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[archnemesis]

If you prefer English, you can now read a review on Destructoid. They gave it a 9.0.

I made it to the last mission of the second chapter of the campaign, and I'm finding it quite challenging to balance the economy. At the beginning of the mission you're losing money fast and by the time you've slowed down the bleeding, the coffers are almost empty. Fortunately there doesn't seem to be a time limit.

 

[Wiktor]

Almost done with the campaign, played also some MP. Loving it so far. It's everything I love about Anno, but this time it's actually fresh. The SF setting isn't just a visual bonus, they've used it to introduce a lot of cool new elements. It's feels perfect, enough new additions to feel fresh and yet familiar enough to be unmistakably Anno.
Plus the MP is actually very good, I think it's actually the first game of this type with good MP. There are still some bugs in, but nothing that can't be worked around and next few patches should bring this game to perfection on technical level,

I have to write review of it soon for the site I'm working for and it might end up being the one highest score I've ever given out to a game.

 

[TheExodu5]

How is the MP improved from Anno 1404? I enjoy playing continuous with friends in that game.

 

[scotcheggz]

If you prefer English, you can now read a review on Destructoid. They gave it a 9.0.

I made it to the last mission of the second chapter of the campaign, and I'm finding it quite challenging to balance the economy. At the beginning of the mission you're losing money fast and by the time you've slowed down the bleeding, the coffers are almost empty. Fortunately there doesn't seem to be a time limit.

Nice review. I just got to the last campaign mission and F.A.T.H.E.R is really pissing me off. My economy in 3.2 went from storming, to a bleeding money pit in 3.3. I think this seems harder than the last Annos, especially managing ecology to keep your farms efficient.

 

[ROBOKITTYZILLA]

Is the multiplayer a separate component or can the campaign be played coop?

 

[Baron_Calamity]

I love Tycoon games but I've never played any Anno games. Is 2070 a good place for a newbie to jump in?

 

[archnemesis]

I suggest you pick up the more traditional Anno: Dawn of Discovery instead (known as "Anno: 1404" in Europe). It's currently $12.14 as a download on Amazon.com. If you prefer a disc then it's $0.83 more.

 

[The Foul]

Check this production sheet generated from the games assets.xml files, shows exactly how many buildings to build per production chain. Don't look if you like figuring this stuff out yourself.

Link

 

[scotcheggz]

goddam, I just found the postcard view

So nice!

 

[Winterblink]

From playing the first couple of hours, it feels like Anno 1404 with a futuristic skin. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because 1404 was a pretty great game. The factions and whatever other new gameplay systems will be introduced later on I guess. It looks pretty great and the familiarity is actually quite nice. I will say one thing though... the music in this game isn't as good as the music in 1404 in my opinion.

I wish 1404 was available on Steam, watching some of the plays on Youtube it looks amazing. Definitely waiting to see what more Gaffer impressions are of this one.

 

[archnemesis]

Nice screenshots scotcheggz! Are you playing with everything maxed?

I made it to the third chapter and now I'm having a lot more fun. Balancing the economy isn't that difficult after all.

 

[TriniTrin]

I wish 1404 was available on Steam, watching some of the plays on Youtube it looks amazing. Definitely waiting to see what more Gaffer impressions are of this one.

I thought 1404 was on steam, under the name dawn of discovery
I need this game but cant seem to find it at retail, it isnt steamworks either is it..

 

[archnemesis]

I thought 1404 was on steam, under the name dawn of discovery

It was on Steam, but it's unfortunately no longer available for purchase. It's still cheap on Amazon.com, although that's without any Steam integration.

 

[scotcheggz]

Nice screenshots scotcheggz! Are you playing with everything maxed?

I made it to the third chapter and now I'm having a lot more fun. Balancing the economy isn't that difficult after all.

It's mostly maxed, I turned the post effects down to high, at very high bloom is a bit overdone for my tastes, that postcard view just makes it look great though! I'm really impressed with the scaling, when I used to play 1404, it would tend to chug a bit when cities got larger. I'm gunning for the 2500 exectutives single mission at the moment, my city is HUGE and there isn't a bit of chug.

