Gazing Back and Looking Ahead in Gaming

To finish up the season of "Best of the Year" pieces we have IGN's Best of 2004, where they take a look at the games across several different categories. At the same time Gamespot is offering a Most Anticipated of 2005 feature, games that their editorial staff are looking forward to for the coming year. From the article: "Though the release slate may lack some of the sizzling franchises that were refreshed just months ago, it's quite clear that there's no lack of promising or exciting games on the horizon."

Comments

Ah, Gamespot...

[bitwiseNomad]

Only in the game media could you have 15 people all choose games they are looking forward to and have none of them be the same.

Also, wasn't Nokia dropping support for the NGage? There were quite a few NGage games listed.

Re:Ah, Gamespot...

[Drantin]

Er... the games do repeat...

The games...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yuck! Two games per page, and a gazillion pages. For those who don't want to suffer carpal tunnel syndrome from all the clicking, here's the list:

01. Daikatana 2
02. Duke Nukem Forever
03. Duke Nukem: Magna Cum Laude
04. The Duke Nukem and Daikatana Joke Making Game
05. Where's Wally?
06. The Adventures of a Slashdot Addict
07. Starwars Milkman Challenge
08. EA Sports Franchise Simulator
09. Sequel II: The Sequel
10. Sequel III: The Prequel
11. I Could Go On Forever, But I'll Stop Now

Can someone explain the anticipation for KH2?

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I the only person who loves the FF franchise, likes a good portion of the Disney franchise and loathed Kingdom Hearts?

I really don't get it. Everything about the game was miserable - so-so story (even by computer RPG standards), rotten camera controls, tedious combat, obnoxious dialogue, unfun mini-games, and awful misuse of some of the best loved Disney and FF characters.

I mean I understand that some people like game types and games that I don't care for - but this is a genuinely bad game.

Re:Can someone explain the anticipation for KH2?

[p_conrad]

You are not alone. I have always loved Squaresoft games. I always liked Disney. Granted they never produced anything on par with Tom and Jerry, but still, a powerhouse of great characters and ideas.

From go, I though Kingdom Hearts was a bad idea. I found it used for cheap and tried it anyway. It was so much worse than I ever expected, I found it really disturbing. Goofy and Donald killing monsters - it's just not right! Given that it was a PS2 game, the 3-D engine was really choppy and poor-looking. Vagrant Story, from the PS1, looks better, to me anyway. Why no Vagrant Story 2? That game was great!

Then there's the three way choice in the beginning. Sword, shield or ... I forget. I knew I wasn't going to put more than a few hours into this one really early on, never mind slog through it three times for the sake of putting "replay value" somewhere in the advertising. I wish they had some up-front explanation as to why Disney characters were in the game in the first place. If they ever did explain it, it was lost on me. I bailed after clearing out the first couple are areas and realing it wasn't going to get any better.

Re:Can someone explain the anticipation for KH2?

[Anonymous Coward]

i must say that i agree with you. and!!! you should read This. it's good. i wrote it.

Re:Can someone explain the anticipation for KH2?

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh, that is good. I'd forgotten about that obnoxious pixel-hunt aspect to some of the quests. I have no idea why designers keep thinking that hiding exits and jump locations by means of awkward camera angles is a good idea.

Most Anticipated of 2005, easy one...

[El_Muerte_TDS]

Duke Nukem Forever ofcourse

Re:Most Anticipated of 2005, easy one...

[Profane MuthaFucka]

Most anticipated of 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, ...

Gee, I can think of several...

[mbourgon]

KOTOR2 for the PC - I just finished it on the Xbox. While it's technically more of the same, that's far from a bad thing. Kudos to Obsidian for getting it right.

Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich. The first one was a blast, and they promise more goodness this time around (blow apart buildings, more interactivity with the environment, new powers). The first good superhero game in a while. No, it's not just like CoH.

They Came From Hollywood - play a Science Fiction B-Movie Monster. Play as a giant spider! An alien brain! Destroy destroy destroy! Should be simple and fun. (Also worth reading their site - it's got a good sense of humor about it)

Dragon Age - RPG from Bioware, going for the "Epic" feel.

