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Eat your heart out, Columbus!

Cultures 1+2, a set of two exploration-focused RTS games in which you lead a Viking kindred to unimaginable glory, is now available on GOG.com, for only $9.99.

Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan, Christopher Columbus, the great sailors of the age of exploration, shared one little known thing. They all hated Vikings. Why? Just imagine. You spend long months at sea, battling against the storms, trying to keep your flotilla afloat and your men alive, you don't eat nearly enough, you don't get decent sleep, everything tastes like vinegar, and you miss the company of ladies. It takes you so long to reach your destination, that you almost forget that dry land actually exists. But then you hear a cheerful "land, ho!" coming down from the crow's nest and you just know that all of this was worth it. You tremble with excitement, as you board the landing boat and you want to shout from the top of your lungs as your feet touch the sandy beach of the NEW WORLD for the first time. But then you notice. A broken down drakkar. A horned helmet half-buried in the sand. A standing-stone with a runic description saying "Eric wuz here". Of course, you never tell that to anyone. Back home you are celebrated as the first European who set foot in the new land. But you know. Vikings. Damn Vikings.

Cultures 1+2 let you become the leader of an adventurous tribe of Vikings to set off on a voyage of exploration and settle new, more or less exotic lands. The first game's main focus lies in the process of discovery and building a well-functioning infrastructure. In the second one the balance shifts towards war and politics, giving more focus to warrior and diplomat character classes. Both iterations offer endearing, colorful graphics and an amazing amount of gameplay details. If you like RTS games but prefer more focus on exploration and development than most of the games in this genre offer, be sure to try Cultures!

Did you ever wanted to visit distant lands and meet exciting new people (to conquer and enslave or possibly coexist peacefully with)? Become the brave young Viking, Bjarni, and do just that in Cultures 1+2, for only $9.99!
I remember thinking about playing this and playing the demo for cultures 3/northland but I guess thats not here then?

Only thing I remember was it looked nice (at the time for me who had a 2mb video card) and that it was much harder then settlers III
Looks charming ...
Glad new GOG is back with new releases set on 12:00 CET (not 13:00 CET we had before Christmas)

EDIT:
..or possbile we get another game in 30 min ? :-P
Post edited January 08, 2013 by tburger
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keeveek: ...
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paulcmnt: That's pretty irrational.
Not really. I can't stand releasing cherry picked games from a series on GOG anymore.

Released Pharaoh + Cleo, Zeus + Poseidon , still missing Emperor: Rise of the middle kingdom

Released Conflict: Desert storm, missing all other games

And we all know how long we had to wait for completing Prince of Persia Trilogy.

The list goes on and on. And it's not like I'm talking about some obscure, hard to find games or sequels with scattered IP rights.

I don't like that, and I will not buy incomplete series of games that matter to me. I can buy entire Cultures anthology on DotEmu if it takes too long for GOG to complete the series.
hmm not really a good game if i remember correctly. But you know opinions opinions....
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LordCinnamon: Interesting. So, is this a bit like Settlers or Alien Nations?
Well, I never played Settlers yet, but I played about the first five missions from Alien Nations and Cultures 1 so I would say they look a lot alike.

The game is ok but just as AN it feels like everything is a bit too slow, at least for my tastes. I have no idea if Cultures 2 is the same, BTW.
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gandalf.nho: Never played this series, how are the difficulty?
I got interested in other games before I met any real challenge... I'd say boredom is the game's major pitfall. It takes too long to put you in battles. But on economic missions there's almost no way to lose, even if it takes time.
Post edited January 08, 2013 by jpolastre
high rated
German developer, but (again) no german language files/ localization? Ah c'mon, this is ridiculous.
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paulcmnt: That's pretty irrational.
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keeveek: Not really. I can't stand releasing cherry picked games from a series on GOG anymore.

Released Pharaoh + Cleo, Zeus + Poseidon , still missing Emperor: Rise of the middle kingdom

Released Conflict: Desert storm, missing all other games

And we all know how long we had to wait for completing Prince of Persia Trilogy.

The list goes on and on. And it's not like I'm talking about some obscure, hard to find games or sequels with scattered IP rights.

I don't like that, and I will not buy incomplete series of games that matter to me. I can buy entire Cultures anthology on DotEmu if it takes too long for GOG to complete the series.
This... actually makes sense!
I've never heard of these games, but they look like shameless Settlers clones. That could be either good (if done well) or bad (if not). Can anyone who knows the games comment on this?
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Kunovski: I'd swear this was already here...........................
Don't worry, I have the same problem. I always assumed Cultures was an alternate regional name for The Nations / Alien Nations until I did some check a few years ago (when I learned that Jesper Kyd composed the soundtrack for Alien Nations and bought the OST).

As for the release itself: not quite my cup of tea. These "German Games" just devour much more time than I'm willing to invest in a game these days (in fact already when Settlers 3 came along I felt like I don't have the time for it - which means a lot coming from an 11 year old nerd :P).
Post edited January 08, 2013 by F4LL0UT
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Lhademmor: This... actually makes sense!
Yes, it does. There is no reason not to release Cultures 3 and 4 along with this (as separate buy of course). No other reason than some misterious GOG release schedule that seem to doesn't have any sense.

DotEmu releases entire series at once and I prefer their approach. I like to complete my game series. I could wait a week or two of course, but GOG is known for completing games series after a year or even longer. I don't have this patience. You have a problem with that?
Post edited January 08, 2013 by keeveek
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Wishbone: I've never heard of these games, but they look like shameless Settlers clones. That could be either good (if done well) or bad (if not). Can anyone who knows the games comment on this?
The quality of them is okay, comparable to Settlers. I played them for a couple of days about 10 years ago and I remember that I had some successes and found the games easy enough to learn but nothing more.
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piepvogel: German developer, but (again) no german language files/ localization? Ah c'mon, this is ridiculous.
No love or too many legal hurdles or both. It's sad.
Post edited January 08, 2013 by Trilarion
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Trilarion: No love or too many legal hurdles or both. It's sad.
It's no love, because there is German language on DotEmu.

GOG removes languages :-(
Bravo GOG! Bravissimo!

A brilliant way to start a new year's first release. With a true Good OLD Game.
I'll be deffinitely buying it whenever budget will permit me.

To many more oldies on GOG.
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VIPERs: To many more oldies on GOG.
Cheers!
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keeveek: Let's hope we won't have to wait 200 years for the rest of Cultures games, like for many other games series on GOG.
DotEmu is selling Cultures Anthology with four Cultures games. I wish GOG would have just released that, albeit the price probably goes over the $10 mark then.

EDIT: Ok, ninja'ed already...
Post edited January 08, 2013 by timppu