2042

It actually does always work on any classic maze where all the walls are connected. If there are any areas of wall that are freestanding (i.e., disconnected from the outer wall of the maze), it won’t work.

2043

Caesar 3 this Tuesday, for 5,99$

And guess what’s coming up soon… Interstate '76! AT LAST!!

2044

Caesar III has to be one of my favorite city builders of all time. You can choose a non-militaristic path, which is good because the combat suuuuu-ucked in a lot of these games. I would always bog down in the campaign, though, at the same spot. There was a big, open desert scenario that was hard as crap for me.

There are not many games I will pick-up that I already own on CD even for convenience sake (I’m cheap), but this is an easy one.

2045

Plebs are needed! my memory says 3 was better then 4… I wonder what reality says. I might have to pick this one up.

2046

Since there’s no specific note included, I assume that it’ll include the soundtrack, which used to be CD-based in the original? (See also: no music in the Steam version of Jedi Knight.)

So looking forward to jumping into the game again. I must have lost my discs when I moved to a new apartment a few years ago.

2047

I don’t have specific information, but I would be highly surprised if it did not include the soundtrack. Leaving something like that out is just not the Good Old Games style - I seriously doubt they would release it without the soundtrack.

2048

I wonder how much work was done on I76? I remember the Gametap version worked very well but it only had software mode and it was very ugly. Plus I think the GT version had no music at all.

2049

Wait, the Red Baron pack includes Red Baron 3D? DAMN IT! I’d have bought it in a heartbeat if I’d realized that. But the sale ran through February 15th, not March 15th. Argh.

I guess I’ll just have to settle for $10. Which is still a good price.

2050

Yeah, I think that was the general consensus. I can’t remember, but I have a hazy memory of Tom liking parts of IV, but said III was the best. I could be completely wrong.

EDIT: I was close. He did really like it.

2051

Hells to the yeah. Never played Caesar 4, but I LOVED 3. I’m hoping they also get Zeus and Emperor. :)

2052

Heh.

Caesar 3 was great.

Except when it wasn’t. C3 is the reason the City Builder genre got overhauled so completely by Impressions and Tilted Mill over the years.

So to begin with: yes, CIII was a great game. It looked gorgeous back in 1999 when it came out. It was a micro-manager’s delight, with tons of fiddly things you had to do just to keep an upright city remaining upright.

…and that was sort of the problem, too. If you aren’t a micro-management freak, CIII is horrific. Workers don’t go where they should, they miss entire streets well within their area of walking…and the game is insanely difficult on higher levels regarding how buildings evolve and devolve and the kind of feedback given to the player on why one or the other is happening. It was so hard, in fact, that Sierra had to release a patch that addressed the difficulty of the game. The patch relaxed some of the overreactions in your city, but they never did give the player more feedback to prevent or correct those problems.

Pharaoh (to a lesser extent), Zeus (which for me remains the pinnacle of the Sierra city builders) and Emperor all developed off the Caesar III model and fixed many of the problems with walkers, areas of influence, and feedback to the player to allow for more successful management of a city.

When I beta-tested Caesar IV, I went back and played Caesar III. After having experienced Pharaoh/Cleopatra, Zeus, Emperor, and Children of the Nile, I found Caesar III to be hopelessly dated in game mechanics, interface, and feedback; it was an absolute chore to play, and after struggling through 4 hours of it I uninstalled it. If you’re a fan of those later games, I think it might be tough to go back. If you’ve never played Caesar III and are a fan of the genre, maybe it might be worth a look. Otherwise, wait it out; Sierra (and presumably GOG) has better builders waiting to come.

2053

Damn right, seconded. I played 'em all, really loved 'em all, but Zues SERIOUSLY clicked for me. If they release that one, I’ll buy it that day.

2054

I wish they would get Zeus and Pharaoh. Somehow, I never picked those up.

2055

I hope so too, I lost my copies ages ago. Sigh.

2056

HOHOHO Interstate 76 is coming!
Can’t wait.

2057

I’ll be very interested to see if people can get Interstate 76 working with a regular 360 controller scheme (left trigger for brakes, right trigger for acceleration, left thumbstick steers).

2058

I76! SOLD!!!

Oh I’ve wanted to play this again for so long, but last time I tried a good 4 years ago, the compatibility just wasn’t there. Damn was it fun though, and I’m betting, considering how well it handled the sidewinder, it’ll do 360 pad or wheel well enough.

2059

I76 was one of the very few games that I played again immediately after finishing the plot the first time, but at a higher difficulty. This was back in '99, using my trusty Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro joystick (which I still have–curse MS for dropping support for it in XP, well, at least for its software).

2060

I wonder if this GoG version will support my Force Feedback 2 (USB).

2061

Are the GOG versions of the Space Quest/SCI games better tweaked in any way than the dreadful shovelware collections on Steam that the publisher crapped out a few years ago?