Zoomba

Join Date 11/2002

+114

IGN Gives Dark Avatar a 9/10 and an Editor's Choice Award!

If you've been past the PC section of IGN today, you'll see a massive, evil looking robot staring at you framed by the words "Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar Review." This makes IGN the first media outlet to put up a review for the expansion to one of the top games of 2006. The review is a glowing endorsement of the expansion and a good read if you're on the fence about the game.

Another indicator of how good Dark Avatar it that after awarding Dread Lords an 8.7 last year, Steve Butts gave Dark Avatar a 9.0!

Here's a little bit of what Steve had to say:

"Dread Lords was great and Dark Avatar is even better. The new additions enlarge the experience considerably, even if they don't exactly change the overall purpose or personality of the game. The inclusion of tech-prerequisites for colonization of certain environments is probably the most significant change here but there are plenty of other new features here that force the player into new and interesting situations. That you get some ample improvements in graphics and AI is just icing on the cake."

Read more of the review here.

w00t! 9.0!

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Stardock, I would like to say "Good job!"

I picked up GalCiv I in a store when I looked at the back cover and figured it was worth the money to try something different. At the time, I didn't have internet and was wanting some good single-player gaming. And I got it.

I spent a good couple years on the game and although I never picked up Altarian Prophecies, was quite pleased.

I don't look forward to many games being released, but when Penny Arcade mentioned something about GalCiv II, I added it to the list, which has in the past included such titles as Warcraft III, Half-Life 2, and currently has Supreme Commander. That is the level that I enjoy your games.

Dark Avatar is quite enjoyable, and I would just like to thank you for the effort you put into your games: It is notices and relished. It is certainly enjoyable to roll a galaxy once every week or two and play over several days.

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NICE! I was wondering when we would have a review for DA.

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Well deserved, no question. Free publicity is good, too. The better DA sells the more likely another expansion or the like becomes.

Regardless of what the future holds, though, congrats SD!

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I was wondering if you could make a civ prefer one tech line over another. Such as making the drengins research mass drivers and industry instead of diplomacy.

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Congratulations Stardock. You guys are going through the right path with gamers and the industry in general by putting all your efforts and love in a game, and it shows. I'd say you'll have a very prosperous future if you keep it up

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Ign page 3 says:

Finally, though we'd heard rumors that the foundation for multiplayer does exist somewhere in the game, Dark Avatar is still a solo affair

Anything to prove/disprove this stardock? (Hint hint kryo)

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WOOT! Whose house? Brad's house!

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

(Hint hint kryo)

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Lord Reliant

Join Date 03/2006

+39

I saw in the review:

The new civs and the civ creation tool add a lot of replayability to the game. Picking your new race's abilities, weaknesses, government, overall aesthetic and so forth really lets you tailor the experience to your own tastes.

Picking weaknesses? This is the first I heard of that. I went to look at Brad's Guided Tour of Dark Avatar and didn't see anything that mentioned how you could customize your race, only mention of opponents, so I'm curious what's new with that. I know you can choose your race's special ability, but what about weaknesses, etc.?

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Picking weaknesses? This is the first I heard of that. I went to look at Brad's Guided Tour of Dark Avatar and didn't see anything that mentioned how you could customize your race, only mention of opponents, so I'm curious what's new with that. I know you can choose your race's special ability, but what about weaknesses, etc.?

While I am happy that IGN gave such a good score to DA, they did have a few mistakes like this in the review, which leads me to believe that the reviewer got elements of GC I mixed in his review. Here is another:

This time around you're not limited to playing as the humans either (unless you've chosen a particular scenario, that is). You can now try your hand at leading all the other civilizations...

You could play as any of the races in Dread Lords. Not major stuff, as I am sure the reviewers see tons of games, but noticeable nonetheless.

Anyways, HURRAY FOR THE 9.0!!

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Zydor

Join Date 03/2006

+38

From IGN that was praise indeed, and with an exceptional score rating to match.

All well deserved by the dev team, well done all - you should be justifiably proud of your efforts, we are

That'll put some Major Titles on the spot, because if they dont release quality Expansion Packs as well - instead of the usual revenue targeted drivel - a very large number of Gamers will point to Stardock and say "they did, why cant you ..... ". There could be a few Rival dev teams sticking pins in your wooden dolls in private ...

Great Job

Regards
Zy

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This is certainly more than well deserved, in my opinion. I won my first DA game today and if the feeling of completion and satisfaction is the ultimate measure of a game (as it in for me,) DA passed with flying colors. It felt like "my" campaign, not something that was force fed to me. You gave me tools, and I used them to do what I wanted. It's sort of the Elder Scrolls of 4x games - and from an Elder Scrolls fanatic, that's saying a lot.

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This is the 4x game to get. The competition is a few parsecs away. After much hard work, a bit of deserved accolade for a solid game.

Having a blast!

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5 Stars from Gamespy!

Not often you get a three page review for an expansion

"perhaps it's time that the Stardock crew got some credit for the amazing things they're doing with computer AI."

Just one of the many positive comments.

WWW Link

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Though the new expansion pack includes all the content from Dread Lords, this review will focus on the new additions.

Hello forum! For some reason, the existence of Galatical Civilazations has eluded my attention. I guess I was so turned off by MOO3, that I have passed every opportunity to even read about other space civ games... Only when a preview of Dark Avatar appeared at wargamer.com did I read about this game. Since then, I've been demoing away (and what a cool game GalCiv2 is!!!), waiting for the Gold Edition to become available here in Europe. And then I read this quote in the review... what the heck does that mean? Do I get the full sandbox mode from DA? Do I only need the Gold Edition, if I want to play the original Dread Lords campaign??

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

Do I only need the Gold Edition, if I want to play the original Dread Lords campaign??

The gold edition includes both the original game, campaign and all, and the expansion.

Unfortunately details have not been sorted yet for European distribution. Until/unless that happens, you can still order direct from us. The Gold Edition is USD$44.95, plus $10 if you want the retail box shipped to you in Europe rather than simply downloading the entire thing (if you get the retail box, you can still download it).

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Arh, sorry Kryo, I wasn't being clear. The question I need the answer to is this: If I get Dark Avatar, will I be able to play the sandbox mode?

But thanks for the reply. I've made a similar post in the DA sub forum. Feel free to answer whereever, and delete any redundant posts if you wish.

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

Yes, you can play the sandbox mode in either DA or DL with the Gold Edition.

Edit: ok, from your other post I understand that you want to know if you can buy just DA itself without having GC2 already, so you can save money over the gold edition? In this case the answer is no. DA requires GC2 in order to be installed or played, so if you don't already have GC2 your cheapest option is to get the Gold Edition, which includes both.

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