-------------
Chart Wars 3 review
by Playbahnosh
-------------

Producer: Osiris Games

Publisher: Osiris Games

Year: 2004

Multiplayer: No

My rating: 3.1

Size: 4,66 mb

Compatiblity: Windows XP


Everybody likes listening to music. Be it rock, rap, R 'n' B or techno, people around the world are moving to the rhytm. But no band could exist without one kind of company, a label. Without a label, the band can't make an album, can't tour or organize any kind of entertainment apart from garage rock.

In <i>Chart Wars 3</i> your task is to manage a label, attract bands and manage the lives of the band members. Your ultimate goal is to become the label of the 
chart-leading bands, and rise to the top of the music industry.

<b>Gameplay</b>

<i>Chart Wars</i> is entirely text-based. The menu system is a bit confusing at first, but it can be learned. You start out by forming your own label with a small starting fund and a minimal crew. You must attract bands to your label by
approaching them with an offer, and sign them. After that you have a variety
of choices. You can release a single or an album from the songs the band already
have, you can arrange a tour or a promotion for them or you can ask them to 
work on their new album by writing songs.

Apart from managing your bands, you must take care of your company too. You can
hire additional staff, get new contracts, scout for promising bands and even build your own studio or distribution firm if you have enough money. All I can say is that this is not an easy task.

The game spends a LOT of time loading; more than can be expected from a game of this kind. It gets quite irritating after a long time. The developers did something to solved this problem - they present a "Did you know..?" fact on every loading screen. Those facts and stories are quite interesting too, but it doesn't make up for the long loading times.

<b>Graphics, Sound and Controls</b>

Well, being a text-only game, we can't talk about graphics here. The bluish 
background and the layout is good enough and easy on the eyes, but nothing
fancy. There is no sound or music at all, which I missed in a music industry
game. There should be at least some ambient music or something like that, but <i>Chart Wars 3</i> provides none. The controls are easy but, as mentioned above, the menu system can be quite confusing at first.

<b>Technnical issues and Compatibility</b>

The game, at the time of writing, has an enormus number of bugs. It tends to quit or crash to desktop at
the most inappropriate times. Heed my warning; save often! The editor is even
more buggy, I don't recommend messing with it. The game is being actively
developed, so they can fix these bugs. Search for the most recent version of the
game, and update.

<b>Final Words</b>

<i>Chart Wars 3</i> is the only game I ecountered that takes on the music industry from within. It is not a bad game, but the number of bugs and crashes tired me out.
If it can be improved and debugged, this may be a great game! Don't miss it!

[/END]


Evaluation:

Pro: Great idea, good features, Real bands (duh)
Con: Crashes and huge anumber of bugs, No music

My rating: 3.1

Written by Playbahnosh © 2005