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[fqllve]

All those are definitely good games and I'd say that Minecraft, Amnesia, and Recettear were great games.

Digital: A Love Story was pretty good, definitely innovative, only barely a game though.

Fallout: New Vegas was good, even if it was essentially the same as it's predecessor.

Alpha Protocol seems like a game worth checking out, even though I haven't yet.

And I'm enjoying Dragon Age right now. Although it's pretty much a retread of the same Bioware plot it's one of the better versions of it.

Also, let's not forget that DF 2010 was released in...2010.

There are a few games I'm looking forward to in 2011 as well, more than I was looking forward to for 2010 in any case. There are always many more good games than I anticipate though so I have high hopes.

[Erkki]

The sequel to my favourite game is finally about to be published, soon 8 years after the first game. Should be March 24th.

The publisher, Ubisoft, released a collector's edition. Okay, I preordered it last month. Last Friday, I was emailed that Ubisoft is not going to publish a CE version of the game after all. Yesterday they informed that it was going to be in UK only, and only from Ubi's own webstore.

The cover art. I'm pretty sure the game itself is going to be perfectly OK, but the cover art, its just horrible, knowing the game's target audience age is somewhere around 40, its hard to believe they made a Michael Bay fanboy draw the covert art. It looks like its made to attract 11 year old coke addicts that play gears of war on xbox or something, plus I counted 9 technical mistakes alone.

Now, just few weeks before its supposedly out, they say its going to have SolidShield DRM. I'm OK with that. But that they force the activation via STEAM. So every customer is REQUIRED to have a Steam account, and log in to authenticate the product at least once. What bullshit! On the top of it all, they dont even know in Steam if they're going to support or sell the game AT ALL. If the game is supposed to be out in 2 weeks, you'd think there'd be a website, videos, info etc? Nah. Couple of screenies and 3 FAQs that provide conflicting info on ESSENTIAL features and requirements.

This is just another publishing, marketing and supporting farce by Ubisoft and the 1C company.

The game itself is probably going to be fine. I hope.

[MrWiggles]

The sequel to my favourite game is finally about to be published, soon 8 years after the first game. Should be March 24th.

The publisher, Ubisoft, released a collector's edition. Okay, I preordered it last month. Last Friday, I was emailed that Ubisoft is not going to publish a CE version of the game after all. Yesterday they informed that it was going to be in UK only, and only from Ubi's own webstore.

The cover art. I'm pretty sure the game itself is going to be perfectly OK, but the cover art, its just horrible, knowing the game's target audience age is somewhere around 40, its hard to believe they made a Michael Bay fanboy draw the covert art. It looks like its made to attract 11 year old coke addicts that play gears of war on xbox or something, plus I counted 9 technical mistakes alone.

Now, just few weeks before its supposedly out, they say its going to have SolidShield DRM. I'm OK with that. But that they force the activation via STEAM. So every customer is REQUIRED to have a Steam account, and log in to authenticate the product at least once. What bullshit! On the top of it all, they dont even know in Steam if they're going to support or sell the game AT ALL. If the game is supposed to be out in 2 weeks, you'd think there'd be a website, videos, info etc? Nah. Couple of screenies and 3 FAQs that provide conflicting info on ESSENTIAL features and requirements.

This is just another publishing, marketing and supporting farce by Ubisoft and the 1C company.

The game itself is probably going to be fine. I hope.

I think its quite unfair to lay the blame entirely on Ubisoft and 1C. If these events, that you have described, are true, then it sounds like that Ubisoft is facing some fairly time consuming BS from outside forces.

[Erkki]

The sequel to my favourite game is finally about to be published, soon 8 years after the first game. Should be March 24th.

The publisher, Ubisoft, released a collector's edition. Okay, I preordered it last month. Last Friday, I was emailed that Ubisoft is not going to publish a CE version of the game after all. Yesterday they informed that it was going to be in UK only, and only from Ubi's own webstore.

The cover art. I'm pretty sure the game itself is going to be perfectly OK, but the cover art, its just horrible, knowing the game's target audience age is somewhere around 40, its hard to believe they made a Michael Bay fanboy draw the covert art. It looks like its made to attract 11 year old coke addicts that play gears of war on xbox or something, plus I counted 9 technical mistakes alone.

Now, just few weeks before its supposedly out, they say its going to have SolidShield DRM. I'm OK with that. But that they force the activation via STEAM. So every customer is REQUIRED to have a Steam account, and log in to authenticate the product at least once. What bullshit! On the top of it all, they dont even know in Steam if they're going to support or sell the game AT ALL. If the game is supposed to be out in 2 weeks, you'd think there'd be a website, videos, info etc? Nah. Couple of screenies and 3 FAQs that provide conflicting info on ESSENTIAL features and requirements.

