Topic: Skyrim

[Dionysus]

I love all the people who are complaining about TESIV.

Oblivion is still a better game than 99.9% of what came out in the last five and a half years, especially in the RPG marketplace.

That has more to say about the sorry state of the video game industry than the merits of Oblivion.

Indeed, especially console gaming. It's a wasteland.

[Johnny Slick]

Okay, but the whole Elder Scrolls series are a bunch of huge, buggy geekfests. It isn't so much a "sorry state of the industry" as a "this is what they do and nobody else does it" kind of thing. I would loooooooove to have another game like Baldur's Gate but they really aren't being made anymore for whatever reason. The closest you can get are the Drakensang series, which are based on a fairly obscure German RPG and which spend an awful lot of time having your characters craft bows out of rat sinews and so on.

[Rai]

I love all the people who are complaining about TESIV.

Oblivion is still a better game than 99.9% of what came out in the last five and a half years, especially in the RPG marketplace.

That has more to say about the sorry state of the video game industry than the merits of Oblivion.

Indeed, especially console gaming. It's a wasteland.

Both really... At least on PC, modders can actually make playable games out of the published crap

FPS: brown rail-shooters
RPG: lazy, bland crap (and JRPGs)
Sports: the same shit with better graphics every year
Racing: ditto
Action: brown cover shooters with a lot of chest-high walls.
RTS: Starcraft.
Simulators: dead (how I loved them! Anyone remember the awesome DID and Jane's games? Or Falcon 4.0?)
Turn-based tactics: dead

[Sordid]

Simulators: dead (how I loved them! Anyone remember the awesome DID and Jane's games? Or Falcon 4.0?)
Turn-based tactics: dead

Not quite yet. The new Il2 Sturmovik game looks pretty good. And somebody's making an indie remake of X-COM.

[Caffiene]

And somebody's making an indie remake of X-COM.

Not to be confused with the big budget "remake" of X-COM.

[Rai]

Simulators: dead (how I loved them! Anyone remember the awesome DID and Jane's games? Or Falcon 4.0?)
Turn-based tactics: dead

Not quite yet. The new Il2 Sturmovik game looks pretty good. And somebody's making an indie remake of X-COM.

Yeah, there's a few simulators (Il 2, LOMAC) being developed and refreshed by Russian developers, but the genre has gone deep underground. Even Dwarf Fortress is more in the public mind. It's almost nothing to what we had about a decade ago when you coulbn't turn a rock over without finding a bunch of competing flight/tank/submarine/helicopter/spaceship/etc simulators.

Also, I have to add, it's interesting that while the Western industry is sinking, there's a number of horribly bugged but exciting games popping up from the former USSR, like the aforementioend simulators or STALKER and co.

[Johnny Slick]

Yeah, one of the more distressing aspects of the lack of variety in video games is the fact that the consoles are so old right now. It's been what, six years since the xbox 360 came out? You expect the Cookie cutter games when the tech is new and people haven't figured out how tho use it yet. On the other hand, we're in the grip of a major recession and a lot of big developers aren't willing to take chances on nee ideas.

[Movius]

Alright, the new minecraft is almost here.

[Sordid]

Yeah, there's a few simulators (Il 2, LOMAC) being developed and refreshed by Russian developers, but the genre has gone deep underground. Even Dwarf Fortress is more in the public mind.

I think that has less to do with simulators becoming more obscure and more to do with DF being just completely batshit insane in every respect. Madness tends to attract attention.

It's almost nothing to what we had about a decade ago when you coulbn't turn a rock over without finding a bunch of competing flight/tank/submarine/helicopter/spaceship/etc simulators.

True, but I also remember a time when there was half a dozen new RTSs coming out every month. And before that it was all shitty Doom-clones and nothing else. In my experience, these things come and go in waves.

Also, I have to add, it's interesting that while the Western industry is sinking, there's a number of horribly bugged but exciting games popping up from the former USSR, like the aforementioend simulators or STALKER and co.

There's a number of exciting games popping up from all over the place. Kerbal Space Program, for example. That's Brazilian, IIRC. Magicka, Swedish. Mount&Blade, Turkish. Hell, the Operation Flashpoint/ARMA series. That's Czech.

[Moloch]

There's a number of exciting games popping up from all over the place. Kerbal Space Program, for example. That's Brazilian, IIRC. Magicka, Swedish. Mount&Blade, Turkish. Hell, the Operation Flashpoint/ARMA series. That's Czech.

The Witcher, Polish.

[Sordid]

Wasn't impressed by that, actually. If I went shopping for a Polish RPG, I'd pick up Two Worlds 2 over The Witcher without a second thought.

[Moloch]

Wasn't impressed by that, actually. If I went shopping for a Polish RPG, I'd pick up Two Worlds 2 over The Witcher without a second thought.

  Two Worlds 2 was an ugly mess 

(click to show/hide)

Different strokes I guess 

[Rai]

pulling the original and the new topic closer, it's curious how Bethesda went apeshit about "Scrolls", but doesn't give a hoot about "Magicka"

[Bunsen]

pulling the original and the new topic closer, it's curious how Bethesda went apeshit about "Scrolls", but doesn't give a hoot about "Magicka"

Not really.  It's a lot harder sell that Bethesda would believe that people would be unduly confused by a game with the same name as their MP system than the same name as their game.

[Movius]

pulling the original and the new topic closer, it's curious how Bethesda went apeshit about "Scrolls", but doesn't give a hoot about "Magicka"

You have a point. Bethesda Games and Magicka are both famous for being appealing on release but riddled with crippling bugs that render much of the game unplayable.