Not the jackson song, the game! Just wondering how many people have played, enjoyed, completed, seen or have never heard of the masterful/terrible (choose your poison) Black & White.
I'm assuming everybody has heard of it at least? It went down a critical storm (not a zelda type media-tycoon, but a lot of press from the non-gaming press). For those that haven't it is a God sim with a difference, your the God, and you have to exert your influence (sometimes indirectly) to gain more followers. The more people worship you, the further your influence spreads, and the more the powers increase.
Two main things seperate this from RTS. Firstly, you only have basic control over your people. You can pick them up, drop them, throw them, drown them, burn them, hide them, strand them... a lot of stuff, but you can't order them like a real time strategy would have you do. You can set them to gather resources, breed, do missionary work or... well that's about it. They will have needs (more homes, civic buildings, food, wood, protection, etc.) which gains you more influence and them will stop nagging more if you provide. With the uninteractive control you have comes a way of control, albeit an indirect one. Your creature, aka. mini-me, aka. demi god. This little bugger, and you have your choice of bastard, is an 'AI' creature that you have to grow and feed (or let the bugger work it for himself), but more importantly train. You can instruct it to help gather resources, train it to cast spells, fight, destory, maim, kill, love, help, crap (incidently, you can beat it and instruct it not to crap, or to eat its own turd if your that way inclined).
The major thing about black and white, and where it gets its title, is that your a God, you can be the most evil son of a bitch to ever walk the heavens or be some bitch ass choir boy, the choice is up to you... or so went the guide as you were busy flinging your villagers as far as possible.
There are some major ciriticisms. B&W can have a steep learning curve, be very difficult to control (no real GUI, you have the hand of god you need to use to manipulate the your environment and position), the lack of direct control is fustrating, your creature is retarded and never does what you want (even after 2minute beating sessions), matches can last for hours, the villagers are little bitches, as well as some other outspoken issues. With all that said, it is extremely unique and innovative... it tried a lot of stuff that was quirky (name villagers after people in your contact list anyone?), and a lot of stuff it didn't quite pull off, but it still deserves a lot of credit in my book.
The game itself is pretty old now, although it doesn't look half bad (I just installed and play it at 1600x1200 and it looks extremely 'nice'), but the reason I reinstalled was because I really want to get into some game that isn't really commiting so it can eat up some time before I go off to the pub [i was thinking of an online game @ first, but I really can't be arsed with that marklarky atm and it can be extremely crap], and because... yes kiddies... a sequel is on the way. I'm very much looking forwards to this. The first was great, despite its quirks, its difficult and very strategic, and this sequel offers some major innovations and changes. The graphics of course are updated, and very suiting of a game of this kind:
<img src="http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/volcano02_1085179969.jpg" width=800>
<img src="http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/blackwhite2_051304_007.jpg" width=800>
<img src="http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/blackwhite2_051304_000.jpg" width=800>
<img src="http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/blackwhite2_051304_001.jpg" width=800>
<img src="http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/blackwhite2_051304_003.jpg" width=800>
<img src="http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/bw2diary6_040704_003.jpg" width=800>
<img src="http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/bw2diary6_040704_002.jpg" width=800>
<img src="http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/march04_bandw2pc__032604_000.jpg" width=800>
<img src="http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/march04_bandw2pc__032604_001.jpg" width=800>
<img src="http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/march04_bandw2pc__032604_002.jpg" width=800>
<img src="http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/march04_bandw2pc__032604_003.jpg" width=800>
), so although i know the basic story and what have you, I don't think I'm particularly good at it atm, since I only just reinstalled 2 days ago. That, and the presentation/update of Black and White 2 at E3 sparked this thread.
