Comments on: Desert Island Discoveries: Anno 1404 Demo

By: pkt-zer0

pkt-zer0 — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:33:53 +0000

Isn’t multiplayer supposed to be coming in the first expansion, or something? I don’t mind, I don’t really see much point in it in this sort of a game.

I do mind that the full version comes with 3 non-revocable activations. DRM DRM DRM

By: Oak

Oak — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:09:52 +0000

So what’s the end goal? I don’t quite get it.

What’s the end goal in SimCity, or The Sims? Outside of any you set for yourself (or a scenario sets for you), there isn’t one. In a city-builder, the means are the end, and the enjoyment comes from constructing, managing, and tweaking a world of your own design.

By: Alienstout

Alienstout — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:32:57 +0000

No multiplayer. God, how on Earth did this game make it out the door with MP missing? This is the same fiasco that happened with Anno 1503. Sure it says MP on the box – don’t look at it though, you’re not special enough to unlock that feature. Deeply disappointed by this because 1602 was a blast to play with the wife. Imagine that, 11 years ago they had MP but today…nah, it’s just too hard. Fuckers.

By: GregP

GregP — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:38:23 +0000

Gave it a try last night and wow, it really is gorgeous. I tried hard to get into Civ4 a while back but it just never “took” for me.

What I can’t figure out with this game is, what’s the point? It’s not turn-based, so I don’t feel like I’m trying to build my world up faster than my opponents by making better decisions, nor is it RTS, so I don’t feel like I’m rushing to just click faster than my opponents … in fact in the demo (granted, I only played the “continuous” part, not the campaign yet) I didn’t feel I had any opponent whatsoever. So what’s the end goal? I don’t quite get it.

By: Chris Evans

Chris Evans — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:36:36 +0000

Played the demo and really enjoyed it, did the two campaign missions and the open world mission until I hit the time limit. It seems very fun, haven’t played a city builder since Civ III/Zeus etc. though mainly it was my sister who played them.

Downloading 1701 on Steam now to tide me over until this one is out :D

By: pkt-zer0

pkt-zer0 — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 11:52:19 +0000

The UK demo had a TagesClient.exe in its folder, so it doesn’t seem all that unlikely.

Anyhow, as for the demo itself, it’s really quite amazing. The amount of pointless detail is impressive. Hit the time and building limit (you can’t build a tavern, which you’d need to advance to lv. 3), and didn’t figure out how to earn prestige with the Orient so I could build nomad buildings, but it was fun while it lasted.

As for the “kiddie” version, its prequel on the DS was supposedly pretty good, and with the new one being even better, it might be an excellent portable Settlers alternative.

By: Vinraith

Vinraith — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:51:07 +0000

I hear the US retail release of this is going to be saddled with a version of Tages DRM that allows only three installations (with no revocations, no less). Can anyone confirm that? Is the Euro-release saddled with the same?

I love the Anno series and would hate not to be able to buy this because of DRM nonsense.

By: MikeBiggs

MikeBiggs — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:16:23 +0000

I played the demo a few times and am really liking it. I’m just hoping that the final release will have more efficient code! Even after turning many settings down it ran quite clunkily for me. Maybe time for an upgrade :D

By: Ape

Ape — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:27:36 +0000

psyk , the benchmarker is rubbish. I was disappointed with the way the game looked. the bench marker put my settings very low. I cranked the settings up to Max and it looked lovely & played fine.

jarvoll, I’m stuck in Oz too and it sucks all the time.

I enjoyed the game though the fickle, difficult to please peasants of Ceasar III put me off these sorts of games years ago. You just can’t please some people. Seriously, it looked great & was sort of relaxing somehow.

Ape

By: RogB

RogB — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:27:24 +0000

It might be wrong, but I like the look of the Wii one.. (the shame). not the shoddy res or mickey mouse pointer, but the chunky colourful style.
PC one still looks ace in a different way, mind..

By: ulix

ulix — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:17:22 +0000

Or:
2 Hemp fields
1 taylor

By: ulix

ulix — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:17:00 +0000

Important information for Anno newcomers:

Farming normally works like this:
2 Farms, 1 building for further processing
or 4 farms, 2 buildings for further processing, and 1 mor building for even further porcessing.

An example from older games:
4 wheet fields
2 windmills
1 bakery