Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 10, 2011

Populous: The Beginning is a strategy and god game. It is the third title in the Populous video game series, developed by Bullfrog Productions. The PC version of the game was released November 30, 1998; a PlayStation version was developed and released on April 2, 1999, and later emulated on the PlayStation Network. Unlike earlier games in the series, which cast the player in the role of a god influencing loyal followers, The Beginning took a radical departure from the earlier games and placed the player in the role of a shaman, who directly leads her tribe against opponents. Throughout the twenty-five missions of the campaign, the player directs their tribe across a solar system, dominating enemies and tapping new sources of magic, with the ultimate goal of the shaman attaining godhood herself. Populous: The Beginning was the first entry in the series to use true 3D graphics; Bullfrog waited four years to develop the sequel to Populous II so that the graphics technology could catch up to their vision for a new and different game in the series. Populous: The Beginning plays very different from earlier titles, and was welcomed to mixed reviews. Reviewers positively noted the excellent graphics; complaints were directed at the artificial intelligence and the inability of the game to decide between being a real time strategy title or god game. (more...)

Recently featured: Pithole, Pennsylvania – The Pit and the Pendulum – Phan Dinh Phung