Slashdot Mirror
The 50 Biggest Gaming Events of 2007
The Next Generation site has up an article looking back on the 50 biggest gaming events of 2007. From the launch of Burning Crusade in January all the way through to 'Gerstmann-gate', the list is highly eventful ... it's been a big year for games. "The removal of Super Columbine Massacre RPG from the Slamdance Guerilla Gamemaker competition sent shockwaves through the independent game community, but the event did bring two very important things to light. Firstly, it showed that even the independent art community has a clear delineation between how it treats games and how it treats other mediums. But even more importantly, the voluntary withdrawal of many other entrants in the competition showed the solidarity of the independent community, and emphasized their dedication to the progression of the medium."
As if to justify all those people who claim these lists come too early to include all the big events of 2007, 3D Realms had to go and release a Duke Nukem Forever Teaser. I certainly think this qualifies to be on a revised version of the list.
Demented But Determined.
Sorely missing - the abyssmal sales figures for Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3. Neither game managed to sell 100,000 copies the first month, November 2007. THAT was a big, unexpected news item considering the hype.
Read, e.g. "Crysis and UTIII sales bomb" at http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=177667
Most speculations on why concern too demanding graphics.
Vivendi owns Blizzard. When Vivendi and Activision merged, they called the joint gaming division "Activision Blizzard".
Why, yes I have been touched by His noodly appendage. And I plan to sue.
I don't trust that list. Instead I only play games endorsed by the Oprah Game Club - all the games that the big Op' plays and recommends.
Today a new teaser was released for Duke Nukem Forver was released.
Since it's been 6 whopping years since the last one I think this could qualify as one of the 50 biggest Gaming Events this year.
You can find links to it at http://www.3drealms.com/ but beware, there is some servermelting going on right now (and a slashdotting wont help either).
Prosp long and liver.
The system requirements on PC games are getting out of hand. Basically nvidia hands XYZ a system with the top tier next generation graphics card and tells them to go at it. The company then expects everyone that buys it to have that card. Then doesn't realize that graphics card generations are basically 3-4 months apart and people aren't willing to pay $500-600 that frequently to upgrade systems. Game never quite catches on. If the game developers would just do what console developers are required to do most of the time and develop on outdated gear once in awhile, we might get an optimized game that runs well. Instead we get crap.
I honestly wonder how much of the success of World of Warcraft is due to this. WoW isn't the best looking game out there by a long shot, but it runs on junky hardware just fine if you turn down the graphics a bit. It doesn't require any funky OS version or patch level either, nor DX10. Couple that with the "I don't need to find a CD and stuff it in the drive" insta-play and perhaps the eye candy just isn't worth the hassle.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
I think the FPS is a dying breed of game personally. I haven't played a single one since Battlefield 1942 that came out 5 yeas ago that I thought was truly revolutionary. Many have even regressed, in terms of having a truly sandbox like experience (CoD 4 I'm looking at you).
It's been years since GTA III came out - I want open worlds with lots of vehicles and toys dammit.
If you don't think that WoW is one of the best looking games out there, you should really play it on a nice machine with everything cranked up. I play it on my late-2006 20" iMac with everything maxed out except for antialiasing and still manage framerates of 30fps ... and it's gorgeous. Simply stunning.
Well, it's a long way from Asheron's Call, anyway.
Why do I M2 everything negatively?
And the merger was announced; it's not yet final (SEC may object to some of the terms, since it's a publically traded copmpany that's involved - Activision - but that's considered unlikely).