OT: another nice looking game in the works

[Doomdark]

I agree with Sapura on this one.

The American Civil War is about as dead boring as wars go. Of course, in this case I am biased by being a European.

The same goes for the Napoleonic Wars and WWII - way too over-exploited.

Where are the games about the 30 Years War, the Great Northern War, 1st and 2nd Swedish-Polish Wars, etc?

In my experience, the strategy games that don't involve either England or the US are about as scarce as yer average Hippogriff.

/Doomie

 

[Doomdark]

There are a lot of tactical games on the PC for the Naoleonic era, but a good strategical game is long overdue.

True enough. The market has been so inundated by tactical games that I did not even consider the possibility of a Napoleonic game at the strategic level.

The only such game I've played is 'Empires in Arms' - and that is a boardgame.

Can you give us a URL?

/Doomie

 

[Doomdark]

Yeah, it looks interesting...

But it doesn't hold a candle to EU.

/Doomie

 

[Doomdark]

Well, Saps, there have been a lot of crappy game on the market in the past few years - that is true. But then, as far as I'm concerned, all Playstation games are crap. Heck, all console games are crap.

The most worrying thing about the market today is the phenomenon I like to call the 'Low Brow' trend. The games that have sold best in the last few years have been games like 'Deer Hunter' and 'Barbie Nail Designer'. Thus, from a commercial standpoint, these brain-dead offerings are extremely attractive. The danger is of course that the games we all love - strategy, RPG, adventure and simulation - are in danger of becoming extinct.

Another dangerous trend is the 'Consolification' of PC games. In order to attract the vast crowd of ex console gamers to the PC market, an ever growing number of games has been action-RPGs, action-adventures, action-strategy, etc. I like to call these unholy hybrids 'mongrel games'. Still, there have been some good games in the last few years. Notably Fallout 1/2, Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, Age of Wonders, SMAC, Imperialism I/II and HOMM 3. And of course, StarCraft, which is not actually a consolified game, but has its roots in the PC game 'Dune II'.

The games I look forward to the most right now are EU, Black & White, Baldur's Gate II and Dreamland (the spiritual successor to X-COM). I the 4X genre, we have Reach for the Stars 2, Stars! Supernova, Space Empires IV and MOO3 to look forward to.

So, all is not darkness and misery. Yet.

/Doomie

 

[Doomdark]

The 'Bubba Factor' eh? Heheh.

Wrestling has to be the silliest pseudo-sport in existence. I can't imagine why the classic movie Highlander opens with Connor McLeod watching a wrestling match.

Anyway, I read about MOO3 on AGN3D a couple of days ago. It was just a small article. Apparently they are aiming for a Q3 2001 release, so it is still a ways off. The most worrying thing is that they said that the tactical battles would be fought in real-time... We shall see what happens, but I just can't understand this insufferable real-time craze.

Don't expect too much though, this is Hasbro we are talking about here - the company that slaughtered MicroProse, Avalon Hill and Wizards of the Coast. The company that cancelled X-COM Genesis. Frigging Hasbeen is what I say.

/Doomie

[This message has been edited by Doomdark (edited 21-05-2000).]

 

[Doomdark]

Gunnar,

'Storm across Europe' was pretty fab, although the Russians were almost impossible to beat since the AI cheated so much (the Russians got HUGE reinforcements out of nowhere).

I've never seen a game quite like it on the PC. There are some hex based WWII strategy games that are pretty good but suffer from miniscule budgets. E.g. 'Third Reich' and 'High Command'. On the operational level, I still think that the first 'Panzer General' reigns supreme.

There are also two conversions of 'Axis & Allies' out on PC. The unofficial one is called 'Dogs of War' (I think it is shareware). But then, 'Axis & Allies' is a much simpler kind of game...

/Doomie

 

[Doomdark]

Keifer,

The official MOO3 page.

/Doomie