So does anyone here have Black and White 2 yet?

[Occulus]

I'm getting it today or tomorrow and want to know what y'all think. I've been looking forward to this one for a while now....

Here's the screenies, if anyone's interested:

http://www.lionhead.com/bw2/screenshots.html

[nickgutierrez]

1. I didn't know it was out.

I loved the first game. :)

EDIT - the creature fight video clip looked pretty cool.

[democracyindanger]

2. not yet. you first. :)

[Occulus]

3. It certainly looks better than the first one. (quick review)

And the gameplay is a great deal more refined this time around. I think the biggest (and the most welcome) changes have been made to the creature itself; in BW2, the creature mind is pretty much directly accessible, meaning that you can micromanage what your creature knows if you like.

Additionally, the creature now has four or five specialized jobs you can use to make him/her into a more efficient helper. However, leaving the creature in this state for too long causes it to lose some of its free will. Too much, and the creature becomes a depressed robot-like being that's not nearly as much help as it could be.

One thing I haven't yet really warmed to is the idea of tribute. In BW2, you must earn tribute points by accomplishing certain tasks (for example, getting your creature to build 12 houses all by his lonesome garners 10,000 tribute points). Those points are then spent "buying" expansions to your godly powers- the fireball miracle, for example, costs something like 40,000 tribute. Other items, such as the nursery and the "rest home" (!), are accessed in a similar way.

BW2 currently has room FOR, but does not yet include, a skirmish/multiplayer mode. The code and files are even included, just not activated; to me, this means that the multiplayer aspect isn't yet finished, but will be added in later when it finally does get done.

I would recommend a system with access to lots and lots of ram (required is 512MB, I think), a newer video card- pixel shader 3.0 support is *nice*, but not required; I believe the game requires shader 2.1 or higher; pretty much any directx 9.0c-compatible card will run the game fairly well.

The official system reqs can be found at http://www.eagames/com/redesign/games/pccd/bw2/home.jsp .

Basically, if you liked or were at least intrigued/amused by the first Black & White, you'll like this game just as much, if not more so. If you hated the first game, maybe you should try it out somewhere anyway; a lot of improvements have been made. For me, at least, BW2 is worth the money.

[democracyindanger]

4. I got it, and

got bored. The slowdown and stuttering when populations got big was annoying. I got as far as the final island and got bored.

Oh well. It was sort of fun for a while.

[Sin]

5. Got it as well.

still running a fx 5200 it works and all but you wont get any of the the nice hair and what not so upgrading finally to a bfg 6800 GT oc with any luck that will fix me up and finally allow me to play some other games I have that were a wee bit slow.

Truly vast improvement in game play from what ive seen so far from the first can't wait to see it in all its glory.

[democracyindanger]

6. I got the graphics fine

but from reading the forums, there's a big issue with the load the AI puts on the CPU.

It's a pretty game, but be careful with the camera--if you choose the wrong angle, it gets sloooooow.