News - September 2002
September 25, 2002 - Last design article from BreakAway
BreakAway posted the last design article on their site: Multiplayer. It contains both information about multiplayer as well as tips to get you started. Handy to print out and keep close when you decide to try multiplayer!
Read the article here.
September 23, 2002 - Reviews
As I updated the list of reviews on the links page with another 2 reviews today, I decided to do it a little different. From now on, you can see the list of new previews on the index page (= THIS page) on the left side in the navigation column, just below the 'home' and 'archives' links.
Summary: there will be NO news updates on this page anymore about reviews, the 3 most recent reviews will be on THIS page on the left, and you can always view the total list of reviews on the links page.
September 22, 2002 - How about ... another review?
VideoGameNews posted (who guessed it?) a review of Emperor, 70%:
if you have never played any of these city building titles, then Emperor is the best of the bunch to pick up and try. It is nearly bug free, has great sound, and fantastic graphics. It's just a hard title to recommend to everyone. It's very niche. You really have to enjoy the punishing aspects of city building to come away from it thinking it's a great game.
Read the review here.
To not totally let this news update turn into yet another review update.. I enhanced the Food types and Standard prices pages with little pictures of the resources in Emperor.
September 21, 2002 - Again 2 new reviews to read
Another review.. netjak.com this time and they give it a meager 6.1 out of 10:
So for anyone who hasn't played any of the games in the Caesar series, $40 might not be too bad of a price to be introduced to it. Hardcore fans of the Caesar series can also consider that recommendation to be for them, too. Other than that, everyone else can view Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom to be Emperor: Fall of the Caesar Series.
Read the review here.
Update: our very own GameSpy has also posted a review: 85% there:
For some strange reason, these games remain a compelling experience despite the fact that they all play basically the same. It's not new and it may not be innovative at all, but this latest effort proves the series still has its legs. If you're a fan of the "City Building" series as a whole, then purchasing Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom is a no-brainer. Get it!
Read the full review (2 pages) here.
September 20, 2002 - 5 new pages added
A day off and 5 new pages made:
- Scoring: at the end of every mission you get a score, how is this calculated?
- Forts: what forts can you use, what do you need to build them and what type of soldier can be used for what?
- Enemies: what enemies can you encounter in Emperor, what soldier types do they exist of?
- Walker speeds: how fast does a warehouseguy walk?
- and last but not least, for the real number crunchers: the Figure Models.
Have fun with those :)
September 19, 2002 - Review at Media & Games Online
For those of you who still bother to read reviews of Emperor, here's another one from Media & Games Online, they give it 8 out of 10. Their overall comments:
It's a fantastically detailed game, but that in itself may put people off. There are an awful lot of things to keep in mind when building a city, and its a right pain to try and remember them all. However, it is a beautiful game, and for those of you out there who are ding-a-linging at the thought of it, you are going to be spoilt.
Read the full review here.
September 18, 2002 - Consumption rates page up and a new review
What and how many of a good/food does a particular housing level consume? Check it out at the new consumption page here.
And who guessed it? A review at Otaku! Game. They give it 4.5 out of 5 and wrote the following conclusion:
Emperor struck me as a quality title from the get go. The careful attention to detail and rich ambience coupled with an intricate and incredibly complex means of game play will likely keep this title installed on my game box for some time to come. It's not for the faint of interest though - I think it caters to those who like some thinking in their entertainment rather than simply mashing buttons.
Read the full review here.
September 17, 2002 - Cheats!
Some of you have been asking for this.. 'are there any cheat codes for Emperor?'
YES, there are, and thanks to Google I found them on various sites. I tested them with the demo, and most of them seem to work. One 'cheat' I want to mention in particular is the easter egg 'Lizardman': when you have a hero in your city, type Ctrl+Alt+C, type in 'Lizardman' (without quotes) and the hero changes into a giant lizard!
Anyway, check this one and the rest of the cheats on the Cheats page :)
Update: thanks Isetemkheb for verifying and explaining the FunForElite bug!
September 17, 2002 - Yet another review
You guessed it.. I found another review, at Gamer's Pulse. They give it a rating of 30 out of 50:
In the end this title comes back to its roots as a good single player building game that, although has improvements, lacks long-term gameplay abilities. For those familiar with the series the game is relatively easy to beat while offering no major graphical or gameplay additions. For those new to Impression Games' building series, this is an excellent title to try your hand at building an entire empire as we eagerly await a unique and graphically upgraded building series from the developers
Read the full review here.
September 14, 2002 - Review of Emperor at Game-Over
I just found yet another review of Emperor, this time at Game-Over.com. They give it 86% and have quite a few screenshots to go with the article. Read it here.
