Posted April 08, 2011
(This thread is about Castles 2)
I'm getting convinced that I might be the world's most un-skilled video game addict. I've bought 2 games so far from GOG--both with endless strings of GOG members lauding them as "some of the best games ever made"--and I want my money back for both games.
The game itself doesn't seem to have any real technical problems; although the graphics & colors are all messed up (it's like trying to watch a scrambled cable pay-channel), the game seems to function in all the ways it was programed to. (Castles 1, on the other can't load at ALL.)
I don't know what it is (maybe a personal techno-curse on myself), but whenever I try any new game in which I'm pitted against other players who are computer-controlled, I have as much success as a kid shooting at a Dalek Battle-Cruiser with a potato-gun.
Difficulty mode set to "EASY." Major false advertising there.
I got myself established with like 6 territories, and a very mediocre army, and by then I was surrounded on all sides on Anjou and Burgandy. There was one neutral, unoccupied terriory right below me which I attacked unsuccessfully 3 times in a row (apparently they have Elite-Commando peasants?). I wanted to attack Burgandy (the only way I could gain any more land), but my army was 1/5 the size of his.
I'd try to make more troops, but in the time it took to train 1 archer, Sabeteurs would steal half my resources... which would leave without enough food/gold to feed/pay my army, making my hard-earned archer abandon me moments after I recruited him. (this cycle would then repeat for a couple years).
After reading through the manual I learn the only protection I have from enemy sabeteurs is "Policing the Realm", which reduces my happiness rating (and takes away my ability to train troops, as I only had 1 military taskbar). As my happiness rating was getting lower every time I performed an action, I have to compensate by doing the Happiness Task... doing which costs pretty much all the resources I have at any given time.
When a game stops being about "see how quickly you can expand & vanquish your opponents" and becomes about "see how long you can last until you're completely wiped out"... it's no longer worth playing.
Seriously I should never pay for another video game that I haven't already played & determined to be decently playable. Never before have I had so much respect for video-game DEMOS.
I do think I will be using GOG again any more.
I'm getting convinced that I might be the world's most un-skilled video game addict. I've bought 2 games so far from GOG--both with endless strings of GOG members lauding them as "some of the best games ever made"--and I want my money back for both games.
The game itself doesn't seem to have any real technical problems; although the graphics & colors are all messed up (it's like trying to watch a scrambled cable pay-channel), the game seems to function in all the ways it was programed to. (Castles 1, on the other can't load at ALL.)
I don't know what it is (maybe a personal techno-curse on myself), but whenever I try any new game in which I'm pitted against other players who are computer-controlled, I have as much success as a kid shooting at a Dalek Battle-Cruiser with a potato-gun.
Difficulty mode set to "EASY." Major false advertising there.
I got myself established with like 6 territories, and a very mediocre army, and by then I was surrounded on all sides on Anjou and Burgandy. There was one neutral, unoccupied terriory right below me which I attacked unsuccessfully 3 times in a row (apparently they have Elite-Commando peasants?). I wanted to attack Burgandy (the only way I could gain any more land), but my army was 1/5 the size of his.
I'd try to make more troops, but in the time it took to train 1 archer, Sabeteurs would steal half my resources... which would leave without enough food/gold to feed/pay my army, making my hard-earned archer abandon me moments after I recruited him. (this cycle would then repeat for a couple years).
After reading through the manual I learn the only protection I have from enemy sabeteurs is "Policing the Realm", which reduces my happiness rating (and takes away my ability to train troops, as I only had 1 military taskbar). As my happiness rating was getting lower every time I performed an action, I have to compensate by doing the Happiness Task... doing which costs pretty much all the resources I have at any given time.
When a game stops being about "see how quickly you can expand & vanquish your opponents" and becomes about "see how long you can last until you're completely wiped out"... it's no longer worth playing.
Seriously I should never pay for another video game that I haven't already played & determined to be decently playable. Never before have I had so much respect for video-game DEMOS.
I do think I will be using GOG again any more.