that many people missed so it would be interesting to hear people experiences about it. It seems to offer a lot of game for your £15?

EDIT: oh and does anyone know if it has nasty DRM(like secuRom etc)? my post in the 'EA DRM' thread just made me think of this!!!

[El_Cid]

Well I've only been able to find really vague info about the copy protection used in the The Guild - Universe:

http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3192

What may be interesting for people to know is that all the 'Universe' re-releases from JoWood will not have nasty DRM according to this rumour. So that includes the Gothic series etc.

I wont be able to confirm what some have stated in that thread(on Gothic Universe), about not needing the DVD in the drive once installed, until next month when I will start playing The Guild.

But if the rumours are true and you are after a deep complex PC type of game, both The Guild and Gothic may be worth putting on your lists. The problems of bad crashes + bugs that stopped me getting into these games when they came out seem to have been addressed in the expansions that come in the Universe packs.

It's worth noteing in The Guild Universe that you shouldn't use the stand alone patches(they are included in the expansions anyway), as this can cause 'disk not recognised' errors due to the SecuRom protection on these stand alone patches NOT finding SecuRom on the Universe editions! I've seen a few people in threads talk on this problem.

Still it's worrying when even the main website for these games(JoWood) does not even have specific threads for these 'Universe' re-releases!:

http://forum.jowood.com/index.php?

Proceed with some caution and I'll give a full up-date on the state of The Guild Universe in a few weeks

[El_Cid]

Just me then darn I was hoping for some secret info on these games.....the official forums are very messy.

Ok so I will tell all I find in a fortnight. I think the original Europa 1400 game(+the expansion) is the better of the Guild games, although I see people talk about a big fan mod for The Guild 2 - that is meant to be excellent, but well it doesn't work with the expansion for Guild 2 and you can really get lost(and make a mess of your exe) with all the modding side to Guild 2 it seems.

Morrowind was quite mod 'hard core' enough for me. So I'll play these as they come in the pack and report what I find - hopefully a deep complex medieval sim, along the lines of a better Patrician type of game? we shall see