Games of 2013

[Tyyr]

Ok, it's the second month of the year so I'm about five weeks late on this but fuck it, there's still 47 weeks left.

Sim City 5: In spite of EA, in spite of the always on DRM, in spite of it all... I can't make myself not excited about this. It's a new Sim City game. I am waiting for the review though because Societies sucked so it's not a day 1 buy for me. I'll wait to see if it's still Sim City and if the DRM doesn't blow.

Walking Dead Shooter: I love WD and I love the adventure game but a straight up shooter looks fun. I hope the bring in a bunch of the aspects of the adventure game though because if this is just a straight shooter then its not going to amount to much. If I just want to shoot zombies then I've got Left 4 Dead. I want some of the adventure game aspects in this.

The Last of Us: Yeaaaah, it's on the PS3 which I don't own but I'll hold out hope this might wind up on the PC eventually. For those of you who don't know a guy is hired to protect a young girl during a devestating plague. So in other words the main driving force of the WD adventure game but as a shooter. Wait... I know I've wanted this from a game before... Seriously though, this has me jazzed. I know, I know, escort missions SUCK. A game that is one long escort mission, how could it not blow? Conceptually though if they can pull off the little girl in a way that doesn't make her a boat anchor around your neck and give you enough connection with her to care about her survival this could be awesome.

So what's coming out that you're looking forward to?

[LaughingCheese]

No exact dates when these are coming out but they look awesome:

http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/


http://ltheory.com/

[stitch626]

Sim City 5, simply because its going to be Sim City that you can play with your friends... and not limited by grid anymore.

Also I'm looking forward to whatever STO has for us in May (perhaps Romulan playable faction, which was promised years ago).

And... thats it I think.

[Tsukiyumi]

http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/

That looks fantastic. Glad to see he's still working.

[stitch626]

http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/

That looks fantastic. Glad to see he's still working.

Ok... I am definitely buying that. I might pay now for one of the nice Alpha packages...

[Tyyr]

Sim City 5, simply because its going to be Sim City that you can play with your friends... and not limited by grid anymore.

Yeah, but the fact that I have to be online to play is bullshit. For years SC has been my go-to on the road game. Couldn't get on line, no big deal. Just load up SC and go. Now if you don't have an internet connection you're fucked. Meanwhile pirates won't have to deal with that. Once again the only thing DRM is going to accomplish is to punish paying customers.

Also I'm looking forward to whatever STO has for us in May (perhaps Romulan playable faction, which was promised years ago).

Eh, if they give us another player slot I'll cook up a Romulan toon and give it a go. With the DOff system you can level a toon to 50 in two months by spending ten minutes a day on them setting up their DOffs. Really though my Klink is just there to farm DOff dilithium so I can buy zen with it. I suspect my Romulan will be as well. I'm just really disheartened with the Klingons right now. I love getting a new Federation ship and getting to customize it. I get a Klingon ship and... pick either A or B. Hell, I racked up some commendations DOffing and go to the DOff store to pick up a few freebie greens and the DOffs available are the exact same ones you can buy Fed side. If all they do is develop the Romulan side like they've done Klingon I'd rather them not even waste their time on it. Either do it right or not at all, they half assed the Klingons and it's awful.

[stitch626]

Klingons were screwed when first release resulted in more bugs than an ant farm. Severe computer destroying bugs. Hence why they start at 20.

They also promised to finish the Klingons... waiting on that too.

[Tyyr]

One I forgot to put on my list because the release date was so close was Aliens: Colonial Marines.

As it turns out that wasn't a bad thing as the game is bombing in the reviews. Nothing in the previews or demos is in the actual game. Flamethrower equipped powerload? NOPE! Sentry guns? NOPE! Aliens using the terrain intelligently? NOPE! What you've got is pretty much nothing. There are 11 levels, a tutorial, and a final level that takes about five minutes to finish. Of the nine proper levels only three focus on the aliens. 3 Have you fighting Wayland Yutani mercs and another three are mixed xenos and mercs. In an aliens game there are three levels fighting aliens. I've been watching some Let's Plays along with the reviews and it's just sad. The AI blows so your vaunted squad is useless and the aliens just rush you. In fact the alien AI is so bad you can complete some levels in five minutes by just running past them. And worst of all, on anything but the hardest difficulty the game can be completed in about five hours or less. On the hardest difficulty it's maybe an 8 hour game.

And it looked so promising.

[Tsukiyumi]

What the hell? That could have been one of the best games of the year, if not the decade, if done right. That's fucking lame.

[stitch626]

The worst thing for Aliens: CM is the difference between the promised (as in they said in the interviews) graphics of the trailer compared with the actual graphics. The game even on PC looks like it was made for the Wii (and guess what! ).

Short of it, rushing to make it Wii U compatible destroyed it.

[Tyyr]

The game is a total fucking disaster. What was shown in the trailers and press events is no where to be seen in the game. The graphics are worse, the AI is non-existant, and fully half the game is about fighting other humans and NOT XENOS. I have no idea what happened to the game. What they were promising only months ago is no where in site, NO WHERE. I will say that the multiplayer looks interesting and is marines vs. xenos like it should be but that's about it. I've read some conflicting reports with various parties trying to place blame in different laps but none of that fixes the game. Frankly everyone involved in this thing needs to hang their heads in shame. Hell, they owe everyone who pre-ordered based off that marketing their money back. That's just false advertising.

This is just indicative of modern gaming. Promise the moon and even show it in trailers, then cut it from the game. They market it first and create things to get people excited. Then, when the chips are down and their arbitrary release date approaches they start to take an axe to it chopping out things left and right and rush some buggy pile of shit out banking on selling enough copies to turn a profit before the gaming public realizes they've been ripped off. This is why I don't pre-order and its why I wind up buying so many games used.

[Teaos]

Flame thrower expansion pack. Only $29.99.

[Tyyr]

They should throw in a smart gun pack too since you hardly get to use it at all in the game. Even if you ignore the Aliens tie in and just evaluate this as a shooter it's a crap game. Once you factor in the Aliens angle and it's staggering how badly they fucked this up.

[stitch626]

Interestingly, there may be law suits as Gearbox not only did not deliver what was in the trailer (or the demo for that matter), they also outsourced a significant portion of the work without informing Sony (who published the game) so that they could spend more time on Borderlands 2.

[Tyyr]

Sounds good to me. A game maker needs to be sued for this kind of shit. The demo, the stuff at E3, the trailers, they are all advertising. Advertising used to generate pre orders and even in the case of Steam pre-sales (for the true idiots out there). Sales that are based on advertising that is demonstrably false.

Game makers have gotten away with this shit for too long. They promise lots, deliver little, then blame it time or budget, or whatever. No appologies, no notice before you buy the game that half of what was promised isn't even there. And have you tried to return a game lately? Good luck with Steam, they'll do it once. Brick and Mortar? If you broke the seal it's yours. So we can't just return it if it's shit. We're stuck with it. Stuck with a game we bought because of advertising that was false.

Any other industry would have been sued for it a decade ago but we've put up with this shit for years because... I dunno, we're suckers? As much as I think pre-orders and pre-sales are idiotic and the people who take that bet probably deserve to lose their money, I do think it provides a tremendously better starting point for this kind of lawsuit.