Anno 2070 Catch All (Demo available)

I did pick up Dawn of Discovery on Steam a year ago, because I didn't realize it had the DRM. Otherwise I would have bought it on DVD.

If anyone's waffling over it, stop waffling and get the disc version. The game is absolutely magnificent. One of my most played titles last year.

But you said it was patched out, so you have to install TAGES to begin with?

Malor wrote:

But you said it was patched out, so you have to install TAGES to begin with?

From some reading around, it sounded like people with the original disk version, who did have to install TAGES, were given a tool in the patch to completely remove TAGES, assuming that it wasn't being used by some other program. As for what the status of TAGES is in the DVD that you can buy at, say Amazon, I really don't know.

Poppinfresh wrote:
Malor wrote:

But you said it was patched out, so you have to install TAGES to begin with?

From some reading around, it sounded like people with the original disk version, who did have to install TAGES, were given a tool in the patch to completely remove TAGES, assuming that it wasn't being used by some other program. As for what the status of TAGES is in the DVD that you can buy at, say Amazon, I really don't know.

I'm pretty sure when I installed from DVD, it did not install Tages. I think it's installed when you first try to run the game. I patched before I ran the game for the first time, and I never saw any mention of Tages being installed. I'm not 100% certain though.

syndicatedragon wrote:
Poppinfresh wrote:
Malor wrote:

But you said it was patched out, so you have to install TAGES to begin with?

From some reading around, it sounded like people with the original disk version, who did have to install TAGES, were given a tool in the patch to completely remove TAGES, assuming that it wasn't being used by some other program. As for what the status of TAGES is in the DVD that you can buy at, say Amazon, I really don't know.

I'm pretty sure when I installed from DVD, it did not install Tages. I think it's installed when you first try to run the game. I patched before I ran the game for the first time, and I never saw any mention of Tages being installed. I'm not 100% certain though.

I installed it from DVD (bought from the link I posted earlier), and it definitely installed Tages. After the patch was applied, I removed the Tages exe files from the game directory and everything ran fine. It's definitely not in use by the patched game. According to the Tages site, the drivers are sometimes installed on first use. This seems to be the case for me, since running their removal tool showed that Tages wasn't installed.

I guess applying the patch immediately after installation will avoid any Tages installs.

Oh nice, I was wondering when were going to get an update. I was just thinking about this one the other day, after listening to the Three Moves Ahead about city builders.

Great, because Q4 wasn't busy enough yet. Wonder if 11/17 will be the NA release date as well.

SUPPOSEDLY, this will have one-time online activation DRM. Of course, we've all heard that before from Ubi haven't we...

http://forums-de.ubi.com/eve/forums/...

RPS has posted an interview with the developer.

Spoiler:

Flying cars!

syndicatedragon wrote:

SUPPOSEDLY, this will have one-time online activation DRM. Of course, we've all heard that before from Ubi haven't we...

http://forums-de.ubi.com/eve/forums/...

The Anno series has almost always had crap DRM, so this is probably going to continue in that tradition.

Demo available here

Nightmare wrote:

Demo available here

Woot! I can't wait to try this tonight. Thanks for the heads up.

Grrrrrrrrr. No time. No time. No time.

Just when I thought this weekend was for Costume Quest....sorry kid, maybe next time.

Played through the demo.

It's... Anno. There's really no other way to describe it. Looked great on my system, enough that it's a purchase for me.

Unfortunately, it's not on Steam, and Ubisoft is only distributing it digitally(so no Amazon for a physical copy). Impulse and the other major DD services do have it, though.

cube wrote:

Played through the demo.

It's... Anno. There's really no other way to describe it. Looked great on my system, enough that it's a purchase for me.

Unfortunately, it's not on Steam, and Ubisoft is only distributing it digitally(so no Amazon for a physical copy). Impulse and the other major DD services do have it, though.

I agree. It's Dawn of Discovery with a new skin. Not that I don't appreciate that. The 15th century was getting a little long in the tooth. That said, $50 seems a bit steep for what it is. Unless reviews (here and elsewhere) can convince me otherwise, I'll be waiting for a sale. Perhaps holiday 2012?

Most of the difference I noticed were subtle, such as each island having a set amounts of basic resources to mine out, such as coal or iron, that you can check at a glance on the top bar. The build menu was streamlined. You click on the end product you want, and it shows you the whole chain of buildings required to produce it. The ecological impact aspect of resource extraction and energy production is entirely new, but they didn't really show the effects in the demo, other than seeing the number drop deeper into the negatives as I built more infrastructure. The UI in general seemed a little too... clean? If that makes sense. It seemed to lack personality. Very functional but maybe too sterile. The building grid is a nice touch.

Definitely very pretty. The buildings didn't seem to look very distinct, but I only really got to see four or five different ones. Zooming in made everything come to life, but if it's like the Anno 1404 I'll spend all my time in the middle zoom level and I won't notice much of the detail.

cube wrote:

Played through the demo.

It's... Anno. There's really no other way to describe it. Looked great on my system, enough that it's a purchase for me.

Sounds like I can pass. DanyBoy makes some good points but at the end of the day it sounds like a futuristic skin to an Anno game.

I found the demo to be underwhelming. I like the setting change, and there are some nice refinements to the interface, but the scenarios available in the demo didn't highlight any of the new gameplay elements. It seemed as DMan-777 said, "Dawn of Discovery with a new skin". In my opinion they really should have included at least one "advanced" scenario to set the game apart. Some stellar reviews might change my mind, but as it is I'm not buying this at $50.

The demo was nice, but as others have said, it feels like a skin or mod. I'll definitely pick it up when it goes on sale.

Digital distribution only, and it's not on Steam.

Anyone else get the feeling that Ubisoft is actively trying to kill off their PC business? They sure alienated a lot of us with their horrific DRM, and now they've actually gone so far as to deliberately make the product hard to purchase?

I'd say they're trying to kill their PC studio(s), and this is the only way they can do so while fulfilling their contracts.

Trying to be optimistic, perhaps for a PC only game it's not worth pursuing retail.

I seem to recall reading that while the US/UK are a wasteland for PC retail, in continental Europe where I would imagine this game is likely to be strongest PC retail isn't a joke. You can actually go into a games store and find PC games. It's meant to be completely different over there. In a way that makes it even more odd as Ubisoft is a French company, and BlueByte is Belgian I think.

Ubi pulled Anno 1404 off of Steam in March this year for some reason. Since every other version has been patched, the rumor is that it's because they didn't want to patch the Steam version.

At this point Valve need to offer a service like GOG or nixxes that once the developer has finished their part in production, they take over maintenance and making the most of it on their platform (and hat additions). It's almost as though Ubisoft got bored of it after they made it and it got the initial sales, and just want to cut it loose afterwards.

Now available on Steam.

Hmm, maybe Ubi is not trying to kill off their PC franchises after all and are just slow?

Annoying. I likely would have pre-ordered on Steam at some point in the past if I could have gotten the usual 5-10% discount. Now I look at my pile and I'm torn.

Edit: And I caved. I'm weak I tell you. Weak.

Looks perfect for a nice sale. Dawn of Discovery was great and a re-skinned version with flying cars sounds delightful.

If for some reason you're like me and you feel the urge to play RIGHT THIS SECOND, you may want to hit up D2D instead of Steam, as the Steam version isn't unlocking just yet.

Oh well. I really had planned to sink my teeth into this tomorrow night anyway.