Rating: 
Summary: An excellent game
Review: Black & White is a great game. You must have a fast pc and a good video card to take advantage of the game. Everyone that says that the graphics suck are wrong. Its your pc that sucks.
Rating: 
Summary: Lionhead/EA have crappy customer service
Review: The game will not run at all on my computer! I have a fairly new Gateway, and I have never had any trouble with games or other software. I think Black & White has been released prematurely, because I have written to Lionhead/Electronic Arts to no avail. All they do is send a useless reply with a handful of suggestions that do not help. Meanwhile, a game like the Sims runs like a charm. I am obviously no hacker or expert, but I firmly believe that installation of software should be painless. If not user friendly, then one would hope for competent customer service. I am going to return the game as soon as I can get to the post office. If your computer is not new and fresh out of the box, be very careful about buying the game--EA will be of no help to you.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Choppy
Review: I would have to say that this is a pretty fun game and has a lot of original ideas in it. The downside of this game is that it is incredibly choppy and slow. I have an AMD 933MHz Thuderbird processor and an NVidia TNT2 graphics card with 128 megs RAM. This game would be great if it wasn't so terribly choppy. But maybe it is just because I have a Compaq computer wich is the most terrible computer that you can possibly buy. ... ...
Rating: 
Summary: Ambitious and beautiful
Review: This is one of those games, like the sims, that is very much a non-game and that tends to divide people into two groups. What does it have going for it? Great graphics and music, a great mood; awesome AI, novel idea, engrossing (at first). What's not to like? Controls (especially the idiotic fighting mode and the use of leashes) are clumsy, villager AI is set on sub-cretin mode, and it focuses too much on micro-management of your people, which undermines the whole "god" concept, turning the game into a variant of simcity or civilization, and not in a good way. This game was amazing for the first few hours, then got tedious and repetitive.
Rating:
Summary: Boring Boring Boring
Review: When I first got this game I was impressed by the excellent graphics and what I thought was inteligent AI. After about three day I realized something. I hated this game. I also realized that the people who created this game lied for the most part in their adds. They say you have complete control over this island. If complete control meens lifting up a few rocks and trees then they are right. While the creature AI is good it is no were near as advanced as it is made out to be. The creature already knows everything it needs, it just needs to see you do it first for it to be unlocked. There is no way to actually teach it to do anything new that the designers havnt already thought up. The game play is slow without any real reward. Save your money on this game.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Believe the Naysayers!
Review: People who say this game is a waste of time wouldn't know fun if it slapped them in the face. Although you need a powerful computer to run it, Black and White is one of the most influential games of all time. It is simply pure fun. I'm amazed that people have been putting it down, as most professional reviewers are singing its praises. Some people have been complaining about graphics, saying they're bad. This is totally wrong. The graphics on this baby are beautiful, and anyone who thinks a Playstation game looks better than it is terribly confused. If you've got a good computer, this is THE game to get. However, if you're under 600 Mhz, 128 RAM, and a good graphics card, you may want to buy the other classic god game, The Sims. PROS: Fun, Fun, Fun! Great Graphics Amazing A.I. CONS: Need a good computer
Rating:
Summary: Good... but don't believe the hype.
Review: Don't get me wrong, Black and White has some truly unique aspects: The graphics are simply incredible, the creature is cool, and it's fun killing people. But unfortunately, the bad outweighs the good: bad-no, horrendous-voice acting, the villagers are amazingly annoying, some things with the creature are confusing and hard to use, the silver scroll quests get real old real fast, and it's over waaaay too soon. Overall, not bad, but not a good first showing by Lionhead Studios.
Rating:
Summary: The 98-yard football punt return that fell just short...
