A Pair of Black & White Raves

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Written by BuckGB on March 28th, 2001

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Even if Black & White did nothing more, it would earn its place on your shelf just as a monster creator. Without exaggeration, the learning AI in this game is simply beyond what has ever been attempted before. In the coming months and years, Black & White will remain the standard by which all AI is judged. Just as Half-Life is the bar over which all shooters must jump, Black & White simply raises the bar for intelligence over every other game ever made. You can teach your creature to do just about anything, and it will learn and imitate. There are even stories of advanced creatures that will play tricks on each other -- without being told to do so.

The sound design in Black & White is as finely crafted as the rest of the game. The music hangs in the background, where it should be, and never get repetitive, annoying, or overbearing. These are the tunes I would listen to if I were a god. The environmental sounds are apparent only when you get close to an animal, villager, or object. For example, zoom close to a stream and you'll hear it babbling, or scroll over a village and your followers will tell you what they need to be happy. Produce a storm and you'll hear the loud crash of thunder. Throw a fireball into the middle of a town and villagers will scream and cry in terror while engulfed in flames. The natural creature sounds are just as impressive and realistic sounding. Tigers growl, bears roar, and you'll hear a bevy of "eeps" and "oops" from monkeys. Sound cues will also give you an indication of how to complete some of the quests in the game. In one quest I had to find a shepherd's lost flock. I knew one of the sheep was on a nearby mountain, I just couldn't spot it by eye, so I scanned over the mountain at a tight zoom. Sure enough, I heard a bleat to the right. All I had to do was strafe over and there was my wooly little friend.

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