Path: utzoo!utgpu!cunews!bnrgate!bwdls61.bnr.ca!bwdls58!bwdls40!keithh
From: keithh@bwdls40.bnr.ca (Keith Hanlan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: DON'T BUY FUTURE WARS (was Re: Evaluating Amiga Games)
Message-ID: <5188@bwdls58.UUCP>
Date: 9 Jan 91 17:12:50 GMT
References: <QbWWrmW00WB_MZ234z@andrew.cmu.edu>
Sender: news@bwdls58.UUCP
Reply-To: keithh@atreus.bnr.ca (Keith Hanlan)
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ltd.
Lines: 38

In article <QbWWrmW00WB_MZ234z@andrew.cmu.edu> kg19+@andrew.cmu.edu (Kurt A. Geisel) writes:
>I am preparing for another games order and I would like to know a
>few important points about the following games, if anyone would like
>to comment:
>
>...
>Future Wars

Future Wars was promising but:
	o While it can be installed on a hard-disk as advertised, the game
	doesn't run properly from a HD. You can't save the game.

	o The user interface is very awkward and poorly designed - the 3D
	perspective is nice but it is very difficult to place your character
	in exactly the right place to perform a function. (For example, you
	walk across a carpeted room and feel something under the carpet a
	one point. When you try to lift the carpet, unless you are in
	exactly the right position, the game tells you either that you are
	standing on the carpet or you are too far from the carpet.) It takes
	too many iterations of simple movements to get the game to do what
	you want  and as a consequence, game-play is seriously compromised.

	o The North American distributer, Interplay Productions, has no
	handle on the game designers, Delphine who are French.  In 4
	telephone conversations with Interplay since May 25th, I have yet to
	receive any satisfaction. I spent a lot of money on the game because
    it advertised itself as hard-disk installable.
	
	I'm sick of being robbed by these incompetant boobs who have never 
	heard of play-testing or beta-testing. SSI's much vaunted Pool of
	Radiance falls into the same category: A good game, that is
	hard-drive installable to their credit, which fails miserably
	because nobody tried to play the goddam thing before they shipped
	it. Perhaps I'm a little sensitive to the issue since I spent two
	years doing human factors and user interface R&D but ARGGGGHHH!

off soap-box
Keith