After what feels like an age, though in reality is barely 6 months, I'm back to PC gaming with a vengance.
After finishing with WoW at the beginning of the year, I struggled with finding any PC games to compel me. At the same time, there were several console titles that grabbed me by the balls. GT Spec 3, Psychonuats, God of War to name but a few. My PC became internet only.
Here we are, September, and boy has the picture changed. Very little consoling going on and on my PC I'm playing:
Rome:Total Realism
Rise of Nations (expansion campaigns)
Children of the Nile
Tron 2.0
Space Rangers 2
and there's more gamey goodness on the way
Civ IV
AOE III
ROL
M&MHeroes7
and when the PC doldrums set in early next year, I'll have the 360 ramped up and ready to go.
Do you find this to usually be the case - you finish a game and for a while nothing else really seems to appeal? That's usually how it is for me. In any case, I'm glad there are games that are capturing your interest.
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire
I find MMORPGs to be the biggest culprit. I'll play one fanatically to the exclusion of everything else. Then, after I burn out, I'm burnt out to everything.
However, When I'm not MMORPGing, I find I can get motivated very easily.
As for the FPS round up, sign me up for Serious Sam 2.
Everquest 2 has taken all of my gaming time in last couple of months. There's some great games coming, F.E.A.R., Fahrenheit, Black and White 2, the Movies, Gothic 3, Age of Empires 3, Age of Legends, Bone, Heroes of Might and Magic and many more, yet I probably won't buy any of them, as the EQ2 expansion will be here soon. (with the exception of Gothic 3, no way I'm missing that)
So if a game like WoW has 2 million subscribers, and like me that ends up being the only game they play, is it any wonder PC game sales are dropping. There are only so many hours in the day.
JayG wrote:Everquest 2 has taken all of my gaming time in last couple of months. There's some great games coming, F.E.A.R., Fahrenheit, Black and White 2, the Movies, Gothic 3, Age of Empires 3, Age of Legends, Bone, Heroes of Might and Magic and many more, yet I probably won't buy any of them, as the EQ2 expansion will be here soon. (with the exception of Gothic 3, no way I'm missing that)
So if a game like WoW has 2 million subscribers, and like me that ends up being the only game they play, is it any wonder PC game sales are dropping. There are only so many hours in the day.
I used to discount that idea because I'd think Well, they'd still buy a game, wouldn't they? in anticipation of when they wanted a change-of-pace. But after talking with some college buddies who were uber-fanatic gaming fans and I find that they online game almost exclusively. If they can become online captives, then anyone can.
Still, I have to think that maybe the online subscribers include those who otherwise might not be tempted by PC games much at all, but who now might buy in the future.
Your point though seems to be the reality (for) now: they have little time for other PC games.
The opinions expressed by JonathanStrange are solely those of JonathanStrange and do not reflect the opinions of OctopusOverlords.com, the forum members of OctopusOverlords, the elusive Mr. Norrell, or JonathanStrange.
I have not bought a game since I started playing WOW except for BF2 which I played twice. I am a daily gamer and I never played MMOs before this so i would say it has definitely hurt the pc game market from my perspective.
I used to HATE the MMO trend with a passion, thinking their popularity would effectively kill good single-player gaming.
It never happened. I'm so back up with single-player games right now (with more good-uns on the way) that I don't worry about it anymore. In fact, I'm starting to read about and appreciate what others see in MMOs, though I haven't yet gone so far as to actually try one.
"I've been fighting with reality for over thirty-five years, and I'm happy to say that I finally won out over it." -- Elwood P. Dowd
I'm in kind of a lull right now. I'm playing a couple of things semi-regularly--Thief 3 and Battlefield 2 to be exact--but nothing really has me hooked. I'm hoping once The Patch (tm) is released BF2 will grab me like it did at first.
Other than that, I've only got a couple of things on the horizon. In the near future I'm looking forward to Day of Defeat (Source) and F.E.A.R. Further off, the big one I'm waiting for is Oblivion. Others I'm interested in whose release dates tend to fluctuate a lot are Call of Cthulhu and Stalker.
Famine and death and pestilence and war-
I'm pretty sure I heard this one before
Assuming you are the moggy from GG - how could you not mention Dominions 3 is on the way - life is reeeeal good.
Tals
I am he. I know they're working on it but have no idea when it is going to be out. Which is why I didn't mention it. All the games I mentioned should be out in the next 6 months.
When Dom 3 is out, you can be sure I'll be right there. I'll also be hosting multiplayer as well. This time, if their Windows based hosting sucks, I'm going linux!
1. You need to keep a window open (minimized OK) for each game you're hosting.
2. Anybody accessing the game with an outdated client crashed the host game
3. Setting up a new game requires access to the server
linux is much better:
1. Games run in the background and are easily restarted
2. Initializing a game can be done using command lines and so can be self-service
3. The actual server is more efficient.
I'm not sure if things have moved on - or whether i'm just good
1. Window minimized - this is true, although loads of utilities to make it run in the system tray when minimsed. program takes about 4M of resources when idle so is very efficient (in windows terms)
2. That sounds like a program issue than a Windows issue - or does Linux handle it?
3. Yep this is something Linux is very good at
In terms of the Linux
1. Yes agreed
2. Initialising games can be done from command line for Windows as well - in fact i've done it so I don't miss something like the quickhost on a reset.
3. Running it on Windows 98, very low spec pc. I think it has so little impact that this really doesn't matter. But yep i've no doubt that i'll be rebooting this machine from time to time. Would be better in XP but the system requirements then would stop me using such a low spec machine
Generally i'd agree Linux was better as a server for this - that said not so much of an advantage that i'm going to rebuild this pc with Linux
