Thread: Autumn 2007

Well, part of august as well. From the end of this month until near the end of october looks set to be the single most godly 3 months in ALL of gaming history (so far ...). (Well, until the 16th of November).

PC/360: Bioshock - comes out end of this month. As Earthscorpion will testify, it looks to be made of win. Check out out (here) - think submerged underwater city, 50's style art, geneticly enhanced schizznit, and some awesome graphics.

PC: QuakeWars - think battlefield, but more structured (the game actually works out objectives for squad and individuals on a very dynamic basis, so that whilst it doesn't quite feel as personal as singleplayer might, it's alot more personal than normal multiplayer). Graphically very impressive (Enhanced Quake 4 engine, which is in turn an enhanced Doom 3 engine) - the first game to employ iD's new "megatexture" methods (the next will be... well, whatever the first game to be announced on John Carmack's new engine is)... (For those not in the know, John Carmack is "teh d00d" at iD - absolute genius. Anyway, his newest engine was recently announced ahead of the QuakeWars release, apparently built from the ground up. No games yet announced for it, though it's been confirmed that a game is currently in development - and it's being licensed to "several major studios" although none have been named)

PC/PS3/(apparently)360: Unreal Tournament 3 - Everything we've come to know and love from UT: fast paced, brutal gameplay. But this time with something of a singleplayer built in, or so it's been puported; like a mix between Unreal and Unreal Tournament (has traditionally been a singleplayer-based campaign released along side the tournaments)... We've all seen Gears of War (those who haven't all the better - you're in for a MASSIVE treat ) which was the first UE3 game. Best graphics around (apart from perhaps some of the PS3 stuff like Fall of Man - though I've not seen that in the flesh so I can't judge), and on a console. Take them, do them up (about a year since the release of Gears I believe) and put them on a more powerful system (PS3/PC). Shazam. Also, UT3 has the new "warfare" game mode... For those familiar with the series, take Assault and Onslaught, on an epic-scale map. For those not familiar, think bf2-style control points (Onslaught is basically the BF conquest, except to capture control points you *destroy* them, then a new one gets built when you run over it) with mission objectives (assault was a completely objective-based mode)... I assume there won't actually be control points, but the maps will be on that sort of scale. Oh, and for those who found online play too hard in the old unreals, they've apparently narrowed the skill-gap quite alot, so that experienced players won't commit quite such extreme levels of own on newbies...

PC - The Witcher. I'm not really watching this, but I gather there are a good many who are.

PC - Tabula Raser. "Immerse yourself in an epic galactic conflict, switching your character's career path whenever you like and using martial arts and esoteric weapons to defeat your..." - I meant to take a good look at this, but I think I'll just download the demo when it comes out, rather than bothering to find out much about it...

PC/360 - TimeShift. Some of you might remember me raving about this around this time last year. You can stop and slow time, and sometimes reverse it too. Leads to some *very* cool action. And supposedly some interesting puzzles. There was an SP demo came out about this time last year, the Sierra took over the studio that was developing it and decided to do a massive overhaul on... Everything. Cutting edge graphics (they're very proud of their rain ) and some seriously cool-looking multiplayer.

Crossplatform - Halflife Orange Box. Includes HL2, HL2: Episode 1, HL2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal, some other stuff. Very exciting for anyone who likes their Source games. It's been said that source is out of date etc, but actually if you look at episode 1 it's a pretty modern engine, and ep.2 looks to be set to bring it right up to standard - maybe only a little less impressive than the "next gen" engines. A little disapointing to those of us who stayed loyal to valve and bought hl2 AND episode 1 - they cut the black box (which was going to be released on PC only, containing only the new content), which is a shame. Oh well, it'll mean that we end up with another steam account, and a duplicate license for everything up to ep.2; which means I'll be lending my old account to people to get them playing mods (Hidden springs to mind, but I can think of a few people who didn't want to buy HL2 just for the sake of playing mods)... Very nice looking - can't wait to play Portal and Team Fortress 2.

PC/360 - Blacksite: Area 51 : I've heard a fair bit of hype about this, and skimmed an E3 feature... Looks basically like another alien invasion shooter, but hey - if it's not broken, why fix it?

PC - Hellgate: London : Again, I've heard a fair bit of hype, but don't know that much about it. But alot of people seem to be very excited about it. And it's DX10

Crossplatform: CoD4: Modern Warfare : Well... It's call of duty... And it's modern. I won't be buying it, but I'm hoping that a friend or two will.

