Populous: The Beginning Developer: Bullfrog Publisher: Electronic Arts Category: Real Time Strategy System Req: PII266, 64Mb Ram, 120Mb HD, D3D/3dfx card, Win95/98 Might look like: ? Date posted: 19 February 99 Written By: Bjorn - This game was tested on P166, 32mb Ram, Voodoo Graphics, Win95 - A little Introduction Bullfrog challenges you to achieve immortality in the first ever true 3D, real time strategy game. Tame wildmen and train tribesmen in stunningly beautiful worlds. Make them worship the ground you walk on. Wield your earth shattering powers to wreak havoc and hold them under your command. Turn up the heat of battle with erupting volcanoes, or summon the skies to rain fire on your rivals. Spread plagues among non-believers or direct a tornado into the heart of enemy tribes. So why are you fighting across dozens of worlds? For the greatest prize of all. If you win, beating all the other tribes into submission, not only will your people survive as the dominant civilisation, but your Shaman will ascend to the skies, crowned in fire as a god! The Manual The manual of Bullfrog's latest RTS game Populous 3 or Populous: The Beginning has to be one of the most impressive manuals I ever saw. This manual is really state of the art. First, it is totally written in my native language, dutch and it is filled with gorgeous in-game screenshots. The manual isn't that big, only 11 pages but all the necessary information is in it. I also noticed that a full 'Keyboard commands' sheet is included which is very handy to use. You can simply look at it if you don't remember what key represents that special function. If that ain't enough, Bullfrog has also included another thick (20 pages) reference card with very useful information regarding the several 3D options, problems with 3D cards, Multiplayer options and lots more. Oh yes, a little paper that contains some info on that CIH virus, saying that 'your EA Cd is not the Source of the Virus' is also present. :) Eight Years ago ... Eight years ago, the british game developing company, Bullfrog introduced one of the most original PC games of that time: Populous. I never got a chance to play Populous but from what I've heard that game was revolutionary. Basically Populous was a 'God Simulation' game where you take the role as God where you gain control over your followers. That game sold over 3 million copies worldwide and that ain't nothing. Years later they made Populous II and another success title was born. Now, Bullfrog launch their new Populous based RTS game called Populous: The Beginning. It isn't a sequel of Populous II but it's more a prequel that is set in the time before you became a God in Populous. So with 3D support for a lot of cards and with a totally new Populous design build from scratch is this so called RTS game really different then any other? We'll see. The Shaman In this game you play the role of a Shaman that controls a tribe. Your tribe (in other words ... your slaves) will build your settlements, fight with other tribes and eventually your followers will give their lifes for you. You, the Shaman is the most powerful unit of the whole tribe. The Shaman is in fact a 'she' and you must survive each level with the use of magic and wisdom of the Gods. Of course you'll train your braves (= slaves) to powerful fire-warriors, priests or spies. Don't think that every battle is an easy one because the enemy on the other side will also engage its quest for power and insight. Populous: The Beginning from Bullfrog will certainly take you to a new dimension.    The first time that you start Populous: The Beginning you'll have to choose your installation language. English, Dutch, French, German, Polish, Spanish and Swedish are the languages that are included in the European version. Almost every European language is covered and that's very impressive. Please note that when a language is selected the entire game will be in that language! For example, if you select Dutch and you run the game you'll notice that the speech, the on-screen popups, the interface, ... will be all translated in Dutch. Even the intro is spoken in Dutch. It gave me the creeps the first time because it is very unusual that I play an entire Dutch translated game. It's like hearing Dutch popsongs ... they are crap even if it is my mother language. Of course there are some exceptions but I can't count them on 1 hand. Anyway I quickly erased the game and installed the English version. :) Populous 3 offers 3 different installation modes and they only differ in size. Minimum is about 102 Megs, the recommended is 111 and if you want the full mode you'll have to free up 395 megs. 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