Guild Wars is an online RPG. It has its own economy, its online 24/7 where people connect to thousands of others, and it is a level treadmill.

It is the only game out there that is trying to think OUT OF THE BOX for the MMORPG market. It caters both the hardcore gamer and casual gamer.

Guild Wars should win online game of the year or at least RPG. ArenaNet is one of the few developers that knows what the hell they are doing. If I was going to design a game, it would like Guild Wars.

Wish I took up their offer as a level designer two years ago when they emailed me, gah. 18 and moving to another country is never a good idea.

"Aye, EA did have rights to MPBT: 3025. And from what some of the folks inside have said, EA was the problem. (At least at the end. Lots of poor upper level choices were made over the years by the management folks.) "

MPBT just sucked, period. When I played the beta, I didn't understand the hype behind it. It had crappy graphics, really lousy interface, and you would end up dead in less then 30 seconds and had to wait it out.

You also started out with an incredibly crappy mech that couldn't even damage a tree. I can see why EA wanted to can that stupid game.

Uplink was a damn good game. Only problem is, once you beat the game, there wasn't much else to do.

Sure, there was dozens of easter eggs, but they were just one-trick ponies.

If Darwinia is going to be a success, they would have go to multiplayer this time around. Uplink would've been fun as hell if it was online.

Mutant League was more like EA's NHL mods then Games Workshop.

Have you actually played Chaos League? Have you played Bloodbowl? They are pretty damn close.

This thing didn't get sued by Games Workshop yet?

I wouldn't pay for it. It is way too retro my blood.

Wizardry 8 is a perfect example of an old series trying to keep up with the times. It had 3D graphics, real time, and had wonderful music. Yet despite these advancements, it still kept to the old game design with hack-n-slash fun, dozens of races/classes, and combat system.

This...meh, sorry, but it seems they just slapped a bunch of stuff together and HOPED that it would sell well because 'yeah, we're oldschool'. That isn't a excuse for having crappy graphics and text.

It has to be at least six pages.

"Robust online multiplayer experience with 16 players and voice over IP support – classic and new multiplayer modes are offered, including some modes uniquely designed for the PS2 and XB platforms"

This lost my interest.

[i]Yeah, and the first one had online support for the PC so I'm sure this one will too. [/i]

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King didn't have online play for PC, but it worked fine on PS2.

There doesn't seem to be any listing about online pay for the PC.

If that is true, then EA just shot themselves in the foot.

You would be very suprised on how incredibly stupid game promoters are.

Last year, there was an XBOX van outside our college. Some black guy took ALL of the discs inside the XBOX consoles and left. There was no employee in sight and the students didn't even care.

You people don't follow MMORPGs well if you don't know them.

Helbreath is a really shitty diablo-style MMORPG where you bash slimes, orcs, and other players all day. You join one of two sides of the server and bascailly battle each other. One of the cool things for the first five minutes of the MMORPG is you get gold when you level up, and a lot of it.

Savage Eden is another diablo-style RPG set in a post-apoc world. It's a mix of science fiction and fatansy. Only problem with the game is its too damn buggy to play it for more then 20 minutes without choking up your PC.

Both are korean made MMORPGs.

"Depending on the outcome, the player will either lose his stake or win a prize calculated according to his opponent's rank, his initial stake, and the length of time it took to win. Accrued credits can be used to upgrade the player's character, in order to challenge progressively tougher opponents."

I'm assuming you are going to bet on how fast you can beat the guy and with what weapons.

Sounds...interesting, but who knows.

The era of independently developed, self-published games is on the horizon. Small teams will create less-than bleeding edge titles that have the very thing the mega-publishers fear: risky innovative content. Two things have to happen for this to succeed. First, everybody needs a broadband connection. We're getting there. Second, the idea that a game must come in a box and on a CD must pass by the wayside.

Don't forgot marketting. You can't sell your game if no one knows about it. This is something that many start-up game companies fail at.

