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A Triple-A Ubisoft Digital Premiere

They may have been nearly lost since the late nineties, but they're very much alive in game design (and our fond memories) even to this day. Today's triple Digital Distribution Premiere from Ubisoft is not just a set of releases that start with the letter A, it's also a collection of games that introduced something new to their genre, offered a unique combination of playstyles and design choices, or tried something fresh and risky with great payoff.

All three releases are updated to work with Windows 10, and are available in a classic Ubisoft bundle at 20% off!





<span class="bold">Anno 1602 A.D.</span> is the one that spawned a series famed for its ambitious mix of real time strategy, business simulation and city building. It's a game that throws you, a pioneer of the unknown, into humanity's most far out frontier to colonise and conquer. Here, you'll find everything from exploration, trading, resource management, diplomacy and even combat - truly solidifying the experience of a true freedom to design your world, and the absolute control to do so your way. Anno 1602 A.D. includes Anno 1602: Creation of a New World and its expansion Anno 1602: New Islands, New Adventures.

<span class="bold">Albion</span> is a game that takes classic RPG and Dungeon Crawling, a healthy dose of humor, and risks its dangerous voyage far, far beyond earth into humanity's true final frontier. It's a deep-space adventure that draws bits and pieces from an unusual pairing of titles like The Elder Scrolls and Ultima - all to feature great looking 2D overworld exploration with detailed first-person 3D combat. Its most direct roots, however, stem from titles known as "Amberstar" and "Ambermoon" - two parts of an Amiga trilogy that never came to be concluded. Designed by the original team behind the Amiga classic, Albion is their true spiritual successor in everything but the name.

<span class="bold">Archimedean Dynasty</span> takes on one of humanity's biggest, most unfamiliar and inaccessible unknowns: the deep, dark sea. You'll pilot a state-of-the-art submarine to brave the depths and trenches of an underwater colony in turmoil. The bulk of the gameplay will be familiar to veterans of series like X-Wing or Freespace, but it's the absolutely unique setting and atmosphere that truly make this title worth remembering. Archimedean Dynasty soon spawned the AquaNox series, making today's release the final piece of a trilogy unique enough to truly earn a place on anybody's shelf.





Brave the distinct unknowns with the Anno 1602 A.D., Albion, and Archimedean Dynasty bundle, available now, DRM-free on GOG.com! The launch discount will last for one week, until Wednesday, August 5, 1:59 PM GMT.
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Leroux: I think the game does involve a little grinding though?
A little bit. Primarily to train your spells. The more you use them, the better they get, and the easier it is for them to get past enemy spell resistance. You really need that for certain enemies.
Played some of the Anno tutorials last night, quite fun! Need to figure out how to make the screen not display in "postcard mode" though, with tons of black bordering. Also, the game crashed out when I place my first Marketplace, so will be alert to determine if that was a one-off occurrence.
got it yesterday, downloaded and ready to install, then i can play, but i need to play >100 games form the past sales
seems i just keep collcting new ones instead of playing the old ones first. :D


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IAmSinistar: Played some of the Anno tutorials last night, quite fun! Need to figure out how to make the screen not display in "postcard mode" though, with tons of black bordering. Also, the game crashed out when I place my first Marketplace, so will be alert to determine if that was a one-off occurrence.
thanks for telling that, if i encounter similar things i will report it.
Post edited July 31, 2015 by gamesfreak64
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IAmSinistar: Played some of the Anno tutorials last night, quite fun! Need to figure out how to make the screen not display in "postcard mode" though, with tons of black bordering. Also, the game crashed out when I place my first Marketplace, so will be alert to determine if that was a one-off occurrence.
If you find that you like this I highly recommend Anno 1701, basically the same game with more polish ;)

Also as a trivia note, all the numbers in the titles for the series add up to 9
1602
1503
1701
2070
2205

Not sure why though :)
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deonast: Do Ubisoft own them? Would love them on GOG though, I still have the CD copies. Played Blade Runner and finished it (way back in the days when I finished the odd game) and Black Dahlia never got around to installing. Guessing it would be a real pain now with the 8 CDs. Would definitely pay for a little GOG magic installer for that.
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awalterj: I think the rights for those 3 games are owned by the following entities:

Blade Runner: Blade Runner Partnership and Electronic Arts, see [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner_(1997_video_game)#Re-Release]here[/url]

Black Dahlia: Interplay

John Saul's Blackstone Chronicles: Electronic Arts
Intereting looking at the wikipedia page on blade runner the say they won't be releasing or remastering as they lost the source code. Still boggles the mind when you hear about that sort of thing. You'd think a game company would go to great lengths to ensure multiple backups of game projects even the old ones. Maybe data storage was expensive back then and they recycled the backup tapes, drives etc.

