What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

1. Dominions 3. Doms 2 was the best strategy game what I ever played with. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Doms 3 gonna be even better!

2. Spore. Probably the most unique game what I ever seen, this gonna take gaming to a new level.

official site: http://www.spore.com/

35 mins ingame presentation movie from 2005: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...98&q=spore

forums/infos: http://www.gamingsteve.com/

3. Two Worlds. Fantastic RPG game, probably gonna blow away Oblivion even.

official site: http://www.2-worlds.com/

4. TES4: Oblivion. Another fantastic RPG, coming in a few days!

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

Well, I'm waiting for Dominions III and Hearts of Iron II Doomsday.

It's gonna cost at least 70 E for me and I should be saving money...oh well, I do save money 99% of the time. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

1. Dom 3: Surprise! Someone is waiting for Dom 3

2. Spore: Sounds to good to be true.

3. Supreme Commander: As a huge fan of Total Annihilation, this one is a must. I still hope it will be released this year.

4. Oblivion: I played Morrowwind and Daggerfall, but somehow those two did not manage to capture me. I hope that the newest member of the Elderscroll family is more than just a hype.

5. Medieval 2 Total War: I love the first Medieval Total War game, and I hope that the second part will be even better.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

agree

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

Probably Dominions III, even though sequels seldom work out for me.

Probably DROD: The City Beneath, even though sequels of sequels seldom work out for me.

Of course, I'm also waiting for Etch... what do ya mean, it's not a game?

And that's probably all, unless Supreme Commander somehow manages to convince me. I'll probably go with TA Spring instead.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

1.Domions 3 of course.
2.Medieval 2, i will need to buy a new PC for Medieval 2 but it looks just great, i already loved RTW and Medieval 2 looks like it easily tops RTW http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

Not mentioned games so far i am looking forward to:
1.Strategic Command 2, could get really good.
2.War-front. Looks like a fun little RTS, and i find the units quite cute. The German Exoskelett infantry at least seems fun http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif
http://www.war-front.com/index.php?page=3&pos=1#

3. War on Terror
http://www.waronterror.de/
Seems to have nice graphics and a somewhat cool scenario too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

I have the same list as you. 3 being VERY important to me as I just love Total Annihilation. Never played Morrowind or any Elderscroll games so don't anticipate Oblivion that much.
5 is a bit Iffy since it's just recently announced. Gotta be carefull with it because Rome was VERY buggy.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

I agree. I didn't like Rome that much, so I hope Medieval 2 goes back to the roots of the series

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

I don't know if I'm going to buy them, but I read a bunch on wonderful reviews of various Japanese/Chinese RPGs. The way the reviewer had examined them, the things he wanted in a game, the things he had FOUND in the games made them sound great. The fact that he put in the bad things as well made it that much more believable.

Besides the D!!!, I'd like to find Planescape: Torment somewhere. I'll wait until Spore has been reviewed, as it might be just boring. If it is fun besides the creating part, I'll probably buy it.

I tried Daggerfall a little, didn't like it. I tried Morrowind, didn't like it. I think I'll pass Oblivion. In fact, I don't know of any computer RPG that would emphasize the story over graphics, and party over one farmer that grows to be the superhero. I haven't looked around for the ones coming, though.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

Rome was good, but the mod Total Realism was awesome. 10x better then the vanilla imho.

1. Company of Heros - Can't believe no one mentioned this.
2. TW:M2
3. Supreme Commander
4. Spore
5. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (I hate non-realistic shooters, but this looks damn good)
6. Madden 2007 360
7. Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
8. Huxley
9. Paraworld
10. Titans Quest (think thats the name)

I think Dom III goes without saying.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

Can't believe nobody's mentioned Sumo Strip Poker. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

*cough*wiseass*cough*

I thought more people on this forum would be following it. Close Combat aimed to bring Wargaming real time, and was the first game I am aware of that attempted to model how soldiers would react to orders. Until that point, every game featured robot soliders that blindly followed orders.

Since then a few games have attempted it, but for the most part, the player-end AI is still the same. I have been impressed with every Relic game since Homeworld, and makes me think that all the hoopla over CoH is more then hype.

We just may get a RTT that plays as well as it looks.

Official Site
http://www.companyofheroesgame.com/

IGN Preview
http://pc.ign.com/objects/743/743961.html

Gamespy Preview
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/company-of-.../614683p1.html

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

Yes, a working version of Close Combat on my Linux box would be so great - why did they implement such a great game using such bad coding style? *sigh*

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

Well Dominions 3 is of course #1 on my list.
Also Space Empires V is right up there nudging it.

Oblivion maybe if its more like Daggerfall and less like Morrowind.

Im still waiting for my copy of VGA Planets 4 that I pre-ordered years ago. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
And Stars-SuperNova.

