Soo... When is the next patch?

[HolyFire]

Szumo said:
SE5 does not count. Big disappointment over SE4

Are you saying this because of the numerous bugs at the original release (most of which have by now been fixed), or for other reasons?

[Tiavals]

It's essentially the same game with different graphics. More like a patch than a new game. It didn't add any new content. It feels wrong to call it a new game.

[Theonlystd]

Meglobob said:
I have to say the last year has been dire for strategy games.

Fortunately, I have had Dom 3 to play during that time.

Other than GC2, Dom3 and Civ4 expansions what else has there been?

Can anyone name any good strategy games released in the last year that I may have missed due to my immersion in Dom 3?

Well Sword of the Stars .. Even with its expansion its still pretty simple economic and colony wise .. But hopefully its the start of more turn based strategy games making use of pretty graphics and such in that way ..

[Gandalf Parker]

HolyFire said:

Are you saying this because of the numerous bugs at the original release (most of which have by now been fixed), or for other reasons?

I thought it was a great example of the 3D comment. It stepped up the graphics to the point that it did not receive the community modding support that SEIV had. And mods was what made SEIV worthwhile.

[Szumo]

Bugs - and i'd say some of them are still not fixed. But mainly because it's a big stepback comparing to SE4 in terms of required micromanagement and user interface useability, without anything really improved over it.

[Salamander8]

I loved SE4, especially with all the mods for it. SE5 feels like a step backward to me. I don't hate it, but it didn't grab me like SE4, Dom2, and Dom3 did.

I too lament the decline in turn-based games (I'm an old fart too). And while I do play some RTS games, I don't feel they are all that strategic.

[NTJedi]

Humakty said:
What really killed the creation of new 4X games (and more classical strategy games) is the passion editors seem to have with 3D. You end up with games offering you very small maps, and most of the time repetitive strategies.

...

3D doesn't favorise mods either.(and creating mod friendly games isn't the trend anymore).

I completely agree... so many developers and publishing companies are lured into believing gamers care more about pretty graphics than game quality and game content.
This has hurt even the RTS games such as Warcraft_3 with the 96X96 size map limitation. It's frustrating to see so much effort being forced into better graphics which results in small maps, less game options, and a less satisfying overall product.
It's like discovering your favorite vehicle has a new model available, yet when you look under the hood it has worse performance, uses more gas, less safety, fewer options, etc; , and all just for better appearance. The worst part is this has been continuing in the gaming industry for 5 years now.
We're stuck waiting for the game companies to return with building quality instead of focusing on appearance.

[Nikolai]

> yet when you look under the hood it has worse performance, uses more gas, less safety, fewer options, etc; , and all just for better appearance.

But opposite also sucks. The new M3 is tons better than mine, but looks like ***. I want the machine (to kick a certain monster S60R) but I do not want "stepped on" apprearance.

[Frostmourne27]

NTJedi said:

I completely agree... so many developers and publishing companies are lured into believing gamers care more about pretty graphics than game quality and game content.
This has hurt even the RTS games such as Warcraft_3 with the 96X96 size map limitation. It's frustrating to see so much effort being forced into better graphics which results in small maps, less game options, and a less satisfying overall product.
It's like discovering your favorite vehicle has a new model available, yet when you look under the hood it has worse performance, uses more gas, less safety, fewer options, etc; , and all just for better appearance. The worst part is this has been continuing in the gaming industry for 5 years now.
We're stuck waiting for the game companies to return with building quality instead of focusing on appearance.

Warcraft three is actually pretty mod firendly, if you work around quite a bit. Things like map size limits are bypassable, with difficulty. See maps like EotA, which, reportadly, nearly crashes the creator's copy of the editor with its size and complexity. Not that War3 couldn't be better, but Blizzard does a better job that most mainstream game studios, up until WoW at least. MMORPGs don't even deserve the game title, let alone role-playing

[Valandil]

Or, in some cases, the MM (see: Guild Wars.)