Squinting into the future

[Thecla]

So what to-be-released-games are you all keeping an eye on? It seems like a very fallow period these days. (A run through KoTOR cured me of D2 a while back.)

Among the MMORPGs, World of Warcraft and EverquestII both look promising -- if it turns out that I can stand to play anything of that genre (and perhaps EQII will be better than WoW, despite SOE's poor record, who knows). The GuildWars open alpha during E3 was lots of fun, but GW may well be primarily a competitive PvP game, which -- like FPSs -- isn't my preference. Flagship studios -- another set of ex-Blizzard refugees -- is developing something or other, as described in this informative link

http://www.gamer.nl/viewdoc/1261

but whatever it is, it won't be out for quite a while. Anything else?

p.s. as someone once told me, and with apologies to anyone here who may be from the Netherlands--it's just a joke for crying out loud: "Dutch isn't a language, it's a throat disease."

[Nystul]

The World of Warcraft beta has been a very fun ride. Unfortunately, it has also confirmed some of my fears about MMORPGs, and even worse it has not shown me any benefit to the concept. In short, the MMO format is not my cup of tea, and having to buy a subscription for an aspect of the game I dislike is not very appealing. As of today I would reccomend it to others (with reservations), but I probably wouldn't buy it myself. We'll see where I stand on that in about 6 months.

As for other games, I'm not sure. I haven't given much of a look to the other RPGs of the future. On the FPS front, I am mildly looking forward to Doom 3 (not that my computer will be able to handle it).

Once I either tire of WoW or get closed out of it, I may give Neverwinter Nights another go. There are some similarities between the two games, and I would like to test my suspicion that NWN will feel more natural after this game instead of coming from Diablo/Baldur's Gate. Perhaps it will, or perhaps it will just feel boring, small, and inferior.

[Scrape]

Except for Thief: Deadly Shadows, which is already available, I am not really looking forward to anything. This is excluding the questionable Diablo III.

I have never played any WarCraft games, nor do I intend to. The game series is interesting, but I am not interested in playing any of them.

In my recent past, I have barely even had a chance to play games. Just recently I have managed to squeeze some time for them, and I finally had a couple of days off, so I played a little classic Diablo.

Although I would like to, I probably will not get into any MMORPG-type games.

I still enjoy playing all of the games I used to play, and I still have games I bought that I barely played...or in some cases (like Icewind Dale II), have not even played yet.

However, I think the next game I will play is Thief: The Dark Project. I have played it. I bought it when it was first available to me in 1998. I was actually near the completion of the game (or so I assumed anyway). Unfortunately I lost my saved game, and I have not played it since.

Considering all of the games I own, and all of the ones I would like to play, I will be busy for a long time.

[KingOfPain]

Perhaps it's an overdose of insomnia.

I am looking forward to some new games, but not to any game. I can't seem to get into gaming much for the last long while. :o
Bought GalCiv, had a little community of GalCiv players, but never played the game once.
Bought Morrowind 2 weeks ago and only played 15 minutes of it, and have no urge to play it again yet.
I haven't even bothered to read anything about WoW - what a rut I am in.
I am still playing Diablo frequently. Maybe it's because it is somewhat a brain dead game. This is not an insult to the game or its players. It is just a game I have been playing for SO long I hardly need to use higher brain functions ;p And of course, there are still some fun and challenges to be had if you know where to look. I am thinking that maybe I am just a party animal, that multiplayer is the real attraction here.

As to the future, there are a handful of folks ready and willing to take on the Ultimate Diablo challenge, to make history. The only thing that stands in the way of this quest is scheduling - getting team(s) going is a tough business these days.

We will see...

KoP

[Zed-F]

Well, once Slackers completes, we have the option to use Sun nights for a different game... currently we are in late A2 hell. Probably it will take most of the rest of the summer to finish, though, if not longer, due to vacations etc. If you wanted to start before then, other arrangements might need to be made.

Other games: HalfLife 2 will probably command some attention. Doom 3 might, depending on how it looks. I don't play shooters for the multiplayer aspect, though. Any game which has a monthly fee, I'm not into, which rules out just about every MMO, though the former Bliz team is supposedly working on an MMO with no monthly fee. We'll have to see about that. Otherwise, I have enough games in my desk that I have not yet played to keep me going for a looooong time.

[ShadowHM]

Originally posted by KingOfPain@May 31 2004, 03:22 PM

I am still playing Diablo frequently. Maybe it's because it is somewhat a brain dead game. This is not an insult to the game or its players. It is just a game I have been playing for SO long I hardly need to use higher brain functions ;p And of course, there are still some fun and challenges to be had if you know where to look. I am thinking that maybe I am just a party animal, that multiplayer is the real attraction here.

I cannot lay claim to the same lack of need for brain functions as I play. ;-)

But I will admit that if it were not for the multi-player aspect of the game, I would not be bothering with it at all.

So I cannot say what would attract me in a 'new' game. I am with Zed on the lack of interest in games that require monthly fees to play online, though.

[Sirian]

Bought GalCiv, had a little community of GalCiv players, but never played the game once.
Bought Morrowind 2 weeks ago and only played 15 minutes of it, and have no urge to play it again yet.

