anno (domini that is)

So Anno 1404 turned up on Tuesday.

I can't say I did much more than in install it on Tuesday. I've been feeling very run down this last week. I dunno if it's been a knock-on from the intense work of the last few weeks, but it's taken me half a week to feel even vaguely normal again.

Anyway, I had a bit more of a play last night and I'm fairly impressed. There have been a few niggles, though.

One of the most obvious was the complete rubbishness that was the manual. Traditionally, complex strategy games come with a fairly decent manual. This is because they can be quite complex, but also because they tend to launch you straight into that complexity without anything much to really cushion the blow.

They compensate for this with a manual that explains the basics. Plus, the type of person that plays this sort of game tends to be the sort of person who will generally read a manual.

However, Anno's manual is rubbish. It virtually just tells you how to install and start the game.

I was unimpressed - this might be okay for someone who's never played Anno before, but for newbie's like myself it feels like you're being dropped off the deep end.

However, it turns out that the campaign mode actually acts as a "trainer" as well. It's broken up into missions, with each mission having a series of sub-tasks. These sub-tasks act as guides for playing the game, as well as providing an enjoyable narrative story.

It's quite clever, though it would have helped if the manual indicated this or perhaps the other game play modes (scenarios and 'sand-box) could only be unlocked once you'd played the campaign through a bit?

Anyway, I played for a good couple of hours and really quite enjoyed myself. There were a few quirks and oddities - for example, after I quit I realised it hadn't asked me if I wanted to save the game. I'm therefore guessing I lost all of my progress since the last save :/.

One thing I will say is the game looks gorgeous. The buildings and people and environment are very detailed, but, interestingly, they're still clear and distinct. Sometimes when you get so much detail it becomes unclear what's what - you can't tell the cathedral from the houses - but here it's really easy to see what's what, even when you're zoomed out.

It's also interesting to play the game in real time.

My major previous experience with a game like this is Civilization, which is very much turn-based. This is like Civilization meets real-time-strategy. It's initially a little disconcerting, but in the end works very well.

So yeah, I'm looking forward to really getting stuck in.

As seems to be traditional for summer I'm having some financial problems. I was horribly afraid of this. I've spent so much money in the first half of this year with Monaco, my Dad's 65th and my Sister's 30th. If I'm honest it's kinda frustrating, as financially things were going quite well, especially over the winter period.

I really need to work out what I'm doing with my credit cards for one thing - things seem to have gotten very cock-eyed.

Plus it's imperative that I get some stuff shifted on e-bay. Even if this brings only a small cash injection it'll really help.