Sierra closes its doors!

[eobet]

May all game publishers get their private areas barbequed by you-know-who!

But, alas, a silver lining: Just as I thought I'd never see a Pharaoh 2, I discover this site (via the City Builder Series forum, actually).

I liked the Caesar games, but simply loved Pharaoh due to the added challenge of the Nile. Unfortunately, Zeus and Emperor didn't appeal to me. In my eyes, they were "dumbed down" versions of Pharaoh (simplified housing, for example).

This game will hopefully fill the void, even though 3D graphics have never appealed to me.

I will now dig around this site to see if the game can live up to the Impression Games' series!

[eobet]

Whoop, ok, after just some initial reading, I see that Tilted Mill is apparently what remains of Impression Games?

Very nice.

Btw, if any of you are reading this:

Shame on you for the abomination that is Lords of the Realm 3! :mad:

But perhaps you wanted to just get that game out there so you could work on this one instead? One can only hope...

[eobet]

Reading some more: The game is based on Empire Earth, apparently.

My god, isn't that game three years old? Surely there must be better 3D platforms availible today?

[EmperorJay]

Empire Earth was released in 2001; Tilted Mill was founded in 2001. So at the time this project was launched, the Empire Earth engine was brand new.

They licensed it and then updated it. I suppose this updated engine is not the very best that's out there, but it certainly does its job according to the screenshots! And an engine is just that, an engine. The graphics and gameplay are not part of that.

[Kazem]

It may be the Empire Earth engine but i'd imagine its been upgraded alot. Like how call of duty was based on the return to castle wolfenstein engine, and they both look totally different.

[Azeem]

Shame on you for the abomination that is Lords of the Realm 3!

Not all of the Tilted Mill team worked on "Lords of the Realm 3" (or even "Emperor"). The remnants of the Impressions Games staff at Sierra developed it. What's so bad about Lords3 anyway? :) The developers had already made it clear that it was not going to be another Lords2 with pretty graphics.

Secondly, if you've looked at the screenshots for "Children of the Nile," you'd notice that they've greatly enhanced the "Empire Earth" engine. Just because it's an old engine doesn't mean it can't be enhanced.

[eobet]

I wasn't terribly impressed by the screenshots. There's a game in development called Medieval Lords, which looks quite a lot better.

Imo, the only company ever which has managed to succesfully convert its 2D style and detail to 3D is Blizzard with World of Warcraft. Their textures are works art, each and every one of them.

I though the buildings in Pharaoh were absolutely lovely... Zeus as well (some of them). But Emperor lost something, can't really say what (only briefly played the demo). These 3D graphics also seem to lack some of the detail of Pharaoh.

Anyway... Lords of the Realm 3... I think they forgot put to put an important thing in it... like an actual game! :p

[vovan]

Imo, the only company ever which has managed to succesfully convert its 2D style and detail to 3D is Blizzard with World of Warcraft.

Hold on, now, WoW is not a conversion of anything 2D; WC3, however, is.

These 3D graphics also seem to lack some of the detail of Pharaoh.


That's always been my main gripe with 3D games. Someone converts to 3D, and all of a sudden, they go on a poly-count diet, and things just don't seem so real any more as they did in 2D. But, I would say it's too early to judge this baby. We just have to wait and see.

[IC5]

Actually, eobet, the majority of TM folks were looong gone for almost 2 years before Lords 3 was released, so I wouldn't hold them accountable for any perceived shortcomings in that game.

[Cironir]

It is sad that with Sierra another name of the "glorious gaming days" vanishes, swallowed by Vivendi (I'm curious to see if they'll choke on Steam, though). But let's face it, Sierra hasn't been what it used to be for a long time now. Heck, cynics may say that Sierra already died when Ken and Roberta sold it for a billion. :)

[IC5]

Reality vs. Good PR (and splash of rose-covered "those were the days" glasses). K & R were normal people, like everyone else - not everthing they touched was gold, and they had their share of questionable decisions and outright bad ideas. Look at the Sierra lineup of releases '94 to '97, when it still a K&R show, and you'll see some craptastic games.

[Cironir]

Most companies of Sierra's size have released some "crappy games" in their history, and it's impossible not to be sentimental (I confess to the rose-coloured glasses) if you talk about a company whose games you were in love love with nearly two decades ago, but Sierra's responsible for a number of milestone games such as King's Quest, LSL, Gabriel Knight, Manhunter (I liked those, not sure how popular they were). One of the more successful Sierra games I couldn't stand was Phantasmagoria. I think they sold the company in 1996.

[Josh]

Would anyone happen to have the link to the website/blog of one of the former owners of sierra.. I would like to see what he has to say about these matters.

I dont remember enough details to do a google search for it, just that it was intresting and detailed the history of sierra.

[Elvenwarrior2001]

Dunno. I have a link to the still running Sierra forums:

http://community.vugames.com/WebX?14@161.J6SmbK2gJ7e.0@.ef70939

Although it's probably officially VU games forums now. :p I linked you to the Lords of Magic forum, but you should be able to navigate to all of the forums from there. Unfortunately those forums, or at least the Lords of Magic one, will probably go down eventually. :( But I have my own Lords of Magic community to keep the flame going.

http://pub84.ezboard.com/btheinnofurak

I'm really disappointed with VU. I somehow thing there won't be a lot of graet products coming out of there real soon.

