Just wanted to throw in my 2 coppers on the subject at hand. I think the indies deserve a TON of credit and I always try to support them. What has been said of originality and nostalgia are completely true. I may not be fully utilizing my GeForce4 Ti4600 with games like DO, SEIVG, Remote Assault, etc--but dang it…they’re just plain fun! I don’t feel as if I’m playing a game that forces me to run down a restrictive “hallway” with limited things open to me as many of the big name products do. Granted these “hallways” are often very pretty to look at—but they don’t usually have the substance that I crave in a game.
I not only purchase, and encourage others to purchase, Shrapnel products but also other indies (that I feel deserve the business as well). I get so tired of some of the new stuff out there that exists on hype alone. Oh I’m sure people like them (that’s why they have more than one manufacturer of car), but a lot of them seem half done to me—taking the multimedia aspect more seriously than the content.
I’m not even going to comment on support, either official or non-official, as you can just peruse the forums and see just how awesome the people are at the various arms of Shrapnel. I can’t even count how many times I’ve been frustrated by the big companies that obviously release product too soon and then drag their feet on a patch and/or information on what’s going on with their stuff.
I’m not bashing anyone by this post, and yes I have an extensive collection of big name games as well. Even though I’ve not be completely satisfied by the newer mainstream stuff that’s out there, I still buy enough of them that I could probably open a used game store at the local mall. However, despite shelling out literally hundreds, if not thousands of dollars a year on PC and console games, I still find myself coming back to the stuff from Shrapnel, Battlefront, Spidersoft, and other games of a (imo) higher caliber of product.
Again, this is just my humble opinion. Kudos to everyone at Malfador and Shrapnel—please keep up the awesome work and stick around for many more years to come. Okay…I’ll just go step off my soap-box now—I need to go fill out some paper work to refinance my house anyways.
