OT_ MOO3

[Baron Munchausen]

It looks like Moo3 is in trouble. The deadline for going Gold if they want to make the public release date of 'Q3' is upon us and there has been no further word, either official admission of further deadline slippage or reassurances of intent to make the deadline through some extra-ordinary measures. This quiet 'sliding by' has upset the community on the official forum and several threads have sprouted up complaining. Meanwhile, a new preview on gamers.com calls the current state of Moo3 'lackluster', meaning it is not anything noticably different from many other 4X games we've already seen. Given that there is no time left to perform any major re-design it looks like a 'public beta' cycle is the only thing that can save Moo3.

On the other hand, Civ III has had Yet Another Patch issued over the summer and rumours are now flying that an expansion pack featuring multi-player ability and other goodies will be released in October. The latest patch adds 8 new civilizations, let alone fixing various bugs and adjusting game-balance features. If this is the 'patch' then the expansion pack should be awesome. It looks like Civ III is finally worth acquiring, and it's what? Almost a full year after official release? Yep... So keep this in mind as Moo3 gets shoved half-baked out the door like some teenager being forced to go to school in the early morning. It may take a while to wake-up, but Moo3 it not necessarily as stupid as it will look on first impression. We can look forward to the 'real' Moo3 next fall.

[AJC]

from what I've read they went back to into the game and removed alot of things they thought were making it too micromanaging. They were basically redesigning some of it and thought the release date would slide a bit.

[Fyron]

On the other hand, Civ III has had Yet Another Patch issued over the summer... The latest patch adds 8 new civilizations...

Huh? I just got the latest patch, and started Civ III up. I didn't see any new civs.

[Lemmy]

regarding civ3, the 8 civs are only for the expansion pack, not in the patch.
AFAIK the patch only fixes some bugs, and completes the editor.

[sachmo]

It's gonna suck! Too bad people will still buy it...

[Baron Munchausen]

Well, I don't actually have Civ III yet, so I must have mis-remembered. If it's the expansion pack that has the 8 new civilizations that's fine. I'll be buying Civ III soon, and maybe I can buy a package deal with both Civ III and the expansion pack in a single purchase.

Sachmo, you think MOO 3 will suck? I think it'll be 'MOO 2.5' as some have been calling it -- not much of a real change in design or play from past 4X games -- but having what is essentially original MOO (it is more like original MOO than MOO II) with updated art and some new wrinkles to the game is not a bad thing.

[Fyron]

BM, Civ3 is definitely not worth paying more than maybe $20 for (including the expansion pack).