But self-publishing via the Internet is the future for innovative, risk-taking, creative developers. Cut the fat-cats out of the picture. Get the community involved in the beta test cycle. Get the community involved in the "self-support" paradigm. Sell the game for twenty bucks.

Unfortunately, companies still charge around 30 or 40 bucks for an online game. This includes indie developers. I doubt we will see a change anytime soon if the consumer is still willing to pay for it.

You can easily have a moderate hit and then go out of business before you can complete the followup game like Looking Glass did (or sell out to Microsoft a la Bungie).

LGS fell down because of poor management. Any company that made Thief or System Shock and still went down the drain had no idea what the hell they were doing.

They cancel a lot of games because they lack "hit potential"... not that they're bad games, they just won't be hits. And unfortunately in today's climate, it's units sold that rules the day, not making great games.

Because we all know that making any sort of money or living off the industry is such an evil wicked thing. EA, while having questionable support, does make great games. NFS series is one of the best racing games out there in the market, along with their F1/Nascar games. Let's not forgot their sport franchises like Madden and NHL.

If a game sells well despite your opinion on the quality, why change it? Don't fix it if it ain't broke.

So publishers need hits, and they believe the best way to get a hit is to either make a game around a hot character, usually from a movie or sports (getting tired of hearing about "franchises" yet?), make a sequel to another hit (plus you already have a lot of the work done for y ou, just reuse art assets from the first game), or make a clone of someone else's hit (which is how ou end up with YAWWIIG).

Welcome to the world of business. Franchises, brand names, and sequels all sell. That's how business works. Maybe in your utopia, things will be different. In reality, those things sell.

Of course a publisher is going to need a 'hit'. People are in this business to make money and support themselves, not so you can spend cash that you earn in ONE DAY at some minimal wage job and play around all day. They want money because ..hey, they want a living. Gamers are such greedy bastards.

This is also why more games are being produced for consoles first and PC as an afterthought: there are a hell of a lot more game consoles out there than dedicated gamer PCs, and console games almost always sell more titles than their PC counterparts. Games made strictly for the PC will tend to sell fewer copies, and below a certain point just aren't worth the investment.

No argument here. The console market is much more mainstream and friendly to the public, unlike PC. You don't have to worry about dozens of bugs and you don't need to upgrade every few months.

The days of small focused teams making games that they want to make seem to be over, and the current crop of uninspired, unoriginal, un-FUN games seems to be a symptom of that.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Where have you been? There is lots of games out there made by small groups that are popular. Uplink? Starscape?

Hardcore gamers are such whiners. Next thing you know, you are going to start telling me some shit like "Atari were the days when programmers cared about gameplay." No, its what they had to work with at the time.

"how handy!
although "RPM" isn't the right word to use for a speed limiter, especially when the game itself refers to it as "pit limiter".

but hey, they're going for authenticity I suppose, and when I say "authenticity", I mean "stupidly named and placed options". This is a Press Demo. explain to me how any standard press guy is gonna figure that out before getting frustrated and quitting?"

If a 'press guy' doesn't know what an RPM limiter is, he shoudln't have any business playing this game.

RPM Limiter is something that is many racing sims, including F1C from EA.

It isn't a new concept.

Only two cars and one track.

This demo is actually a really early beta. Only available features are open practice in either "Simulation" or "Semi-pro" mode

The full version will have over 50 cars from both classes.

A steering wheel is a must for this.

Holy shit, I'm excited as fuck.

This is the *real* race sim.

The specialist?

You mean that shitty mod where every weapon except the Steyr AUG doesn't do any real damage? Where you need to 4 shells to kill a man? And that you can't hit anyone up close unless it is a KATANA?

No thanks.

Eberron? Isn't that the same setting with hip-hop halflings, trains, and dinosaurs?

I already lost interest in this game as soon as they said "Liquid Entertainment"