Sid Meier
Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 2:40 pm
Being that the Railroad Tycoon Series was initially started by him I figured I'd make a post about him and his games. I generally think he is overhyped and not that great of a game designer. The majority of the people here think RT2 and RT3 are better than RT1 and Railroads! You might say we'll it's not like RT1 has a chance against the later technology of RT2 and RT3 but Sid had his own chance in Railroads! and dropped the ball.
He also gets hyped up for his work in earlier games like Civilization, Colonization, and Alpha Centuari. Turn based building/civilization developing games. Alpha Centuari I think got rated a 98% in PC Gamer Magizine which was the highest rating for any game in that magizine ever I believe. I think Half-Life or some other game might have now tied it at 98%. While Alpha Centuari was a decent game, it wasn't as great as was all the magizines said it was. In fact another game out there created by largely just 1 person and lacking the funding and graphics of Alpha Centuari seemed to be a much better game to me. (Space Empires) In both games you could customize your units, but in Alpha Centuari you essentially had maybe 5-10 different choices to use to customize a unit and could only have a limited number of customized units. In Space Empires every unit was customized as you desired and the research trees were infinitely larger and better. In addition, there was the ability to mod Space Empires, which was lacking in Alpha Centauri.
Assuming Alpha Centauri was even worth the 98% it was rated in game reviews, it's predesessor Civilization IV was a let down. The research tree was more limited again, unit choices were restricted to just a few choices per era you were in versus Alpha Centauri with some customization, and the diplomacy options seemed fewer.
So at least to me from the various games of his that he has developed that I have played, he seems like an overhyped game designer.
I also thought the Civilization: Call to Power Series (not made by Sid) were just as good if not better than his own Civilization games. These games provided for more unit choices and more government choices.
He also gets hyped up for his work in earlier games like Civilization, Colonization, and Alpha Centuari. Turn based building/civilization developing games. Alpha Centuari I think got rated a 98% in PC Gamer Magizine which was the highest rating for any game in that magizine ever I believe. I think Half-Life or some other game might have now tied it at 98%. While Alpha Centuari was a decent game, it wasn't as great as was all the magizines said it was. In fact another game out there created by largely just 1 person and lacking the funding and graphics of Alpha Centuari seemed to be a much better game to me. (Space Empires) In both games you could customize your units, but in Alpha Centuari you essentially had maybe 5-10 different choices to use to customize a unit and could only have a limited number of customized units. In Space Empires every unit was customized as you desired and the research trees were infinitely larger and better. In addition, there was the ability to mod Space Empires, which was lacking in Alpha Centauri.
Assuming Alpha Centauri was even worth the 98% it was rated in game reviews, it's predesessor Civilization IV was a let down. The research tree was more limited again, unit choices were restricted to just a few choices per era you were in versus Alpha Centauri with some customization, and the diplomacy options seemed fewer.
So at least to me from the various games of his that he has developed that I have played, he seems like an overhyped game designer.
I also thought the Civilization: Call to Power Series (not made by Sid) were just as good if not better than his own Civilization games. These games provided for more unit choices and more government choices.