This is just another publishing, marketing and supporting farce by Ubisoft and the 1C company.

The game itself is probably going to be fine. I hope.

I think its quite unfair to lay the blame entirely on Ubisoft and 1C. If these events, that you have described, are true, then it sounds like that Ubisoft is facing some fairly time consuming BS from outside forces.

To me it looks like they're just doing their everything to sell as few games as possible... 

[Cthulhu]

Are you going to tell us what game it is?

[Levi]

I don't think the game industry in general is on a decline, but there are some genre's that feel like they are doing pretty badly lately. 

The competitive FPS genre seems like garbage these days, as the only three decent games are all pretty old (Unreal, Quake, and counterstrike).  I want more FPS's without leveling systems or exclusive items or unlocks.  And we really don't need any more realistic(sorta) war shooters in the market.

Another genre I'd love to see more of is 2d side scrollers.  Its been picking up a little bit lately by the indie developers, but I'd love to see a full on revival.

[Sowelu]

I don't think the game industry in general is on a decline, but there are some genre's that feel like they are doing pretty badly lately. 

The competitive FPS genre seems like garbage these days, as the only three decent games are all pretty old (Unreal, Quake, and counterstrike).  I want more FPS's without leveling systems or exclusive items or unlocks.  And we really don't need any more realistic(sorta) war shooters in the market.

Another genre I'd love to see more of is 2d side scrollers.  Its been picking up a little bit lately by the indie developers, but I'd love to see a full on revival.

Define "competitive" FPS genre.  Do you mean specifically tournament-based, like, serious organized competition?  Or do you just mean versus in general?  Because 1) Halo is more recent than those, judge for yourself if you like it, but it's hard to argue that it wasn't popular as all hell.  And 2) Left 4 Dead is pretty badass in versus.

[Levi]

I don't think the game industry in general is on a decline, but there are some genre's that feel like they are doing pretty badly lately. 

The competitive FPS genre seems like garbage these days, as the only three decent games are all pretty old (Unreal, Quake, and counterstrike).  I want more FPS's without leveling systems or exclusive items or unlocks.  And we really don't need any more realistic(sorta) war shooters in the market.

Another genre I'd love to see more of is 2d side scrollers.  Its been picking up a little bit lately by the indie developers, but I'd love to see a full on revival.

Define "competitive" FPS genre.  Do you mean specifically tournament-based, like, serious organized competition?  Or do you just mean versus in general?  Because 1) Halo is more recent than those, judge for yourself if you like it, but it's hard to argue that it wasn't popular as all hell.  And 2) Left 4 Dead is pretty badass in versus.

I mean versus in general.

I haven't actually ever tried Halo, so that could very well be a good one.  I'm not to familiar with console shooters.  L4D is cool and I probably should have included it, but I like ones where both sides are essentially even. 

[MrWiggles]

I don't think the game industry in general is on a decline, but there are some genre's that feel like they are doing pretty badly lately. 

The competitive FPS genre seems like garbage these days, as the only three decent games are all pretty old (Unreal, Quake, and counterstrike).  I want more FPS's without leveling systems or exclusive items or unlocks.  And we really don't need any more realistic(sorta) war shooters in the market.

Another genre I'd love to see more of is 2d side scrollers.  Its been picking up a little bit lately by the indie developers, but I'd love to see a full on revival.

Define "competitive" FPS genre.  Do you mean specifically tournament-based, like, serious organized competition?  Or do you just mean versus in general?  Because 1) Halo is more recent than those, judge for yourself if you like it, but it's hard to argue that it wasn't popular as all hell.  And 2) Left 4 Dead is pretty badass in versus.

I mean versus in general.

I haven't actually ever tried Halo, so that could very well be a good one.  I'm not to familiar with console shooters.  L4D is cool and I probably should have included it, but I like ones where both sides are essentially even.

Halo is an excellent FPS in my opinion. They don't bring anything terribly new to the genre, but it does it quite well. I find Reach (newest one) to be the weaker in then 3, but thats due to its shallower story line and single player level design. However, Reach, multiplayer is more engaging then 3 is, and feels faster and more varied overall. The multiplayer level design, are both cleaner in presentation but the layout is more fun. 

Team Fortress 2 is also an excellent recent shooter (I include as being recent, due to its continued new content.) It does have 'unlockable' equipment though, but its not required to remain competitive. As each weapon comes with their own advantages and disadvantages. This leads itself to the equipment acting more as style choice when playing. It also, I think has the best sniper weapon balancing. With the sniper weapon needing to charge into to get its insane damage, it prevents no scope instant kills.

