Weekend Round-Up
I'm broken. I'm not sure what's wrong with me yet, but I'm broken. I've had horrible pains in my guts all week. My doc thinks it's either some kind of stomach problem or my gall bladder. In my mind, the smart money is on the gall bladder. Anyway, the upshot of this is that I haven't been playing mych of anything, so I'm going to pad the void by just posting a round-up of the things I found interesting this week. Who knows, this may become kind of a weekly affair.
First off, Kingdom Hearts II is out, and after a long period of introspection, I've come to the conclusion that I don't give a shit. I bought the first one, and it never made a damn bit of sense to me. Still, anytime one of these "big" games comes out, I have a horrible propensity to get all caught up in the hype that surrounds it. Hype is apparently the fuel that feeds my eldritch machine, so to speak. This typically ends with me buying a game that isn't really my cup of tea, and then grudgingly realizing that within the first hour of play. It is through this very mechanism that games like Grand Theft Auto, Splinter Cell, and anything Metal Gear Solid have found their way to my shelf. Yes, I get that all of those are widely considered great games - just not to me.
There is more news, or at least speculation, on the Bioware story from a couple days back: Gamespot posted a rumor that LucasArts is considering pulling the Star Wars license from SOE, and giving said license to Bioware, who just happened to announce an MMO studio in the same damn town. This would be phenomenal news in my book. SOE clearly botched what should have been the easiest money-printing operation in history, so my sympathy is rather low for them. Bioware, however, is responsible for Knights of the Old Republic, which was more Star Warsy than any of the last three films. It's hard to loose in this situation.
Gamespot also has an interview with J.E. Sawyer, the Lead Designer on Neverwinter Nights 2. To be honest, I was never as impressed with the original NWN as I was impressed by it's potential. NWN2 sounds like it's going to fix a lot of the original game's shortcomings. In particular, the two things the article talks about that excite me the most: fully controllable henchmen and heght-mapped terrain. Once again, I'm finding myself far less excited about the game, and far more excited about the toolset that the game represents. Oh, and they finally put up an official NWN2 Web site.
IGN had news that Starcraft Ghost has been cancelled. I'm not sure how to feel about this one - I was excited to play in the Starcraft universe from the ground level, but at the same time this game seems to have had a hard time coming together. It's been through a couple of different developers, and each time it's shown it looks just a little less impressive than the last time. You could almost see the compromises starting to show through. When Ghost was first announced, stealth action was the darling genre - Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid 2 were both wowing people with their brand of sneaky gameplay. Now, the whole category is starting to feel a bit played out and oversaturated. Considering the reputation Blizzard has garnered to this point, the decision to cut it loose is probably for the best.
A couple of good demos are coming out this week: The Galactic Civilizations II demo is already out, although I haven't had a chance to play it yet, and the Rise of Legends demo should be out today. Gal Civ II is a old school, turn-based strategy game in the same vein as Master of Orion. It's getting fantastic reviews, and in theory it sounds like something would enjoy (especially the custom ship creation) but I've been waiting for a demo before I buy it. Rise of Legends, on the other hand, is pretty much a sure thing. The original Rise of Nations may just be the best designed strategy game that I've ever played.
First off, Kingdom Hearts II is out, and after a long period of introspection, I've come to the conclusion that I don't give a shit. I bought the first one, and it never made a damn bit of sense to me. Still, anytime one of these "big" games comes out, I have a horrible propensity to get all caught up in the hype that surrounds it. Hype is apparently the fuel that feeds my eldritch machine, so to speak. This typically ends with me buying a game that isn't really my cup of tea, and then grudgingly realizing that within the first hour of play. It is through this very mechanism that games like Grand Theft Auto, Splinter Cell, and anything Metal Gear Solid have found their way to my shelf. Yes, I get that all of those are widely considered great games - just not to me.
There is more news, or at least speculation, on the Bioware story from a couple days back: Gamespot posted a rumor that LucasArts is considering pulling the Star Wars license from SOE, and giving said license to Bioware, who just happened to announce an MMO studio in the same damn town. This would be phenomenal news in my book. SOE clearly botched what should have been the easiest money-printing operation in history, so my sympathy is rather low for them. Bioware, however, is responsible for Knights of the Old Republic, which was more Star Warsy than any of the last three films. It's hard to loose in this situation.
Gamespot also has an interview with J.E. Sawyer, the Lead Designer on Neverwinter Nights 2. To be honest, I was never as impressed with the original NWN as I was impressed by it's potential. NWN2 sounds like it's going to fix a lot of the original game's shortcomings. In particular, the two things the article talks about that excite me the most: fully controllable henchmen and heght-mapped terrain. Once again, I'm finding myself far less excited about the game, and far more excited about the toolset that the game represents. Oh, and they finally put up an official NWN2 Web site.
IGN had news that Starcraft Ghost has been cancelled. I'm not sure how to feel about this one - I was excited to play in the Starcraft universe from the ground level, but at the same time this game seems to have had a hard time coming together. It's been through a couple of different developers, and each time it's shown it looks just a little less impressive than the last time. You could almost see the compromises starting to show through. When Ghost was first announced, stealth action was the darling genre - Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid 2 were both wowing people with their brand of sneaky gameplay. Now, the whole category is starting to feel a bit played out and oversaturated. Considering the reputation Blizzard has garnered to this point, the decision to cut it loose is probably for the best.
A couple of good demos are coming out this week: The Galactic Civilizations II demo is already out, although I haven't had a chance to play it yet, and the Rise of Legends demo should be out today. Gal Civ II is a old school, turn-based strategy game in the same vein as Master of Orion. It's getting fantastic reviews, and in theory it sounds like something would enjoy (especially the custom ship creation) but I've been waiting for a demo before I buy it. Rise of Legends, on the other hand, is pretty much a sure thing. The original Rise of Nations may just be the best designed strategy game that I've ever played.
Labels: RPGs, video games