I thought 1404 was on steam, under the name dawn of discovery
I need this game but cant seem to find it at retail, it isnt steamworks either is it..

Yeh, you don't want it on steam anyway, I bought it off steam and it was a right palava, never did get to play the venice add on becuase of that I thought you could get it dirt cheap off amazon though?

 

[~Kinggi~]

Jesus i cant believe this released a week ago. Im listening to the music score now and its beautiful! These games are always amazing and get so little attention. But they always end up managing to sell nicely.

Is this as good as 1404?

 

[Winterblink]

The DRM on this thing concerns me. I'm pondering pulling the trigger on getting the game but damn Tages....

 

[~Kinggi~]

The DRM on this thing concerns me. I'm pondering pulling the trigger on getting the game but damn Tages....

oh fucking tages fuckity fuck fuck

 

[The Foul]

The DRM on this thing concerns me. I'm pondering pulling the trigger on getting the game but damn Tages....

1404 had tages & was eventually patched out before the Venice exp a year later. Its a shame Ubi puts this restriction on the game, especially on Steam; I had the same apprehension with tages when buying 1404 on release, I'm glad I did buy it tho, an hour into the game I could have cared less about drm. It leads me to believe that all tages really does is put people off buying this fantastic game, certainly doesn't deter pirate copies. It'll most likely be patched out in the future if you can hold out buying till then.

What concerns me more is the game being released on the Aus Steam store for $50USD then a day or two later getting bumped up to $80USD. Not cool Ubi, no double dip from me.

Is this as good as 1404?

IMO its better. Must buy if you liked 1404, great buy if you're new to the series. If you enjoy the Anno series already this is a great progression of the formula & you will most likely continue to enjoy it. It is similar in design to Anno 1404, which in turn was similar to 1701 (moreso than 2070:1404). In saying that, everything is different. Buildings need power & the eco system needs management etc. Fundamentally people still need a variety of goods to move in en masse & you need their tax money to achieve your goals. There's three factions of civilians this time; each with their own buildings & production chains that cleverly use the same limited resources in thematically interesting & different ways to achieve multiple paths of victory. At the very least you must focus on two factions, either the Tycoons or Ecos & the Techs, but its viable to control all three using buildings & ships from each to devise your own strategies.

TLR = Anno 2070 is a fantastic game, I love it so far, but I've always loved these games. Anyone who enjoys RTS more about building & resource management over warfare might enjoy it also.

Check some screenz, this is towards the end of my playthrough of the first scenario (2,500 executives) as Tycoons. I've got an Athlon 3xCore 720BE, 4gb DDR2 Ram, Radeon 4890 1gb @ 1900x1200, running the game 1 notch below max. Game runs 40fps.

 

[Wiktor]

Is this as good as 1404?

It's better. This is pretty much the pinnacle of it's genre.

 

[Sinatar]

Please tell me you can disable that horrific bloom?

 

[Winterblink]

1404 had tages & was eventually patched out before the Venice exp a year later. Its a shame Ubi puts this restriction on the game, especially on Steam; I had the same apprehension with tages when buying 1404 on release, I'm glad I did buy it tho, an hour into the game I could have cared less about drm. It leads me to believe that all tages really does is put people off buying this fantastic game, certainly doesn't deter pirate copies. It'll most likely be patched out in the future if you can hold out buying till then.

What concerns me more is the game being released on the Aus Steam store for $50USD then a day or two later getting bumped up to $80USD. Not cool Ubi, no double dip from me.

Australia tends to get the shaft from the industry as a rule it seems. Sigh.

If TAGES is implemented right (I for instance don't mind automatic renewing activations for instance) I don't mind, but this is just too much of a lockdown for my liking, made worse that it's from Ubi who seem to think they can just get away with this all the time. Ugh.

May wait until it's patched out then.

 

[Ledsen]

Is this still better than 1404 if you loved 1404 for its extremely charming medieval atmosphere and details (like women trampling grapes, etc)? 2070 looks so sterile

 

[scotcheggz]

Please tell me you can disable that horrific bloom?

You can turn it right down.