Elven

[Reed]

Would anyone happen to have the link to the website/blog of one of the former owners of sierra.. I would like to see what he has to say about these matters.Here you go, Ken Williams is running this:
http://www.sierragamers.com/

There's a bunch of interesting stuff in the Museum section. Sierra was my favorite company in the 80s and early 90s - I loved their adventure games. Especially the Space Quest and King's Quest series.

[Keith]

Here you go, Ken Williams is running this:
http://www.sierragamers.com/

There's a bunch of interesting stuff in the Museum section. Sierra was my favorite company in the 80s and early 90s - I loved their adventure games. Especially the Space Quest and King's Quest series.
What a blast from the past! :) Space Quest was my favorite game back in those days. I was very sad the day my install disks became corrupted and I could no longer install the game on my computer. By that time the game was no longer available.

Hey! Maybe Tilted Mill should consider a Space Quest revival using the 3D engine they are using for CotN! ;)

Sometimes I miss those side scrolling old adventure games.

http://members.aol.com/dheitm8612/horus2.gif
Keith Heitmann
http://members.aol.com/dheitm8612/my-cartouche.gif
dheitm8612@aol.com (mailto:dheitm8612@aol.com)
Pharaoh Music Jukebox (http://members.aol.com/dheitm8612/java/pharaoh.htm)

[Josh]

Thanks for that link, it was exactly what I was looking for.

[Anguille]

Sad... :mad:

Empire Earth 2 could be interesting...otherwise it'll be probably the end of good games under the brand Sierra.

[JuliaSet]

VU started reaming Sierra and Impressions staff a few years back. That meant that the wonderful talent pool was greatly reduced for LOTR, yet those employees remaining were required to finish the projects without enough workers! Lords of the Realm was the primary victim of the cutbacks.

Everyone there was of great talent, but the number of workers needed was probably one tenth of what was required for a 3d venture and working out 3D MP issues, all new ingredients for them.

COTN has the right talent. They are one of the few developers that will beta test for an intense, but short period of time. When the beta testers see COTN, it will be needing a few details, many eyes to catch small things, a little balance, but everything else will be ready. I hope to enjoy that intense, wild, exciting, short beta experience with the folks who started citybuilding so many years ago.

I am ready for more citybuilders!
Faithfully,
Julia

[satsui]

I hate Sierra, like no offense or anything. I've played quite a few games from them, and every game they have is overloaded with bugs until they release a patch, and that usually takes a few months, at the least. Yeah, Empire Earth was awesome, although got dull really fast, but there was like 10 billion problems , for almost a whole year, then they finally released patch 1.whatever, followed by 2.0 which totally ruined the originally cool multiplayer already. It verifies the cd-key if you try to play a LAN game. Don't most people, when they host a LAN party, put the same copy on all computers, so everyone can play the same game? They're still releasing patches 3 years after the release, and yet the computer still cheats horribly.

[Keith]

It verifies the cd-key if you try to play a LAN game. Don't most people, when they host a LAN party, put the same copy on all computers, so everyone can play the same game?
No. Tell your cheap friends to go out and buy their own copy of the the game. If they can't afford it, that's their hard luck.

They're still releasing patches 3 years after the release, and yet the computer still cheats horribly.
And that's bad? You should be glad that they are still supporting the game after 3 years with patches.

I played EE and it does cheat tremendously on single player. Since the computer cannot think on its own it has to be given a edge to compete with the ever variable human mind. I do think they did go a little overboard though and it was frustrating and the major reason I stopped playing the game entirely.
http://members.aol.com/dheitm8612/horus2.gif
Keith Heitmann (mailto:dheitm8612@aol.com) a.k.a Nuthin-in-khamun
Listen to the music of the CityBuilders while online:
Caesar III Music Player (http://www.geocities.com/kheitmann1/C3Player.htm)•Pharaoh Music Jukebox (http://members.aol.com/dheitm8612/java/pharaoh.htm)•Zeus Music Jukebox (http://members.aol.com/dheitm8612/java/Zeus.htm)•Emperor's Music Box (http://members.aol.com/dheitm8612/java/erotmk.htm)•Children of the Nile & Quiz (http://panzerblitz.proboards9.com/index.cgi#test)

[Josh]

I hate Sierra, like no offense or anything. I've played quite a few games from them, and every game they have is overloaded with bugs until they release a patch, and that usually takes a few months, at the least.


I dont see why people cant understand that the problems with one game studio under the publishers name, doesnt hold true for every single studio under the publisher.

Sierra hasnt made games in ages, (were the kings quest the last real "sierra" games?) they just owned a bunch of studios who made the games and they shipped disks, advertised, promoted and whatnot.

What games were you playing that had quite a few bugs, it probably wasnt an Impressions game, even though they were under the seirra logo.