Rating: 
Summary: Easily one of the best games ever
Review: First of all this is probably the most addicting game I've ever played. The best feature of the game is the AI. Teaching your creature different things is a blast and there doesn't seem to be an end to the things he can learn. Also, the freedom you have is awesome. You can be evil or good, or somewhere in between, and your creature reflects your alignment by his appearance. It has a great storyline which separates it from most real time strategy games. Rather than just building up your civilization there are mini quests along the way, which you don't have to accept at all. There are a million ways you can complete them as well...for example you could help a woman find her sick husband and she'll give you a magic stone, or you could just trash her house and take it. Gameplay is easy to learn and there are no lame interfaces with a million icons. Beautiful graphics and sound. Definately a must buy for fans of any genre... Some say its hard to control... Whats so hard about pointing and clicking? The zoom and rotate takes practice, but not much...And finding your creature isn't hard just press "c."...Anyway, thanks a lot to all the designers for taking gaming to a new level
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely breathtaking even with its flaws
Review: More than three years in the making, this could very well be the most highly-anticipated videogame in history. And as people like myself continued to wait for so long, the inevitable question was: would this game actually live up to what was promised? Or would it fall into the same trap as "Star Wars Episode 1" and be so hyped up that it could never possibly hope to live up to the impossibly high standards set for it?Just to be safe, I was sure to purchase my copy at a store which I knew for a fact would allow me to get my money back if I wasn't satisfied, so I had nothing to lose here. Incredibly, Black and White not only lives up to the standards set for it but surpasses them on several levels. There are some complaints which I'll mention out of fairness, but they simply can't detract from this game's sense of wonder. As the basic idea of it has been described over and over again so many times I'm positive I don't have to go into detail about any of that. So I'll simply concentrate on the gameplay itself. It's so overloaded with information that you are guaranteed to feel overwhelmed the first time you play it, so don't expect to be able to sit down and have mastered its controls in an hour or so. This puppy demands complete commitment. This is Peter Molyneux's programming equivalent of a movie masterpiece: this is his "Gone With The Wind", his "Titanic", his "Star Wars", his ultimate defining moment in entertainment history. Even if he did nothing else, this title would instantly earn him his current position in the industry. The possibilities are endless and the AI is far more amazing that you could have ever hoped. The sheer fantastic thrill you will get from Black and White is beyond description as the title provides a wonderful change of pace for mature strategy gamers starved for thought and genuine emotion to be brought back into gaming. Now let's all get out there and whoop it up for Molyneux and his creating the work of a lifetime! Ok, now that I've said my praise for the game...and believe me, I adore it...I now have to be fair and mention the negatives, which unfortunately keep this masterpiece from getting a full five-star rating. First of all, the controls are extremely frustrating to learn at first and definitely take getting used to. Fortunately, you have the option of reprogramming everything to your own personal liking controlwise, so that isn't anywhere near as much as a problem as it would be in other games. Second, there are some extra promised gems that didn't make it into the finished product, such as the ability to play your favorite CDs for your titan so he can dance to them, but Lionhead Studios has promised to bring more and more downloadable additions to the game each month so that isn't a problem either. They could literally continue to keep building this game forever, and that's certainly a plus for all concerned. Also, I would be enjoying this game a lot more if it weren't for the technical glitches I've encountered during my time spent with it. I had to uninstall and re-install the game some five times before it began cooperating with me, and even then the opening animation sequences refused to cooperate even though the rest of the game played just fine. During gameplay itself, the only problem in the graphics I have encountered occur in your citadel, in which the animation sequences showing you moving from room to room are just as uncooperative as the opening portions. After a sequence involving a lion teaching my titan how to fight, it would inexplicably dump me back on to my desktop, leaving me to retry the section some three times and finally getting the program to save so I could continue properly. Also many of the options and settings in the game when set, such as graphics resolution and the creature help feature and even the opening sequence that shows a group of stars that are supposed to morph into your player symbol with your name under it, would only operate at random times of play and have no guarantee to work. One added feature that comes with the game (the ability to upload a webpage that your titan designs himself) didn't work at all. I hope that this can all be eventually repaired with patches in the future because the game itself is basically a lot of fun.
Rating: 
Summary: Black & White...
Review: When I originally reviewed this I gave it more stars. That was because this game is very original, and quite fun for a short period of time. The graphics are excellent, as well as the various depictions of one's pet. That said, the fun is rather short-lived. The game progresses much too slowly and it really becomes a 3d version of a "pocket pet" or whatever those things are called. I don't think it's worth the time or money with so many other more enjoyable time wasters available.
Rating:
Summary: Wow.... What a fun game.
Review: OK, first off, B&W is a great great game. Anyone who likes The Sims (sorry to make the comparision, but there is a lot in common) will like this, and many people who didn't like The Sims will still like this. I'd like to reply to something another reviewer said, in a few mistakes he said. He said there was a runtime error and it crashed, and his AutoSave was gone. Well, this same thing happened to me (and I'm looking for a patch for it), but your autosave is NOT GONE. He just doesn't know where to find it (go into the temple, save game room, the top row of saves). This can't-continue-the-game bug is why I gave it 4 stars and not 5. He also said that it's all mission-based, etc. That is NOT TRUE. It is only mission-based on the first island (which he didn't get past because of the bug), because the first island is a tutorial island, teaching you how to play. It becomes much more open-ended after that. Anyway, it's a great game, now I just have to find a patch...
Rating:
Summary: Amazing game.....just one small thing...
Review: This game is absolutely amazing. The graphics are some of the best I have seen too. This game is kinda hard to drscribe, but imagine your playing populous, creatures, sims and C&C all at the same time. There is no way to describe it and it is totally addicting. It had both online and offline single mode play and both are extremely fun. My only complaint is that there is like 5 single player levels and only 3 multiplayer levels. This seems really short to me, but let me also state that it will take you around 10 hours for some of the levels if you try and complete all the quests. Not to mention the makers of this game will most likely release new level and creatures as time goes on. Buy this game now so you can be part of the first truely groundbreaking title since well...ever.....
Rating: 
Summary: Revolutionary? yes! Fun? well.....
Review: Black & White is, without doubt, the most beautiful game I have ever seen. The graphics are stunning and the "cut scenes" are gorgeous. The basic premise and storyline is original and engaging. The character AI is very sophisticated. The interface/control system IS a tad awkward and takes some getting used to, but once you're comfortable with it, it's actually kinda cool. HOWEVER...... ... it's not fun. It's really quite tedious. The whole of the game is simply a endless routine of repetitive tasks. To "conquer" villages you perform miracles for the villagers until they believe in you... HUNDREDS of miracles.. and THEN once they believe in you, you still have to perform endless miracles so that they continue to believe in you. And these miracles require worshippers to "power" them. Which requires more villagers, which requires more miracles! The whole game becomes a never-ending spiral of performing miracles to appease the villagers so that you can perform miracles to get more villagers which require still more miracles ... and on and on. In any Role Playing game where you have to "level" up a character, there is inherently a lot of "busy work" ie. going out to the forest and killing countless beasties to earn XP, etc etc. Black & White is NOTHING BUT BUSY WORK! and at the end of it, all you have to show for it is a cow/monkey/lion/pig/whatever that knows where it should and shouldn't poop! (maybe! I've still not figured out to keep it from eating people!) If you like The Sims, you will love this game. It is the same boring tedium in a much prettier package. P.S. Am I the only one who feels geniunely insulted when companies "spam" the ratings before a game even comes out, so the initial ratings are really high? The first 20 or so ratings on this forum are so clearly the product of the EA Marketing Department that it should be an embarrassement!
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Potential Not Fully Realized
Review: Black and White is a game that has been long-awaited in the computer gaming community, hailed as a groundbreaker in a new genre of games. It is difficult to peg a genre on this game because it is so unlike any other game I have played. The premise of the game has you playing a "god" whose mission is to get followers. You can choose to be good or evil, can choose to play the game in a linear way or not, and you have a mascot who does your bidding and is the persona for your god to the people. There is great fun in the game in the thought to the details, the beautifully rendered 3D environment, voice acting and creative choices presented to the player. It does have the potential to revolutionize, or at the very least, energize the copmuter games industry in a similar way to the release of EA's "The SIMS" last year. On the negative side, this wonderful game is marred by significant technical shortfalls. If you go to the...site, you will see a message posted by Lionhead games' technical support people claiming that the game in stores was "Not" a beta release of the product. I thought this was odd until I began playing myself; now I understand the source of the purported rumors that it was a beta release. If you peruse the EA message boards, you will see numerous accounts of save game lockups and crashes in a fairly predictable way, across several platforms. I am experiencing this as well at the moment without resolution. If EA can respond quickly and issue a patch which addresses this problem, or if you are a person who enjoys troubleshooting hardware/software issues, it will be a wonderful addition to any game library. For myself, I wish I had waited for the next update release. Resolve the technical issues, and this is a five-star game, hands-down.
Rating: 
Summary: I took it back.....
Review: They said this game would be groundbreaking. I wouldn't say ground breaking, I would say wristbreaking. There are plenty of virtual pets and quite frankly, I didn't see the pet do anything that wasn't a set feature. He didn't "learn" IMO, you just trigger a set of listed features. Also, his learning is quite simplistic and simple things that should be self rewarding such as sleeping, eating and drinking shouldn't have to be retaught IMO. The RTS portion of the game is lacking. The resource balance, selection of buildings, simplistic and tedious villager job assignment are better done in other games with more options and less micromanagement. The terrain graphics were nice, I have to admit, and the free form zoom is something I am looking forward to in future titles but with a better interface. The interface, while usable, is carpal tunnel hell IMO. Other games do a better job of scrolling, rotating etc. The puzzles were pretty much found in any other "myst" genre game and completely detract from the game IMO. The trees puzzle comes to mind. The singing rocks puzzle is not really a matter of intellect but how well your sound card can reproduce the tones and how well you link the tones together. I didn't like Simon and I don't like the sound games because my music ear isn't that great and I didn't buy this game for a Simon type game. Follow the Yogi is pretty retarded, I mean really. The "open-ended" portion of the game is just simply a lie. Its one big script that regardless of how you do things, you have to follow the script. The gold scrolls pretty much are a big clue that there isn't really a big variety here. For instance, no matter good, evil neutral, no matter how well or badly you do, your creature will be taken at the end of level 2. Being good vs being evil is a no-brainer. It isn't a hard choice if you want to actually enjoy the game because being good offers no extra rewards over being evil, on the contrary, by being evil, you can do good and evil, so there is a total game imbalance there that will manifest itself early in Multiplay games. Where is the gathering? I read early in a gamespot article that the developers almost had the gathering portion complete and this article was like #5 out of 13. I think the problem with the gathering, as with the multiplayer competitive play, is that creatures are going to be pretty much the same and then you will truly realize that the AI isn't anything special, just a continuation of a scripted story. The multiplayer version of the game is simply a boulder toss. If you try to be a good god here, you are going to lose, its that simple. And whoever had the harebrained notion that taking a single player creature into a multiplayer game needs to be shot. How is it going to be balanced when your new creature is battling a 100 year old behometh? It wont be. Not to mention that in order to have a decent animal, you need to practice using the single player game which I have outlined above, is quite monotonous. God forbid you have to start over and go through the tutorial YET ONCE AGAIN! Just the thought of going through that two hour tutorial again because I maybe would want to start a new critter sends me screaming with insanity. I learned something. Go browse the web and look for reviews of Black and White. There aren't many. There are a ton of previews and every one of them reflect the "wow" portion when we all booted up the game. What is also reflected is that developers are doing more to please the reviewers by adding eye candy, interfaces that are "unique" and sacrificing gameplay IMO. The best games on the market are those that have no pre-release Hype such as Kohan and Sudden Strike. Sure, every game has problems but a game should have solid gameplay so that when the eye candy wears off, you are still left with something that can entertain you. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe the public wants eye candy. This is the Era of little substance, lots of eye candy. People would rather watch TV than read a book it seems. Here are some quotes from the EA board where you can buy the game: You play the role of a deity in a land where the surroundings are yours to shape Has anyone learned how to shape the surroundings? I sure didn't see that portion. Progress through the game's rich storyline ... Sorry, but if that is a rich storyline, then the people who write for the National Enquirer are up for Pulitzers, at least they know how to entertain. battle other deities and become the world's supreme god. *shrug* Never really saw that portion of the game. I really wanted this game to be more open ended, drop the stupid puzzle quests, let the player make the story, add more conflict that is meaningful, reduce the amount of tedious micromanagement and simply give the player more options. And for those of you who say, shutup, quit whining I can only say grow up. I am sure that there are people who love black and white and for that, kudos. But for me, its just a bad rehash of several genres. The only groundbreaking thing about this game is the lengths to which publishers will go to hype a game and release it too early. But we all know that EA has never done that before, right? *cough* ultima ix *cough* herder.
Rating:
Summary: Great Strategy Game w/ Loads of Options
Review: When I first popped the CD in, I was blown away by the graphics and the complete freedom of movement. The setting is in a close to Myst-like environment in which you can zoom endlessly, move freely, and circle about something with ease. As a god, your goal is to get everyone to believe in you. Many try to do this by doing good things like providing miracles. But what makes the game great is the options it gives you. If a villager wants something, you can provide it to him/her, or you can do something evil so they won't need it. Either way, you will obtain believers (they will believe in you because you did something good, or they will see your true power of destruction and believe in you). I enjoy picking villagers up and throwing them to get believers, but you can do what you want. You have the ability to take over villages other than your own (you need to in order to progress as a god). You can do so by being good, or you can throw fireballs at the village so that there are fewer villagers to convince. Through this all, you have a creature (3 extra creatures available from gamespot.com). You can use this creature to do your bidding and increase your power. This is where the games great feature comes through. The AI is great. You can teach the creature virtually anything (to go to the bathroom in certain areas, to eat certain things, to eat people, to create miracles for people, to throw rocks at other villages, etc). You teach him by hitting him if he does something wrong and petting him if he does something you want. As the creature grows, he becomes more powerful and begins to reflect his allignment (he looks mean if he is evil, pleasant if he is good). The game is a blend of AOE and a Tomagotchi. The graphics are unsurpassed, the sound quality is great, and every aspect of the gameplay is good. I highly recommend this game to anyone as long as they have a social life to spare for a few months :)
Rating:
Summary: DO NOT buy this game if you have GEFORCE 2 MX vid card
Review: There is a bug with the software such that if you try to run the game in Win2000 and you have a Geforce 2 video card, you will see a splash screen, then it will return to the desktop without starting the game. I spent an hour on the phone (long distance) with Tech Support, and as of April 2001 there is no solution. I'm sure the game is a lot of fun, but I never got the chance to play it.
| 