F.E.A.R. - sounds promising, if not just another Max Payne wannabe. It's supposed to be like playing a gigantic SciFi movie.

Jade Empire - Bioware goes for an RPG button-masher. Huh? Knowing Bioware, it should rock. Xbox for now, though. :(

Bioshock - saw this on the Gamespot preview. Irrational (the guys who did System Shock 2) is doing a spiritual successor, looks like.

Project Snowblind - Deus Ex without those pesky RPG-lite elements. That could be good, or bad.

Matrix Online - yeah, I'm a Matrix fanboy. Could rock, could suck. No way to tell, especially with Monolith's track record.

Gee, I think there's really nothing to bitch about. Last year had so many big games come out, almost at once, it's going to be a hard act to follow. However, I'm going to be spending lots of money on games this year.

Re:Gee, I can think of several...

[KDR_11k]

They Came From Hollywood - play a Science Fiction B-Movie Monster. Play as a giant spider! An alien brain! Destroy destroy destroy! Should be simple and fun. (Also worth reading their site - it's got a good sense of humor about it)

Is it just me or does that sound an awful lot like I Was An Atomic Mutant (ValuSoft)?

Re:Gee, I can think of several...

[mbourgon]

Same premise, different execution. This one is sprite-based, isometric view, and looks like a bit more fun. IWAAM was, well, not all that good. Great idea, but the actual game was lacking.

This site needs the award for...

[harks]

Most ads displayed by never displaying more than one thing on a page at a time.

Re:This site needs the award for...

[DingerX]

oh come on, sites like that, even the "content" is advertising.

Re:This site needs the award for...

[Da Craw]

I know, I kept expecting to see one of the writers be honest for a moment, and admit it ...

"I'm looking forward to because, well, it's made by EA - and they always pay us well, if we give their games a good review. Should be a windfall!"

I know it's cool on slashdot to complain, but..

[brkello]

Really, the most interesting things you can say about the top games of the year is bitching that it has 1 game per page. I guess it would suck that if you are on dial up...but instead of wasting space with your whining, why don't you say what games were the beiggest to you for 2004. I enjoy reading these even if they are just glorified advertisements, because it might show a game that looks interesting. I will go look at some independant reviews and may find a great game I missed.

Anyways, here is my list:

Half Life 2: Extremely well done game. The physics engine alone is enough to make the game interesting...but you can tell they really cared and made single player fun and engaging. DM is probably the most fun I have had with multiplayer in a long time. Nothing like fragging a friend with a toilet. Some people avoid this because of Steam...I have never had a problem with Steam (and I bought the game over it), but if you object to it, there are plenty of other good games out there.

Phantom Brave: I would not have know of this Nippon Ichi game unless I saw it in Penny Arcade's top 10 list. The game is a tactical rpg. It was a little tough to get in to at first, but after I understood how to fuse items and characters and how the gam really works (the manual is pathetic), I can't wait to play every chance I get. It's just fun leveling up your characters and their weapons. The only thing that distracts is that the graphics are from the PS era...but once you get over that, it's just a fun game.

Final Fantasy XI: I know everyone is in to WoW. But for me, it was all about tarutarus and fishing. MMORPG are not really for me, and I have sworn them off. But I have to admit the FFXI is a lot of fun, despite it's flaws. I really enjoyed playing with people from all over the world.

I played quite a few other games, those are just the ones that stand out (and I am at work and don't want to waste all day going through all of them). So what games are on your the top of your list in 2004? Maybe you know of one that I missed.

Re:I know it's cool on slashdot to complain, but..

[Anonymous Coward]

Wha??? FFXI? Did you play the same game I did?

First off, I'll grant you character design. I like the look of the FFXI characters better than EQ2 or WoW. BUT: There's no variation in characters. You choose a face and a hair style, and that's it. This means that there's a very good chance you'll run into someone who looks exactly like you on a very consistant basis.

