Someone asked earlier about what Apple would spend $2 billion on...

br

Well, how about this?



From wallstreetjournal.com



[quote]Vivendi is considering selling its U.S.-based videogame-software business in a deal valued at up to $1.96 billion. The move is an effort by the media conglomerate's new management to slash debt.<hr></blockquote>



Vivendi owns among other companies...BLIZZARD. Of course I have serious doubts that Apple would buy Blizzard, but remember how they were f**ked last time a major game company that supported the Mac platform was sold? Microsoft bought Bungie a few years back and screwed a loyal mac base...



Well, Discuss?.



[ 08-07-2002: Message edited by: BR ]</p>

fran441

Bungie/Microsoft didn't really screw the 'loyal Mac base' out of anything. Halo is still coming to the Mac (although it is a few years late).



Not only that, but Bungie SOLD all of its other franchises/games besides Halo before accepting the MS buyout. Yes, the Xbox has Halo (which is excellent) but what has Bungie done for them lately?



As for this topic, I'm going to move it to Software as we're talking about a 'rumor' of Apple buying a software company.

alcimedes

interesting. the price is right, and of every gaming house out there, i think Blizzard made some of the best games, and they actually released them for Macs on the same cd/schedule.



WC3 seems a little tired though. it's fun and all, but i've been playing this since Dune, there's really nothing new anymore with these games.



create races.

make units

make resources



release.



just seems like a lot of time inbetween games when there is no concept change from one to the next.



granted, add a 3D engine etc. and that's nice, but for the most part it's never even used while playing, other than to rotate the camera to see a hidden unit or something.



Dune, when it came out was original (at least to my knowledge) the first King's Quest was original. Star Control 2 was original, descent was original, as was wolfenstein.



those 5 games represent the concept behind 99 out of 100 games on the market now. what happened to original ideas? i used to be a gamer but it's pointless now. pick any game off the shlef and you've already played it in one form or another.



where's the creativity?

pyr3

[quote]Originally posted by alcimedes:

<strong>interesting. the price is right, and of every gaming house out there, i think Blizzard made some of the best games, and they actually released them for Macs on the same cd/schedule.



WC3 seems a little tired though. it's fun and all, but i've been playing this since Dune, there's really nothing new anymore with these games.



create races.

make units

make resources



release.



just seems like a lot of time inbetween games when there is no concept change from one to the next.



granted, add a 3D engine etc. and that's nice, but for the most part it's never even used while playing, other than to rotate the camera to see a hidden unit or something.



Dune, when it came out was original (at least to my knowledge) the first King's Quest was original. Star Control 2 was original, descent was original, as was wolfenstein.



those 5 games represent the concept behind 99 out of 100 games on the market now. what happened to original ideas? i used to be a gamer but it's pointless now. pick any game off the shlef and you've already played it in one form or another.



where's the creativity?</strong><hr></blockquote>



halflife was original. It brought story to the otherwise mindless killing of FPSs of the time.



What is really going on now is that people are genre-bending. They are mixing genres and saying that they've created something new. Which is true, but they haven't created something completely original. I don't think that there are many new genres to explore. I think that we need new technology, perhaps new input devices, before we will get completely new genres.



I think that we really need to somehow send the message to developers that we want something new. And pry the EQ addicts away from those awful MMORPGS. If I could predict one thing that would ruin society or at least reduce the average IQ, it would be those. But that's a topic for Fireside Chat.