Is this still better than 1404 if you loved 1404 for its extremely charming medieval atmosphere and details (like women trampling grapes, etc)? 2070 looks so sterile

For me that was the biggest downside to the game at first, but after putting in too many hours already, I'd say with confidence that I think it is better.

 

[Wiktor]

Is this still better than 1404 if you loved 1404 for its extremely charming medieval atmosphere and details (like women trampling grapes, etc)? 2070 looks so sterile

It doesn't look sterile, that's a false impression It's just as lovable when you zoom down, with small people living their simple virtual lives.

 

[scotcheggz]

It doesn't look sterile, that's a false impression It's just as lovable when you zoom down, with small people living their simple virtual lives.

That's true, at first it felt sterile to me, but when you dig in, all it's little charms come to light. Not the most flattering this close in, but here is a little man welding on some scaffolding!

 

[Wiktor]

That's true, at first it felt sterile to me, but when you dig in, all it's little charms come to light.

Yep, like whe you put road nexto to ecos houses and they decorate it with small trees, or those divers swining around underwater bases. There's just so much delightful life in this game.

 

[The Foul]

Is this still better than 1404 if you loved 1404 for its extremely charming medieval atmosphere and details (like women trampling grapes, etc)? 2070 looks so sterile

For me the sci-fi setting is a breath of fresh air after so many Anno games set in the medieval setting. At first I found it difficult to differentiate buildings from each other due to the neon-corporate-cyberpunk look of the Tycoons, but it all becomes second nature as the hours roll on & as you get better at organizing everything. 2070 is full of life, lots of little details like a drunk man staggering out front of the distillery to ppl closing deals on a penthouse balconies, its full of charm no doubt about it.

 

[TheExodu5]

So, any way to turn off the bloom?

I still can't believe how bad this looks compared to 1404 (which, IMO, is one of the best looking PC games out there).

 

[TheExodu5]

Okay, I played the demo. As a reference, this is my system:

i5 2500k @ 4.6GHz
2x GTX 570
8GB RAM
Windows 7 64-bit

Here's a tip: turn post processing to Low, or at the very least, put it on High and not Very High. It turns off the ugly bloom. Here's an overview of what Post Processing does:

Low - Nothing - 135fps
Medium - Bloom - 130fps
High - Bloom, Ambient Occlusion - 95fps
Very High - Bloom, Ambient Occlusion (slightly higher quality?) - 55fps

I can seriously barely tell the difference in between High and Very High. It's certainly not worth losing 40% of your framerate over. Also, I have never, ever heard my video card fan ramp up like it did when I had post-processing on high. Something is really weird there...it's like I'm running Furmark, without the TDP limit. I'm guessing this might fry a few poorly cooled cards.

Here's the game on Low:

Here's the game on Very High:

I'd like to find a way to turn off bloom but leave ambient occlusion off, as it is quite nice (I chose this screenshot location as it demonstrates the ambient occlusion pretty well. Notice the shadowing in the mountains is much nicer).

Still...something is off visually. I think the texture detail is much lower than 1404. Or perhaps the LOD is more aggressive.

Also, I am sad to report that you cannot turn off bloom and have ambient occlusion off. Unless someone figures out NVidia Inspector settings to enabled AO, we're boned.

edit: sadly, turning off Post Processing also removes the depth of field.

Also, for a config tweak, I suggest setting these (found in C:\Users\exodus\AppData\Roaming\Ubisoft\ANNO 2070\Config, most likely):

<EnableTextureMemoryManagement>0</EnableTextureMemoryManagement>
<EnableModelMemoryManagement>0</EnableModelMemoryManagement>

This turns off the aggressive LOD. The game is much nicer for me now. Hopefully this doesn't cause performance issues later on, but no issues as of yet.

 

[Sinatar]

They just dropped a patch for this.