My choice for unique change-the-world game is called Tranquility (way cool) but I will go look at Spore

I still keep an eye on all the different efforts at re-creating Master of Magic

And Im waiting for more info on that game that Shrapnels pop-up ad mentions. Something about dare to dream?

Gandalf Parker

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

What timing, Gandalf! This morning's press release:

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

GREAT! And nice write-up!
Let me know when pre-ordering is available.
It looks like one I definetly have to get.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

Yes, how could I forget those two?
Enemy Territory is one of the best multiplayer shooters out there. Even though it's free, it can compete with BF2 and the likes. I have high expectations for the second part of the series. Same goes for Company of heroes... even though I would like some badass nazi Dreadnoughts http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

May i ask what you disliked about RTW?
I found RTW a major improvement over the old Shogun/Medieval system.

The new province system with traveling armies is imho better than the old system Medieval and Shogun had and RTW was the first of the total war games with really good graphics.
Finally RTW had more modding possibilities and was easier to mod than Medieval.

So what was better in Medieval than in Rome in your opinion?

For me it has been the other way round, though i liked Medieval i think RTW was better, i liked RTWs new features like the new Province Map http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

i like RTW aswell although one thing i would have liked is the ability to constuct my own (not major like rome ect) cities

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

Maybe it's a matter of taste. I liked the old system better, mainly it took less time to move your troops where they were needed. Rome feels a way slower, at least for me.

Indeed, but as someone who plays dom 2, graphics aren't that important to me. Some of the "advantages" of the 3D engine were even ridiculous. I remember my cavalery jumping over my infantry units while charging. In Medieval, your cavalery would get stuck in your troops and not charge right trough them.
I'm glad to hear that, I'll have a look at those mods.

Maybe it's the setting. I prefer the variety of troops you have available in Medieval. In Rome you have... well... you have guys with spears, stronger guys with spears, horses that magically fly over your troops, and did I mention those guys with spears? In addition, the fact that all of your troops have javelins makes the battles a trough mikromanagment hell, at least for me. I even found diplomacy more tedious because it takes your ambassador so long to get somewhere, and I miss selling my daughters in exchange for alliances. Sieges are very boring. When you decide to assault a village, the enemy runs to it's centers, making you move your army a painfully long way through that city/village. Then there is the matter of sound... again, it's a matter of taste, but I loved that bombastic battle sound islamic nations got in medieval

Well, everything is a matter of taste. Rome is not a bad game. But I prefered the old one.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

First and foremost dominions III - the awakening.
Then there's the mark of chaos. A blend of RTW and the fantasy genre, something I have for a long time wanted to see. The screens look awesome.

NWN-II.

I once had high expectations from HOMM-V but by now they are all but gone.

Warlords-V seems to have taken a good direction, discarding the awful direction they took with the fourth installment, instead basing the game on the warlords-III DLR.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

I am liking the look of Dom III, of course.


I am also watching, though now doubting it will ever come to america, Great Battles of Rome, (http://celtickings.net/forum/viewforum.phtml?f=14). It came out in spain and Italy around a year ago, and the rest of the world has been waiting ever since. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

@ PrinzMegaherz

I c, your complaints are good ones http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.
Looks as it is a matter of taste indeed.

Rome plays slower than Shogun or Medieval, that's also true.
I liked Medieval a lot too but my main gripe with Medieval was that if you conquered a province most of the province's infrastructure was looted. And buildings took too long to be built, in RTW this is a bit faster and buildings get only damaged but not completely looted when the enemy captures them.
This lead to more dynamic campaigns in RTW imho. Border Cities changing possession every 5-10 turns was nothing uncommon.
In Medieval you always had to play more methodically, if a province exchanged 5 times ownership there the province's infrastructure was totally razed from all the looting.

And finally with RTW's new province system you could use the terrain to your advantage, i.e. wait in the woods for the attacker if you played barbarians, hide beyond brigdes if you had good artillery etc..

Your complaint about Rome's troops is also only partially correct:
1st only the roman troops had all javelins, most other nations had only 1 or no javelin throwing troop type at all.
2nd the spear thing is also only partially true:
Only the Phalanx-heavy nations have many speartroops, especially the greek successor states.
But there were also many factions with no spear units at all or only crappy ones like the gaul warband.
The troop variety in RTW is imho as great as in Medieval.
Ok maybe 10% less great since medieval also had x-bows and cannons, but apart from that the variety in RTW is the same.

But to each his own, your points were really good PrinzMegaherz http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.
And the Medieval AI was much better than the RTW-AI too.

If you want to try a mod, try
http://www.rometotalrealism.org/

It's imho the best RTW-Mod. Beware though, it largely increases the province map to the maximum (=200 provinces iirc), so a RTR-Game lasts even longer than a vanilla game.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

just like to thank wraithlord for reminding me to add Mark of Chaos to my list

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

yes... thanks wraithlord... this "mark of chaos" game has many sweet features. I'll keep my eye on this one.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

It's been mentioned, but Supreme Commander is looking... insane.