Next: fishing. You enjoyed fishing? I'd say that MMORPGs really are for you, then! Fishing was one of the most boring, longest time sinks that I've ever seen in an RPG, bar none. It literally involves pressing a button to start fishing, and pressing a button a couple of seconds later to accept the result. It is the world's most mindnumbing experience.

It's so bland and so easy, that there have been bots to do it since day one. Bots that Square-Enix has never been able to catch. Of course, fishing is also about the only way to make an income in that game without being muscled away by Chinese players paid to farm gil for sale to rich American assholes, so it's completely understandable that people would bot.

Square-Enix definitely understood how MMORPGs are supposed to involve making your players waste time. To aid in this, they offered the "job system," something that could have been cool but wasn't. Not only do you have to level up your "main" job, but you also have to level up and buy equipment for your "sub" job - making leveling in FFXI take twice as long as in any other game. Not to mention that because any player can take on any job, there's certain content that certain jobs basically can't hope to ever use. (And I don't mean the obvious, like job-specific gear - I mean some quests that are designed in such a way that only certain groups of jobs can hope to have success.)

Playing with people from all over the world was fun, too: "(English) (Too Weak) (Death) (You can have it.)" Some of you may have remembered hearing about the "auto-translator" that FFXI offered. Well, basically, it would translate phrases, like the four in parenthesis above. That quote is a very common search comment to be seen with Japanese players, along with the simpler and less offensive "(English) (No thanks.)" or "JP ONLY".

All in all, FFXI was a miserable game carefully crafted to suck all the fun out of the game. It wasn't alone in the genre. Let's just put it this way: originally Square-Enix said that all future FF games would be MMORPGs. FFXII and FFXIII are now both normal console RPGs. It appears that Square-Enix has learned a painful lesson.

Re:I know it's cool on slashdot to complain, but..

[Anonymous Coward]

There's no variation in characters. You choose a face and a hair style, and that's it. This means that there's a very good chance you'll run into someone who looks exactly like you on a very consistant basis.

Oh, the horror! So you aren't 100% unique looking? First of all, that's pretty standard for a lot of MMOGs. If you're going to get hung up on the fact that you can't customize the shape of your character's eyebrows, I feel sorry for you. But hey, we're living in the age of style over substance in gaming these days, so I guess it's acceptable to ignore great game design and whine about the lack of eye-candy.

To aid in this, they offered the "job system," something that could have been cool but wasn't. Not only do you have to level up your "main" job, but you also have to level up and buy equipment for your "sub" job - making leveling in FFXI take twice as long as in any other game.

Oh my god, how could they do such a thing? They provide a way for ANY player to play EVERY job in the game with a single character. So instead of creating 5 different characters with different names, different inventories, different friend lists, etc. etc., you can do it all with one. And when building a new job, you gain some of the skills of your other job. Yeah, I guess if you just care about rushing to max out your level as quickly as possible it may be a pain to level you subjob. But if you actually like playing the game and want to try several different jobs, it's great. You're not forced to either play just one class for years or create several alts with no ties to you main.

Playing with people from all over the world was fun, too: "(English) (Too Weak) (Death) (You can have it.)" Some of you may have remembered hearing about the "auto-translator" that FFXI offered. Well, basically, it would translate phrases, like the four in parenthesis above. That quote is a very common search comment to be seen with Japanese players, along with the simpler and less offensive "(English) (No thanks.)" or "JP ONLY".

*Gasp* You mean there are asshole powergamers in Japan too?! And of course, you're more than willing to judge the success of the global interaction by a few search comments. I for one played with numerous Japanese players and had a great time. Without the translator, this would have been completely impossible (especially given the coordination required to pull off skill chains and magic bursts at higher levels). It wasn't perfect, but it allowed people who didn't even speak the same language to work together effectively. Try doing that in *insert any other MMOG here*.

It appears that Square-Enix has learned a painful lesson.

Yes, how "painful" it must be for them to have to endure being the 3rd most popular MMOG in the world (behind only Lineage and Lineage II, which don't really count for well-documented reasons). You may not like it, but FFXI is an incredible success and Square-Enix is laughing all the way to the bank.

