Your hopes for the year ahead?

[Track]

I'm incredibly interested to see what happens with Dragon Age III; I think that there are a lot of direction that that one could go in.

On a more general front, I do hope that the most promising Kickstarter projects turn out well (as Duff noted this will be particularly interesting for Obsidian, as the lack of a publisher imposed deadline will really put their skills to the test. If I remember correctly, though, that wont be out next year, so whatever). I understand completely the people hoping for a huge failure from one/several of them, but the way I see it, more good games is a good thing.

I hope that Half Life 3 gets some kind of announcement, not because I enjoy the Half Life games (I don't), but because it would probably mean the announcement of a new Source engine, which is a far more exciting prospect in my opinion. Also, the release of Half Life 3 would theoretically allow Valve to focus more on other titles (and I do love their other games), though seeing as how they've released something like 5 games since the last Half Life instalment I don't think that its been slowing them down much.

[soldant]

...but because it would probably mean the announcement of a new Source engine, which is a far more exciting prospect in my opinion.

Honestly, I don't think that's overly relevant anymore. It's no UDK or Unreal 3 with widespread adoption, put it that way. Plus the problem with the Source engine lies primarily in its archaic and frustrating content pipeline. That's what desperately needs an overhaul as well as a few graphical updates, but Source has never been about eye candy. It was a pain back in 2004 and they haven't done much to improve it since then.

[jnx]

I'm incredibly interested to see what happens with Dragon Age III; I think that there are a lot of direction that that one could go in.

I'm interested in seeing this too but honestly, I don't think they have what it takes to repair the damage done by number two.

[Mohorovicic]

Oh haha,and what makes you so hardcore ? :D

My PC has 7 fans and uses up 100W on lighting alone

[DaftPunk]

My PC has 7 fans and uses up 100W on lighting alone

You hardcore!

[Track]

Honestly, I don't think that's overly relevant anymore. It's no UDK or Unreal 3 with widespread adoption, put it that way. Plus the problem with the Source engine lies primarily in its archaic and frustrating content pipeline. That's what desperately needs an overhaul as well as a few graphical updates, but Source has never been about eye candy. It was a pain back in 2004 and they haven't done much to improve it since then.

Well, the main thing for me is that (the Half Life series excepted), I love Valve's games, and would be hugely interested in seeing what they could do with an engine that can render larger areas, and just do more in general. The idea that it might be easier to make content using it (perhaps with an interface similar to the Portal 2 level editor) is an added bonus too.

[Feldspar]

1) Games companies start to think 'Why don't we port this game over to the PC, really make use of its hardware and show the console world what the game could have been?' instead of some of the half-baked 'also released on PC' games we've seen.

2) Graphics cards start to be a little more sensible in their pricing.

3) Something comes out of leftfield and reminds us of how much we love gaming on the PC (and not just arguing about it).

[Lambchops]

More blood! More violence! More WARFACE!
Also to play the bad guy (because it seems to be my reputation on RPS lately), I kind of hope that one of the major Kickstarters fails to deliver. Not just because I like to see failure, but because it'd introduce a healthy dose of reality to Kickstarter, highlighting that it isn't a massive dreamfactory where we always get exactly what we wanted, and that caution is still required.

Can't help but agree to an extent, though my main hope is that the majority of Kickstarters are seen as successful so that people don't shy away from it entirely.

I also hope that a Kickstarter with a crazy seeming innovative idea which I've either never heard of or didn't back turns into a fantastic game that I (and hopefully the majority of others) would never have seen coming. One of those ideas that once it succeeds has everyone wondering who nobody else has done it yet. That would be excellent. EDIT: Basically what Feldspar said while I was typing this, it doesn't have to be a Kickstarter I just think that would make for a neat story.

[Fanbuoy]

Also to play the bad guy (because it seems to be my reputation on RPS lately), I kind of hope that one of the major Kickstarters fails to deliver. Not just because I like to see failure, but because it'd introduce a healthy dose of reality to Kickstarter, highlighting that it isn't a massive dreamfactory where we always get exactly what we wanted, and that caution is still required.

But... If they don't fail to deliver, then it is a massive dreamfactory where we always get exactly what we wanted.

[soldant]

Well, the main thing for me is that (the Half Life series excepted), I love Valve's games, and would be hugely interested in seeing what they could do with an engine that can render larger areas, and just do more in general. The idea that it might be easier to make content using it (perhaps with an interface similar to the Portal 2 level editor) is an added bonus too.

Oh from a Valve perspective sure, though it'll probably need a major overhaul. The thing with content that I was getting at wasn't level design (although Hammer is a relic of the Worldcraft-Quake era and needs to die) but with importing things like art assets - models in particular. Newer engines have much easier pipelines while Source is an absolute nightmare to work with. Authorware packages like Unity accept almost anything or at least as an FBX export. Apart from the fact that modders just need to make higher quality content they're stuck on an asset pipeline which is stuck in the past, and wasn't even very good back then.

As for level designs - the Portal 2 map editor was remarkably good for what it was, but I don't think you can extend the concept. Portal 2 levels have a distinct aesthetic which makes them easy to create in that editor. You'd hit the limit fairly quickly trying to do something more complex - like the behind-the-curtain sections of Portal.

But... If they don't fail to deliver, then it is a massive dreamfactory where we always get exactly what we wanted.

Then yay? But we can put money on at least one of them outright failing or turning out something which doesn't meet expectations. Whether it'll be this year (or from 2012's batch of Kickstarters which expect to release something this year) isn't clear, but at some point one of them will fail.

[Fanbuoy]

Then yay? But we can put money on at least one of them outright failing or turning out something which doesn't meet expectations. Whether it'll be this year (or from 2012's batch of Kickstarters which expect to release something this year) isn't clear, but at some point one of them will fail.

Oh, most definitely. But let's instead hope for the failure to be later, rather than sooner. Happy thoughts! Sunshine and rainbow bubblegum, and so on and so forth.

[Shooop]

But... If they don't fail to deliver, then it is a massive dreamfactory where we always get exactly what we wanted.

No! Stop that! This optimism must stop now!

[Internet]

I personally hope for good things from my Kickstarter RPGs. I'm not sure which ones are still coming out this year (I think Wasteland 2 and Shadowrun, but not Project Eternity). I'm more confidant about Shadowrun than Wasteland 2, but I'm not sure if it's coming this year.

[Internet]

Also to play the bad guy (because it seems to be my reputation on RPS lately), I kind of hope that one of the major Kickstarters fails to deliver. Not just because I like to see failure, but because it'd introduce a healthy dose of reality to Kickstarter, highlighting that it isn't a massive dreamfactory where we always get exactly what we wanted, and that caution is still required.

Almost everyone is well aware of the risk at this point, most major game columns have talked about it. It seems like you want people to lose money so you can feel superior to them.

Also, I have my doubts about the new Dragon Age. Bioware has shown a fundamental disregard for gameplay in favor of story in recent years. They keep treating the two as entirely separate, and gameplay items and powers are your reward for proceeding in the story. I don't think the studio culture can solve that problem.

[Mohorovicic]

i personally hope for good things from my kickstarter rpgs.

ha!

Ha ha ha!

[asskicker]

Half-Life 3.

[Mohorovicic]

Half-Life 3.

That's not even funny.

[Sketch]

I hope the new 3D pokemon game announced is good.

[Mohorovicic]

That's quite easy to check, actually:

Are they dropping the retarded HM-to-progress mechanic which is essentially forcing you to sacrifice 1/3 of your team as HM slaves?

No? Then it's shit like all the others.

[Sketch]

I'll be sure to enjoy it extra hard for the both of us then.