Year of the sequels

[Fadaar]

In my opinion 2003 wasn't that great of a year for gaming, at least from what I saw and played. Frozen Throne is a great expansion to an already great Warcraft 3, Battlefield 1942 surprised many, but other than that nothing really impressed me either console or on the PC platform.

This year, however, seems to have quite a few games on the horizon, most of which being sequels. First and foremost is EverQuest 2, the sequel to everybody's favorite MMORPG! While the naysayers and anti-Sony people put it down, honestly it looks very impressive and could very well reshape the online gaming world yet again. At the very least I plan on doing beta along with a crowd of my RL friends and online buddies.

Second is Half-Life 2. Yes it should have come out last year, but thanks to valve and their infinite wisdom (read shit security) we've had HL2 pushed back. Honestly I don't know what to say about it. It looks good but I don't know if the original awe can be recaptured from the original Half-Life. It was just TOO cool when it came out. An FPS with a story AND good action? Too good to be true -- but it was. The primary driving force for any game like this is, of course, the mods. As long as HL2 retains the same customizability (is that a word?) as the original, it should succeed.

Doom 3. The one game I have been looking forward to for the better part of a decade. id has a knack for creating amazing games, going back all the way to Wolfenstein 3D. Yes I realize they made games before that, but the Nazi blaster was what did it for me. The graphics in Doom 3, along with HL2, are beautiful and look to set new standards in the FPS community both in terms of realism graphically and also in lighting. Looks to be a very promising game, on par with HL2 in both graphics and appeal.

Don't know if I should count it, but World of Warcraft is a followup (correct me if I'm wrong, I really haven't read much into the backstory) to the story set forth in Warcraft 3 / Frozen Throne. With both it and EQ2 coming out in a relatively similar timeframe, God only knows I'm going to have a hard time picking one over the other. While not near as photorealistic as EQ2 graphics wise, the game does have the same cartoonish appeal that makes WC3 so much fun. The characters look cool, the monsters look cool, the scenery looks amazing, yet the polygon count is kept relatively low. Will probably give it a try, but because of friends I'll probably be on EQ2.



Just somethin' I felt like saying, if you have any comments feel free to post.

[Nanaki Ikanan]

Since hardly any of the same people are making EQ2, I don't see how it can redefine MMORPGs again. Remember, EQ2 is being made by the people that brought you Shadows of Luclin - not the original Everquest.

Half-Life 2 looks awesome, and Halo 2, and Doom 3...

And World of Warcraft, of course.

[Ahnkosis]

Can't wait to start up my Night Elf Priest in WoW.

Half Life 2 from everything I've heard/read will be amazing.

Being an EQ newb again sucks btw, don't do it~

[Ukolad of Sol Ro]

Don't know if I should count it, but World of Warcraft is a followup (correct me if I'm wrong, I really haven't read much into the backstory) to the story set forth in Warcraft 3 / Frozen Throne.

WoW is based 5 years, or something after the Frozen Throne takes place. I haven't read much into it either, but this much I do remember, it's the aftermath of Frozen Throne.

[Worry07]

Don't forget Battlefield Vietnam.

[Cedil]

Your putting EQ2 as number one is kind of off imo.

Truthfully and honestly, do you really think there are more people anticipating WoW or EQ2?

How many gamers do you know who have never even heard of EQ, not to mention EQ2, that are excited for WoW?

What i think most people don't realize is just how huge WoW is going to be.

EverQuest is a type of game that appeals to mainly more hardcore gamers. Thus, for the most part, its more hardcore gamers that play it. There are things that set off the casual gamer - ie, the monthly fee. I know a lot of people in real life who play games but do not touch EverQuest because to them the combination of the monthly fee with the fact that it's such a new concept, is not worth taking the risk and adventuring into.

Now World of Warcraft comes along. How many gamers, casual or hardcore, do you know that have not heard of Warcraft? Next to none. All of a sudden all these casual gamers start hearing about how amazing this "WoW" game is going to be. Now, almost simply because it has the Warcraft name in it (which really can be traced back to blizzard's excellence at creating games), the appeal for a MMORPG just got larger. Much larger. Consider also that Warcraft's appeal is as big in Asia as it is in North America and Europe. EverQuest did not and still to this day does not have that.

I'm not saying WoW is going to be 1000x better then EQ2 (although I do personally think it will be), I am just saying that WoW is definately the most anticipated game, (thinking outside the box; the box being north america and outside being the globe) it might well one of the most anticipated games ever. Blizzard knows this too, I think. They plan for a HUGE release, with a unprecedented amount of people buying the game the week it comes out.

[Vaclav]

It was a list... he made no mention of ordering them - just stating "The first on my list to discuss is....", yada, yada...

[Northerner]

I personally enjoyed the last poll where ~"I have no intention of playing EQ2" was at least an option. As a hint, it isn't the DVD requirement.

