Game Droughts WHY!

[Trezza]

Anybody else notice that it seems that good games that are done by large companies seem to come out all at once and then for about 2 months there is nothing worth buying. Now i am not talking about christmas or other holidays, its this happens year round imo. Why done they spread them out so that they would do better. I don't know. just my 2cents

 

[Maleficus]

The only good game i have seen in a long time is WC3, UT2k3 is the suq if u go by the demo and nothing else i ahve seen looks good either, Nolf2 looks nice actually but i just dont play those types of games :\

 

[DaveSimmons]

Because software is almost never ready exactly when you plan it to be, and once it is finally ready the publisher needs to release the game as soon as possible to bring in some cash.

Games fall behind the cutting edge very quickly, so you'll not see games held back for "just the right time" the way movies are scheduled.

 

[Trezza]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Because software is almost never ready exactly when you plan it to be, and once it is finally ready the publisher needs to release the game as soon as possible to bring in some cash.

Games fall behind the cutting edge very quickly, so you'll not see games held back for "just the right time" the way movies are scheduled.

If this is the case then i think that we would she that games are definately held much longer than needed and other games are shipped too early. Think about the last game that you had that wouldn;t work exactly as it was supposed to when it launch, i forget which one it was but one of the new online only i think anarcy online was completly bug filled and didn't start working till they released several patches. For whatever reason they decided to ship it at a premature date.

Other games strive to much for perfect: Warcraft 3 for example was in development FOREVER. I personally though it was a total waste. Having a "role playing character" in the game made it lame imo. The first five levels of each chaper he would get killed by grunts and in the end could kill entire armies by himself. I can't even remeber the last game I really really liked and it prolly was a year ago. I know somepeople though that WC3 is great but it is a really just a mesh of Warlords battle cry2 and Empire earth. I didn't really think anything is special which blizzard stands for imo.

I think its sad that the next game i am excited to see come out is sim city 4 just because i know nothing else is going for quality anymore.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Most games are shipped too early -- many now have a patch coming out the same day as the CDs arrive in stores and most need at least one patch. By "ready" I meant "close enough to being done to start taking people's money."

I can't think of a single game being held back more than a week or two after it's "ready." The fact that many games took months or years longer than expected to reach the "ready" point didn't mean they sat on a working product after it was "done" it just means they did more work / had more false starts / changed their minds too much.

 

[Trezza]

Good point Dave, I guess they figure that as long as people buy the bugged software and get a patch they will keep doing it that way.

 

[bockchow]

i don't think i've played a realy realy good game since thief2 and dues ex. the next version of both should be out this year running the new unreal engine i belive. i've had much better luck with gameing on PS2 and xbox recently. it seems like not much effort is going into pc games right now.

and i thought WC3 ripped the hero idea off from disciples.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: bockchow
i don't think i've played a realy realy good game since thief2 and dues ex. the next version of both should be out this year running the new unreal engine i belive. i've had much better luck with gameing on PS2 and xbox recently. it seems like not much effort is going into pc games right now.

and i thought WC3 ripped the hero idea off from disciples.

I just finished DeuSex. Very good game. Working on Thief II now.

Letsee, NOLF was an excellent game - NOLF II will be out very shortly (get the demo, if you haven't already).

Max Payne was excellent, if short. Return to Castle Wolfenstein was superb (look for the expansion pak soon). Serious Sam SE was "fun" and the Final Encounter should be along pretty soon. Heck, even StarTrek Voyager Elite Force was pretty good (and I believe there is a new one coming out).

There are always "good" games available in between the "big" releases. And when things are slow, the "bargain bin" can be a great source of excellent games.

There is no "drought" for me . . . I still have Sacrifice and Giants that I have never finished (I got too frustrated with Hitman, however).