Review: I purchased Black and White because of the incredible hype around this game but this jewel is still in the rough... The game has some very excellent graphics and the ability to interact with almost everything in the game world, which is a huge plus. If you are a Populous fan then you will feel oddly at home with this game at least from the start. The game focus is not only on micromanagement of village's needs such as food, wood for construction, building new buildings, etc but also more global challenges such as converting other villages to believe in you, blocking the advancement of enemy gods into your realm, etc. Not only are you faced with the normal challenges of this "God" game but you also have puzzles/quests to complete in the middle. Some of these are as simple as carrying wood to a group planning on building a boat, saving drowning fisherman, etc to musical stone puzzles. Most of these puzzles/quests are optional but the completion of them often makes each of the game challenges easier to complete. The most popular aspect of this game and often the most frustrating is the "Creature" feature. After completing one of the initial quests you are presented with the option of selecting one of three Creatures (Ape, Tiger or Cow) that will become your pet and "helper" for the rest of the game. Lionhead Studios claims that these Creatures are an asset to you, helping you with mundane tasks such as micromanagement while you can spend your time handling more "godly" endeavors. The Creature is a mixed blessing to say the least. A properly trained Creature can assist you in gathering resources for your followers, convert enemy villages and cast powerful miracles without any assistance from you. The catch is to properly train creature requires far more time "training" then it would be if you were to simply do the deeds yourself. Not only does your Creature require insane amounts of time to properly train to your liking but also your Creature is extremely dull witted and often takes many repeated attempts to get even the most simple request completed. But I have to admit the crazy things your Creature will do will make your laugh in joy and cry in frustration. The last aspect of the game is the promise of being able to complete the game through good or evil deeds. Though I tend to disagree with many of the so called "evil deeds" (for example feeding "meat" such as cows, horses, etc to your Creature is considered evil) being evil has as many benefits as being good. Being evil you are able to eradicate your enemies using lightning, fire, etc thus removing valuable followers from your rival god's population while the good approach is more difficult. But an evil god will often find his villages in poor condition while good god's towns are overflowing in vitality. Another aspect of the game's good verses evil distinction is that often "incompetent" actions are considered evil actions. For example a fishermen's boat is overturned in a storm and you are asked by the villages to save the drowning men. Black and White doesn't seem to know the difference if you attempt to save the men but accidentally through some mishap or lack of Creature discipline kill them or not save them in time you are deemed an evil god. Perhaps from some lowly villager's point of view you are an uncaring god but evil is a bit harsh. This is just one example of many such frustrating circumstances you end up being faced with. There are many rough edges to this game to say the very least. There are crash bugs, insanely long auto save times, Creature AI freezes, etc. My honest review of this game is a punt returned football player whom trips himself on the 2-yard line just after a 98-yard return. I would say that Black and White is a prime example of a developer who tried to incorporate too much but just fell short of their goal line. If Lionhead Studios is able to fix some of its most damaging flaws and add some essential features Black and White can go all the way.
Rating:
Summary: Really cool game
Review: This game is super cool. The game ran fine flawlessly on my system (p3 600, 256mg of ram, voodoo5 video). I wouldn't suggest the game unless your graphics card is really decent. As far as gameplay,this game rocks. There's alot of different ways in which to play the game, good/evil/neutral/combinations of these etc. The help system is one of the best I've seen (basically, they give you guides -your conscience- and they stay with you throughout). In the game, you are a god. People worship you. You have a minion (creature), who learns from you. You build up your disciples, help them multiply by creating mating partners for your villagers, beef up your minion, gain power, and hopefully convert other god's followers, or eliminate the god. The minions (creatures) can do battle for you, they treat your villagers exactly how you treat them.. IE, if you want to play catch with some poor villager you can. The minions when they are young, do stupid things like eat their own poop (Pooping is good by the way, you just don't want them eating it). The only reason this game didn't get a 5 from me, is due to the over emphasis on micromanagement of your village. I think that the villagers are way to needy. I found it extremely difficult to constantly be meeting the villagers needs, and your creatures needs at the same time. The game is lacking in some areas, but overall, it's the best game out there in my opinion as is, and with updates and add-ons, it could only get better.
Rating:
Summary: A true masterpiece!
Review: When I started playing Black and White, I was slightly disappointed. That is, until I managed to get used to the interface (and selected my creature). As soon as that happened, I became immersed with amazing and unique concepts. What's more important, however, is that I had FUN doing them! Consider who I am, for just one moment. I am a gamer, yes, but a dishonorable one at that. I refuse to play any game that doesn't have some form of cheating. This trait leads to a dislike to do anything involving extensive time, like the leveling in many RPGs, or constructing a successful city in SimCity, unless there's an "easy way" of doing it. I can safely say that after playing Black and White, I changed for good. For example, raising my creature is proving to be a delightful event for me, not because I'm all-powerful, but because I'm having fun doing it! Consider developing your creature to be a cutting-edge Tamagotchi. You'd be amazed at how much you can teach it. It will take 20 hours (according to the Prima strategy guide) for my ape to reach maximum power, and I'll enjoy every single minute of it! If you like this option, that's reason enough to buy it! Isn't that strange for someone who'd rather use a Gameshark instead of play the game fairly? Anyway, I would definitely recommend Black and White to anyone who plays video/computer games to have fun. If you prefer sharp, brilliant, and downright spectacular graphics and audio, this may disappoint you if you don't have at least the recommended (not the minimum, the recommended) system requirements. But as long as you have the minimum, this game will never fail to amuse you! You may think I'm just another "Quit picking on the game" person who gives 5 star ratings to everything to defend them from criticizing individuals, but please mark my words. You may not like it as much as I do, but at least try it first!
|
