I’ve been out of the loop for a while as far as games. The greatest game ever might be about to be launched, and I wouldn’t know about it.
I’m particularly interested in PC games, since that’s where I do 95%+ of my gaming. I’m especially interested in war games and simulations, but I play all sorts of stuff.
So what’s happening in the video game world? Are there any really good video game forums that I should check out to find this sort of thing out?
Spore is coming, and I shall play it, even though it’ll cost me a good few hundred pounds (I’ll need a new machine).
If you’re a fan of the Battlefield series of games, Battlefield 2142 is coming out very soon.
It is not for everyone but I am thrilled MS Flight Simulator X is going to be released in a couple of months. It is gorgeous and I plan to use it to both help me with my real flying lesson and just screw around with stuff I could never do in real life. Some people find this stuff dreadfully dull but there seems to be plenty of us that like it. It has one of the oldest legacies of any games (if you can call it that) at about 25 years. This one seems to be a pretty big leap.
If you like things like Total Anihilation, massive futuristic armies, to-scale tanks, ships, giant fighting robots and nuclear explosions, check out Supreme Commander.
Medieval Total War II is coming out in mid-November. If you have played any of the Total War series than you should be very excited. If you have never played the series than you should quit your job, leave your spouse and lock yourself in the basement with the previous 3 titles until November.
Sam and Max is going to be a chapter-by-chapter release.
I know you said PC games, but there’s also the Nintendo Wii and the PS3 coming (see this thread ) - the PS3 will have the new Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy games and the Wii will have Zelda, Mario, Metroid and others.
I personally think the wii has a weird controller and am not particularly excited about the games coming out for it but a lot of people are (and who knows, I might like them when I play them.) The PS3 will have better graphics but will be much more expensive (600 dollars versus 250 for the wii.)
On the PC front: personally, I am most excited about Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl. A lot of people will tell you that this game is vaporware - don’t listen to them. Just because it has been in development for a long time doesn’t mean it’s not coming out. Half-Life 2 was in development since 1999, and that long development time has obviously paid off since the game is outstanding in every regard.
News flash to game companies: follow Half Life 2 and Stalker’s example, and work the damn kinks out of your game before releasing it. I’d rather wait 10 years and have an excellent game than a buggy-ass, phoned-in one.
About Stalker: it is a first-person shooter/RPG apparently in the mold of Deus Ex, though it seems to be more on the action side and less on the interaction side. It will take place in the village of Pripyat, site of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion, and is based on a Russian novel called Roadside Picnic. It will have realistic day-night effects, sunsets, thunderstorms, moving clouds, the works. Driveable vehicles and super-advanced AI with NPCs interacting with each other all across the board. A huge area of territory to explore. Most interestingly, the game is to feature supernatural elements and changing game physics depending on where the player is.
The screenshots are absolutely astounding:
A masked gunman (with Chernobyl reactor in background.)
Wild dog and more amazing clouds.
The player character (look at that face!!)
Hundreds of other screenshots are available here.
For me, this is the most exciting thing coming up in the video game world. I will be overhauling my PC before it comes out, to ensure that I have the maximum experience.
Since the OP said he likes wargames, take a look at Company of Heroes.
I’m personally excited about “Assasin’s Creed,” but I’m trying to reserve judgement until I find out more about the gameplay.
I did, actually, on someone else’s recommendation. It looks fun, but I wouldn’t call it a war game. It’s an RTS game, but the ww2 thing is just a theme - it doesn’t attempt to accurately simulate battlefield tactics or strategy, it’s just starcraft with a ww2 theme. War games, in my view, try to simulate actual warfighting skills.
Last I read anything about it, Jade Empire is due out for PC early next year.
Gothic 3 should be going gold soon. It’s a distinct but very good RPG series.
I’m excited about Final Fantasy XII, and the World of Warcraft Burning Crusade expansion.
Anyone know much about Directx/direct3d 10?
It promises the moon - 8x faster than dx9 hardware due to hardware standardization, improved APIs, and probably lots of other stuff.
If it even delivers on half of what it promises, we’re talking about a generational leap in video card technology possibly never before seen… maybe ‘only’ since the first dedicated 3d renderers.
The only games I’ve seen mentioned relating to DX10 are Flight Simulator X and Crysis (far cry sequel).
Anyone know more?
Forgot to add - the wiki page about the geforce 8 series says the top of the line model will have 700 million transistors. For comparison, an Athlon XP has 55 milllion. An Athlon 64 has about 110 million - probably because it needs seperate units for 32 bit and 64 bit processing. It also said that the top end power usage might be anywhere from 130W to 300W. You may need another power supply just for the video card. Nuts.
I had high hopes for VANGUARD: Saga of Heroes, a MMORG designed by the creator of my beloved Norrath. The game has been in beta forever, not sure when or if it will be released. Worse, the prior deal with Microsoft went bad, and somehow the foul evil of SOE managed to get its slimy hooks into the game. Now, not so sure I care if it ever comes out…
Europa Universalis III comes out early 2007:
Aha! I knew I made the right decision to put off my grad school application 
Can’t believe we got this far without someone else mentioning it, but (arguably) the next big PC game due is Neverwinter Nights 2 at the end of October. RPG, sequel to an extremely popular and successful game, everything going for it… well, except for Atari’s general lack of competence at times
A combination of what the Powers that Be have said as well as feedback from some people in the beta leads me to guess that we should be about 4-6 months off from live, still. Goodness knows how things will actually go given how these games tend to get released before they’re done.
A bunch of people who were big into EQ1 are all pretty happy with the beta so far, though, so I’m still pretty hopeful about Vanguard in general. Only time will tell, of course.