These are two of the games I bought in the last year and easily got my money's worth out of both! :wub:

The Morrowind GOTY edition includes both xpacks free, essentially. The quest-based system is still a tried and true BethSoft product (not a good thing, actually) but rather than mechanized and soulless quests that all play the same, Morrowinds quests are each individually hand written. The writing is surprisingly good at times, and the game is worth playing (IMHO) on the strength of the writing alone, to see what creative bits will be found in the next available quest. I would actually recommend this game to any gamers hungering for a good adventure. The combat engine will eventually grow old on you, but they liven it back up in the expansion packs. I recommend playing the game at default difficulty until you reach about clvl 20, and then pump up the difficulty toward max to keep from completely mopping up every enemy you face. This game doesn't have a lot of wondrous wow moments, but it does have a few, and most of all, it delivers a steady stream of new creative content all the way through. Any adventurer with an eye for detail should have a decently good time.

Now whether KoP will ever pick it back up, I don't know. He seems to be in a weird space where he specifically doesn't want new content, or single player, or perhaps both. There's some decent variant potential here, though, for those who want to toy around with non-mainstream type chars.


As for games I am looking forward to, Half Life 2, with a vengeance! I loved the original, and I know how Valve makes their games. Plus I am hungering for a well written FPS. Been entirely too long!

Civ4 won't be out until late next year, and that's assuming it ships on time. (Does any game ship on time these days? HL2 certainly didn't! If they can upgrade Civ4 with fixes to reduce tedium, a stronger AI, some sensible innovations, and improve on lots of little details, that should be worthwhile for all of RB types who took a liking to Civ3.

I may actually check out Sims 2. No, seriously! I'm thinking about it.

MMO's are probably never going to be my cup of tea. I've always been more of a quality over quantity sort of guy, as evidenced by playing most of my Diablo 1 bnet games in small, private groups. You all know my D2 history vis-a-vis griefers, cookie cutters, and a long list of issues that only grow worse the more players are crammed into the same gaming space.

I kind of have a theory, and it goes something like this: The quality of any given game will drop to the lowest common denominator. Gather trustworthy, intelligent, good-natured friends and even an 8plr game may be stellar. Grab folks at random for 8plr, you'll usually see a wide sample of good folks and one or two jerks. If you can put up with them, you may still do OK. Some games will be ruined, though. Cram 1000 players with anonymity into one gaming space, and the certain number of jerks, griefers, exploit-hunters, cheaters, etc, is bound to drag the whole thing down into the muck. I'm still waiting for a single example to prove this theory fallible.


I usually scan Amazon.com once or twice a year looking for possible "gems in the rough" among PC games. Sometimes I find one, sometimes I don't.


- Sirian

[Ozymandous]

I've been playing on a persistent world made with the NWN engine for about two months and it's been a lot of fun. This place is more RP than PG type tho', so if you do pick NWN (and at least SoU) back up look for this world: THAIN.

I think they have almost a dozen DM's that are on at various times, and if not the player interaction is fun as well.

[Pete]

Hi,

Not much that appeals to me out there, either from what I've seen in Computer Gamer or from what I've seen discussed on fora.

I had the thought the other night that back before computer games, there where three main game companies in the USA: Milton Bradley, Avalon Hill, and SSI. I always was more the SSI type, could enjoy Avalon Hill, but only played Milton Bradley at parties after consuming a sufficient amount of beer to numb the pain (and brain) Well, Avalon Hill bit the dust, SSI is part of UBI Soft, but MB is going strong. There's still a little bit of good gaming coming from Europe (mostly Germany), but hard core non computer gaming is pretty well extinct.

It appears that the same is happening in computer games. Twitch games are still doing pretty good. Most of the other genera seem to have either deteriorated to beer and pretzel games or become the exclusive property of modders and independents (not that that is a bad thing). The mass market is the "casual" market and that seems to be the only market the major developers even think in terms of. Of course, the complexity of games nowadays has driven that to a large extent. When a Lord British could do the design, coding, graphics,and distribution from his bedroom, it didn't take many sales to show a profit. When it takes a huge team of graphic artists, programmers, story writers (a rare breed), sound effects people, voice actors, and miscellaneous suits, then sale figures have to be high.

I find myself going back to the old standbys more and more, chess, bridge (which seems to have died stillborn here), and poker. And, for graphics amazement, flight sims. I'm testing WoW right now. I doubt that any of my suggestions will be taken. Indeed I suspect that rather than "tightening" the game up, they'll make it looser before release. I doubt that the cost of two subscriptions will be worth it for the social interaction - the only part of the game I find interesting.

--Pete

[Quark]

First, the OT: Your topic reminded me of a Philly Inquirer article I read about the other day. Is anyone here watching Venus pass the Sun next week?

As for the games, I have a huge list of possibles. But many of them are not PC games. In order of (supposed) release dates:
Sudeki, Star Ocean 3, Phantom Brave, Fable, SC: Ghost, WoW, THUG2, X-Men Legends, Guild Wars, Suikoden IV, Jade Empire, KOTOR2, Xenosaga 2.

At least, those are the most interesting to me (I've got a huge list running from Gamespot's tracking service). Most will depend on the reviews, though I can almost gaurantee I'm getting Suikoden IV and Xenosaga 2. It's looking like a good few months for console RPGers, which I am. I prefer the PC style more, but console RPGs are certainly superior than FPSs for me.