The most important changes:

Stability of multiplayer mode has been improved
Stability of campaign mode has been improved
Stability of missions has been improved
In rare cases it was impossible to defeat „F.A.T.H.E.R.“ in the last mission
Stability of item slots has been improved
A save game error which led to a warehouse being able to delete a nearby ark from the map was fixed

Further changes:

Intro video: Eve’s first audio played too quietly, even at maximum volume
Achievement unlocking has been improved
Sometimes the wrong quantity of goods had been loaded when trading
Improved damage animation for pirate base and Sokow branch office
Music could have occasionally been missing from the mission outros
Errors with World Council actions were corrected
Wheel of needs did not automatically update when changing from one residence to the next
Added additional “Back” function to the “World statistics”, “Message archive”, “Profile data” und “Daily events” sub-menues
“Return to C.O.R.E.“ scenario: Increased incidence of fertility for algae
Improved the animation of the B 13 Condor in hover mode
Various minor graphical errors have been corrected
Text overlaps & errors were corrected
Rare problems occuring during ANNO 2070 registration on ubisoft.com were fixed
Problem with disproportionately large campaign save games was fixed
The problem causing the serial key to be demanded twice was fixed

Balancing adjustments:

Unlocking of the “Firebird” Bombers adjusted to Tech level “Lab assistant”
Cost of the Construction plan for the „Hydro-electric dam“ increased to 5 generators. 3 maintenance units and 1 prototype were also added to the cost.
Cost of the emergency equipment for extinguishing oil rig fires reduced to 1500 credits and 20 tons of tools.
Cost of the effluent pump reduced to 5000 credits and 15 tons of tools.
Damage done by the “Colossus” warship increased to 60.
Damage done by the “Colossus” depth charges increased to 260.
„Hovercraft“ hitpoints reduced to 350, damage against ships reduced to 25, number of item slots reduced to 2, loss of speed caused by damage increased.
Military AI optimized.

 

[Tworak]

good patch and lolhovercraft

such a great game, though. especially the UI.

 

[Kabouter]

It's a bit disappointing that they spoiled the final mission in the patch notes, on the other hand, man you can see that thing coming from a mile away. It's always the giant super AI. Still, before reading that I was only 95% sure, now I'm entirely sure .

 

[ColonialRaptor]

HNG... what a game.

Pity on steam it's currently $90AUD... must, find, cheaper.

 

[archnemesis]

It's 20% off on GetGamesGo (~A$55).

 

[ksimm]

I'm worried for this game, where are all the reviews? I really hope it's selling well because I would hate for the Anno series to be killed off!

 

[archnemesis]

With the way Ubisoft are promoting their PC games, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Most North American reviewers are probably waiting for free review codes. Since we haven't heard anything about the release date, I'm guessing it has been moved to Q1 2012.

 

[-Deadpool-]

So in love with this game. I didn't think I could get any more addicted than I did to 1404, but yes, they've done it again by making 2070 the absolute pinnacle of the genre.

Holy crap at Chapter 2, Mission 2 though. That was seriously tough starting in ~650C negative cash flow. Had to restart once, and literally finished the second time around with about -400C in the pot!

So beautiful a game that my Continuous mode world (now 7 islands, 3 underwater cities and about 14 trade lines) had reduced my graphic settings from near max, to low across almost the whole board just to keep it running smooth haha.. Bummer.

Really need to start new PC speccing soon..

HNG... what a game.

Pity on steam it's currently $90AUD... must, find, cheaper.

EB are/were doing it for $55, so I picked it up in store.

 

[Madrical]

I haven't played a single sim like this before, however I'm really interested in playing this; mainly for building a city for fun, a bit of economics, and because it looks gorgeous. Would I be extremely overwhelmed with all the stuff within the game? It looks pretty huge and some reviews say there's a lot of padding within it. Is there maybe a sandbox mode or something? I won't be buying it anytime soon since it's still $70 on Steam but I'm quite interested.

Is the demo any good as a final representation of the game?

 

[Zzoram]

So in love with this game. I didn't think I could get any more addicted than I did to 1404, but yes, they've done it again by making 2070 the absolute pinnacle of the genre.

Holy crap at Chapter 2, Mission 2 though. That was seriously tough starting in ~650C negative cash flow. Had to restart once, and literally finished the second time around with about -400C in the pot!

So beautiful a game that my Continuous mode world (now 7 islands, 3 underwater cities and about 14 trade lines) had reduced my graphic settings from near max, to low across almost the whole board just to keep it running smooth haha.. Bummer.