I personally find CoD: Black Ops, to be pretty damn average as a shooter.

[Max White]

TF2 is fun, because that's what it is trying to be, fun. It isn't a war simulator that fanboys can prove how 'hardcore' they are in by shooting people and watching the blood splash against there motorbike helm visors. It is good clean insanity with accents and hats. Although I personally got a little tired of it a little too fast, and soon playing the medic was the only role I found satisfying at all.

As for halo, meh... I could not care for that game one bit. The story was second rate, and the multi player speaks for itself. This is the game that bought you teabagging after all, a lobby full of douche bags is to be expected, leading to a dull game of running around shooting until you die.

Gears of duty, or Medal of war, or Code of Cthulhu or what ever other FPS you want to pull out also falls under my ability to care line. Give me a FPS with some fucking story line! Is this too much to ask?

Special honers to L4D though, I enjoyed that game a lot! Got together with three other friends and together we took on the hoard, now that's a kick ass FPS!!! Call of Cthulhu was also good, just in case you thought I didn't like it from the 'Code of Cthulhu' remark.

The RPG genera seems a bit of a let down recently too. Heart breaking, what happened Squair Enix? You used to be cool, now we just have Cloud with pink hair and a dress running down a hallway.

[fqllve]

Bleh. Half-Life is the only FPS I've played with a story that's worth paying attention to. Honestly I wish they'd just stop having stories in most FPSs since all it ends up meaning is a bunch of boring-ass cutscenes I need to skip. I mean, cause let's be honest here, no one plays Call of Duty to hear a bad JFK impersonator lay down some exposition.

[Max White]

So, because current FPS don't measure up to scratch in the story department, you want them to stop trying at all, rather then doing better? Well that is a constructive point of view.

I blame the market more then the industry. Right now FPSers sell very well, and multi player game of the seasons turns over a bundle. It has become common culture to buy a game just for on-line play, and then trade in for the next thing as soon as something more shiny comes out. So a company is smart for making mindless first person shooters as fast as they can. The problem is that this is a bad way of making games from the start. When making a game, you should think a about story first, and then think about how you can express these events/characters/locations/feelings/themes through game play, rather then make a game and try to fit a disjointed story into it ending up with a battle sequence-> cut scene -> repeat until credits.

[Sowelu]

Hey, I got a real kick out of whatever WW2 game it was where the WW2 campaign started you out with five rounds and no ammo.  That was great, and moments like that keep me playing.  Games with no worthwhile story are...very dull.  I mean story won't save a dull game, but it does make you interested enough to claw your way past annoying parts.

[fqllve]

So, because current FPS don't measure up to scratch in the story department, you want them to stop trying at all, rather then doing better? Well that is a constructive point of view.

No, it's because FPS is a genre more focused on gameplay than on narrative. Not every game needs to tell a story, and if you aren't going to devote yourself to telling one properly just gimme some Nazis to shoot and use the extra money to program some better AI, or some more weapons.

And I don't want them all to stop trying. I love a good story, whether in a game or not, I just wish they'd stop not trying yet still making such story-heavy games.

e: Pathologic! Now that's an FPS with a story.

[Max White]

I think you are misinterpreting what it is that I want. Let us take Knytt as a source study. The story line goes like this.
You are a small, tailed creature.
You get abducted by an alien.
The ship crash lands on a distant planet.
You run around for a while looking for parts to repair the ship.
You get all the parts, bring them back to the alien and it fixes the ship.
You go back home.

That's it, that is the entire plot summary. Now one might be mistaken into thinking that knytt is lacking in the story department. One would be dead wrong. Through characterisation, knytt him/her self is portrayed brilliantly. He's movement tells us more about him then any dialogue, and when you comparer him to Juni from Knytt stories, you can see that are very different people, just through game controls. That's not even mentioning the keystone of the game, the spectacular settings that make for an awesome atmosphere. This is a good game with awesome story, yet the plot revolves around one of the most hated feature in a lot of games, a fetch quest.

That's why god of war was interesting for me. Kratos wasn't some hero, he was a sick bastard! And everything he did screamed out demented maniac. He was the antagonist of he's own story and self destructive to no end, and it made for a kick ass story! At least the first one anyway.

Look at Dwarf Fortress. No story line there beyond anything imposed by the player themselves. Yet through game play aspects like dwarfs enjoying work and hating getting caught in the rain, we know so much about there life and ways.

'Story heavy' is what all games should be, but that doesn't have to involve a direct plot.