Alexander the game

[Pharaoh Pepy]

I downloaded (http://www.3dgamers.com/games/alexander/news/) and played the demo for the Alexander game that is released along with the film starring Colin Farrell. I have high hopes for the films and I liked the demo. The problem is that whether on the UK (http://www.ubi.com/UK) or US (http://www.ubi.com/US) versions of the Ubisoft site, Alexander the game seemed almost like a shameful secret. It seems impossible to post in its forum for some reason and searching the UK site - a release date of 26 November has to found elsewhere - it cannot be found. GSC-Game World (http://www.gsc-game.com/) who are developing it using the Cossacks II engine - hence my very great interest as it could provide an ancient Cossacks II several months early - are also publishing it in Russia and other markets. Its Russian forum (http://www.gsc-game.com/russian/main.php?t=community&s=forums&s_game_type=al) has a page for the game and there is news and plenty of screenshots - that's one reason why any new screenshots have cyrllic characters on them. I am just a bit annoyed that a publisher seems to bury what seems to be a very interesting game.

I hope posting about other games is not against the forum rules.

[NanaBanana]

I hope posting about other games is not against the forum rules.

This is the "Outside World". Here you can post most anything.

[Kokopelli]

Overall, how is the gameplay of the game? I have played the first Cossacks games and was pretty impressed with them.

[googoo]

Basically its like cossacks, but the guys have swords. Just envision, the cossacks guys attacking hand-to-hand and you won't be far off, except units don't become a piled up mass in engagements like in the original cossacks series, hand-to-combat finally looks good! Unfortunately, also like the cossacks games, units still run off to chase enemies across the map (i noticed once, to late, that half my army went chasing after a single unit.) you no longer need officers however, and resource management is much easier than in previous renditions. The a.i. is still a little problematic, but it is just a demo. It uses the cossacks II engine, and it looks good, although I experienced some unnecessary slow down a times.

[Pharaoh Pepy]

Yes that is the game it is. Like the rest of the Cossacks series ships are beautifully done. Units seem well balanced and the morale aspect carried on from American Conquest and its expansion - soldiers will retreat if fighting is too intense for them - gives the sense of ruling men not robots. The awkwardness that made Cossacks and AC a bit of a chore in terms of micromanagement seems to have gone. Set a waypoint and peasants will be recruited continually and will go about their duties. One problem for me is that transport ships are awkward and like AC and unlike Cossacks the ai seems reluctant to build a navy - maybe I need more time with the game. Unlike other earlier GSC demos - I think in particular of Cossacks where there were several huge demo maps and a save function - there is only a save function in multiplayer games. Obviously the full game will have that feature. There will be a campaign where a player chooses his scenario on a world, individual scenarios, and a skirmish mode for singleplayer and multiplayer. The game will also have some movie goodies thrown in.

[googoo]

THe cpu knows how to build navies, it just doesn't know how to use them effectively, and doesn't seem to know how to use transports. I've seen armies piling up on islands with nowhere to go because the a.i. isn't smart enough to build transports.

[Pharaoh Pepy]

Well I mean that they build in small enough quantities or do not send their ships against mine that much. I have seen the enemy build a sort of pontoon bridge - maybe that is how I was swamped with invasions in my last game. It needs a reasonable processor. My 2.0 ghz process does not cope too well with it.

[Pharaoh Pepy]

The is out and I have it. The pseudo 3d zoom using page up and page down is a nice touch. Maybe the voice actor for Alexander in the game and Colin Farrell could have swopped places. Giving Alexander the accent of a west Dublin hardchaw is a bit incongruous.