Re:I know it's cool on slashdot to complain, but..

[brkello]

*sigh* So you had to take that road...instead of actually stating any games that were good and being useful, you decided to be a troll and state every little tiny whine you could with FFXI. Fine, I'll bite. And we'll hit each of what you complain about point by point.

Yeah, I agree, it is unfortunate that there are a limited number of ways you can make your character look. I loved the character creation in SWG, but hated the game. In any case, there might be something to that they chose a limited number of characters to make it run on a console easier. I thought that was a weak excue at best...but there is a lrage variety of armor...and with helmets on, you have no idea if they look the same. I can take your complaints further and say that there was really very few choices on what would be optimal to wear on your guy...so there is a lot of people wearing similar armor...though this has improved with updates that increase those choices. So far, you have been reasonable...next item.

Yes, fishing takes no skill. But me, and a lot of people out there, enjoyed relaxing and watching tv or reading while we pulled up fish gaining skill nad profit. It isn't for everyone, but my girl friend would come over and want to fish for me...it just appeals to some people. So, you don't like it...that doesn't make it bad. I guess you have never gone fishing in real life. It involves casting your line, and then reeling it in. Botting was a big issues, but SE took some agressive steps which (for a large part) damaged botting. Botting is in any MMORPG, you just have to deal with it and hope they take steps against it. If you don't realize that this is a genre wide problem, you are just ignorant.

As to fishing being the only way to make money, that is a flat out lie. I made money in so many different ways, from gardening valuable ore, to mining, to cutting down trees, to logging, to killing mobs for items...there are a billion ways to make money. The gil farmers are really only a problem on NMs that have very special items. It makes those items hard to get and expensive. That part sucks, and so far SE hasn't done enough to stop it. If you thought fishing was the only way to get money, well, I guarantee you didn't try anything else. Heck, you could even buy items from NPCs and sell them at the AH and make a very decent profit.

Now here is where you really sound stupid. The job system is by far the best feature of any MMORPG I have ever played. It allows you to take the same character, and experience any job in the game, without losing the levels you have gained with your other jobs. The subjob system allows for character customization and uniqueness...though all job/subjobs are not optimal (I was a paladin, and there is really only one viable subjob for him), it still allowed you to try out different things. If you didn't like the ability to change jobs/subjobs, then you are one of the rare few. I can see how you wouldn't like the game if you couldn't enjoy such a fundamental part of it. But really, the job system is the coolest thing in FFXI by far.

While the job system was the best part of the game, playing with people from other countries was a close second. I had no problem playing with Japanese players. They were always well equipped and eating food, and so was I. If you had bad experiences with them, it was probably because you were a bad player (yes, there is skill on how you play in a MMORPG). It's like you pulled this garbage from some forum where the little kids complain about this. While some jerk Japanese players did exist, there were 4 idiotic non Japanese for every one of them. The Japanese players by far helped me more than anyone in the game.

So now, your last statement proves you are a moron. I usually don't fall to personal attacks, but sometimes people just deserve it. Of course the next installments of Final Fantasy are console games. You don't release a new MMORPG every year...how long did it take EQ2 to come out after EQ? They never

Re:I know it's cool on slashdot to complain, but..

[Anonymous Coward]

So you had to take that road...instead of actually stating any games that were good and being useful, you decided to be a troll and state every little tiny whine you could with FFXI.

I honestly have no good games on my list for 2004. (Besides, FFXI is from 2002.) Everything I can think of was a rehash of some older game, except for Katamari Damancy, which was an OK puzzle-type game.

As to fishing being the only way to make money, that is a flat out lie.

You obviously have been away from FFXI for a while.

I made money in so many different ways, from gardening valuable ore,

Due to everyone doing that, gardening ore like that is now worthless.

to mining, to cutting down trees, to logging,

All farmed by Chinese. (And cutting down trees and logging are the same freaking thing.)

to killing mobs for items...there are a billion ways to make money. The gil farmers are really only a problem on NMs that have very special items.

