Unreal Tournament III, Call of Duty 4, Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, and World in Conflict are either on store shelves or soon to be released. With me being so firmly involved in the Orange Box right now (Team Fortress 2 is incredible), the sheer amount of gaming goodness that is being shoveled my way is unbelievable. How am I supposed to be a good dad, a full time chemist, and a writer with all of this? If you add some other titles that are on my radar, such as Hellgate: London, Gears of War, and the Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion pack, this amounts to a bunch of games that I’ll never get to.
I truthfully only have time for one or two of the titles (if I’m going to seriously play them online or finish their single player), so I need to start picking and choosing what’s going to get played and what’s going to have to remain on store shelves (maybe until it hits the bargain bin?). I’ve already decided to snag Call of Duty 4; Blitzfike will insist on playing UT3, so that’s two down. What else? Strategy games are a great time for me, but I find that very few of my gamer buddies like to play them for any length of time. Most purchase the game for the single player component and then play online once or twice so I’ll shut up about it.
My list brings up two interesting points. The first is that most of the items on my list are sequels or continuations of an existing IP. While these are all likely to be games of the highest quality, it bothers me me to no end that publishers are reluctant to take a risk on a new idea or game concept. We’ve been mired in the trifecta of PC Gaming for a while – RPG, RTS, and FPS. (Don’t talk to me about sports games on the PC.) While there have been some attempts to bend genres, for the most part, we’re working with ideas that are a decade old that have only small refinements.
The second point is that I had the opportunity to look briefly in a Gamestop store today in a local mall. I was disgusted to see that the shelf space for PC games was roughly two feet wide and six feet high. They had new titles on the shelf (but by no means all of them, or many of the ones that they had), but most of the older, classic games were missing. I suppose there is an economic driver for this, but if you look at the numbers of people playing games on-line and the sales of hardware specifically for gaming, it seems a travesty that a retailer dedicated to video games would have such a poor selection.
So am I missing anything for the holiday season?
![Let’s Kill Hitler [HD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hESmStH-L._SL160_.jpg)
I would add Crysis to the list. And ET:QW is really still pretty new.
“How am I supposed to be a good dad, a full time chemist, and a writer with all of this?”
Lest we not forget the hubby part of the equasion as well…!
I have ET:QW, and the game balance between the Strogg and the GDF turned me off a bit. I need to give it another try since they’ve patched it a few times. I forgot about Crysis. Is it worthwhile?
Honestly I can say that CoD4 has pushed TF2 aside for a bit. One reccomendation, play the single player campaign on the easy setting the first time. I chose the hardened mode, and I’m kicking myself b/c I die sooo much that it’s ruining an otherwise incredible storyline. Seriously, dying 40 times to complete one mission would make me quit most games.
Crysis I can wait for until it hits the bargain bin. I played very little MP of the original but the SP game was fun.
Hellgate: London – I tried the demo and was unimpressed.
UT3 – This will mostly be worth picking up when the mod community has had it for a while.
WIC – ummm, I’d like to play it, but not for a while
Now that I think about it, the only thing I’m looking forward to at this point might be the new Warhammer MMORPG.