Really need to start new PC speccing soon..



EB are/were doing it for $55, so I picked it up in store.

What are your current specs that continuous mode up to that point made you drop from near max to low? Did you stay at max throughout the campaign?

 

[scotcheggz]

Has anyone been playing the world event? Mission 3 is seriously annoying! Enjoyable but goddam...

 

[archnemesis]

I'm still trying to complete the main campaign and now I'm on the second to last mission. Even though I have 400,000 credits I'm a bit tempted to restart the chapter to further improve my infrastructure. The arrangement I have now is way to fragile and sensitive to disruptions in my trade lines.

 

[ss_lemonade]

Tried the demo at max settings and looking at the sea, I get constant 60fps, but hovering over buildings cuts my framerate in half for some reason (it gets stuck at 30fps or something). Does retail run better than the demo?

 

[The Foul]

Has anyone been playing the world event? Mission 3 is seriously annoying! Enjoyable but goddam...

Yeah that pirate guy sux with his little boat speeder things messing up your trade. I had to build 4 turrets around my main port just to be able to safely build ships... spent 90% of the time on employee level, manage to upgrade 1 building to engineer stockpiling by burgers & plastic at the end, built 6 Cruisers with resources bought from the Tycoon fellow & took the pirate dude down. He is such a little bitch, he wont attack buildings, but will manage to sneak 1 speeder past your main fleet to destroy your trade boats while you're off doing something far more important.

 

[TheExodu5]

Tried the demo at max settings and looking at the sea, I get constant 60fps, but hovering over buildings cuts my framerate in half for some reason (it gets stuck at 30fps or something). Does retail run better than the demo?

Turn down post processing from Very High to High (or Low if you want to remove the bloom). My framerate went from 55 to 90 turning it from Very High to High, with no obvious change to the visuals.

 

[scotcheggz]

Finally beat mission 3 of Atomic Terror! Man, that scorpio dude is a dick. I beat it as Ecos, didn't advance past Eco Employees. I just built up 14 towers around my port and bought the Colossus from Thorne and used that to clear all the ships that are out and about on the map, going out to one group at a time then fleeing back to my tower safety.

Once they were cleared, took the central most island and built a repair station, spammed command ships and zerged the base lol. I just took one tower at a time and returned to my repair outpost to get sorted between zergs. Not the prettiest way I guess, but it worked!

 

[The Foul]

Finally beat mission 3 of Atomic Terror! Man, that scorpio dude is a dick. I beat it as Ecos, didn't advance past Eco Employees. I just built up 14 towers around my port and bought the Colossus from Thorne and used that to clear all the ships that are out and about on the map, going out to one group at a time then fleeing back to my tower safety.

Once they were cleared, took the central most island and built a repair station, spammed command ships and zerged the base lol. I just took one tower at a time and returned to my repair outpost to get sorted between zergs. Not the prettiest way I guess, but it worked!

Too true. I really liked this world event, in that it was basically the same mission 3 times under harder & harder circumstances, which enables us to refine our tactics. I learnt a few new tricks for sure, not bad for technically free dlc. I wonder how many of these events we'll see over the life of the game.

Edit: Found another production calculator here, very handy. There's also a program (here) that has all this info easily available offline (or alt-tabbed).

I'm also seeking people to play the multiplayer scenarios with (The oil baron + Monument race), have been making my way through the single missions & was surprised to see these two were multi only.
In any case, my username is Annomatic - feel free to add.

 

[KPJZKC]

This may seem a really stupid question...but how exactly do I view a list of public games? I'm completely stumped.

Also, username is KPJZKC - add me!

Finally spotted the "Search multiplayer games" option in the bottom left of the mission screen...wish they made it more obvious, only two games available right now

 

[Unhandled Exception]

I'm really impressed with this game. I never played any Anno games, in fact I've never really heard of them up until Anno 2070 created some waves a few months back.

 

[Evlar]

Should I be too worried if I'm having framerate issues in the demo? I presume the game pushes systems much harder than that, which means I probably ought to wait until I upgrade. Right or wrong?

 

[archnemesis]

That seems about right. Try turning off all post-processing effects before you decide.