Corporate Machine

by Take 2

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005NBQP
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: July 26, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,551 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but could have been better, September 4, 2001

By 

James A. Bialous "shoshosho" (East Amherst, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Corporate Machine (CD-ROM)

I hope I am not being to hard on the game designers by giving this game a three star rating. I would give a game like Age of Empires a 5 star rating. And as far as I am concerned, AOE is the game by which all others are measured. This may seem irrelevant when talking about Corporate Machine but AOE is the perfect combination of design and playability. Coporate Machine is a well conceived game with a decent design but the playability is a bit shallow. What I mean is that if you are into business sims, as i am, then you will probably find this game very entertaining. The problem is that I mastered the game over one weekend. Increasing the difficlutly level only makes the computer work faster than is humanly possible. Therefore It became very difficult but not challenging. It just basically gave the computer an edge that no human could match almost to the point that I felt the computer was cheating. There was never anyone in the online rooms to play against which was also a dissapointment. Overall though you cant beat the price... For the price the game is definitley worth it if you are into the business sims games. It is not as good as Railroad Tycoon but much better than the Monte Cristo so called business sim games.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Improved version of Entrepreneur /Tycoon, November 20, 2001

By 

Vishwas Misra (India) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Corporate Machine (CD-ROM)

I have played the earlier version of this game (Entrepreneur). So I am offering a comparison between the Entrepreneur 1.5 version and TCM 1.1.

Stardock has added a number of changes in TCM. First, there is now a technology tree for each product. You thus research a new component or product characteristic rather than push slide bars. It thus makes sense to have engineering specialization while attacking markets such as computers and marketing specialization when in cola business. In my opinion, given its formidable technology tree, playing the computer market without engineering specialization would now be suicidal at the highest level of difficulty. Second, a number of buildings have been added to raise control over the environment. Buildings now enable players to impact regional economy, raise employee skills, gather better market research, and have a distributor in far off regions (increasing sales impact). Also, slightly different building combinations are available as options for manufacturing, research, marketing, and recreation. Third, the game balance has been improved. For example, the economies of scale are realized more easily (reducing prices, raising volumes and increasing profits in the process- a concept known as increased price elasticity) and computer managed competitors do not become miraculously formidable as Mitrosoft does in Entrepreneur while playing at "Lots of Pain" level. Fourthly (and as would be expected), the GUI has been changed. It appears more difficult to navigate in the beginning but I got a hang of it in an hour and now think it is better than the one in Ent 1.5. Finally, more wild cards have been provided to torment your competition. Network game play is available but each time I have been there, no game has been open and waiting for me to join.

Personally, I enjoyed the game as I have a special liking for it. People who already have Entrepreneur versions or are thinking of upgrading from earlier Tycoon versions should do so only if they like the look and feel of the game so much that a slight variation would suffice to make them happy as the underlying "skeleton" of the game remains exactly the same. If they are looking for a radical and refreshing difference then I would strongly recommend that they try out "Capitalism II"- a far more compelling, sophisticated and better business simulation game.

The four star is provided as an absolute rating as the game by itself is good for people who are not interested in very close to real business simulation but would be happy with an approximate and challenging one.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Low Cost Tons of FUN, September 19, 2001

By 

M. Hickman "Knowldgemonger" (pantville ca) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Corporate Machine (CD-ROM)

Don't go into this game expecting a bonanza of fancy graphics and cool openGL stuff. This a 2D strategy in the spirit of Civ. In fact not much has been changed from the free downloadable version but there are difrences. The game is remarkably adicting and loads of fun. Basicly your goal is to gain a certain market share in the world in a number of industries. You hire marketers and set up smear campaigns against your enemys and try to set up in essence the next microsoft or coca-cola. The game is a little dated even though it is a new product but if you like civ and are looking for a great deal this is a must.