Business End Of the Gaming Year
The start of the year is never a good time for game releases. Usually, the big releases are made before Christmas so that they can capture everyone's festive giving spirit, which means you pick up a couple of big releases at the start of the year who couldn't quite hit the christmas deadline.
The next time of the year when you start to see a flood of releases occurs in the Northern Hemisphere's summer. Generally the second half of the year winds up for the big releases and this year, I think, will be one of the biggest years in gaming. We have some massive releases lined up for the second half of this year across all formats. I think, one of the big cross platform (well PC & Xbox 360 anyway) is going to be Bioshock. This game is shaping up to shake up the first person shooter genre. Then you have Enemy Territory Quake Wars and Hellgate London coming in the same genre. Quake Wars looks like it will be bigger than Battlefield 2. This game has built itself from the popularity of the free online shooter Enemy Territory: RTCW. While there is no firm spot for Unreal Tournament 3 in this years release schedule (Epic have said it will be released when it is finished and hence have changed the name of the game from 2007 to 3.) has not changed the rosey prospects of massive game releases. Of course, there is that big Direct X 10 release called Crysis which is going to shake up the industry a bit and send gamers off to the computer store to purchase upgraded equipment so they can play this game at an acceptable frame rate. Some of the videos for this game have been a bit sketchy, to say the least. Framerate is going to be the biggest issue.
I think the two biggest game releases of the year will be Spore (on the PC) and Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360 & PS3). Spore looks like it will be a highly original gaming concept which mixes a number of different styles of gameplay. PC user anticipation of the release of Spore is very high. It just goes to show that the PC gaming format can embrace new concepts in gaming style. There is plenty of room for development of unique concepts. Just look at the high quality games released by Introversion Software. Defcon, Darwinia and Uplink are not only three unique gaming concepts but also three of the best games released in the last ten years. If I hadn't have seen the teaser trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV last month I would have been feeling a little bit "meh" about this game release. San Andreas was an excellent title, but, as far as I was concerned, Rockstar really need to push the genre in a new direction and push the genre rather than just punch out rehash of the previous title releases. After seeing the trailer and reading about the game it seems that maybe Rockstar are prepared to do this. It seems that they are completely focussed on creating an environment which is a living, breathing place where a character in the game can interact and play in any way they feel like playing. Rather than being led by the nose which is what occured with San Andreas.
There are a few unique horror games due for release as well. The horror genre is always a bit of a hit and miss affair. But we look set to see an interesting concept in Allan Wake and a comic book tie in with The Darkness.
With C&C Tiberium Wars and Supreme Commander already released there is sill a little game called World in Conflict which will keep the RTS genre on its toes.
While I have mentioned these major releases there is still a heap of big name games coming out. There's a little game on the Xbox 360 called Halo 3 which is going to, hopefully, push the 360 to its limits. PS3 is yet to have a "killer app" that has managed to challenge some of the excellent games which have already been released on the 360. There are still many more big release due out. I actually think this will be one of the biggest years in gaming for a long time. Bigger than the year that we saw Far Cry, Half Life 2 and Doom 3. There are more big games across the board and some new next generation consoles as well which are, hopefully, going to mean that gamers have a massive choice of where to spend their spare time.
The next time of the year when you start to see a flood of releases occurs in the Northern Hemisphere's summer. Generally the second half of the year winds up for the big releases and this year, I think, will be one of the biggest years in gaming. We have some massive releases lined up for the second half of this year across all formats. I think, one of the big cross platform (well PC & Xbox 360 anyway) is going to be Bioshock. This game is shaping up to shake up the first person shooter genre. Then you have Enemy Territory Quake Wars and Hellgate London coming in the same genre. Quake Wars looks like it will be bigger than Battlefield 2. This game has built itself from the popularity of the free online shooter Enemy Territory: RTCW. While there is no firm spot for Unreal Tournament 3 in this years release schedule (Epic have said it will be released when it is finished and hence have changed the name of the game from 2007 to 3.) has not changed the rosey prospects of massive game releases. Of course, there is that big Direct X 10 release called Crysis which is going to shake up the industry a bit and send gamers off to the computer store to purchase upgraded equipment so they can play this game at an acceptable frame rate. Some of the videos for this game have been a bit sketchy, to say the least. Framerate is going to be the biggest issue.
I think the two biggest game releases of the year will be Spore (on the PC) and Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360 & PS3). Spore looks like it will be a highly original gaming concept which mixes a number of different styles of gameplay. PC user anticipation of the release of Spore is very high. It just goes to show that the PC gaming format can embrace new concepts in gaming style. There is plenty of room for development of unique concepts. Just look at the high quality games released by Introversion Software. Defcon, Darwinia and Uplink are not only three unique gaming concepts but also three of the best games released in the last ten years. If I hadn't have seen the teaser trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV last month I would have been feeling a little bit "meh" about this game release. San Andreas was an excellent title, but, as far as I was concerned, Rockstar really need to push the genre in a new direction and push the genre rather than just punch out rehash of the previous title releases. After seeing the trailer and reading about the game it seems that maybe Rockstar are prepared to do this. It seems that they are completely focussed on creating an environment which is a living, breathing place where a character in the game can interact and play in any way they feel like playing. Rather than being led by the nose which is what occured with San Andreas.
There are a few unique horror games due for release as well. The horror genre is always a bit of a hit and miss affair. But we look set to see an interesting concept in Allan Wake and a comic book tie in with The Darkness.
With C&C Tiberium Wars and Supreme Commander already released there is sill a little game called World in Conflict which will keep the RTS genre on its toes.
While I have mentioned these major releases there is still a heap of big name games coming out. There's a little game on the Xbox 360 called Halo 3 which is going to, hopefully, push the 360 to its limits. PS3 is yet to have a "killer app" that has managed to challenge some of the excellent games which have already been released on the 360. There are still many more big release due out. I actually think this will be one of the biggest years in gaming for a long time. Bigger than the year that we saw Far Cry, Half Life 2 and Doom 3. There are more big games across the board and some new next generation consoles as well which are, hopefully, going to mean that gamers have a massive choice of where to spend their spare time.
posted by thecynicalgamer @ 6:17 pm
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