PC - Assassin's creed : Not so much hype, but it looks set to be a good release.

PC - Nov 16th CRYSIS. No introduction needed. Not coming to consoles. Not for a while anyway. Need to know more about the multiplayer mind... I'm hoping it doesn't turn out the same as that of farcry (alot of potential, but in the end not all that great).

Oh, how silly of me to forget. 26th Sept - Halo 3. That's going to make alot of Xbox 360 owners VERY happy.

Missed another: World in Conflict. PC and 360.

This is set to be the very best few months that has happened in gaming history since DNF was released.

world in conflict, quake wars, UT3 and HL2 Black box is what im waiting for

No black box for you. As I said - it was cut.

whit!?!?! Damn you Valve!

Comment Time!

Bioshock is not merely made of win.* Actually, when scientists managed to steal a copy of it, they ground it down and examined it at the sub-subatomic level.* Believe it or not, they actually discovered a whole new flavour of quark; the awesome flavour.* Then they sat down and cried, because they had ground up the copy, and couldn't play it.

Quake Wars; a bit meh from me.* I've seen it, and it's a bit... average, from the previews.

Unreal Tournament 3:* I'm not that much of a fan of the series; too much knife edge reactions IMO.

The Witcher and Tabula Raser:* Haven't even heard of them

Timeshift:* The Lord of Pain blesses this game and its attempt to have a usable Phase Suit.



Orange Box:* Portal looks awesome, but on the whole Steam just pisses me off.

Blacksite:* I've played the demo.* Looks okay, but plays badly.

Hellgate: London :* BLIZZARD MUST DIE!* They've got a stupid discriminatory system in the game, where the people who pay a monthly fee get much better treatment, and they're charging full price for it.

CoD4: Modern Warfare* :* Well, I'm not going to be, halfdark

CRYSIS:* teh secks.* May prove to be a carrier of the awesome quark.

Halo 3:* I believe you are aware of my feelings on this.
l

"UT3: Too many knife-edge reactions..." - Heh. That's what makes it so godly... It's not that good reactions make you the insta-kill god of doom, since no weapon is insta-kill, except a sniper-rifle to the head... So 1on1, reactions aren't all that important - so long as you're good at predicting what people are going to do (ok, they help there, but my point is it's not a simple case of he-who-shoots-first-wins like in CS:S)... No insta-kill weapons at all 'cept the redeemer. But that's SO fair. Good reactions and dodging skills really come in handy in those manic 16-player games. That's when I'm at my best

I'm upgrading my PC before I get bioshock. That's not something I *might* do... It's something I *must* do. Especially since I'll then want to play Crysis and UT3...

As for crysis, I'd actually rate it higher than Bioshock... Although the ideas behind bioshock are AWESOME, I always get the idea that the actual gameplay might not be all that special... I mean it'll be cool, I'll buy it, and it'll be great fun, but I think crysis has more gameplay potential.

Quake Wars, again, I'll probably be getting (I'll definitely download the demo)... Looks good and fun, and if they release good modding tools there'll be some good community content... (So long as the modding tools are good, I can see it having as much community content as BF - quake has a massive community, as did Wolfenstein: ET (this being the spiritual successor))... Gameplay will be good as well; like battlefield but better I suspect. And I did get quite into bf2 when it was fairly new...

I have played the Bioshock demo.

It is good.

I want my own underwater dystopia.

Ah, but there's nothing all that new about... having a customizable character... Sure, it's done in a cool way, but when you look at it it's not all that different from the custom suit in crysis, or spells in *every rpg ever*...

What really makes bioshock good for me is gonna have to be the well thought-out story, the immersive (apparently firefox doesn't know that word. Neither does it know "firefox") gameplay and the dynamic encounter style. Of course, all that will be lost on my if my computer's too rubbish to play it.

No, halfdark, it's not the customisibilness of the characters that is good.* It is the ability to set people on fire, who then run away screaming fromn you to the nearest water, and then chucking in a lightning bolt when they are cooling themselves off.* It's the fact that there is a whole post-human ecosystem down there, with the ability to freeze people solid then shatter them, in a very cool art-deco style.




I still want to send Alma into Rapture, though.* For The Hilarity!