I think that , though I don't really like it that much, once we get into cheap virtual realty we will get games like the game in the current anime 'hack sign'.

alcimedes

dunno. seems to me like game developers have such a hard-on for hardware that they don't really bother with story anymore.



used to be you had 8 colored bits on a screen, and you read about what was happening on scrolling text. and the sad part is, you cared about those 8 bits on the screen.



now i have some perfectly rendered badass in a realistic world with the personality of silly putty.



i end up bored damn fast. can't remember the last game i actually enjoyed playing. (although some half-life mods had me for a while)



games suck now. maybe apple can bring something new to the table if they had a gaming company.

pyr3

[quote]Originally posted by alcimedes:

<strong>dunno. seems to me like game developers have such a hard-on for hardware that they don't really bother with story anymore.



used to be you had 8 colored bits on a screen, and you read about what was happening on scrolling text. and the sad part is, you cared about those 8 bits on the screen.



now i have some perfectly rendered badass in a realistic world with the personality of silly putty.



i end up bored damn fast. can't remember the last game i actually enjoyed playing. (although some half-life mods had me for a while)



games suck now. maybe apple can bring something new to the table if they had a gaming company.</strong><hr></blockquote>





I find myself thinking back to old school games a lot. Like Super Mario Bros. 1 for NES. I should break out my old NES and fire up some games like that. Or maybe TMNT, or even TMNT2 : The Arcade Game. Ahhh those were the days. Even my mom played the old NES. She was like a Tetris god. I think that she got to level 20 once ( she starts on level 9 and has the highest level of already in place blocks , or at least she used to. Now she just plays PC Euchere.)

pyr3

Max Payne was pretty cool. I liked the story line. It's one of those games that you play once, and then a year or so later you get a craving to play it over again. GTA3 was pretty good as well. FFX has pretty good story-line but I hear that the ending is bad.



I find that most games now, that are really good are based more on storyline than completely original gameplay. Not that some gameplay is original like 'bullet-time' in May Payne (original to games, yes I know it was in the Matrix), but it's not like there haven't been 3rd person shooters before.



side note:

does anyone know when Marvel vs Capcom 2 is coming to PS2?

airsluf

alcimedes

oh yeah, i suppose i should add the first "sim" game, as well as creatues.



in all honesty, i think we have just name the original 10 games that all games were based on after that. (privateer was a ton of fun, guess it was pretty original)



isn't it sad that there's really nothing new coming out anymore. where's the fun in games anymore?

stjobs

Super Mario World for SNES, FFVI, FFVII, FFVIII, FFX, MGS1 & 2, Half-Life, RtCW, GTA3, and the Gran Turismo series would make it on my short list of the best games ever made... can't beat those for gameplay and graphics. They're all for console except Half-Life and RtCW though...?



stjobs

pyr3

[quote]Originally posted by stjobs:

<strong>Super Mario World for SNES, FFVI, FFVII, FFVIII, FFX, MGS1 & 2, Half-Life, RtCW, GTA3, and the Gran Turismo series would make it on my short list of the best games ever made... can't beat those for gameplay and graphics. They're all for console except Half-Life and RtCW though...?



stjobs</strong><hr></blockquote>



Half-Life is on PS2. At least I thought so. RtCW is coming to consoles I think. But playing FPS's without the ketboard and mouse is harder in my opinion. I don't like a controller as much as for FPS's.

luca

The now-dead Close Combat series was a somewhat interesting variation on RTS. Instead of being only one mission after the next, you have to plan troop movements and airdrops and such. And the actual gameplay is unique. Instead of many RTS games which involve pretty much building up a larger force than your enemy's and just killing them, you have to use a balance of anti-personnel and anti-tank units. There's really advanced line of sight. Troops can get scared if they are outnumbered, or if there are a lot of dead bodies around them. You have to use suppressive fire and smoke grenades and scouts. You can't just charge in with everything you have. Only problem is that individual battles aren't unique. Instead of having a progressive storyline that the writer leads you along with, you instead have to follow history and battles end up getting bland after a little while (except CC3, which didn't take any of your wins or losses into account, and really sucked). One cool thing is that if you lose a battle, you don't start over. You have to do better elsewhere.



I think if it had the kinks worked out of it, it may have been a really fun game. Only CC1 and CC2 was released for Mac. Problems were that tanks had terrible movement, and they were way too accurate and powerful. Battles usually ended up being won by whoever had more tanks leftover.