On a second note, I decided to add the reviews to the link page, and thinned out the previews list again.
September 14, 2002 - Detailed info added to Feng Shui page
I added some information to the Feng Shui page to explain it in more detail. Exact information about it can be found on this page, scroll down till you come to 'Feng Shui in detail' part.
September 13, 2002 - Homage information page added
I added a page with information on homages/offerings to heroes, like how many goods you need for an offering when your city is xx people large and how to summon a hero. Check the page out here.
September 13, 2002 - The Great Wall v1 still here for you to browse through
I don't know if anyone is interested in this.. but I decided to leave the previous version of the site online for a couple of months so you can take a look at it if you want. It's put up in haste, so there might be a few broken links etc in it. You can go to it here.
September 12, 2002 - Military design article at BreakAway
BreakAway Games posted their newest design article, this time it's about
military. Pity the images don't load.. should be fixed soon though, according to
Fire Monkey :)
Read it here.
Update: they added the images :)
September 11, 2002 - More reviews and a Dutch Emperor site (I keep updating..)
Just found a review at
GameZone, they give considerably higher marks than
GameSpot.. 9.3 out of 10!
IGN also put up a review,
8.8 there.
And Angie mailed me yesterday.. from now on there's also a (small) Emperor fansite in Dutch :)
September 11, 2002 - Review at GameSpot and a Bonus Campaign for download
The game is just released and there is already an official bonus campaign
available for download. It seems to be a 3-mission campaign set after the Three
Kingdoms period. I don't know why the download is 48.5 megabyte big though..
Anyway, download it from Sierra's
ftp server or from Gamer's
Hell.
Thanks to Emperor Wilson for letting me know!
GameSpot posted a preview of Emperor, I haven't read it yet, but they give the game a 7.7. Read the two-page review here, with 26 new screenshots.
September 10, 2002 - The Great Wall v2 is online!
You've probably noticed it already.. the Great Wall has changed a bit.. all previous information is gone, but instead there's lots of new pages with tables, numbers, etc. That's my little gift to you all to enjoy. Some tables are from the beta, some from the demo. The stuff that's online is just general information from the models etc. I hope it will be useful when you start playing the game :)
If you have any comments on the new pages, found errors, broken links etc, please report it!
September 10, 2002 - Emperor has shipped!
That's right, it's official! You could be expecting the game in your local store in a few days :)
Sierra Entertainment, Inc., a studio of the Games division of Vivendi Universal Publishing, and Impressions Games today announced that their new city-building game, Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom(tm), has shipped to retail stores nationwide. Developed by Breakaway Games Ltd., Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom takes aspiring city governors to ancient China, adding several revolutionary features, including local area network (LAN) and Internet multiplayer gameplay, a first in the city-building genre.
See the whole press release here, and try to get your hands on a copy of Emperor as soon as possible!
September 10, 2002 - How to play? flash movie at Sierra
I just noticed the flash movie at Sierra's Emperor site which teaches you the basics of building a city in Emperor. Watch it here (566k flash file)
2nd note: cb.ogresnet.com seems to be closed forever. Thanks Cronus for telling :)
September 7, 2002 - How to build a monument?
In step one, make sure you have the necessary documents, so that the government will not be able
to disapprove later. Then, you should gather materials, such as dirt, stone, wood, burial provisions and everything else
that might be required during the construction process. Of course, you ought not forget about labourers and
skilled artisans, ceramists and masons ...
As time goes on, you should see the project grow larger and larger, enthralling everyone with its splendour,
and after several years, you just may live to see it finished.
Alas, this may be just a tiny bit too grandiloquent, but I am sure you can see what I mean. For some more details,
scrutinise the new article up at BreakAway.
September 6, 2002 - Recommended reading
Fire Monkey posted at the forums that they (BreakAway) put a new page up on their site:
The page includes a few interesting paragraphs on Chinese culture, and then lists some very good books, most of which you will probably discover are available at your local library.
So.. if you have some spare time you know what to do ;)
He also said that there just might be a new design article online today.
September 4, 2002 - DEMO!!!!!
At last.. the demo is out! It's a biggie.. 127 megs. I'm downloading it right now while I'm writing this news update. Grab it here: ftp://ftp.sierra.com/pub/demos/pc/si_emperor_demo.exe!
For those on dial-up.. if you want to download it, be sure to use a download manager so you can resume the download later.
Update: you can also download it via Gigex, which can resume downloads if needed.
The demo lets you play the tutorial campaign (Xia) and a few missions of the Shang dynasty. Also, you can play a multiplayer mission called The Bronze Tripods over LAN, sadly not over the internet. Of course, you can also play this mission alone :)