Re: OT: Starcraft II and Elemental
 

Eador looks very cool - with soul, in fact! I second the motion for an english version for us lazy Yankees. :)

Re: OT: Starcraft II and Elemental
 

Eador_1.04.1_full.exe is a patch to 1.04.1 from any version. I think you need http://files.games.1c.ru/eador/demo/...demo_setup.exe

Re: OT: Starcraft II and Elemental
 

Maybe that's my problem Folket, I've been playing on normal. I'll try to go back to it on Brutal and see if my impressions change.

Re: OT: Starcraft II and Elemental
 

Eador screenshots look nice. Pity it's Russsian-only.

Re: OT: Starcraft II and Elemental
 

And I agree about the cut scenes. I never like the though cowboy style. Also all men except Matt and the news reporter looks like mutants.

But I like to look at the news after the missions.

Re: OT: Starcraft II and Elemental
 

Dude, I knew that there's a deep relationship of music and math, one of our emeriti profs recently published a book on this, but I had no idea about all that jazz...

After hearing the podcast at http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/lehmantod...that_jazz.html I've been taking a look at the lesson plans at
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/mus...plan/4851.html and http://www.teachervision.fen.com/mus...plan/4862.html
and now I'm seeing this with new eyes. Those that made it through all this might even take the Jazz exam if they dare.

Re: OT: Starcraft II and Elemental
 

Basically it goes like this for the sc2-campaign:

Casual: The enemy doesn't really build units and have half health compared to you.
Normal: Same AI as casual but normal health.
Hard: The enemy actually builds stuff, if you want a decent challenge this is the right difficulty level.
Brutal: Ohmygodwhydotheykeepcoming?!?

There's plenty of stuff that annoys me in the campaign (like kerrigan going from a pretty good villain in BW to... a whiny nihilist? And the most drawn-out Fox News-joke in history.), but it's good enough that you won't get bored if you play on hard.

Re: OT: Starcraft II and Elemental
 

Yeah, so far in the campaign, the in-between missions are silly and meh, but the gameplay is very interesting for the most part, so I appreciate that. Sounds like I need to up the difficulty from "normal" though, haha.

Re: OT: Starcraft II and Elemental
 

I also found that perfect, although Ich has a point.

I also agree with Foodstamp about Elemental, which has actually gone gold last week. There are not very many things I enjoy about it, but that could change after release. Currently, I think it will be a fun thing to play with for people who love modding; since I do not, I feel a bit left out. It "feels" like CivIV with bland tactical battles, and the technology innovations are still grouped into GC2-like "trees" or clusters that are all thematically related (e.g. Adventure, Diplomacy, Warfare, Civilization, Magic), it smacks too much of Lasers, Shields, and Diplomacy. The combat side of things is also currently underdeveloped. In general, there is also a great reliance on "Random House" (the company) to write wonderful things in terms of in-game texts -- not actual people, mind you, but the corporation itself is always personalized, as if they would deficate gold. But the hard core of the fan-base seems vitally, almost rabidly pleased, so that there are sure to be many people who are more than happy. Constructive criticism is not always welcome. Where I do have great hopes, however, is for the AI; I think Brad Wardell always does more than his share in that department, and I am sure that we will see strong new developments there before release and afterwards as well.

I don't find myself terribly excited about it now, and the current Beta, two weeks before release, is not a treat to play, although it will run on my laptop quite nicely.

I have heard very mixed things about Sword of the Stars. Are there many people here who enjoy it greatly?

Re: OT: Starcraft II and Elemental
 

Sword of the Stars is on my ToPlay list, right after completing HoMM V's (annoying) campaign, Warhammer mark of Chaos and Discipless III, so at the rate I'm going I'll get to it in a few years, or never ;)

I recently purchased Discipless III and played a bit with it. Its quite pleasing to the eyes (gfx) and ears (music is cool, voice over is bad). Quite shallow tactically and strategically but fun in a, I'm too tired to actually think, kind of way.

All the bits and pieces I hear about elemental point to a dissapointing release. I think I'll stay on the fence for a while longer before trying it.