Reviews
- by Angelspit
It has been a very quiet week so far, perhaps because of the warm weather or because fans are finally confident that a new Heroes game will see the light of day... someday.
Abduction by Gregor Minchev now has an online review thanks to the Qurqirish Dragon. You might be familiar with this Wake of Gods map that has received great user ratings since its release. Qurqirish Dragon had mixed feelings, giving it an 8 for both graphics and design, but a 3 for the story (or the lack of story actually).
The second map of the Resolution campaign has been updated because of a few balance flaws and access errors. If you would like to help with the tests, the map can be downloaded from the Testing section above.
- by Angelspit
The Qurqirish Dragon sent two additional reviews of Heroes of Might and Magic III maps. A Waiting Game by Indigovoid is a nice quick-playing map with little replay value. It gets a rating of 6 out of 10. A New Start by Celestial Heavens' webmaster Karyll contains a nice storyline, a great early game, but can lose some steam near the end. QQD gives it a 7.5 out of 10. Click on the links above to read the reviews and download the maps.
Also in the mail is Rife's second map of the Resolution campaign. Since the map requires some testing, Rife is looking for people who have completed the first map of the campaign already. You can download the map from the Maptesting section above.
- by Angelspit
A review article written by The Qurqirish Dragon has been added for A Matter of Honor, a medium Armageddon's Blade map by Linda Watson. The map gets a good score, 8 out of 10, with praises for the story and style. Click on the link to access the database entry, where you can download the map, read the review and view the minimaps and a screenshot.
Several readers asked us how to submit maps recently. The staff email address can be found on the Contact Us page. Feel free to use it for maps, screenshots and anything you would like to share with the Might and Magic community.
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- by Psychobabble
Two more map reviews today. My appetite was whetted by Robenhagen's first Planeswalker campaign so I went back for more - I review Planeswalker II this week. Hoping it would address what I saw as the problems of the first campaign, I was somewhat disappointed, but it was still a very impressive set of maps. Second up I take on Sarvi's latest epic, Garvant. The L-size of this map belies it's true scope, two fully fleshed out halves of the map makes this feel like either a very large map or two maps in one, which is good, because the whole map is a blast to play.
I've also added a new section to the Psychobabble's Picks page which contains the top 5 map lists of a number of map-makers. A number of map-makers I contacted declined my offer to post their personal top 5, but many thanks to those who did. It's certainly given me an idea of some maps I've got to review in the near future. I hope you don't think I'm being unfair only giving these people 5 maps to pick, my suspicion that many people haven't played enough maps to have 10 much-loved favourites was confirmed by the number who replied to me saying they didn't even have 5!
Finally, I added an [ed.] note next to the 'in short' comments about My Brother's Keeper pointing out that they were not written by me. At least one reader got the impression I was being a little glowing about my own map on a page I had created, so it's probably important to note that I didn't write those comments.
- by Psychobabble
Having played over 150 user-made maps for Heroes IV and formally reviewed about 100 of them, I felt it was time to collate the information contained in these reviews in one page where players can easily find good maps in the category of map they wish to play. To this end I have created "Psychobabble's Picks". This page contains lists of my recommended maps in the categories single player, RPG, multiplayer, allied and innovative as well as my overall top 10 favourite maps. Next to each of the entries is details such as the game version, review score and "in short" comments to help you decide if you want to play the map. I hope this page is useful to people looking for good maps to play and possibly even encourages some people to pick up the game and try a few good maps, cause there's a lot out there! Comments on the new page are welcome.
In somewhat mundane news by comparison, here's another two new map reviews. In an unusual move for me I reviewed a campaign, Planeswalker by Robenhagen (the first one, I'll review the second one soon!). Also reviewed is the relatively old, but newly posted, Walkabout by Blue Camel. Both maps are made by very competent map-makers, but both of them didn't quite deliver on their promise, in my opinion.
- by Angelspit
All About Symbian posted a review of Gameloft's Might and Magic game for mobile phones. The author is a long-time fan of the series: "Like many gamers my age who gamed on computers in the 90's, the name Might & Magic brings back fond memories of pizza laced evenings in front of a monitor working towards 'one more level' before bed. Using the Might and Magic name on this game was my first clue that I was going to be disappointed." The game gets a rating of 59%, its lowest score so far. Read it all here.
| Comments (2) |
- by Psychobabble
Two new map reviews today. Spiritmongers is a justifiably well regarded allied map which I can heartily recommend to anyone wanting to play an allied game with or against friends. Ururam's (unintentional?) experiment at making a map where towns are effectively two days walk away from each other, 3shields, didn't really do it for me, unfortunately.P.S. Watch this space, I've got a new page coming which should make it easier to decide which maps you want to play in a specific category (single player, allied etc.).
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- by Angelspit
The Alexander movie featuring Colin Farrel, Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie didn't get very positive reviews. The computer game, published by Ubisoft and produced by our friend Fabrice Cambounet, doesn't fare better, according to GameSpy: "Command and control bugs; lack of a population cap causes serious engine creep; poor interface (...) Alexander isn't a matter of taste; it's a matter of functional incapacity. If you're looking to get your fix in this historical period, there are plenty better and recent arrivals."You can read more reviews using GameTab. Fortunately, the other game produced by Fabrice in 2004, Pacific Fighter, gets more critical success, so Heroes fans should not be too concerned by this faux-pas.
- by Psychobabble
More reviews, anyone would think I'm on uni holidays or something! The two maps which have received the dubious honour of my attention are Lunch and Swamp Flowers. Both maps exhibited a lot of map-making talent and much effort went into creating them, but from my perspective Lunch provided a great game while Swamp Flowers didn't quite hit the mark.
There's also been a minor change in the review page, maps which have received the reviewer's stamp of extra approval (
) have the award displayed next to their name so the most highly recommended maps can be found more easily. As a reminder, this award is given to maps which received an 8 or higher "overall" score and which the reviewer feels offers innovative or otherwise exciting gameplay.
- by Angelspit
Electronic Arts has been given the green light to finalize the purchase of 20% of Ubisoft shares. The company saw its own stock rise by $3.12 a share, a 4.8 percent increase, hitting the $68 mark for the first time. There are more financial news at GameSpot.
In other news, Ubisoft plans to create 1000 job in its world-famous Montreal studios as parts of its next phase of international development. The company will receive the support of the Government of Canada and the Government of Quebec in a massive 5 year, $700-million investment. Ubisoft Montreal is the home of the Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia series, among others.
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