Coy, I thought you were from Seattle. In Hawaii on business? Anyone out there, I stayed in Kauai recently and got a real deal at some Condos in Princeville. If anyone is interested I'd gladly look up the Webpage again of the person I rented from.
Coy, you asked me about the games I previewed in S.F. on Feb 24. I'll do my best here. I played M1 tank, but have no basis to judge it other than to say it seemed more strategic than I imagined it would be. Steve Race told me at the time it would Master on March 6, which turned out to be the day MPRS hit 1 and 7/16. I called the company that day to find out if it had mastered, and I was going to buy more MPRS if it had, but I received an evasive answer, so, to my regret now, I let the opportunity pass. I played Mech Commander, a game which Steve Race was overtly fond of. It is another game I have no familiarity with, so I can't compare it to other games, but it was quite fun, the Mechs did all kinds of things such as limp around when wounded, and seemed to have good tactical subtleties. To use a much overused word, it was intense. I liked it, and given that genre is not to my taste usually, the fact I could get sucked in seems like a good omen. It was very much a game at this point already, unlike Starship Troopers, and Steve Race told me that if Falcon isn't out until early Q2 it might very well be possible to move Mech Commander up to late Q1. A Possibility, but probably not a more than 50/50 chance in my opinion. I do feel it will be out in Q2 or very early Q3 and that it should be a highly competitive product, and maybe a 300K+ product by the end of the holiday season. I flew Falcon and enjoyed it immensely, but did not get to test the multiplayer, which is the only thing keeping it from shipping at this point. I have a gut feeling we are looking at July here, but am not a programmer, so am only going on the basis of what I saw and what various people led me to believe in the course of my conversations with them. The fact that Steve Race mentioned moving Mech Commander up if Falcon was late leads me to believe its release date is still very much up in the air.
I played Ultimate Civ for an hour against an opponent. This is a game that I am quite good at. I think there are several things they need to do to make it even for all players... but it is quite a thrill to have a human opponent. I am good enough to beat the AI at the highest level every time, but against a human I found myself engaged in a real interesting, if brief, struggle. In terms of a release date, they probably can ship it in May, but I'd like to see them make it right, because I feel it will sell 250K no problem if it is a game which gives players an even chance to win. Latency was a big problem in Civnet. Uneven starting positions too. I have many ideas about how the design should be altered to make it fair for all players, and am sending them on to the company, but I feel right now they may cut corners just a little to get the game out in Q1. Civ is such an addictive experience, if they put it out right, and put it out before Alpha Centauri, I believe it will be a big hit. I fear they may not be able to do both, however.
In any case, sorry about the long post. Those were the games I really spent some time with. I saw the Trek games, and feel Klingon will be the first out, followed late in Fiscal 99 by Birth. Troopers by the holidays. Games I haven't mentioned I merely did not get the chance to see at any length.
Look forward to your numbers, Coy, and do enjoy Hawaii a little!
Snake |
