Games
Sony
Microsoft
Nintendo
Other Platforms
Upcoming &
Recent Releases
xx
3 Cards to Dead Time
xx
Alice in Wonderland
68
Aliens vs. Predator
xx
Armada 2526
82
Assassin's Creed II
89
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
89
BioShock 2
xx
Blur
xx
Bob Came in Pieces
54
Borderlands: Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot
86
Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx
83
Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned
71
Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight
xx
Crash Time III
xx
Cursed Mountain
75
Dark Fall: Lost Souls
58
Dark Void
81
Dawn of Discovery: Venice
xx
Diner Dash 5: Boom
89
DiRT 2
83
Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
68
Dragon Age: Origins - Return to Ostagar
xx
Drakensang: The River of Time
73
Emberwind
86
Europa Universalis III: Heir to the Throne
xx
Everquest II: Sentinel's Fate
xx
Fairytale Fights
xx
Field of Glory
xx
Galcon Fusion
71
Ghost Pirates of Voojoo Island
56
Greed: Black Border
xx
History Channel: Great Battles - Medieval
58
James Cameron's Avatar: The Game
xx
Just Cause 2
79
King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame
82
King's Bounty: Armored Princess
xx
Konung 3: Ties of the Dynasty
82
Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood, The
xx
M.U.D. TV
xx
Major League Baseball 2K10
94
Mass Effect 2
xx
Max & the Magic Marker
87
Metro 2033
xx
Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove
82
Napoleon: Total War
xx
Order of War: Challenge
xx
Rig'n'Roll
xx
Rocketbirds: Revolution!
29
Rogue Warrior
79
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat
76
Saboteur, The
xx
Saira
xx
Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossom Murders
68
Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter
66
Silent Hunter 5
xx
Sims 3: High-End Loft Stuff, The
xx
Singularity
xx
Sins of a Solar Empire: Diplomacy
xx
Solium Infernum
xx
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
xx
Split/Second
65
Star Trek Online
xx
Star Wolves 3: Civil War
xx
Superstars V8 Next Challenge
78
Supreme Commander 2
81
Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 5: Rise of the Pirate God
xx
Theatre of War 2: Kursk 1943
xx
Tinker
81
Toki Tori
xx
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction
xx
Treasure Island
49
Twin Sector
56
Vancouver 2010: The Official Videogame of the Winter Olympic Games
82
VVVVVV
86
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising
78
Wings of Prey
xx
XIII Century: Blood of Europe
xx
Zero Gear
60
Zombie Driver
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed games.
Tale in the Desert, A

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 6 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
Rate this game >
Game Info
Publisher: eGenesis
Developer: eGenesis
Genre(s): Massively Muliplayer Online Role-Playing Game
Players: Thousands
ESRB Rating: RP (Rating Pending)
Release Date: February 15, 2003
Summary
The ancient Egyptians wrote about Seven Disciplines of Man: Leadership, Thought, The Human Body, Architecture, Worship, Conflict, and Art. They believed that if a man could achieve perfection in all seven, he'd live forever. A Tale in the Desert centers around the tests, which measure your skill in the seven disciplines. They don't measure your character's abilities --- they measure your abilities. That's a big difference. For example, to advance in leadership, you'll actually need to be able to convince people to do things. To advance in conflict, you'll need real tactical and strategic ability. To advance in art, you'll need artistic talent. All of the tests share one thing in common: your goal is to affect your fellow players. In conflict, you must defeat them. In architecture, you must outbuild them. In worship, you must coordinate them. No matter the discipline, passing a test revolves around other players. [eGenesis]
Also On The Web: Official Website
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Just Adventure
You cant begin to experience the complexities of this game or reap its full benefit during a review period. If I had more free time right now, I would embrace A Tale with all of my gaming heart and dive deep into Egypt.
Read Full Review >IGN
Incredibly ambitious and delivers more than I expected. There are so many different things to do and so many different ways to play the game that I can't imagine anyone getting bored.
Read Full Review >Gamer's Pulse
The whole time I played this game I enjoyed myself thoroughly... The world is gigantic and the people are so friendly that it just begs to be played.
Read Full Review >GameSpot
The designers themselves have stated that A Tale in the Desert is about creating a society, and watching the experiment in action is almost as enjoyable as taking part.
Read Full Review >Computer Games Magazine
It's a beautiful, creative tale told in the desert of originality, a startling flower in a wasteland of murder-and-loot online games. [July 2003, p.71]
Computer Gaming World
While I found the game a refreshing diversion from the usual slash-and-loot online fare I've become a little worn out on after years of play, I did find the heavy focus on interaction with other players to be too much of a good thing. [July 2003, p.82]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this game is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Dustin gave it a6:
Interface! I honestly believe there is an interesting game somewhere in here, but holy-awful interface Batman! I had to click through about 7 drop down menu's just to change the color of my characters outfit. The concept is compelling and well done, but the interface is a huge impediment. The game was built by a very small team, so I can accept a certain lack of polish, but I don't appreciate wading through and endless serious of drop down menu's to do anything. There are also a number of settings whose default values are bafflingly stupid. The default behavior is for a pop up window to force its way to the front every time your character hits something it can't walk over. This can be incredibly frustrating if you get stuck on a hill. Oddly enough you character STARTS on a hill, on which it is easy to get stuck. You can alter this setting, which I imagine nearly everyone does, but to do so you must of course navigate several levels of drop down menu. According the the creator, 80% of the people who try the game out don't make it through the tutorial section. I suspect this is primarily do to the terrible interface. If they put a little time into fixing that, they might have a real hit on their hands.
A G gave it a3:
Poor Quality, looks good at first, but requires a lot of time to suceed in or skills in the limited selection of mini games/tasks. An example being, those who get very good at blacksmithing and gemcutting which require skills in Colour and shape will tend to get rich selling their products and using that wealth buy all the stuff they need and then have pleanty of time for the tests. Those who aren't as good at the select skills will either have to join a rich guild and work as essentially a slave doing work for it or slave around on their own. The game would work better if it truely met the idea of cooperation, but it falls in between all the camps. In that as a solo player on your own you have very little chance of getting far due to all the competition, cooperation outside of guilds is little and due to some of the very competitive parts even within guilds it falls apart. This is all rather long winded, all I can say is it looks good, but what is already apparant in tale 2 is that it fails in the long run. Already the population is down from 2000 players to 1500. The game is a failure and I hope Mr tepper goes out of business.
Andrew A. gave it a 9:
Incredibly deep and well-thought out gameplay.... it is like a long-term first-person game of civilization. There is no combat, but there is a lot of conflict and competition.
David B. gave it a 10:
Unique and Innovative Gameplay, Finally a Linux MMORPG client, and even better an alternative to hack and slash. Incredible Game!
