As the title suggest this will include some form of nostalgia, however I will like to note that I am not going to talk about some mythical age when games were gut, but will instead talk about the times in which games were there. Also, as I am not a professional, or even experienced writer on those issue, this is probably going to contain ?holes? and um?well??opinion?. So after discrediting myself ? let?s go. Oh, and I will keep it short ? no need to say more then I should.
I am a PC gamer and therefore I have my biases, everyone does and I applaud those who have it in themselves to admit it and no ? the PC is not above Xbox, PS or the Wii, cut it out, this is not a console war. So as a PC gamer the best years of gaming were 1998 ? 2001 and this is the period I would like to talk about. Now straight to the core, here is a small list of games released by the year (skip it if you feel like it):
1998 ? Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, StarCraft, Unreal, Tom Clancy?s Rainbow Six, Fallout 2, Grim Fandango, Half-Life, Thief: The Dark Project, Baldur?s Gate, King?s Quest, Myth II.
1999 ? Heroes of Might and Magic III, Counter-Strike (ok, it?s a mod), System Shock 2, C&C: Tiberian Sun, FF VIII, Homeworld, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, Ultima IX, Nocturne, Unreal Tournament, Quake III Arena and the much underrated Planescape: Torment.
2000 ? The Sims, Thief II, NFS, Shogun: Total War, Diablo II, Icewind Dale, C&C: Red Alert 2, Escape from Monkey Island, MechWarrior 4: Vengeance.
2001 ? Serious Sam: The First Encounter, Black & White, Baldur?s Gate II: Throne of Bhall, Arcanum, Civ III, Empire Earth and Grand Theft Auto III.
They were great games, no argument here ? this is not the point. In those four years there was a giant in every genre ? 4x, TBS, Shooters (Single and Multiplayer both), Simulators ( God or Life ), RPG, Hack & Slash, RTS, Quest and mashes between them. Today ? not so much.
The Quest genre was pretty much dead until recently, the TBS is as good as gone (thank you for King?s Bounty Katauri, keep up the good work), RTS is getting less and less attention (and would have died if not for Blizzard), the God Simulators?are not there, and the 4x has been pretty much Civilization ( guys, check out Elemental: War of Magic ) and RPG?s are becoming?less RPG ( in recent times Bioware is giving the player as much influence over the plot as Square-Enix (which doesn?t mean I didn?t buy DA:O or ME 2). On the upside shooter are getting more attention, but then again they pretty much offer the same experience (think about it guys Half-Life ?Unreal Tournament - Serious Sam ? Counter-Strike, all games that gave you a gun, but ultimately felt completely different ). Not to mention the poor fans of Homeworld, who are still waiting for a strategy game of the same caliber.
Now I wouldn?t talk about this if it didn?t affected me, I am the type of gamer snob that enjoys mostly RTS and TBS games and those genres?are not in the best shape. Except Relic and Blizzard there is no developer who really works in the RTS field. Turn-Based strategy (strategy, not combat) is still waiting for the game to top Heroes of Might and Magic III. A lot of my friends stopped gaming not because they outgrew games, but because there was nothing there that interests them (one of them occasionally asks me if any RTS game is coming, but unless I inform him, he wouldn?t know, he doesn?t have a good reason to follow the gaming world(and is not a Blizzard fan)).
I know that the time will come when TBS strategy games and the others will be reborn, it is inevitable, but I find it regrettable that almost no game developer cares for those of us, who aren?t in mainstream gaming, I just wish that the wheel will turn faster. I am missing the days when I could go into the store and see a variety of genres.
I am a PC gamer and therefore I have my biases, everyone does and I applaud those who have it in themselves to admit it and no ? the PC is not above Xbox, PS or the Wii, cut it out, this is not a console war. So as a PC gamer the best years of gaming were 1998 ? 2001 and this is the period I would like to talk about. Now straight to the core, here is a small list of games released by the year (skip it if you feel like it):
1998 ? Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, StarCraft, Unreal, Tom Clancy?s Rainbow Six, Fallout 2, Grim Fandango, Half-Life, Thief: The Dark Project, Baldur?s Gate, King?s Quest, Myth II.
1999 ? Heroes of Might and Magic III, Counter-Strike (ok, it?s a mod), System Shock 2, C&C: Tiberian Sun, FF VIII, Homeworld, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, Ultima IX, Nocturne, Unreal Tournament, Quake III Arena and the much underrated Planescape: Torment.
2000 ? The Sims, Thief II, NFS, Shogun: Total War, Diablo II, Icewind Dale, C&C: Red Alert 2, Escape from Monkey Island, MechWarrior 4: Vengeance.
2001 ? Serious Sam: The First Encounter, Black & White, Baldur?s Gate II: Throne of Bhall, Arcanum, Civ III, Empire Earth and Grand Theft Auto III.
They were great games, no argument here ? this is not the point. In those four years there was a giant in every genre ? 4x, TBS, Shooters (Single and Multiplayer both), Simulators ( God or Life ), RPG, Hack & Slash, RTS, Quest and mashes between them. Today ? not so much.
The Quest genre was pretty much dead until recently, the TBS is as good as gone (thank you for King?s Bounty Katauri, keep up the good work), RTS is getting less and less attention (and would have died if not for Blizzard), the God Simulators?are not there, and the 4x has been pretty much Civilization ( guys, check out Elemental: War of Magic ) and RPG?s are becoming?less RPG ( in recent times Bioware is giving the player as much influence over the plot as Square-Enix (which doesn?t mean I didn?t buy DA:O or ME 2). On the upside shooter are getting more attention, but then again they pretty much offer the same experience (think about it guys Half-Life ?Unreal Tournament - Serious Sam ? Counter-Strike, all games that gave you a gun, but ultimately felt completely different ). Not to mention the poor fans of Homeworld, who are still waiting for a strategy game of the same caliber.
Now I wouldn?t talk about this if it didn?t affected me, I am the type of gamer snob that enjoys mostly RTS and TBS games and those genres?are not in the best shape. Except Relic and Blizzard there is no developer who really works in the RTS field. Turn-Based strategy (strategy, not combat) is still waiting for the game to top Heroes of Might and Magic III. A lot of my friends stopped gaming not because they outgrew games, but because there was nothing there that interests them (one of them occasionally asks me if any RTS game is coming, but unless I inform him, he wouldn?t know, he doesn?t have a good reason to follow the gaming world(and is not a Blizzard fan)).
I know that the time will come when TBS strategy games and the others will be reborn, it is inevitable, but I find it regrettable that almost no game developer cares for those of us, who aren?t in mainstream gaming, I just wish that the wheel will turn faster. I am missing the days when I could go into the store and see a variety of genres.
