Tail of the Sun came out today (but only in limited quantities), and it
came out 10 bucks cheaper than most new games ($39 at EB). I've been
looking forawrd to this one, so I picked it up and Ive spent about 2 hours
with it so far. Keep in mind these are very preliminary thoughts on the
game...

First, it's pretty addicitve. I was just playing, starting to figure out
what was going on, then I noticed that over an hour had gone by! Time
dissapears when you play this game. I'll gloss over the graphics quick:
They arent bad, but arent amazing either. ArtDink went for the "big
blocky" look, and it works. There is some pop up around the edges and some
glitches here and there, but no big problems.

When you start the game you get to choose from 3 different cavepeople.
Dont worry though, your tribe breeds like rabbits (assuming you eat the
right food, more on that later) and soon you have a bunch to choose from.
You choose you caveperson and go off to explore the world, eat some
plants, sleep, kill some animals, and eventually die. This is probably the
first game whose main focus is wandering around and eating thinks lying on
the ground! Certain foods increase certain body parts power, and all serve
their purpose. You also find animals about (monkeys, buffalo, deer, wierd
lizards, and a bunch more). Kill em with whatever you got, and you can
bring the meat back to camp (every once in a while there is a  party when
you return. Neat bonus). AS the game continues and you lose cavemen to
age, drowning, animals, your cultural level rises and you learn how to use
STICKS! And clubs! And more fun stuff!

It's actually very fun just to wander the landscape: the world is HUGE.
It's not all flatland either, there are mountains, rivers, forests, and
other, goofier stuff. Ive found Stonehenge (right above your village), and
at the "edges" of the contintent are huge stone feet, hands, etc... The
weather is suitably random, and the night sky is really neat. When your
caveman gets tired, he just keels over and catches some Zs. You can wake
him up early, but that just means he's gonna need more sleep later.

Here's the goofy part, I know the point of the game is to build a tower of
mammoth tusks up to the sun, and I know mammoths must be tough to beat and
all, but I havent even SEEN one yet (this is prob a good thing). This
either means the world is MUCH MUCH bigger even than how huge I think it
is now, or else they dont show up until the computer recognizes you're at
a certain cultural level, or the number of animals youve killed (which is
recorded as a huge cave painting mural you can look at at any time). Other
strangeness: Ive met at least 2 other people while wandering around, but I
can't interact with them quite yet (not quite ready to bonk em with the
stick). I also dont know if there is a finite amount of food lying around.
I know there is TONS of it now, but I hope it stays that way.

All in all, i'm digging this game, although I'd say it's not for everyone.
It moves at it's own, kinda slow pace, there is no rush or concrete goals
you must constantly work towards. You just sort of... live. However, it
does have more direction than Aquanauts Holiday, which is a good thing.
The instruction manual helps a little in explaining some of the wierder
things like the "power runes" and all. Well, that's it for me, I'll
probably write a more conrete review after I've downed a few mammoths.

Adam