Bah I Give Up

[Atrocities]

A couple of years ago I bought a game called Far Cry. I had played the demo and found it to be one of the most engaging FPS to come along in a very very long time. I expected the full game would be a let down, and the problems I had with the graphics seemed unsurmountable, but with a little help, and a patch, all my concerns melted away into a blissfully enjoyable long and exciting game. Far Cry really pushed the envelope of design and in doing so redefined FPS's. Then came Half Life 2. Man I had such high hopes for this game. It turned out though that it was less enjoyable than even I had expected it would be. It was short, very scripted, had no freedom of movement or choice of alternate direction as Far Cry had, but damn it sure looked fantastic graphically.

Good things come at you when you least expect them and from directions you would never expect. I can list a small handfull of games that really set themselves apart and thankfully SE V is in that list along with Freespace, Tribes, SimCity 3000, System Shock 2, and of course SE IV.

I think the major problem with games today is that the cost of development is so great that in order to justify that cost they must release games too soon. In doing so they hurt themselves horribly and jepordize sales and thus future support deminishes. This seems to be a developing, and alarming pattern as of late. Thankfully there are still a few game developers out there that buck this trend, such as Malfador and set themselves apart in doing so.

This is why I have faith that SE V will continue to improve because Aaron has a track record that speaks for itself when it comes to game support. A solid record and one that I desperately wish other game developers would openly subscribe to. If they would, then they too would become the champions of truly successful games.