 

[Trezza]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: bockchow
i don't think i've played a realy realy good game since thief2 and dues ex. the next version of both should be out this year running the new unreal engine i belive. i've had much better luck with gameing on PS2 and xbox recently. it seems like not much effort is going into pc games right now.

and i thought WC3 ripped the hero idea off from disciples.

I just finished DeuSex. Very good game. Working on Thief II now.

Letsee, NOLF was an excellent game - NOLF II will be out very shortly (get the demo, if you haven't already).

Max Payne was excellent, if short. Return to Castle Wolfenstein was superb (look for the expansion pak soon). Serious Sam SE was "fun" and the Final Encounter should be along pretty soon. Heck, even StarTrek Voyager Elite Force was pretty good (and I believe there is a new one coming out).

There are always "good" games available in between the "big" releases. And when things are slow, the "bargain bin" can be a great source of excellent games.

There is no "drought" for me . . . I still have Sacrifice and Giants that I have never finished (I got too frustrated with Hitman, however).

DuesEx and Wolfenstein both good games but they came out at least six months ago. I totally agree with you on bargin bins, i once bought a game for $0.99 called machines. It was stupid and fun but with some kind of crack that made me play it for about a month straight.

My point is recently i don't think there's anything good out on the PC. Xbox and PS2 both have slews of games coming out. I beta tested Earth and beyond (which came out this week) and although its cool at first you really aren't doing anything interesting throughout the whole game.

To me thats what PC games have been lately... fun at first and then the iniatial fun goes away cause of repeation or just god awful game design.

 

[Moonbender]

It's spelled "Deus Ex". Sorry, but seeing it spelled wrong 3 times in 3 comments just made me wince.

And while I also haven't played anything extraordinary good recently, there certainly were a few games other people enjoyed incredibly - Warcraft 3, Mafia, Battlefield 1942, Medieval: Total War ...
Me, I'm waiting for some good upcoming MMRPGs, Asheron's Call 2 especially. Offline gaming, nah.

 

[Tallgeese]

I think you hit the issue on the head yourself. It entirely depends upon what type of game you like to play.
IMHO, there have been a SLEW of great games--and an absolutely amazing variety of game types--released at a pretty steady pace this past year, including:

NeverWinter Nights
Icewind Dale II
Dungeon Siege
Max Payne
Freedom Force
MechWarrior 4 (and its expansions)
IL-2 Sturmovik
GTA3
WC3
Mafia
Syberia
RTCW
Battlefield 1942
America's Army (and FREE! no less)
UT2K3

and coming down the pike:
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
NOLF 2 (which is PHENOMENAL)

 

[Moonbender]

Neverwinter Nights, that definitely is one of those extraordinary games. I didn't play it a whole lot, but the 20 to 30 odd hours I played its main campaign co-op with a friend were awesome.

 

[bockchow]

a game that has looked very interesting to me is neocron, it's deus ex meets MMRPG. and deus ex and theif have to be a good 2 or more years old. if your looking for bargin bin fun get

starcraft
disicples 1&2
fallout 1 &2
baulders gate1&2
system shock 2
thief 1&2
deus ex
or get a playstation emulator for...
any of the final fantasy titles
chrono trigger and chrono cross
vagrant story
& metal gear
thats years of bargin priced fun.
tho the graphics may have aged the quality is still there

 

[Pocatello]

Duke Nukem Forever!

 

[Trezza]

Originally posted by: TallGeese
I think you hit the issue on the head yourself. It entirely depends upon what type of game you like to play.
IMHO, there have been a SLEW of great games--and an absolutely amazing variety of game types--released at a pretty steady pace this past year, including:

NeverWinter Nights
Icewind Dale II
Dungeon Siege
Max Payne
Freedom Force
MechWarrior 4 (and its expansions)
IL-2 Sturmovik
GTA3
WC3
Mafia
Syberia
RTCW
Battlefield 1942
America's Army (and FREE! no less)
UT2K3

and coming down the pike:
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
NOLF 2 (which is PHENOMENAL)

I agree with you on some of those games such as max payne, dungeon siege, rctw and MW4. Oh yeah and GTA3 was great when it was on PS2 many months ago.
I haven't even heard of syberia and il2-sturmovik (russia based games?) and plan to check them out but i do disagree with other choices.
Freedom Force was exactly what i was talking about in my last post about being kinda cool and then sucking. As for BF 1942, AA, UT2k3 and other shooters how many can you play before releasing they are all pretty much the same thing with slight differences. To me its getting really old.

