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By Stephen Poole
Developer:
Bullfrog
Publisher:
Electronic Arts
Target Release Date:
November 1998
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This past September, I was invited to be a guest on a local talk-radio show devoted to computers and software. Arriving a few minutes before airtime, I chatted with the host about what computer games she liked. "I'm not what you'd call a serious gamer - I mainly play stuff like Solitaire and Tetris," she said. "But there was a game called Populous that I first played seven or eight years ago. Do you know if there are any plans to make a new version of it? I just loved that game!"
The newest Populous has been years in the making and is finally close to release.
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Furrowing my brow, I thought back to a year earlier, when I'd seen a huge multipage ad for Populous: The Third Coming that said the game would be ready last November. "Well, I didn't make it to E3 this year, so I'm not exactly sure what the status of the new Populous game is," I said. "It's been almost a year since the time it was supposed to be out, and when a game's ship date slips that much it doesn't stay on my radar screen for very long. There are so many games coming out that I don't pay much attention to a title unless there's a demo online or I've got a version in hand."
Newcomers to the series could be drawn in by the game's excellent graphics.
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I'm not sure what the ratings were for my radio debut, but apparently someone in the right place was listening, because the very next week I received a call from the editors at GameSpot asking me if I'd like to preview Populous: The Beginning. Suddenly, Populous was smack-dab in the middle of my admittedly selective radar screen. However, the difference this time was that I had a chance not only to play a fairly bug-free beta version of the game, but also to find an answer to a question that's become all too common in computer gaming: What took so long?
Next: The Populous Legacy
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