HoMM5

dteowner

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Has anyone heard rumors of a "gold edition" being planned? While I want features presented in the expansion (random maps!), I don't particularly want to drop $30 for the game plus another $30 for the expansion when I can keep playing my copy of HoMM3. I'm willing to wait if it's likely I can buy the whole shooting match in one box for one decent price. Tanx.
 
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From CelestialHeavens:

Also on Amazon is the Silver Edition of Heroes of Might and Magic V, which appears to be out already. Like the huge Complete edition of the game earlier, this is another UK exclusive. I wouldn't be surprised if a similar package came out in North America as well in the future. Also, the Silver reference screams for a future Gold edition, doesn't it?

The Silver edition contains the game and expansion - but as it says is UK only right now.
 
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Sounds like a second expansion is in the plans, doesn't it. Thanks for the info, Mike.
 
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I never played much of any of them, and only a bit of this but I lost interest after a bit ...
 
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It's fairly decent in my opinion. We're not talking the glory of HoMM3 here, but it is still better than most alternatives today. Gameplaywise it's closer to 3 than 4, but is far from as polished as 3 is.
 
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If the biggest complaint is the poor campaigns, I couldn't care less since I never play them anyway. I stick to scenerios and random maps.
 
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I think it's pretty faithful to the series; like Maylander says, the gameplay is pretty unchanged fundamentally from Heroes3. Scripting and cutscenes and the 3d world make it look much prettier, tho the camara angles especially underground can be irritating. It has some nice twists in the (admittedly juvenile) campaigns. I liked it, but I 'm a Heroes junkie.

I think it's a safe guess that Ubi is going for the franchise here, and we can probably expect to see more expansions and a Gold. I agree that it might be worth your while to wait, or try for the import.
 
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Indeed, the gameplay is decent, and fairly similar to that in HoMM3, altho not as good. The camera, especially, is annoying since the game is in 3D and you need to rotate and change angle quite a bit to spot everything.
 
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Yes. it took me quite a while to get the "feel" of the camera--but after about 60 hours I had no problem ;)

dte--if you aren't going to play the campaigns, you might want to wait for that package--there are only about a dozen scenario maps with the patched game, tho I'm sure there are a few more with Farmers of Hate. Fan maps are coming along nicely tho-I've played several good ones from Celestial Heavens.
 
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Since you seem to have decent taste in games, would you care to add some detail to that opinion?

I love Heroes 1,2 and 3, four doesn't exist :D, 5 was a bit better, but it doesn't have the heroes magic, yeah the poor campaign is a big complaint. However far from the only ones, the bugs in multiplayer was extremly annoying... granted it might have been fixed a bit in the latest patch, there was also many bugs with the spells. Besides I don't see any reason to get it if you have heroes 3 since it is superior in everyway.

The "new" features they tried to add, doesn't make the game better.... in fact I think it just makes it worse. The interface to do some things are way to complicated I tried to split my army of archer into two groups.. if I remmember correctly you did this by shift clicking! Why change it it was so easy in the other heroes games. The 3d-effects are time consuming, I really don't like to wait... yes it is cool the first XXX times... but you get tired of it, some can be disabled but not all. The game sucks up memory after extensive playing it becomes slower and slower. The 3d-map is not that good of an idea, I missed important places or items or monsters because I didn't pan rotate and zoom in every possible direction on every move.

hmm, should I make a longer post? or is it enough?
 
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I agree that HoMM 5 is quite annoying to play due to the 3D camera, but I'm personally more interested in knowing why most HoMM fanatics despise the fourth game so. I loved 2 and 3, so when I heard 4 was supposedly not any good I stayed away from it. Last year my curiosity got the better of me when I saw it with the expansions in the bargain bin so I decided to give it a try.

I was somewhat surprised by the fact that I liked it. The campaigns were quite good (mostly well written), you can have multiple heroes in a single army and they take part in battle, the level/skill system was improved and the towns require you to choose which units you can and cannot build. I don't really see what there is not to like about it.
 
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Last year my curiosity got the better of me when I saw it with the expansions in the bargain bin so I decided to give it a try.
Hehe ... now I'm watching from the sidelines - I have walked by the bargain version countless times thinking the same thing :)
 
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I guess this are the 3 main reasons why many disliked HoMM IV:

- Too colourful / childish
- No multiplayer support for month after the release
- Some hero-buildts unbalanced the multiplayer part (combat heroes were able to destruct large armys with a dozen black dragons alone / well, it's called Heroes and not Creatures of Might & Magic :) )

I loved the campaigns, making it my favorite Heroes
4>3>5>2>Kings Bounty (never played 1, does it exist or is KB 1 ?)
 
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Well, both HoMM 2 and HoMM 1 were colorful/childish, and I don't care much about multiplayer - I tried HoMM 3 with my brother over LAN, but waiting for your turn is just boring.

My favorite HoMM is number two, but that is largely due to nostalgia, I suspect.
 
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Thanks for all the opinions, folks. Let me ask one more-

Since I don't campaign, don't have a problem with HoMM3 graphics, nor do I play multiplayer, is there any real change between v3 and v5? For reference, upgrade-able units would be an example of real change between v2 and v3. Based on limited time with the demo, it looks like heroes in combat and the initiative stack (which I like) may be the only real changes which might not be enough to justify the purchase.
 
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Well, there are big differences in the factions, their units and abilities (like crafting artifacts for academy units). If you are looking for a modern 3D turn based strategy game it'll be hard finding something better. And if you are having a better rig than mine (1,8 Ghz / 1 G Ram / low end 128 MB gfxcard = running it all on minimum), the game is looking really sweet.
 
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My rig is a bit behind yours-- AthlonXP 1.7 / 512MB RAM / 128MB GF3

I'm itching to buy a shiny new rig, but I've got to plan the bank robbery first. :(
 
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The dislike 5 because the atmosphere, and that Heroes "feel" is just gone. Remember how, back in 3, visiting buildings gave you that little bitty text about what's happening there, and then told you what you got from it - that's gone; now it's just a floating number showing which resources you got. Same for the artifacts. In my opinion, this lessens the game's value considerably - now it's just another strategy, and not //Heroes//.

On the other hand, you can see that HoMM 4 was made by 3DO, because they DO have all those fun little things. I suspect HoMM 4 was mostly disliked because it was such a drastic change. Also, the initial release was plagued by bugs, crashes etc. I, personally, quite enjoyed it for what it is (ie. not a "regular" Heroes game).

In the end, HoMM 5 gives less attention those little important details, and the only innovation it brings is the initiative thingie. Everything else is just plain recycled from old games (I don't consider allowing heroes to attack a major change, since it's virtually the same as casting a spell, which was always present).
 
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