Nope, they farm everywhere and every monster now. On some servers, they even farm the Old Sabertooth required for the Ranger quest, making it totally impossible to get the Ranger job (since you must let it die from "natural causes" and someone killing it causes you to fail the quest).

And the job system sucked. It was just an excuse by Square-Enix to make you play longer without offering any additional content. Let's take an example. I wanted to play a Ninja. So I go to create my character. Surprise! I can't choose Ninja. I can only choose from six jobs. OK, so I did some research and discovered that in order to play as a Ninja I should level up my Warrior to 30 and then complete a quest. This quest requires either 18 other level 30s to complete, or some high level help.

So in order to play the job I wanted to play from the beginning, I have to level up some other job I don't care about and complete a long and annoying quest.

BUT WAIT! That's not all! I also have to level another job to support the Warrior I'm leveling up to get Ninja! So now I have to level up two jobs I don't want to play to play the one job I did!

Yes, that's a great system.

As for playing "with people around the world," that's a freaking gimic and you know it. I would gladly give up being able to play with other people who hate my guts because I'm somehow ruining their game by playing it with them to get servers that were local to the US and gave me better ping times - you know, exactly like Blizzard is doing. It's amazing how much you don't miss playing with people you couldn't communicate with anyway when your ping times aren't around 400ms because they're going round-trip through an ocean.

Re:I know it's cool on slashdot to complain, but..

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, you obviously are so ridiculously biased against FFXI for some reason that you can't impartially look at the facts. The entire first half of your post does nothing but go on and on and on discounting several very valid points on the basis that "the Chinese" are farming everything. WTF are you talking about?! What, did you read some article about some Chinese farming business and you now just think everyone you see in the game is a Chinese person trying to steal your items?

Yes, things are sometimes camped (particularly the most valuable things), like they are in virtually every MMORPG. But most of those people doing the camping are individuals like you and me who are trying to make money. When certain places or items are known to be the best things to camp, naturally there will always be lots of people in those areas. But still, you're vastly overstating this effect. One would think from hearing your description that essentially no one can play the game because of "Chinese farmers". You really need to get a grip on reality. I play FFXI and know several others who also play on different servers and the game is nothing like what you describe.

As for the whole job system, you're totally missing the point of playing the game. Getting an advanced job (i.e. ninja) is something that has to be earned, it's something for experienced players to do, and it makes sense that not everyone can just be an ninja from the very start. After all, a person would typically start with a more generic (i.e warrior) form of combat before advancing to a ninja once they gained more experience. And if you don't like it, well, too bad. You can't kill a level 50 dragon right when you start, you can't wear plate mail right when you start, and you can't be a ninja right when you start. That's the way games (and particularly MMOGs) work; you must work your way up to the more interesting parts. Is that a timesink? Of course! What are you new to MMOGs? MMOGs as a genre are the essence of the word timesink. Get over it.

Here's something that you can't seem to wrap your head around. This game was not designed in the Everquest model in which you pick one job/class and play it exclusively. It's designed for you to play at least 2 or 3 different jobs. That's part of the game and whining about it is just silly. That vast majority of players actually enjoy playing multiple types of jobs because it keeps things interesting. But you're obviously the EQ type who just wants to pick one class and start grinding. Sorry, but the game is not the problem here, it's your narrow view of "the way things should be".

As for playing "with people around the world," that's a freaking gimic and you know it. I would gladly give up being able to play with other people who hate my guts because I'm somehow ruining their game by playing it with them

Who hates your guts? Maybe if you're as belligerent and irrational in the game as you are here, people will hate you and you will ruin their game. But I've played with literally hundreds of Japanese players and had nothing but good experiences. I think you need to get over your paranoid feeling that all foreigners hate you, are out to get you, farm "your" items, and generally ruin your life.

And finally, if you have ping issues when playing FFXI, I suggest you contact your ISP, because the problem is not with their servers. No one I know has any issues with lag in the game, particularly compared to other games in the genre. I'm guessing it's just an extension of your fear/hatred of all things foreign that leads you to whine about this.

