is anyone playing elemental

ive been waiting for this game a long time:

Elemental - War of Magic

it harkens back to the glory days of strategy games and is the spiritual descendant of master of magic, one of my favorite games of alltime.
unfortunately it isnt available in my region yet but i would like to get some feedback on those who have played it.

 

I didn't know it was released yet!!!! I have to check this out, I've been waiting for a while since I saw some screens of it a while back.

 

yeah it was released last aug 24. havent seen any reviews from the majr gaming sites though

 

Yeah, me neither, a quick google turned up nothing, which is a little disappointing, this game looks like it has some promise. It is NOT a AAA title though, so I am sad to think it will be looked over by a lot of people =(

 

its just wierd that gamespot and ign did some comprehensive features and previews of elemental a few months back and now there is nada.
seems like all their focus is on that other strategy game... sad

 

Well, it could be a good sign, it has been 3 days, and it looks to be a massive game, perhaps it is taking all this time to play the game and write the review.

 

yeah and hopefully they release it thru steam

 

It was a very broken release. PC Gamer actually wrote an article about how this game is barely beta. It needs major fixing. Brad Wardell even came out and said in defense that they are using paying customers as beta testers, and if you don't like it, don't buy their games. I'd wait some months before buying this one (if at all considering Brad's attitude towards his customers).

here's the article.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/08/25/elementals-disastrous-launch-stay-well-away/

 

im not sure , but imo stardock has a tendency to do this with their games in a sense. they released a 0 day patch and have released 2 patches since iirc. they did the same the with sins of a solar empire.
could be their way of combating piracy etc but it does seem like a trend for stardock games. ill go check the forums on their website to see what owners are saying...

 

It's fallen off the radar a bit, but I'm hoping the article is exaggerating things or else it would be a real disappointment for lots of fans since Stardock's previous works like Galactic Civilizations are products with plenty of polish.

 

iirc almost all stardock realeases start this way. Gal Civ, Sins of a SOlar empire, demigod - they all start out with a 0 day patch and a few patch releases in the first month

 

Well this is a reviewer's comments from Shacknews on Aug 27th:

Field Report #3 - Elemental: War of Magic - Shacknews - PC Games, PlayStation, Xbox 360 and Wii video game news, previews and downloads

 

If it weren't for my general aversion toward fantasy genre games, I probably would have bought EWM. I trust Stardock enough to know that they'll keep working to fix their games and improving them past the bug fixes. Brad Wardell posted a message regarding plans for the game and it looks promising. It's nice to know too that the GameSpot reviewer said he'd hold off on a final review until he could complete the game. The sad part about the whole thing is if this game was really beta tested by people that pre-ordered EWM, how could so many game breaking bugs have gotten through? Were there just not that many pre-orders or were the PCs used just not diverse enough to catch the bugs? Does this mean that inhouse QA is really more invaluable than any group of beta testers?

 

Reading more into the issue, it seems Stardock really pushed the product out the door far too quickly and earlier than their previous games. Their support is still the same but releasing so earlier has deservedly earned them flak from reviewers who have already tried the game.

 

a bit disappointing.
this was the most anticipated game of 2010 for me. im really longing for a good turn based strategy game and this was supposed to be the second coming of master of magic.
i didnt like galactic civ but i loved demigod and sins of a solar empire.
i see some posts in the official forum complaining about the game and ive seen some reviews last weekend on how it seems like the initial release is not what the final game is supposed to be. hopefully it doesnt take them so long to fix this game.

 

Assuming your attention span and memory are up to scratch, a month or two should see the game more polished with the innumerable patches that will follow from Stardock.

 

for a game like this, you bet it'll be up to scratch!

 

got a bad review from ign

Elemental: War of Magic Review - PC Review at IGN

 

Gamespot gave it a 4.0, review generally in line with what everyone else has been saying about a product rushed out the door far too early and with little to do but wait for incremental patches.

 

although stardock is known to release slightly incomplete games throughout its existence, this game seems too broken even compared to their standards.
they have patched it around 6 times but people seemed quite annoyed especially since it was out in closed beta for almost a year.
too bad, since this game had great potential to revive the turn based startegy genre.

 

But if you read what Brad has written, even if they waited for the next retail window - which would have been February 2011 - they would have released THE SAME GAME! Because they fundamentally thought the game was done!

Having only played a few hours (and I haven't logged in for a few days so I am on an older patch), it is a decent game at its core, but really feels under-cooked.

The 'day 0 patch' is as much a DRM thing as anything else - they make the patch and release it so you need an account to apply it and play online.

Considering this is the guy who wrote the 'gamers bill of rights' it is pretty inexcusable.

 

Even after applying the patch, the game is one of the most broken and buggiest game I've ever played, only come after Gothic 3 on release.

 

What about dankantana ?

 

Daikatana was ... well, underperforming to say the least.

But without morphing this thread TOO much, how about some launches WORSE than Elemental:

- Definitely agree on Gothic 3 ... glad that Piranha Bytes did much better with Risen (though the ending still disappointed!)
- Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor - uninstalling the release version could erase your C drive! And it was buggy and way outdated by release!
- Ultima IX - just a sad, sad release for fans of the franchise!
- Dungeon Lords - broken and empty, patches did little ... then we got the honor of paying ANOTHER $40 to get the last patch!

 

Just caught my eye that you mentioned dungeon lords

Thats one of my favorite games. It absolutely needs the patches to be functional though.

little known great rpg game I woulndt mind finding it again.

What tripped me out about the temple of elemental evil was just that it was made by the guys at black isle, who made planescape torment.

Yet the game itself had almost no story, and a engine way worse than the infinitiy engine. It was a step back from the gold box d and d.

Its kind of like a game that the troika guys made called fallout tactics, that also came years after nobody cared about fallout and that engine was too boring.

 

lol you just revived a 4 months old thread

 

And worse yet, with a load of incorrect information:
- Troika did ToEE, not Black Isle. And it is generally agreed upon by RPG fans that is it just about the best pure turn-based D&D combat simulator. The story is from an old PnP D&D module, thus the combat focus.
- The ToEE engine is in no way below Infinity (the one used by Baldur's Gate, etc) ... especially since the one Black Isle used for Lionheart was better than BG2, and ToEE looked much better than that.
- Fallout Tactics wasn't Troika, wasn't Black Isle ... no relation to either.

OK, that said, glad you liked Dungeon Lords, I know I enjoyed it more than I should. It eventually sold more than 1 million copies, so it is more known than most PC RPGs. However, there is a reason it ranks on the worst launches of all time lists ...

 

...revived and still no good news about elemental?

 

Reading elsewhere, it seems the game has improved significantly since its initial bug-filled release. It might come too late to convince gamers who were put off by the initial press.

 

i hope somebody who has actually played the game can give it a mini review at its present state

 

troika

was founded by the members of black isle studios.

Thats what troika is

The creators of fallout 1. planescape torment.

Go ahead and check out the wikipedia entries of either troika or black isle studios. When in doubt which you are, look it up.

On the other hand lionheart was made by a european studio no relation to bg or to troika.