E3 2006: Caesar IVTweetNews ID: 337 Date: 2006-05-10 Source: http://www.ign.com/articles/2006/05/11/e3-2006-caesar-iv Hail Caesar! You make a damn fine salad. BY DAN ADAMS Impressions games set the bar for historical city builders with their Caesar and Pharaoh titles back in the '90s. For fans of the genre, these were the bees knees. Thankfully, it looks like we'll all be getting another treat via the guys at Tilted Mill which just happens to be home for some ex-Impressions guys. We got another chance to see the game on the show floor today and remain please with what we've been shown. Caesar IV certainly looks like the most aesthetically pleasing of all of the 3D city builders at this point. Buildings are very detailed here. There's very little to see that isn't going to be fun to look at. In particular, some of the high level housing for the rich ass patricians that just sit on their bums and pay taxes are especially impressive. Tilted Mill has added new features to their engine recently like HDR lighting, specular maps, and reflections for items like domed roofs to add a bit more interest when cruising the camera around the city.  They're pretty much adding more of everything in the game including new industries, markets, and things for citizens to do. More interesting is the new structure of the people in the city. All citizens are split into different classes. Low class constitutes the industry work force and therefore will be the backbone of your cities. Middle class will be largely in charge of the entertainment properties including buildings like baths. And finally the high class patricians will sit on their fat asses and do nothing but pay taxes. City building is also a bit more interesting in general because roads and walls can actually be placed at different angles. While for the demo the walls and roads were locked to 45 degree angles, they can pretty much go anywhere. They haven't been made to curve at this point, but you never know what could happen by the time the game is released. As with most of these types of titles, players will have the choice to go down different paths through the campaign. Those without any military aspirations can simply choose to participate in the economic missions. However, those who have a desire to rule via brute force will find a much more robust RTS portion of the game. The military will be stronger with archer, melee, and cavalry to defend cities and attack neighbors. Troops will actually gain experience through battle as well in order to help defend the realm more efficiently. Caesar IV looks pretty good. We're going to look forward to another city building addiction pretty soon. Keep a look out for more info as it becomes available.
|