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/arti...0113034157.jpg
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/arti...0113040110.jpg
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/arti...0113018471.jpg

You can even zoom out:

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/arti...0113030001.jpg

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

Now, why did you have to go and do that! How much free time do you think I have!

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

i would just like to point out (as far as my limited memory can remember) that the last picture saber posted was not a campain map but an actual game LEVEL. so you should be able to zoom in to any part of it just as much (maybe more so) that the first picture sabre posted. SC games (according to the devs) will often have many minor skirmishes going on simultaniously with the larger offensives (although they say it shouldnt be a problem as far as management goes)

overall it looks like a great game

ps: why in the name of **** do i use so many brackets?

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

Yeah, I can't wait for Supreme commander. And I sat thinking about one particular game for this list and I just couldn't recall it. That game is Mark of Chaos. I am probably more excited about MoC then any other game has been mentioned.

I am biased towards all things Warhammer, but that looks like a killer app regardless of what you know about the Warhammer universe.

As far as RTW goes, I missed the Religion aspect of MTW, and right from the start I was turned off by RTW when I saw "Flaming Pigs". I am not a realism nut but that is just silly. The Dogs also totally ruined any kind of balance, even though I loved the damn mutts. I def like the era more, and the emphisis on infantry rather then missle units was a plus.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

I liked the old Warhammer - Dark Omen rts game. While it's battles might be comparable to the Total War series, it has a much better interface. For example, every detachment not viewable on the main battle window has it's banner shown on the border of the screen, pointing into the direction of where the detachment is standing, while a click will move the camera immediately to that position - a great way not to get lost in big battles. I hope mark of chaos keeps this great feature.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

You probably red too much of my posts. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

OH yes I forgot about 2 games myself, what I am also gonna buy for sure.

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos -> Looks like an awesome RTS

http://www.namco.com/games/warhammer/

Jagged Alliance 3D -> The new JA game, gonna be a blast.

Features:
- Jagged Alliance
- turn-based combat system, checked by time
- meet your old friends (mercenaries from previous games)
- highly interactive environment (almost everything is destructible)
- a lot of realistic weapons
- Realistic physics of materials and ballistics. For example, you will be able to shoot through a wall.
- JA2 RPG system
- complete control over the combat
- JA2 interface
- Improved enemy AI.
- various battlefields.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

That reminds me, I have to see if I can get my hands on Silent Storm. Same genre, did the same thing, and IIRC no one really had much to complain besides the plot.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

incendiary pigs were used in real life and were actually one of the more effective weapons vrs elephants/undisciplin ed cavalry (the horses, not the men)

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

They were also quite useful in castle seiges. Some historians conjecture that it might be where the thing about catching a greased pig comes from. A live greased pig, set on fire and catapulted into the castle, caused alot of damage. It ran around trying to hide in tight places and setting fire to everything. It was almost impossible to catch. Highly effective.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

I can't recommend Silent Storm. Being a huge fan of JA and the XCom series I bought it instantly after it's release... and stopped playing after the first few missions. Aside from the strange plot, the game itself plays rather slow, both due to game play and game performance. There are some true highlights, one being the physics engine. You can damage most objects in a very detailed way. I once had a machine gunner defending the entrance of a house against the enemy. His shots ripped small parts out of the walls surrounding the door, allowing him to see enemies he did not see before shooting. However, imho those highlights do not outweight the overall boredom of the game

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

Heh. Somehow I find myself a bit skeptical of this - dead pigs aren't very much fun, and I don't see pigs surviving being catapulted very well - note that unlike animals which can survive a fall (squirrels, cats, etc) you almost never see a pig being nonchalant about heights and leaping from them. ( Yes - we raised pigs for about 9 years when I was growing up. )

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

Dark Omen is one of my favorite games of all time. MP was a complete blast, once we implemented tournament rules. Without them it was super easy to cheese out your army. It was unfortunate that it didn't sell well enough and the plans for expansions were dropped (happened with every single warhammer game until DoW).

I loved Silent Storm. My only gripe is I didn't appriciate the Sci-Fi elements towards the end. I spent hours just doing Random missions. IMHO its the best game of its type (and one of the only of its type) since JA.

As for the pigs, during the period that the game covered, if I'm not mistaken, they were only used once. The best counter to Elephants were vets who had faced them before and lots of pointy sticks. And even if they were the only counter the Romans used, I still don't think it should be a unit. Flaming pig smashes into the flank of the Barbarian line....Barbarian line crumbles. The day is won thanks to the Flaming pigs. Same reason I dislike the dogs being a unit.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

I'm not sure about this one, but have you seen screenshots of Hammer & Sickle? They look exactly like Silent Storm to me... you might whish to take a look http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

Yeah that game gonna use the old SS engine indeed.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

I ran out and bought H&S, hoping to get more Silent Storm action. But, its a totally different game. Its a RPG built on the Silent Storm Engine. It started off as a Mod, and for some reason they made it into a stand alone product.