It seems that either:
(a) You haven't played the game much and are basing your opinions on an extrapolation of a few bad experiences.
(b) You haven't played the game much and have spent too much time reading message boards full of whining players (which you can find for any game) and based you view of the game on this.
(c) You've played the game a lot and it's really not as bad as yo

Re:I know it's cool on slashdot to complain, but..

[Anonymous Coward]

You're telling me that people who are always on whenever anyone in my linkshell is online and are always in the same place aren't people farming items for money? ...Right. Not to mention that if you do start taking some of their resources they'll try and MPK you. So far I've yet to see a GM take any action ever. Anyway, there's plenty of other people who can verify this on any board about FFXI, and I don't feel like wasting time with this.

And, yet again, the job system sucked. I'm getting tired of repeating why, but I'll try a different way now.

Ok, here's the basics: all MMORPGs wind up containing time sinks. This is done to give the illusion of more content than there really is. Fine, I understand this. But FFXI contains many time sinks that simply aren't any fun - the job system basically enforces this.

If I wanted to play a Warrior, I would have created a Warrior. Someone else suggested that the job system allows you to try many different jobs, which is true, but... If Square-Enix didn't restrict you to one character and charge you a $1/month per additional character, this wouldn't be a problem - players could just create a new character to try another job. And imagine this: you could try out other races too! Wow! Amazing!

Anyway, to wrap this up quicky: most MMORPGs contain time sinks that are fun. Final Fantasy XI makes you work hours to have a couple of minutes of fun. Some people like that. Some people also like being tied to a post naked and whipped. That doesn't make it fun.

Doom 3 - Snubbed by IGN

[p_conrad]

Amazing. On the Overall Awards, it got a runner-up for best use of sound. On the PC Games Awards it got runner up for best graphics. That's all folks. I can understand Doom 3 taking some heat for the actual gameplay, but I thought both the sound and graphics were very impressive. The story wasn't half-bad either.

I haven't played Half-life 2 yet, but I thought the prevailing attitude was that the graphics on Doom 3 were far superior. What's the deal? This must be Mel Gibson's favorite game or something. Is the Half-life 2 sweep just some organized support of the Steam login scheme?

I thought the first Half-life was over-hyped and have no reason to believe any different of installment 2. They must have an amazing PR department over at Valve/Vivendi. They drop the most abusive installation proceedure on users to date, and everybody is all smiles!

Re:Doom 3 - Snubbed by IGN

[PaganRitual]

I haven't played Half-life 2 yet

just in case you're curious, everyone stopped reading your post at that point.

Re:Doom 3 - Snubbed by IGN

[p_conrad]

You're right. I should have either lied and said I had played it, or moved that bit to the very end. I've read lots of comparative artices for what that's worth. Does Halflife 2 have anything on par with the Lighting effects in Doom 3? How about the disolving skin and brains popping out effect? Is the sound as surrounding?

I don't want to start the Half Life Vs. Doom war. I just can't help but notice extreme snubbing going on when I see it. The story of Id software almost plays out like the cheesy movie version of the Fountainhead. At some point, the gaming press should pay some respect to the guys who basically created and continue to advance the genre, at least in terms of the core technology. But they don't. They seem to go out of their way to ignore them. Does this help perpetuate the myth that anybody with some time and dedication can produce a first-rate game?

Id leads; everybody else follows. Not only do they ignore the leader, they pretend they are leading instead.

ABSOLUTELY!

[dbretton]

It's redundant, but I believe it's important to stress this matter.

I've only recently hopped back on the gaming wagon. However, from the limited number of games I've played recently (HL2, Doom3 and Far Cry), I can say that, far and away Doom3 makes the best use of sound and graphics.

It's so effective, it's downright creepy at times!
The 5.1 sound is terrific, and the graphics are absolutely superb, and most definitely better than what HL2 has put together, with the notable exception of HL2's facial features generation.

OOPS!

[dbretton]

Supposed to be a reply to the "Doom3 snubbed by ign" post

sorry

Re:OOPS!

[Anonymous Coward]

This is /. - we don't apologise around here!

The correct thing to do is pretend you meant it to happen :)