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Saber Cherry said:
GameRankings.com might give Grand Theft Auto a 95% average and Resident Evil 4 a stunning 96% average, but I'd never consider buying either game, and the opinions of Shrapnel fans would be much more useful.
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Y'know, I've yet to read a
single remotely persuasive non-indie game review. The norm seems to be for reviewers to have absolutely nothing to say, but persist in blathering on for pages on end about all sorts of revolutionary, never-before-seen features like, y'know, elves, potions, graphics, keyboards, mice. From a recent Gamespy preview of TeS IV: Oblivion -
"There's definitely a lot to like about The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but one element stands out more than anything else. This is truly a sandbox game, where every action will result in some sort of reaction. During the demo, our hero accidentally set an innocent villager on fire, prompting a local guard to rush up to us. Our demoer said that he usually paid the requested fine, but he actually listened to me when I said, "Screw that guy, kill him!" After battling for a few moments, we ducked into the local mage's union. According to the guy manning the controller, in every previous demo, the hero was able to join the union.
This time, however, the union's leader refused to let us join because our hero was now "a wanted criminal." Even better, the guard miraculously didn't forget about our trangressions, actually following us into the building, slashing at us until we killed him. This turn of events caused the demoer to proclaim, "Oh wow, I've never seen that happen" a number of times, which is always a good sign that a game will have a lot of surprises (and even better, replay value) for those players who enjoy unpredictability. After seeing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in action, we want it more than ever."
A criminal flag, and triggers conditioned on that flag. Wow. Whatever will they think of next? Some sorta non-boolean criminal status indicator, possibly a numerical one? These are the days of miracle and wonder.
Getting back on topic, I've also already purchased Civ IV and, for my part, don't regret it in the slightest. Sure, certain aspects of the game were rushed, but a few major issues have already been patched, and the end product is still nothing short of sublime.
I've also very recently already registered
Escape Velocity Nova, and already regret it. My instinctive urge to support indie and semi-indie developers got the better of me. Fine, all the flavor text in the game is exceedingly well-written, and the main plotlines, although irredeemably cliched, are actually fairly compelling, but the gameplay is dull, dull, dull. Then again, that might just be my abhorrence of repetition and compulsive leveling. If you could tolerate the mere mention of Dungeon Siege, you'll love EV Nova.
The only other game I've been considering which isn't already on the list is
Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, and it'll likely end up being another mindless, soulless, pointless by-the-numbers RTS. I miss Shadow of the Horned Rat.
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Galactic Civilizations 2 - home
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Speaking of soulless...
Wait, so Armed Assault and OFP 2 are both back in BIS' hands? Purchased. I might bother to read a review or two beforehand, but nothing short of a half-dozen game-stopping bugs will deter me.
There's going to be a JA III?! Oh please, please,
please let it not be yet another MoO III.
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Supreme Commander (Total Annihilation sequel) - preview home
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Can you imagine it? The elimination of micromanagement in our lifetime. A game that actually lets you focus on what interests you and/or demands creative thought, and handles the rest for you. Also, big 'splosions. I'm hanging all my hopes on this one.
Looking forwards to this, as well.
Steering clear of this one. I buy RPGs for one of two reasons:
A) A proper, non-linear, interactive storyline
B) A really compellingly told, original, linear storyline
Dragon Quest 8 seems to have neither, and endless levelling can only tide me over for so long.
Incidentally, if you haven't picked up Planescape: Torment yet, do so. I can't stress this enough.
No real progress since Daggerfall, but I'll gladly settle for more of the same. Still, it would be nice to see some genuine innovation.
Ditto, replacing "Daggerfall" with "Gothic".
Ooh. Didn't realize they were making a sequel. The original seemed a tad one-sided, though. One way or another, unless you made some truly monumental errors, you would eventually win, if only by sheer XP(well, AP)-induced inertia.
Darklands 3D, eh? Promising...
Huh... Well, that's unusual. Worth a look.
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Roma Victor (MMORPG) home
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Realism is nice, but an MMORPG is still an MMORPG. So far, I've only seen two MMOGs with proper, engaging gameplay, beyond the leveling treadmill. I'm pretty sure both are defunct, probably as a result of crippling latency issues. Did JumpGate even make it past the beta phase?
Ah, Spore. In all likelihood, it'll just be a design tool disguised as a game. But what a design tool! It'll take some truly catastrophic design decisions to dissuade me from picking this thing up.
The Movies-style catastrophic design decisions.