Still not sure what precludes them licensing GOG to distribute and using say a CD or DVD edition retail discs repackaged with some fixes, might take a bit of work but some community patches seem to have been made.

http://archive.adventuregamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30597
Hooray. One is for two weeks on vacation and GoG meanwhile released Albion! Although have two original copies, I'll definitely buy digital backup soon.
I love this game.
Thanks GoG !
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trentonlf: If you find that you like this I highly recommend Anno 1701, basically the same game with more polish ;)
Sounds good! I'm hoping GOG will continue to bring this series here. One of things I like about the current Anno on offer is that it plays like Seven Cities of Gold: The Next Generation to me. It has many of the same elements that I love about 7CoG, but fleshed out with detailed colony building on top of it. I'm grateful to GOG for bringing this gem to my attention.

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trentonlf: Also as a trivia note, all the numbers in the titles for the series add up to 9
Perhaps someone behind them is into numerology? :)
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deonast: Intereting looking at the wikipedia page on blade runner the say they won't be releasing or remastering as they lost the source code. Still boggles the mind when you hear about that sort of thing. You'd think a game company would go to great lengths to ensure multiple backups of game projects even the old ones. Maybe data storage was expensive back then and they recycled the backup tapes, drives etc.
Sadly, happens more often than one might think:
bubble bobble , silent hill , atari games (thrown away), [url=http://www.lar.net/2012/10/09/hatching-the-anthology]divinity etc etc

Therefor companies should really consider making their source code open source (or at least backing it up by the Library of Congress or Internet archive)

PS: vote please here that GOG tries more often to preserve source code too (like they did with airline tycoon deluxe)
Post edited August 01, 2015 by shaddim
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awalterj:
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deonast: Intereting looking at the wikipedia page on blade runner the say they won't be releasing or remastering as they lost the source code. Still boggles the mind when you hear about that sort of thing. You'd think a game company would go to great lengths to ensure multiple backups of game projects even the old ones. Maybe data storage was expensive back then and they recycled the backup tapes, drives etc.

Still not sure what precludes them licensing GOG to distribute and using say a CD or DVD edition retail discs repackaged with some fixes, might take a bit of work but some community patches seem to have been made.

http://archive.adventuregamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30597
I can verify that the game can work just fine under Win7 64bit.

The thing about losing the source code of the game does indeed boggle the mind but I think it's possible, some might say Westwood Studios "lost" it on purpose so as to not let it fall into the hands of the enemy but I don't think that's likely.
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deonast: Intereting looking at the wikipedia page on blade runner the say they won't be releasing or remastering as they lost the source code. Still boggles the mind when you hear about that sort of thing. You'd think a game company would go to great lengths to ensure multiple backups of game projects even the old ones. Maybe data storage was expensive back then and they recycled the backup tapes, drives etc.
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shaddim: Sadly, happens more often than one might think:
bubble bobble , silent hill , atari games (thrown away), [url=http://www.lar.net/2012/10/09/hatching-the-anthology]divinity etc etc

Therefor companies should really consider making their source code open source (or at least backing it up by the Library of Congress or Internet archive)

PS: vote please here that GOG tries more often to preserve source code too (like they did with airline tycoon deluxe)
Ah, voted

Hmm I didn't notice the release of airline tycoon must have been busy that day. Always good to have source available for prosperity.
ALBION!!!!!! Thanks GOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wish fulfilled!

Charming and innovative as few other RPG are.

For those who liked the movie Avatar, it drew heavily from the world of Albion.

Instabuy!
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Carradice: For those who liked the movie Avatar, it drew heavily from the world of Albion.
Actually, Avatar was a sci-fi remake of Pocahontas, they didn't change the basic script at all. It always baffles me, that most people didn't notice this.
I don't believe that James Cameron has ever seen Albion although some people believe that there's a connection.
Post edited August 02, 2015 by Klumpen0815
Anyone find it a bit odd that GOG has labelled Albion as "Action"?
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Crosmando: Anyone find it a bit odd that GOG has labelled Albion as "Action"?
Fixed :) Thanks!
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Crosmando: Anyone find it a bit odd that GOG has labelled Albion as "Action"?
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JudasIscariot: Fixed :) Thanks!
Cool. You should add Fantasy as well.