First of all Fishing Cactus was late posting their update (not surprised there at all)
And they announced that the release of Creatures 4 is also going to be late. (not surprised at all)
They make it seem as if they are going above what they promised and taking in players comments and suggestions. I really doubt they are doing this, my guess is that they are behind. Reason I say this is because they do not list any factual information.
Before they start listing the vague reasons why they are late they try and distract with releasing a picture of the hatchery. Then make an announcement about Creatures is to be released for Droid. Without any idea of when of coarse.
Now after all that they list very vague reasons why they are late:
First, it simply took more time than we anticipated to reach our target quality and merge the Creatures engine into our own to bring the game to 3D. We’re very happy on how it’s going at the moment and we’ve finally reached a point where a freeform sandbox experience can run on its own without imploding into a black hole and suck in all of Belgium. What this means is that we’re finally adding our own layer of content to the game and it’s a very exciting time that feels like a new “aha” moment.
The first sentence is the only needed thing in this excuse, by padding this paragraph with the back patting comments it plays down the real meaning of this reason. They did not live up to their own deadlines, period. The rest of it is just BS.
The second reason is that we want to release a game that is better than what we originally anticipated. Obviously our goal was always to deliver a great game, but our vision has evolved as the project took life. The first showings of the game and your feedback gave us new ideas which will ultimately allow us to improve our original design in several ways. The trade-off is that we need more time.
Umm they list nothing, they give no information, so this sentence is not a fact and cannot be checked later. It could mean anything. It is very deceiving at best. They hint that they are going to add new things above the original plan because of user feedback, yet they do not list anything so we guess. I myself want a version to be played offline in case this company tanks. So are they “hinting” at that? or the user feedback of players wanting Ettins and Grendals? We will not know and we will not be able to verify that statement later so it means nothing except to create an illusion. What a joke that paragraph is.
In regards to the development, we’re designing and integrating a brand new layer of content: that covers all those things that never existed in Creatures before and that will make Creatures 4 a good game by its own merits. We want to bring new interactions with the environment and bring a sense of palpable evolution to the Norns.
It’s clear to us that the focal point of the series is breeding generations of Norns which are increasingly more capable of handling themselves and their world. How can we encourage that, how can the world around the Norns react to their evolution, etc. These are the kind of things we’re dealing with right now. The ultimate goal here is to avoid the over-complexity of Creatures 3 while extending its gameplay.
What? So they are adding something new .. which will be something that effects everything (well they hint that norns will react to their environment better) but they do not want to make it hard than Crestures 3? So they want to include more of the norn eviorment to the game and have the norns react to ther environment better than C3? As far as I remember they are still on the C1 model, the norns cannot be any smarter. They can be made to look like they are but they cannot truely be smarter or do anything more than the last version of Creatures.
What I think is fishing Cactus will make it look like it can do what in reality of the program does not mean much, so the comment about avoiding the over – complexity of Creatures 3 is actually admitting that. Besides who thinks Creatures 3 is over complex????? By that statement alone makes me think they are dumbing it down.
This is why I do not like the “Play for free” model and think this will hurt creatures, in fact this is not really creatures, it is a mutated, dumbed down version to be played with an old model and different graphics. it’s sole purpose is to get real creatures fans to sink money into this game in an ongoing basis instead of giving us the choice of buying a game and owning it and doing what we like to it. they will control us by having us be online and there will be no freedom for us to play as we like in different areas we used to.
Their only goal is to make money and have you pay and pay and pay.
As you can tell already I have no respect for fishing Cactus or the tactics of online games that sell content bit by bit nickel and dimeing us to death instead of paying for a whole fully functional game.
I will however continue to write about this game, people need to wake up about this scheme of premium content and I strongly suggest on not caving in and buying into it. I was going to buy the cd, but not unless it can be played online. I already have Gog.com releases and all the add-ons and norn packs of every version of creatures, the only thing else on that cd will be the crippled creatures “client” that will not work unless I am online.
And for Fishing Cactus, a message for you … from me… Prove me wrong, do the right thing and release a fully function version that can be played offline on the cd release. And then sell cd addons for Etins, Grendels or whatever you planned on adding later to this game.
Thank God for Steve Grand and him not quitting on a better, bigger and more advanced virtual Life game for us the real fans of his work. New types of creatures, new environments and new and exciting mythology!
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