Black & White 2 Preview

On the other hand, maybe you're not the sadistic type. Let me guess. You weren't the one who bullied kids at school - you were the one being bullied (You just described 96% of our readers -Ed.). In that case, you will find the path of peace highly appealing, as it offers you the chance to help your tribe flourish and prosper under your wise reign. This means you will have to take care of your citizens, making sure they are content and well fed, and there is no mention of overtime work at the sneakers factory. The building and the city management segment of the game is made fairly simple and very user-friendly, allowing for quick and painless creation of city buildings and constructions. Depending on the way you decide to place the buildings, your city will assume a suitable look, so the style of construction affects the way the city looks and functions. Closely placed buildings house more people who in turn become a bit edgy at the prospect of sharing their personal space with many others. The click-and-drag system is present in all fields, from building infrastructure to organizing your citizens. Dropping your citizens near a field will result in their working on the field. Whenever you purposefully place a citizen near another citizen or an object, they will assume you want them to perform a specific action or consecrate to a certain job.

OK, guys, we need to remove plaque off his teeth.

I offer you this baldheaded geeky guy as a token of my gratitude.

As a god of peace, you will find yourself in a great predicament during times of war, as you won't be dedicated to recruiting soldiers but to leading an idyllic, peaceful life in harmony with your neighbors. This is because your advanced empire won't only draw attention of other peaceful tribes that will wish to join you in your harmonic existence; it will also become an object of interest (and envy) for all those warmongering, disturbingly aggressive people who find strange pleasure in killing and taking things by force. Developing your city into a cultural center and building a far-flung civilization will influence others to join you, resulting in their moving to your city where you will be able to convert them to your citizens.

As for your creature, in the peaceful scenario it won't be prone to engaging in battle, preferring to enjoy the life of harmony and tranquility. Sensitive creatures will supposedly even weep for their fellow comrades, while the "tougher" ones will participate in the defense of the city, still unwilling to cause any harm to others. Peaceful creatures are more self-reliant, but you'll obviously have to learn to deal with their emotional outbursts. (Beatings. Beatings are the only way. - Smap)

There are many other things to do apart from ordering your citizens to procreate or force people to work at the shoe factory. (You have to order them to procreate? They sound like Smap -Ed) You will be allowed to appreciate fully your divine powers by performing all kinds of "miracles" within the boundaries of your realm. The life of your citizens will be in your hands, so if you think some of them deserve a short swim with the sharks (speaking metaphorically) you are free to give the bastard a quick but energetic shove into the pool. Being a god means you'll have a direct influence on almost everything within your "realm," and you will also be granted the freedom to perform the so-called Epic Miracles, creating events of large and sometimes frightening proportions. There are fewer spells available to the player this time around, but they are supposedly more spectacular looking and more effective. One example is the fireball spell with lava gushing out of it.

The "liquid engine" the game runs on allows for the creation of many impressive visual effects along with neat physics tricks. With a mere flick of the mouse, people end up dead at the bottom of a cliff. You see how everything makes sense. The advanced physics system integrated into the game should help make the gaming experience all the more enjoyable. And then, of course, there is the question of the graphics.

Lionhead Studios have put a lot of effort into creating a living world populated with realistically animated people and creatures, paying attention to every single detail. Thus, the game allows you to zoom out and see the lay of the land, or zoom in and take a closer look at the colorfully designed environments where even tiny details such as individual blades of grass are visible. The point was to imbue the world with a breath of life and make it more believable, which is certainly something every god-game aspires to do. "The design philosophy was to create a graphics engine which supported what the game was, giving the player the ability to create the most beautiful and amazing cities and to make every graphical feature in the land change to reflect what the player is like, as well as the ability to create massive armies and have huge battles," admits Molyneux. Your style of play effects the weather effects, as well as the landscape, with evil gods causing desolate, grim-looking scenery and peaceful gods throwing flowers around in the manner of a '60s hippie chasing after the purple haze. Your disposition will be visible on your creature as well, with evil creatures growing ever more vicious and peaceful creatures spreading an aura of love and peace around themselves.

As for the rest of the story, Black & White 2 is scheduled for release at the end of the year, with no hints about turning it into a multi-platform project as yet. Molyneux has promised the "best RTS game ever," inviting the public to start flaming him for his bold statement. And we all know he's used to that - both making bold statements and being flamed for them when it turns out only a minor fraction of it was based in reality.