Over the Horizon: 2010 and … ?
While it’s tough to predict the state of games that are coming next year, a few are games that I think deserve closer scrutiny. Let’s touch on a few.
Elemental
Tactical combat in Elemental.
Elemental is being developed in-house by Stardock. It’s being seen by the strategy game community as the spiritual successor to Masters of Magic, a legendary, fantasy turn-based strategy game. Or, you can think of it as a kind of fantasy version of Civilization. Whatever it turns out to be, you can bet that Stardock will beta test it and playtest it to death.
Unlike Galactic Civilizations, this Stardock title will have multiplayer. The artwork has a pretty interesting feel to it, what Brad Wardell likes to call an “illustration look.” The goal is to have a fully 3D engine that’s well-suited for turn based gaming, and capable of running on a wide array of systems, and still look good on both high end and relatively low end systems.
This one is likely a day one purchase for me. It’s supposed to ship sometime in Q1 of 2009, but Stardock won’t ship it until they deem it ready.
Mass Effect 2
Oh, I can't wait...
This is yet another Bioware RPG. This one is a day one purchase for me (day one being the first day the PC version ships, mind you.) I had such a blast with the first Mass Effect game, that this is one of the few games I’m chomping at the bit to play. It’s currently slated for early 2009.
If you’ve played Mass Effect, you definitely want to hold onto your saved games. Mass Effect 2 will process your saved game, and extract not only the character and character stats (so you can continue to play through as the same character), but integrate the results of major events you influenced into the second game.
Napoleon: Total War
Some readers will look at this choice, point at me and laugh uproariously. I probably deserve it, after the initial mess that was Empire: Total War. Still, the topic matter is what I wanted Empire to be, and given that they’re using that game as the starting point, I can hope (keeping my fingers crossed) that this one will have fewer problems.
I’m not sanguine about that, however. Still, I’ll get this one only because I’m a fan of the subject matter. Here’s hoping that one of the built-in campaigns will be the Spanish Peninsular campaign…
Mechwarrior and War Machine
I’m lumping these two games together for several reasons: both games are about big mecha-style robots (though the scale is somewhat different between the two), little is really known about either game, except that they’re in the works and both are being helmed by veteran game designers.
Mechwarrior is back in the hands of Jordan Weisman, one of the founders of FASA and one of the original creators of Battletech. Weisman bought the rights for electronic games based on the FASA title, including Battletech / Mechwarrior, Crimson Skies and Shadowrun.
War Machine (the video game) is based on the Privateer Press tabletop miniatures tactical combat and RPG system of the same name. War Machine’s lead designer is apparently Scott Campbell, one of the designers of the original Fallout.
The respective universes are very different, as are the scales. Mechwarrior deals with a politically complex future with multiple empires spread out over hundreds of star systems. Battlemechs are huge machines – up to 100 tons – and can be ponderous and hulking.
War Machine has more of a Steampunk feel to it, and the machines themselves, called Warjacks, are automatons controlled by a battle mage. These are driven by steam engines, but animated by magic. They tend max out at less than ten tons.
Will they be good? Certainly the pedigree of the designers leaves me hopeful. But the proof is in the playing.
So these are a few of the games that have me playing the anticipation game. What games are you wanting to play?
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5 comments
Mot Eugaetkt says:
August 26, 2009 at 5:47 pm (UTC -7 )
Good article, very informative, but I’m sad to say that I’m years behind in my game play due to neglect, life’s little setbacks, and my continuous addiction to old DOS based games. I will never grow up. If I told you what games I was playing now ( besides the DOS games), you would laugh. Perhaps next year at this time when you start looking ahead to the upcoming games for late 2010 and early 2011, I will be able to participate.
Mike Pisarczyk says:
August 26, 2009 at 7:20 pm (UTC -7 )
Definitely Dragon Age.
I’ve not played a MMORPG since they changed the combat systeme in Star Wars:Galaxies. I was pretty close to being a Jedi when they screwed up the entire thing… So, I wait, with much concern, for “The Old Republic.” I know I don’t have time for a MMORPG, but if the game is cool enough, and it is something that I can pick up and play for an hour or two here and there, I know it will be worth the $12 bucks a month. What with a busy job and 3 kids of my own, I just can’t keep up with the twelve to fifteen year olds playing seven hours a day.
The game looks awedome, and as described above, BioWare usually gets it. I’m hopeful. And skeptical.
Paul says:
August 27, 2009 at 2:24 am (UTC -7 )
I particuarly like RPG, probably becasue I like the idea of self improvment
I remember playing the original Baldur’s Gate on a Commodore 128, now that was a game, lightyears ahead of the later versions which I played and hated. Just finished playing WIzardy 8, yeah I know it’s an oldy, but I had been wanting to play the wizardary series but never got round to it. Currently playing Kings bounty, which is a poor game, but once I get started it has to be really bad for me to stop. Looking forward to starcraft II I loved starcraft I although I have to admit I was (am) a very bad player, even with hacks…….
Tim says:
September 4, 2009 at 2:06 pm (UTC -7 )
I’m with you in eagerly awaiting Mass Effect 2! Unfortunately I do not believe that I still have my saved game file from Mass Effect 1. I do plan to pick up the new STALKER game; however, I still have not completed playing through Clear Sky (I’d estimate I’m about 70% through at least) as I lost the disc when I moved (though I do still have the case lol). You also brought up a few games I was not aware of, and I’ll be sure to look into those!
Max Heim says:
October 13, 2009 at 3:12 pm (UTC -7 )
IIRC, the main thing that was broken with NWN2 multiplayer was the NPC interaction interface, but this is precisely the sort of detail that makes the difference between enjoyable and unplayable. When the entire party is interrupted and “frozen” every time one player stops to chat with an NPC or use a vendor, that’s unplayable. Dungeonsiege did it right. I don’t know how you can playtest a game and get it so wrong. It’s a case where the requirements for multiplayer are qualitatively different — it’s not just adding network code.