First off, after reading Gamespot's preview of Warhammer Online I must say, I'm pretty impressed. I am a big fan of WoW, but a breath of air and change of pace would definitely be nice. However, competing with WoW in terms of scale is going to be really tough. Deciding to get into a MMORPG was a tough decision for me, due to the monthly fees. After playing WoW, I inevitably decided that the customer support was so good and there was so much depth to the game that it was ultimately worth the $15 I shelled out every month. For me to pay any more money monthly for a game, it better deliver a lot.
Warhammer Online sounds like it is shaping up to deliver quite a bit. It has PvE, PvP, and RvR (region versus region combat, something I'm pretty interested in). It even has an auction house and really awesome quest mechanics. However, it is the combination of all of that as well as a lot of other elements that make WoW so popular. Patches keep the game ever evolving, stuff like holiday events add personality and fun to the game and keep it interesting for the casual player, while an extremely deep character customization system and massive amounts of tactical instances keep the hardcore players happy. If Warhammer is going to compete, it needs these elements too. I'm not saying it should rip-off WoW...well actually I am. It pretty much needs to emulate everything WoW does successfully while improving on WoW's weaker aspects (repetitive quests, large amounts of grinding). Also, one huge draw in WoW has for a lot of people is it's scalability. WoW looks good from an artistic stand-point, and can run on pretty much any computer. That's one of the main reasons it has 9 million+ players. Warhammer is shaping up to look great, but whether or not it will scale well is another question. I'm really hoping the game does well though. It has potential, I would just like to see it met.
In other news, in an interview with Alan Flores (lead designer in the Guitar Hero games), he gives insight into what to expect in the next Guitar Hero game. It's respectable that he's trying to bring something new to the table, but honestly, Guitar Hero seems pretty played out to me. It was pretty much a stepping stone to Rock Band (which, if you can afford it, pretty much renders the need for a Guitar Hero game uselss). Flores talks about taking GH in new directions. One of those directions seems to be Guitar Hero Aerosmith. Seriously? Do they realize that Aerosmith hasn't had anything good since the 80s, and that the key demographic for the GH games is 18-24 year olds (meaning the majority of GH players either weren't born or were in elementary school during Aerosmith's golden days). Who is going to buy that? Seriously, who wants a game dedicated to Aerosmith? They aren't a bad band by any means, but their biggest hit was "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" - the theme song for Armageddon, and one of the worst songs ever composed. Not only will that song be included in the game, but 30+ others will be as well. Here is my list of Aerosmith songs I would like to play:
-"Walk This Way"
-"Sweet Emotion"
-"Dream On"
Actually "Dream On" was just released for free over Xbox Live for download in Guitar Hero III, so cross that off the list of songs I'd buy the game for. That leaves two. Out of 30-40 songs, I would want to play two. That's a winner if I've ever seen one. And finally, here is the first screenshot from the game:
At least they did a good job of replicating Steve Tyler's gigantic mouth. His mouth is bigger than the shark's from Jaws. Don't believe me? Look:
I can't tell whose is bigger.
Also, I'm downloading Audio Surf. I'll give a review/update at a later date.
1 comments:
I understand all of what you're saying about any game that's going to compete with WoW. I know that I'm also in the same boat when it comes to delaying working English. And the resemblance between Jaws' and Steve Tyler's mouths was astoundingly hilarious. Also I don't think I would buy a game that surrounded just one band pretty much no matter who the band was.
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