Will there be a Dominions 4

[TheConway]

Eh, I don't think modern games are that terrible. Also, lets not pretend that all or even necessarily most games of the 70s-80s were super great (Daikatana). I look forward to the release of Diablo 3 right now, and personally I think Battlefield Bad Company 2 is great in its implementation of believable destructible environments. Or the very interesting and tactical play of League of Legends. There's not really any good RTS games that have held my attention recently, but I like SC2 from an SP perspective. I personally refuse to play any game that charges a monthly fee, which means I don't play any MMOs, but they're not all WoW. So forgive me, but I believe you're not giving modern game designers an even chance, and are letting nostalgia hide the absolute hideousness of some of the games from the days of yore.

[Stavis_L]

Originally Posted by TheConway

Also, lets not pretend that all or even necessarily most games of the 70s-80s were super great (Daikatana).

Um...Daikatana was released in 2000...

[WraithLord]

Ahmmm. let's see, MOM, CIV, LoM, starcon, dune, warcraft, HoMM, UFO, MOO, DotC, Disciples, Warlords, Kohan, AoW just to name a few. Show me same or even close level of innovation, creativity & content in a main stream game today.

I gave modern games a chance. Some are passable (HoMM V, Disciples III, Warhammer, Total War). Most IMHO are mediocre at best and downright crappy at worst. Oh and GFX has improved a lot no doubt - GFX is amazing but I'd rather watch a good movie than play a shallow click-festi game.

Perhaps the times have changed and I remain trapped in anachronistic expectations. Fact is, I only play old games: dominions, disciples, AoW & chess although I have a number of new games installed on my hard drive. Typically I'd start new game X, say wow to amazing gfx, play a bit, then get bored and annoyed by bugs, inconsistencies and shallow mechanism and end up never playing it again.

[sansanjuan]

Originally Posted by WraithLord

Ahmmm. let's see, MOM, CIV, LoM, starcon, dune, warcraft, HoMM, UFO, MOO, DotC, Disciples, Warlords, Kohan, AoW just to name a few. Show me same or even close level of innovation, creativity & content in a main stream game today.

I gave modern games a chance. Some are passable (HoMM V, Disciples III, Warhammer, Total War). Most IMHO are mediocre at best and downright crappy at worst. Oh and GFX has improved a lot no doubt - GFX is amazing but I'd rather watch a good movie than play a shallow click-festi game.

Perhaps the times have changed and I remain trapped in anachronistic expectations. Fact is, I only play old games: dominions, disciples, AoW & chess although I have a number of new games installed on my hard drive. Typically I'd start new game X, say wow to amazing gfx, play a bit, then get bored and annoyed by bugs, inconsistencies and shallow mechanism and end up never playing it again.

Funny how I own 9 of those listed. That makes me wonder about the others..
-ssj

[WraithLord]

You should get them, they're great

Also, to prolong the list here are some more names: Archon, AdoM (+ angband, nethack etc), Dungeon keeper, Total annihilation, starcraft.

Also, dom I PPP with the so lovely feature of maps actually changing to reflect your spreading dominion - It's really nice to see your cold dominion creeping over ever larger stretches of the map

And Lords of Magic is worth another mention as it has a nice "groove" to it.

krpeters & Executor, I think your explanation makes sense. It seems I share your point of view.

thejeff, if it's 90% crap then where are the 10% quality games?- Please, please point me to a good FTBS made lately. Or let's raise the bar, to a good FTBS made by a big company lately.

Zeldor, there's an extra value to the playing an innovative game for the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect or polished but it would leave a lasting impression - like reading a great book with a twisting plot. It gets worst when the sequel is dumbed down or more buggy than the predecessor.

[TheConway]

Originally Posted by Stavis_L

Um...Daikatana was released in 2000...

Really? I never actually saw it, but the gaming mag I used to subscribe to talked about it like it was back in the mists of time Still, I'd rather play Red Alert 3 than C&C 1.

Edit: I didn't play a number of those games, but Civ just got better and better with the sequels. Warcraft was terrible, I would never subject myself to that now, or Dune. As for modern games, I think that the issue is more that you seem to prefer a genre that doesn't really exist anymore. Turn based games just aren't very common anymore. Just because a game like Starcraft 2 doesn't have the incredible amount of minutiae that a TBS can have doesn't make it a mindless clickfest, its just a constraint of the RTS genre where the player doesn't have TIME to micromanage as many features as a TBS has.

I highly doubt that the number of bugs and inconsistencies has really changed dramatically, that's just the way computer gaming is.

[krpeters]

I'd like to add my two cents on the subject of game quality:

I think the reason games in the past had more depth was because they had to. If you have crappy graphics, you have to make up for it with game play or else there's little left to hold a player's attention. As graphics have improved, the visuals are enough to get people's attention, so they don't need gameplay quality anymore... so it's not there.