I have to kind of agree on that. I thought BR2 was alright, although not nearly as entertaining as the first one, but the game's camera was actually the thing that gave me the least amount of problems. With a game like this, I actually welcome it if the overall design or difficulty balancing aren't that polished, because it kind of helps the overall rough B-movie/ exploitation feeling of the title. What I did find to be rather unforgivable, though, were the numerous game breaking bugs and glitches, which happened way too often in way too short a time. Additionally, I found the controls to be rather broken and obnoxious, mostly because the decision to tie the incredibly important "Block" ability to the "Auto Target" key resulted in me getting killed an insane number of times (seriously, blocking doesn't work half the time). I would be a lot more angry about these things if the core gameplay wasn't really fun and cathartic, but it is, which pretty much saves it for me.

By the way, I also have to agree on the general consensus here regarding the Stronghold games. Stonghold and Stronghold Crusader are, without a doubt, my favourite RTS games, but each one lacks something that the other one delivers: Stronghold features a great campaign with interesting characters and a suspenseful story, but it lacks a decent skirmish mode. Crusader has an incredible skirmish mode as well as numerous improvements and addtions to the gameplay along with a cool scenario, but the token campaigns are rather lackluster and dry and the entire game seems to assume that you are already familiar with the basic gameplay. Put them together and you have quite possibly the greatest RTS of all time.
I think what I love most about them is the fact that they forgo the typical RTS micro management busywork and that they have great options for actual defensive gameplay.
Hell, I'd probably already own them on here, had I not bought the "Stronghold Collection" a few years back, which contains Stronghold, Crusader, Crusader Exreme, Stronghold 2 and Legends, all for 10€.

Right now, though, I am somewhat tempted to buy either Dredd VS. Death (I already own the retail version, but it's the censored German one) or Space Colony (I've never played it, so I have no idea what to expect). Any suggestions?

hehe - no. I was saying I know how my hesitation ends, namely I'll add 3 new games to my shelf :-P

Ahhhh, okay.

Thanks for the answer. Hum, now I'm in doubt about getting Stronghold or Space Colony. And what about Rogue Trooper and Advent Rising?

Okay, at least something. Bought the first one, so I have (:P) to buy the 2nd one too. Haven't played them yet, though :D
As a matter of fact, I should always try the games out after buying them, since I can get my money back if they don't work....

:D

Space Colony HD little review

I've seen some people asking about the game but I haven't seen any answers so here is mine opinion about the game. I'll try to keep it short.

The main difference between Space Colony and other games where you build your space-themed outpost is that here you'll be more focused on managing your colonists that are supposed to operate your base rather than pure building/trading. Each colonist has her/his needs and priorities. Cash, food, entertainment, social interactions... but it's definitely not "Sims in space" game. Yes, you will try to keep them happy but only because you need them to work efficiently and the more satisfied they are the better they work. There are a lot of tasks to perform: farming, mining, fighting bad aliens, managing tourist attractions, oxygen and power production. Each colonist has different specializations but you can teach them to upgrade their skills (even though some of them are virtually useless - I'm looking at you Candy Simpson!)

So yeah, the idea is great and I had a blast playing the first missions. Unfortunately it didn't last long. Sadly, developers destroyed the best part of their game. I really enjoyed taking care of my colonists so that my base operates smoothly. Alas, in later missions you get so many colonists that it would be impossible to monitor the needs of each of them. What's even worse - you simply don't have to. Why should you care about their performance if you have so many other folks that can replace them if they leave their working post? And even if you want to keep them fully satisfied you won't have enough time for this because you'll get other tasks and events to take care of. At the beginning of the game you'll be dealing with a few personalities, later on you'll only manage a nameless workforce. Just don't let them kill each other, starve to death or snap and you'll be fine. Don't get me wrong - the game is still enjoyable but IMHO latter missions lack this unique charm of micromanaging your colonists.

Be warned that UI is not good. Building can be frustrating because sometimes it's difficult to see which areas are unsuitable for buildings (like a little crack in the middle of empty space that will prevent you from placing a large building there). And what's absolutely ridiculous - when you want to learn about your colonists' skills you will only see a small pictures with no subtitles whatsoever. Some are pretty obvious (O2 symbol = oxygen pumping) but others remain a mystery for me even though I know which skill they represent (nutrient extraction looks like propeller. WTF?!). So at the beginning it'll be very confusing, after some time you'll learn them by heart.

For me it's just an average game. It could have been so much better! Alas, too many colonists simply ruin the best part of the game. I still recommend it because the campaign is very nicely designed. You'll get a lot of different objectives and tasks to perform, some of them can be quite surprising and challenging.

Apparently I failed, it's not short but at least I hope it'll be informative ;)

Very informative, thank you! I have both, but haven't played either yet. Rogue Trooper seems like the more fun of the two, based on reviews and gameplay vids.

Good to know. I'm very, very tempted to get Rogue Trooper at the current sale price.

Anyone know if the executable compatibility setting has been updated by GOG to fix the slow framerate on one particular level?
http://www.gog.com/forum/rogue_trooper/hoppa_chase_level_frame_rate_drop_solution

Will have to look at how to get it widescreen, too. I take it that it was some graphics driver profile you set up, right? Like using nvidia Inspector or something?

Maybe I'll give it a second chance someday. I loved the first one, but the second on I uninstalled after a few hours of playing. Not just the camera, I find the whole mood, atmoshpere to be very different from the first game, and for the worse. It's just one of the games for me when all I can say about it is "ugh". By the way, Brenda in Jagged Alliance is hotter.
Kristanna Loken. It was a terrible movie too.

The exe is not flagged as XP SP3 at default but good to know there's a manual solution at least. I didn't need to use Nvidia Inspector, all I needed was to create a profile and restart the game with "Widescreen options ON" so that I could pick resolution higher than originally intended (or was available?). OTOH, I did use Nvidia Inspector to enhanced 4xMSAA and it works.

I have been waiting forever to get my hands on Advent Rising. I remember it sold like hotcakes back in the day, but never tried the game. Is it any good, or was it just hype? Also I am debating on Lords of Magic: Special Edition. Is that a good game as well? Nonetheless this weekend promo looks great.

Is the aiming in Rogue Trooper supposed to be that skiddish? I can't get a bead on anyone.

And yes I realize I could ask this in the RT forum. :P

Ah, a profile in the game itself. Cool.

I had a quick search on the aim assist and it looks like it is embedded into the game so cannot be turned off.

Had a crusader game and spacy colony to add to my shelf - done!