I'm somewhat hopeful that it's all just a big misunderstanding between worked up fans and perhaps slightly touchy SOE admins. I would imagine no one on either side is happy about the shut down.
I could really never get past the name of this game... petty, I know, but simple things like that can turn me off an experience. Nevertheless, it has been an important part of MMO history.
It is a shame, but I believe a great deal of Warhammer Online was influenced by lessons learned on DAoC, so if anyone liked that game they might want to give WAR a go.
It is quite difficult to translate the non-action facets of Star Trek, or any licensed property, into games. As an industry we're still only really good at delivering either a casual puzzle game or a hardcore action game (even when they're not technically in either genre). However, if you haven't checked it out already, there is a new system called the Diplomatic Corps coming into play. We'll have to wait and see whether IT delivers.
I miss Max Payne. Alan Wake is great, but I really want some more of the noir comic book sequences!
I'm mostly surprised that two people here owned a Dreamcast.
I think a lot of my positive feelings towards it came from playing it in a group, locally. That really is the best way to play a cheap and simple fighting game like this. As I mentioned, the singleplayer is short and forgettable, and online multiplayer has a few issues. It really shouldn't be viewed as a hardcore fighting game - it's a party game with an interesting roster.
Some good points - I always very much liked the concept of the public quest, and I hope it becomes a staple of MMOs. Though Guild Wars 2 actually appears to be doing something similar and yet far more pervasive and dynamic. Nevertheless, it is clear that there are a lot of major issues with the system as it stands in WAR. Hopefully, there is still time to correct them.
I didn't get quite as much out of this game as I thought I would when I played the demo, but the concept is really solid.
I do find this game oddly intriguing... I think the bright colours are mesmerising me somehow.
This game kind of came out of left field for me, so it's nice to see a decent preview.
I can't say I'm particularly surprised that this didn't live up to expectations, but of course it's always disappointing when that is the case. A someone with great affection for the ancient legends this is attempting to build on, I can only hope we get some better representations of them in the future.
I've been somewhat intrigued by Limbo for a while... it's nice to see it finally come out, even if I'm a little wary of the high price tag given its apparent length.
I definitely agree that bright colours can be great. I think that World of Warcraft's bright, simple and above all beautiful-despite-graphics art style is a large part of its success. I happen to wish more MMOs would concentrate more on making an art style that is both appealing and functional and less on pushing technical specs, which are always so bug-laden in the genre anyway.
Strangely for someone of my tastes, I only watched Blade Runner quite recently. I have read the Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? short story, though, and am a huge fan of Philip K. Dick in general. I do have to agree, however, that Blade Runner is really just part of an evolving tradition of storytelling, like games themselves. Influences like that can, should be and are everywhere. That's part of what makes it such an interesting industry for me.
This game actually looks surprisingly good, although I do mostly mean that literally in that it LOOKS fun. We'll see if it lives up to the promise.
Definitely intriguing. I love Greek mythology and I do have a nostalgic fondness for isometric games. What's more, the art style actually seems to work really well with the graphics in this game - a few too many MMOs these days are relying on a heavy graphics engine with the assumption that they'll look pretty automatically. I really feel like the art style counts for much more, and it seems like Mytheon is heading a bit more down that route.
I happen to be less enthusiastic about this game in practice than some of the others at MMOCrunch. I found the beta rather unwieldy, and the launch has seen enough bugs and other technical issues that I think the core concept of shooting and driving is rather temperamental. Added to that, the singleplayer missions just aren't particularly interesting, so you really have to rely on getting good luck with PvP missions. As a player only tangentially interested in PvP, that doesn't even a...
A surprisingly interesting game, I'd recommend those that have their curiosity piqued give it a go. You never know when these small games are going to be hits out of nowhere.
For the record, I don't necessarily agree entirely with Branden on this. It doesn't especially bother me that Diablo 3 will require an always on connection, as this was true of StarCraft 2 and never gave me any trouble, but I don't think it's as 100% positive as it might seem. For example, a dungeon crawler like Diablo is perfect for brief periods of play while travelling, or even taking on a plane to while away the time.
What's even more striking is that ...