A few people really liked it, I thought it was terrible. It is technically well done, it just wasn't thought through well. Its hard to explain, most games pace you and give you the nessisary information to figure out what you need to do in any given area. This one doesn't. The forum community sorta muddled through it and figured it out collectivley shareing info.

On to other news: I just got in my monthly magazines, and PC Gamer had a preview for Warhammer Online. I'm not sure if any of you are familiar with this title, but it was in the hands of another developer and was canned. Games Workshop had some ex-employees working at Mythic and called them up, and they took over in 2004, starting from scratch. They built it as the spiritual successor to Dark Age of Camelot.

It looks really cool, and I always thought Dark Age of Camelots Realm vs Realm system would be perfect for a Warhammer MMO. The Graphics look very similar to World of Warcraft, which is good. There are 2 overall sides, 6 races, and 3 individual wars going on in Warhammer Online.

1. Empire vs Hordes of Chaos (Mortals)
2. Dwarves vs Orcs and Gobbos
3. High Elves vs Dark Elves

There will be 3 different types of PvP engagements, from small skirmishes to full blown wars. Though each race will be seperate from the others, your guild of dwarves can backup an elven guild on a raid.

And you will be able to recognize high level players, each race will have a "characteristic" that indicates player level. As orcs grow in power, they will also grow in size (warhammer lore, orc warbosses tower over regular units), and you can tell how powerful a dwarf is by the length of his beard (Longbeards are dwarven vets in the tabletop).

Anyhow, check it out.

http://www.warhammeronline.com/english/home/index.php

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

I got my Oblivion yesterday and so far, I'm not overly impressed. Much of the atmosphere succumbs to the very bad german translation. Most texts are either half english half german or just without any grammar. For example, a strong healing potion would be read like st.ng pt. of hlng.. The tutorial refers to the XBox controller (move the right bumber to activate the item) even though I own the PC version. The graphics are nice, but the people running around don't look very much like people, if you ask me. There is a character generator you can use to create your characters appereance. However, I found it hard to make something that does not look like a monster or plain ugly. The story is more involving than in the earlier games of the series, but still far away from the likes of Final Fantasy (which I personally found very involving). It's a decent game though, and I think I'm gonna spend much time searching the hundreds of dungeons that can be found in the wilderness.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

Re: Silent Storm, the demo was enough to persuade me not to buy it.

Picture this: My scout, armed with an SMG and throwing knives, standing directly(one tile) behind a regular, utterly oblivious German soldier. Having experienced The Fury of the game's RNG, I pass her turn, to ensure she has all of her APs to spare. I also save*, for reasons which presently elude me.
The turn thereafter, I fire a burst into the back of the enemy grunt's head. I think two of the three rounds hit. He grunts, gets an interrupt, turns around, and fires a burst into my scout, critically injuring her.

Load. Aim for his back. All three rounds hit, he grunts, turns, brings my scout within a few HP of death. Load. Throw knife at head. Knife hits, grunt, turn, critically injure scout. Load and try a dozen variations, doing things with the rest of my squad to abuse the RNG. No dice.

Now, I like a challenge as much as the next gamer. In fact, I like a challenge much more than the next gamer. I like challenges so much I'm even willing to overlook the fact that my scout had absolutely zero chance of killing that grunt in a single action, as well as the screaming lack of realism this entails.
But when I get an elite squad member in the best conceivable position, offense-wise, to take out a mere mook, that mook should die, quickly and cleanly, without my having to rely on sniper support.

* Meaning the game was set to easy difficulty, right? Or did the demo allow saving during combat under hard difficulty, as well?

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

I'm not sure about saving restrictions, but this is exactly how the game plays. Now imagine the enemy walking around in his panzer kleins, killing your people with one shot and only being vulnerable to bazookas

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

Jagged Alliance 2... now that was both realistic (as far as sequential turn-based games go) and fun: the personalities went a long way with me.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

Silent Storm walked around reviews as something that has more issues then features.

Actually, from what I saw, comparing it with Jagged Alliance 2 is insult to Jagged Alliance 2.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

Okay, seems that I misremembered. One less game to play during the spring. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Maybe I should try to finish one of the oldies-but-goodies for real this time. Like the original X-Com. That's challenge, but I had started to survive a little better. Only got to attack alien base once, though, and never saw the really tough aliens I have heard and read about.

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

My favorite voice acting ever http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

"I forget... I forget again!!!"

Re: What games are you waiting for in 2006?
 

Shadow is a legend. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Edit: not related to that voice SC quoted. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif