Rating: 
Summary: Alpha Centauri Rocks
Review: If anyone has played Civ I/II and liked it, you'll love this game. The game play is long and involved but it's a great excuse to build up your military and start fights with the other factions.If you want to get started with this game, here are some helpful hints (playing University): Get Packs/Treaties with everyone at first, keeps them off your back.
Build forest practically everywhere.
Build formers and at least 2 other colony pods.
Now go to the game's folder, and replace the paragraph in UNIV.txt with this one: University of Planet, The Scientist, University, M, 1, Zakharov, M, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0,
TECH, InfNet, TECH, DocLoy, TECH, 36, MORALE, 100, PSI, 200, SOCIAL, +++RESEARCH, SOCIAL, ++++EFFIC, SOCIAL, ++++GROWTH, IMMUNITY, EFFIC, INTEREST, 50, DRONE, 16, FACILITY, 8, FACILITY, 4, UNIT, 0, UNIT, 1, TECHCOST, 1, VOTES, 50, HURRY, 1, FANATIC, FREEPROTO, COMMERCE, TALENT You'll be able to build anything for about 3 credits or less. Get all your research by 100 years, win planetary governer (haven't found a way to lose it yet) and never run out of money. Your growth is off the scale as well as your defensive capabilities against everything (a Lv1 foot soldier can take out a moderately guarded base). It's a great way to view the game in a hurry and not miss out on too much of the indepth world of Alpha Centauri. Just remember to edit the file before starting the game and download the demo at gamespot.com or gamesdomain.com to try it out before you buy. There's a 100yr/turn limit though so get the full version right here if you like it!
Rating:
Summary: The original sequel to Civilization 2
Review: If you ever played Civil 2 you might have built a huge empire and launched your spaceship to colonize Alpha Centauri... but what happened next???
This game is the sequel of the award winning game Civilization 2 and starts where the other ended.
The spacechip desintegrates before the arrival in Alpha C. and the colonists are disgregated all over the planet.
You can choose any of the surviving group of colonists to found your base and start building your new civilization.
Each of the groups or "tribes" has their own peculiarities: warrior, scientific, diplomatic, etc... The game is pretty much the same as Civilization 2 regarding building cities and colonizing the world but brings some features within that will later be available in Civilization 3 such as diplomatic victory for instance. Plus the possibility of customizing your units. I really recommend it and assure hours of fun and joy.
Rating:
Summary: strategy and resources management for fun
Review: If you're looking for quick gratification, look elsewhere. But
if you want a game you'll still play years after you bought it,
Alpha Centauri (and its expansion pack, Alien Crossfire) is your
ticket. It's easy to be put off initially by the complexity
that this game can provide, especially if you are new to this
style of strategy; but with the same software you can play games
as different as your imagination allows. Multiple victory
conditions (destroy all you enemies, or be elected as supreme
leader, or become the economic tyrant, or transcend to a higher
existence . . .); civilization ratings in technology, industrial
production, ecological savvy, wealth building, social
engineering and more; factions with built-in likes and dislikes
and many more nuances create a life-like simulation game.
To give an idea of the subtlety you will need to manage,
consider that you may want to renounce some higher ratings for
your civilization to maintain a strategic alliance with
a party that dislikes certain types of advancements and
thereby defeat a common, but stronger, enemy threat. I'm now
having as much fun trying to lead to victory some of the
weaker factions as I had years ago trouncing everybody
when running a strong civ at an easy difficulty level.
Mastering the game requires years, and be prepared for
games that will last months. There is nothing like
Alpha Centauri except perhaps the forthcoming Civilization III.
Rating:
Summary: Finally... better graphics!
Review: In one word, excellent. Easily worth at least double the price. One of the best games ever; far outdoing its predecessors (Civilization, Civilization II), and even (loosely) continuing the storyline of CIV2. --
Definitely recommended.
Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest ever and still a contender.
Review: It still surprises me how many fans of the Civilization series missed out on this one. Created by Sid Meier, a legend in the computer gaming and also the creator of the aforementioned Civilization games, this game reached a zenith that few video games ever dream of reaching. It's funny, but Civ 3 is actually a throw-back when compared to Alpha. I've played a lot of strategy games, both real-time and turn based, and Alpha Centauri reigns supreme for replayability. There's so much going on with all the different advances, secret projects, customizable units and the like that you can play it over and over again and never get bored with it. One of the things that bothers me about Civ 3 is the total lack of a multiplayer element. After playing Alpha for a couple of years, I was certain that Civ 3 would use all those ground-breaking multi-player features like an in-game voice chat (no third party software necessary) modem to modem gaming and even a play by e-mail. No such luck. After buying Civ 3 and playing it for a month, my friends and I went right back to Alpha. Alpha also has something else that Civ 3 doesn't: an extremely good story. The ongoing battle between the different factions is eventually eclipsed by the restlessness of the sentient planet they'd come to call home. There are several paths to victory, the easiest being conquest and the most difficult being transcendence. What other game will you ever play where the ultimate goal is to reach a higher plane of consciousness and even a form of omnipotence? Alpha is the most sophisticated and intelligent game I've ever played but it can be as simple as the player desires. Ultimately this is a game about humanity, who we are, what makes us tick and the meaning of life, or at least how we perceive it. That's a pretty bold theme for a video game. After you've played it once, you'll find that every game after will peel back another layer of the game to reveal a new depth and intricacy. Now that the price of this game is in the single digits there's no reason for you not to own it. It's the Citizen Kane of video games and ages like wine. In a field where faster and stronger pushes the envelope over creativity I can't think of another game I can say that about.
Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest ever and still a contender.
Review: It still surprises me how many fans of the Civilization series missed out on this one. Created by Sid Meier, a legend in the computer gaming and also the creator of the aforementioned Civilization games, this game reached a zenith that few video games ever dream of reaching. It's funny, but Civ 3 is actually a throw-back when compared to Alpha. I've played a lot of strategy games, both real-time and turn based, and Alpha Centauri reigns supreme for replayability. There's so much going on with all the different advances, secret projects, customizable units and the like that you can play it over and over again and never get bored with it. One of the things that bothers me about Civ 3 is the total lack of a multiplayer element. After playing Alpha for a couple of years, I was certain that Civ 3 would use all those ground-breaking multi-player features like an in-game voice chat (no third party software necessary) modem to modem gaming and even a play by e-mail. No such luck. After buying Civ 3 and playing it for a month, my friends and I went right back to Alpha. Alpha also has something else that Civ 3 doesn't: an extremely good story. The ongoing battle between the different factions is eventually eclipsed by the restlessness of the sentient planet they'd come to call home. There are several paths to victory, the easiest being conquest and the most difficult being transcendence. What other game will you ever play where the ultimate goal is to reach a higher plane of consciousness and even a form of omnipotence? Alpha is the most sophisticated and intelligent game I've ever played but it can be as simple as the player desires. Ultimately this is a game about humanity, who we are, what makes us tick and the meaning of life, or at least how we perceive it. That's a pretty bold theme for a video game. After you've played it once, you'll find that every game after will peel back another layer of the game to reveal a new depth and intricacy. Now that the price of this game is in the single digits there's no reason for you not to own it. It's the Citizen Kane of video games and ages like wine. In a field where faster and stronger pushes the envelope over creativity I can't think of another game I can say that about.
Rating:
Summary: comparison to Civilization 2
Review: Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is a fun game. The AI is good and the graphics are good for its time. The story line is a little bit choppy but I think it is better than Civilization 2. First of all you can automate all your units not just the setterlers, The computer interacts more with you, and there is a great diversity amung land sea and air units. The barbariens have been replaced with native life, and the native plants can be harmful. There are random events (volcanos, sun spot activites.ect) and it is sometimes hard to predict what the computer will do next. I have read in other reveiws that the game gets boring after a while, that may be true, but there are several ways to win the game. I find that if I play and then dont play for a while I still find the game fun. Multiplayer games are some of the best games to play, but the computer is still a good opponent. If you get bored with the current AI setup you can randomize there personalities. This game is definatly superior to Civilizaton 2
Rating:
Summary: If only days and nights were longer..
Review: so I could play this masterpiece more often! When I ended my long and profound relationship with civ2, having attained one
of the first monster scores on the net, I thought that nothing would ever come close to the feeling I got out of diving deep
into the perplexity of Sid Mayer's classic.
I bought AC out of curiosity. I first went through the manual. Magic! I then started studying the game. More magic!
The offspring of the Mayer-Reynolds collaboration was nothing short of miraculous. The game had all the stengths of civ2 and none of its weaknesses! Micromanagement was introduced abolishing the tedious bits of civ. Customizing land,sea&air units was an absolute killer. The sound was smooth as silk.The overall display was devine.
And then it was the concept... That game's concept could easily stand alone as a great read in the sci-fi bookmarket.
Making some very simple changes in the text files such as city names, gender, quotes etc. the player can personalize a faction and actually become part of the story; and what a beautiful story it is. The living planet, the fantastic future science tree along with its mind-twisting excerpts from the "datalinks", a word that inevidably sends one back,momentarily, to the haunting intro movie, the combination of socio-political models producing incredibly unusual types of goverment, the eery peace emanating from the alien atmosphere... No matter how violent your strategy may be, the nature of the game is such that it will eventually force you to think more, kill less and try harder.
All of the above and much more will be experienced to their full extent ONLY by those who will invest time and effort in getting to know all the subtleties of this hard-to-master gem and not by those who think that they know the game because,after a few reloads, they finally managed to win at deity level.
Finishing this well deserved encomium I would like to point out the only flaw I found in AC. That is the use of a single
wav. file for all hand-held/turret mounted weapons regardless of class, power and age. Big no-no. The amount of research and attention to detail that ,evidently, the designers put into this game just goes to prove that this one just slipped under their noses.
Ah well, nothing's perfect after all...
Rating:
Summary: Decision Maker's Game
Review: The game was extraordinaraly fun. Nothing really wrong with it. I had downloaded the Demo version at Download.net, and I knew it was a great game. The choices you have to make between other computer Planet occupants, as of, to be their Treaty friend, never meet, Pact sibling, Vendetta enemy. Or where you move things. what vehicles/boats you build. Where you build the original and/or new base(s). What technology to study next. What to be: a Builder, Discoverer, Explorer, Conquerer, or even Builder and Explorer, or Conquerer and Discoverer, or Conquerer and Builder and Explorer, or even all! Set bases to different settings. Research large-type activites. And believe me, there are TONS more things than that. I would type them all, alas, I am only limited to 1,000 words. But, if you don't believe me; buy it, and see for yourself!
Rating: 
Summary: Not for the short of patience
Review: The graphics are impressive and the game is challenging. Like the other review said, though, this is not a game that can be played in one sitting. (Unless you plan sitting for, oh, 12 hours maybe.) I have two gripes: the annoying quotes from non-existent books, and sometimes my people won't go where I tell them to go.
|
