Startopia...

Hobbes

Still installing. So far...

1. License agreement is missing large portions. Looks like an installshield bug. Probably won't mean anything to you's but this is actually a big issue (if you believe the legal department).

2. Installer won't install anything if you select custom install and click ok.

Da Bounca

what kind of game is it?

sounds like an rts

Hobbes

The game is lovely!!

It's a Sim game. Sim Space Station.

You start off on a section of the space station and you can expand by being granted access to airlocks or by getting security bots to hack thier way in.

You have to build various different items to get money in, ranging from berths to medical and comms centers. Then you have to hire Aliens, each race has thier own skills, eg. Grays are medics.

Then each person you hire has different needs, like one might have a criminal record and start stealing or killing so you have to hire Cop bots or security, others may just want to be loved and you can hire space prostitutes.

You can micro manage right down to how much it costs to get into 1 bed, to what kind of food a dispenser should splurt out.

The graphics are excellent and the details of what is happening is excellent as each Alien/bot interacts with the environment.

There is also supposed to be Bio parts to some space stations so you can design an eco-system with different climates for growing creatures. Also pleasure dome parts but I only played the tutorial and first level.

The only thing I'm not too mad on is the way the camera works.

Oh and the game is made by Eidos

Kix

Hobbes,

I played the demo of Startopia about two weeks ago and I thought that it was great!

As you say, it looks fantastic tho the camera is a little clumsy. You could try something that I discovered at the end of the demo. I lowered the camera to floor level and more or less walked around. I found that it was a bit easier to get around that way and the view from alien-eye-level is great!

The only reservation I had was that perhaps I'd already seen 90% of the game in the tutorial & demo level. I wasn't sure that there was that much nore to it. I'll be glad to hear how you get on with it!

K

Shinji

[nitpick incoming]

It's made by Mucky Foot, a gang of developers in Guildford (I walk near their offices on the way to the station in the morning) - they're an ex-Bullfrog bunch so were previously involved in the Theme "whatever" games, Syndicate, Dungeon Keeper and so on.

Swifty

Yeah the demo is fun. Mills it's on the cd/dvd in that issue with the review in it.

Mills

I went and downloaded it earlier, took me a full 10 or 15 minutes from nethouse I discovered this evening when I got home that I have it on CD anyways

Mills

Read the review in PC Gamer recently, looks like fun, also I saw it for sale in Game last week I think, didn't realise there was a demo of it though, must check that out and buy the game if it's good.....

Hobbes

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Shinji:
[nitpick incoming]
</font>

Why is that a nitpick? Dungeon Keeper and Syndicate were both good games?

Or is the nitpick that you have to live in Guildford?

Kix

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Mills:
...didn't realize there was a demo of it though...</font>

Hey Mills, certainly the current PC Gamer DVD has the demo - if you want to save yourself the download.

I forgot to mention that one of it's greatest charms is it's distinctly British feel. Definitely reminiscent of say, Dungeon Keeper, in that regard.

K

Hobbes

The game gets funnier the further down the levels. However I'm stuck on the level where you have to create an ecosystem and make 50 crates of food.

It's funny watching each character and how they interact with the environment.

- At the lav, when flew by it I could hear grunting noises, meanwhile there was a big queue and the guy in front was hopping up and down with his legs crossed and banging on the toilet door with a water speech bubble over his head.

- On the ecosystem area I created a lake and some of the guys hopped in and started doing the backstroke and doggy paddling.

- At the bar a gray and one of the large guys sit down drinking, next thing I know big guy reaches over and smacks the gray in the head and a bar fight breaks out.

- At the disco watching them all breakdance and hand jive is funny. One level I had to shut down the disco because everyone was in it.

- One of the space prostitutes caught a bug (purple blotches) and ended up giving it to most of the crew before she bothered to get her shots. When people die thier body lies around and if you leave it too long rats eat it, or it turns to bones. You can throw them in the recycler or into the research lab to get a forensic report.

I'm very impressed with the game.

Fidelis

I think I saw Startopia in EB for only £20 in town, I'm not sure. PCZ only gave it a high 60 percentage mark but from reading their review it sounded better, must give it a try sometime

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Nil Desperandum

Celt

Whats the minimum pc?

Hobbes

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by WhiteLancer:
Whats the minimum pc?</font>

PII 256MHz (or equivalent), W95/98/ME, 64MB Ram, 12MB 3D card with full opengl support, directX7, 4x CDROM.

note: I'm running on W2K even though it is not listed.

3D card with full opengl support is the only thing listed as must have.

Shinji

Hobbes - it's a nitpick because you said it was made by Eidos

amp

PC Format gave it 89% saying it was very good but a little short. It's similarity to DK was mentioned.

Hmmm idea for a thread forming...

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Lunacy Abounds! GLminesweeper RO><ORS!
"Boxes for show, Baskets for a pro" - [FCA]SyxPak

Mikill

I LOVE THE BIO-DOME.
I can spend ages just fiddling around with the water and landscapes and all that.

Hobbes

Have you noticed some of your employees doss if your not near them.

I set up a security room and when I was a distance away I could see them playing Pong and Asteroids on the main scanner. Then when I got up close they switched it back to the radar scope. Also one of the karmaramas was dossing most of the time except when I came up beside him he started working again.

Also the spies really annoy. I had a scientist spy wreak my experiments. I never noticed him until I was far away. When I was far away the "I am doing something naughty" speech bubble appeared, and when I got up close he had a big smiley speech bubble, so I had to send in a security scuzzer to arrest him.

Oh and one of my scientests was working at his workbench when his console got the BSOD and he started smacking his heads off the screen.

Q_Ball

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by amp:
PC Format gave it 89% saying it was very good but a little short. It's similarity to DK was mentioned.

Hmmm idea for a thread forming...

</font>

PC Format, the only magasine to give Daikatana a good review.......

Check the box if you dont believe me

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It's a 106 miles to Chicago. We've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses.

HIT IT!

Greenbean

On Eidos, the publishers site it says:

Minimum Requirements:
450 Mhz Pentium II or equivalent
Windows 95B/98/ME
64 MB RAM
DirectX 8 compliant 3D accelerator card w/8 MB VRAM
DirectX 8 compliant sound card
DirectX 8 or higher (included)
4X CD-ROM drive
300 MB uncompressed hard drive space
Keyboard and Mouse

Mantel

Just got it today and I have to say its very good, I think I'm on the fourth level now, the one with all the convicts and scuzzers with the tazers

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
amp said:

..saying it was very good but a little short.
</font>

Yeah the faq at http://www.strategyplanet.com/startopia says that it only has the 5 tutorial levels and 10 single player levels and the real 'meat' is the free play mode.

I also noticed something intresting while reading the faq, the fact about why the name was choosen.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
....it allows them to possibly set up a series of "Topia" games, much like the "Sim" or "Theme" series of games.
</font>

We may see more topia games in the future if that wasn't guess work on the part of the site creator.