 

[Moonbender]

Obviously, to you, it is. Then maybe you are indeed better off with another platform. Most people who like PC games probably won't say that UT2003, BF1942 and AA are pretty much the same thing - that's like saying there hasn't been a point to the FPS genre since Doom or something. It's simply a matter of taste.

On a sidenote, IL-2 Sturmovik is a very good WW2 air combat simulator (I hated it, but people who enjoy WW2 air combat sims adore it), it's been out for something like a year now. Syberia is an adventure game.

 

[ViperXX]

I love IL2 Sturmovik!!!!I'm just to decide how to pronounce it. Is it Shtur movik, or Stur movik? Great game and I can't wait for Forgotten Battles.

 

[Trezza]

Originally posted by: Moonbender
Obviously, to you, it is. Then maybe you are indeed better off with another platform. Most people who like PC games probably won't say that UT2003, BF1942 and AA are pretty much the same thing - that's like saying there hasn't been a point to the FPS genre since Doom or something. It's simply a matter of taste.

On a sidenote, IL-2 Sturmovik is a very good WW2 air combat simulator (I hated it, but people who enjoy WW2 air combat sims adore it), it's been out for something like a year now. Syberia is an adventure game.

For the record I enjoy a good FPS and only on a PC. As a matter of fact prolly the last game I really enjoyed was RTCW or AVP2. IMO consoles don't quite have nearly the same feel to them as PC does when you play it. When I said that UT2k3 ...etc were the same its because most lack a significantly developed single player or a multiplayer co op campaign. Of course there is a huge difference between bf 1942 (WWII), AA (Present) and UT2k3 (Future) in weaponry, vehicles and player interaction on the net. Unfortunately not everyone has access or ability to highspeed internet to maximize these aspects. When I was living at college I spent hours in counterstrike and other online games. Now i have dial up and live in an area where there is no cable or any other means of getting high speed internet at all. Yeah in no you can still play with dial up but lag is redicules when your ping is 1500 and everyone elses 40.

Without internet games your pretty much stuck playing with bots and they just aren't the same. Half the fun of those games is hearing everyone cry about getting their head blown off.

By the way last console i owned was a 64.

 

[Smilin]

It's very very simple.

The deadlines and whatnot that determine when software gets released is *somewhat* flexible. Projects if managed properly can move the release date back and forth by a couple months. With this in mind why do good games come out in groups instead of evenly spaced? Because if company A is going to release a hot game then company B who hadn't planned on releasing for a while will move the date around a bit to compete. Of course company C can't get left out so there you go...3 games that would have been spaced out due to simple statistics are now clumped together for competitive reasons.

Some people won't be buying UT2003 AND BF1942...they will buy one or the other. The publishers time the releases to try and get you to buy theirs. As a result both demos and full releases are close to one another.

 

[JellyBaby]

Publishers do shoot for the holiday buying season. So on the plus side you should see more titles coming out in the next several months. On the downside, Xmas releases tend to be buggier.

I agree with TallGeese and feel 2002 has been better than average as far as the # of good games released. Like others have said it depends on how many genres you dabble in and how many games you have under your belt.

Example: if UT2003 is your first 3D shooter, you're in heaven! If it's your 75th, then you're someplace else.

btw, I'm not sure apoppin will make it through Thief 2. I think he'll get frustrated because he won't be able to kill enough. Will he prove me wrong? Only time will tell.