[Thug]

ID Software has a knack for making great game engines. Their ability to make great games is severly lacking. Doom3 will prolly be a rehash of the whole "you're a stranded marine on a planet full of hostiles, kill the fuckers and find a way off the planet" story line with the gameplay being the same old "find the key - find the exit" type deal.

Multiplayer is prolly ID's only saving grace, but even that has gotten progressively worse since the days of Doom/Quake1. It has done what EQ is basically doing now, dumbing down the game so that the not-so-skilled can feel liek winnars and get the frags.

I believe Carmack said something along the lines of "our goal with quake3 is to make it so that newbies can frag Thresh." and you can clearly see that in the game.

Half-life 2 however I think will be both a great game engine and a great game.

I don't really have any extensive knowledge of HL multiplayer, so I cant really comment on it.

-=[ Thug ]=-

also known as K9-Megahertz in the quake community

[mguru]

How many gamers do you know who have never even heard of EQ, not to mention EQ2, that are excited for SWG?

What i think most people don't realize is just how huge SWG is going to be.

EverQuest is a type of game that appeals to mainly more hardcore gamers. Thus, for the most part, its more hardcore gamers that play it. There are things that set off the casual gamer - ie, the monthly fee. I know a lot of people in real life who play games but do not touch EverQuest because to them the combination of the monthly fee with the fact that it's such a new concept, is not worth taking the risk and adventuring into.

Now SWG comes along. How many gamers, casual or hardcore, do you know that have not heard of Star Wars? Next to none. All of a sudden all these casual gamers start hearing about how amazing this "SWG" game is going to be. Now, almost simply because it has the Star Wars name in it (which really can be traced back to Lucas's excellence at creating movies), the appeal for a MMORPG just got larger. Much larger. Consider also that Star Wars appeal is as big in Asia as it is in North America and Europe. EverQuest did not and still to this day does not have that.

I'm not saying SWG is going to be 1000x better then EQ2 (although I do personally think it will be), I am just saying that SWG is definately the most anticipated game, (thinking outside the box; the box being north america and outside being the globe) it might well one of the most anticipated games ever. SOE knows this too, I think. They plan for a HUGE release, with a unprecedented amount of people buying the game the week it comes out.

Edited that a little bit, and thus your theory is greatly flawed. Big name recognition, history of success and/or failures have nothing to do with it. It's all about the game. If anything WoW will have a lesser launch to begin with because so many people who play MMORPG's are sick to death of the fucking disasters that they've shipped with. I bought three or 4 at release, I learned my lesson. I don't care if EQ2/WoW are the next coming of UO pre-trammel, I'll wait the three months before I spend any money. Will a lot of people play it? Depends on what it looks like on the ship date. You can swing +/- 100,000 accounts just by that, SB lost that many because of its bugs and problems, SWG did because the game was shit.

[Hwed]

Good games of 03 not mentioned:

GTA Vice City
Halo
Splinter Cell
Knights of the Old Republic

That said, most of the above played out fairly quickly, and 2003 was a bum year. I read on CNN Money that PC game sales declined 14 percent in 03. I'm really hoping this year will bring a slew of game addictions and more good games than I can afford.

[KiL4H]

K9-Megahertz : Quake2 was about the same as Quake1 comparing skills it was imposible for a good player to even frag a pro player, you just need to watch Immortal VS thresh demo in q2dm3(i think), you will feel the same way you did when you saw thresh Vs reptile.

Quake3 is another story that's true, newbies were able to frag elite players.

[Tetrian]

Halo was a piece of shit - dont think ive ever seen copy/paste used that blatantly before in some vague attempt to add content to a game. The only things good about that game was the human jeep/buggy thing, and the story did have some neato ideas in it.

Guess i set my expectations a tad too high, but 2003 and that steaming pile sure doesnt fit well together.


-Tet

[Lenardo]

mguru

blizzard KNOWS about that,. KNOWS what people hate about releases and the subsequent problems

why the HELL do you think it has taken so long for beta


if it was any other company out there (sony, AE, etc) the game would have been released probably months ago.

the world of warcraft team taking the time to make sure the game is Ready before releasing.

no recent mmog was ready.

this one is going to be. because it is Blizzard who is making it.

oh and the game is going to be absolutely positively huge for release - THINK KOREA , the land of millions of mmo players. they are NUTS for blizzard games.

i'm thinking 30+ servers for release.

[A Lizard]

Originally posted by mguru
Edited that a little bit, and thus your theory is greatly flawed. Big name recognition, history of success and/or failures have nothing to do with it. It's all about the game. If anything WoW will have a lesser launch to begin with because so many people who play MMORPG's are sick to death of the fucking disasters that they've shipped with. I bought three or 4 at release, I learned my lesson. I don't care if EQ2/WoW are the next coming of UO pre-trammel, I'll wait the three months before I spend any money. Will a lot of people play it? Depends on what it looks like on the ship date. You can swing +/- 100,000 accounts just by that, SB lost that many because of its bugs and problems, SWG did because the game was shit.

Warcraft is a larger name among gamers than star wars is. Star Wars is more of a couch potato icon than a gamer icon.