2nd best game of the year?

[Sizzlorr]

Alright, not sure if this is the best place to post this but:
Time Magazine lists RTW as the second best game of the year (http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/...eogames/2.html). The Sims2 came in 1st. In any case, RTW beats out HL2, Halo 2, GTA:SA and others. The Sim2s though? Whatever.

I know Time Magazine is hardly the best place for game reviews, but it has alot more eyeballs looking at it than any game magazine or website. This may give it a good holiday sales boost by parents who don't know what game to buy for little Junior.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

If you want good gaming reviews/awards go to PCGamer, many companies come out with game of the year edition games because PCG gives their game an award and they want to boost sales based on the award. PCG is the top selling PC gaming magazine and for good reason they have fair reviews and have a large awards issue that gives awards for specific genres and little things like graphical achievement or best mod of the year. Check it out and enjoy the wonderful demo disc.


P.S I am not a member of the staff or company I am just a loyal reader of several years.

[Ashen]

Rediculous. Never Rome Total War nor The Sims 2 should have been anywhere in the top 10. Halflife 2 for its graphics and gripping storyline, Doom3 for its quite frankly scary atmosphere (although the game sucks, pity). GTA: San Andreas Most definately! Halo 2 is rubbish aswell - poor story, bad levels, reptitive gameplay. Pro Evolution Soccer 4 and Burnout 3 are also brilliant games.

Ah well, perhaps im just too harsh on games. But The sims 2 really does suck something shocking.

[Colovion]

RTW should not beat out HL2. Apart from a few minor glitches the game is thoroughly polished and very groundbreaking in that genre. I've halted my play on RTW because of the massive amounts of problems with it and in need of an urgent, yet to be released, uber-patch. Sure sure, I played through 3.5 campaigns and I had fun doing that - but it didn't overwhelm me with perfection like HL2 did - it frustrated me into buying other games.

Perhaps once the MP issues and other bugs and grouping flaws are fixed to me the game is way to frusterating to put much effort into just trying to control my troops with ease.

here's hoping...

[Jace11]

Can't wiat for PC Pro Evo 4. Already played a fully patched version on PS2 and it was really improved over version 3. RTW needs a another patch to bring it up to Game of the Year standard imho. Brothers in Arms and Silent Hunter 3 look good for new year..

[Bhruic]

Are you kidding? HL2 is one of the crappiest FPS to come out this year. Good graphics and nice physics, sure. But an idiotic storyline, and none of what made HL1 so good. RTW, even with the bugs and poor AI should kick its butt. On the other hand, Far Cry should beat RTW. But, then, it's always hard to compare games among different genres.

Bh

[Colovion]

Are you kidding? HL2 is one of the crappiest FPS to come out this year. Good graphics and nice physics, sure. But an idiotic storyline, and none of what made HL1 so good. RTW, even with the bugs and poor AI should kick its butt. On the other hand, Far Cry should beat RTW. But, then, it's always hard to compare games among different genres.

Bh

I never played HL1 so I went into that game with no bias or anything.

Totally.Fresh.

I loved it (still am) to death.

Far Cry was kind of boring, but looked really nice.

Either way, both of those games have MP that far outstrips the current RTW MP.

I went into RTW with bias and didn't really like it because of my expectations. HL2 blew me away.

I guess it depends on what you expect - when you don't know what to expect the game is that much better.

[GodsPetMonkey]

Are you kidding? HL2 is one of the crappiest FPS to come out this year. Good graphics and nice physics, sure. But an idiotic storyline, and none of what made HL1 so good. RTW, even with the bugs and poor AI should kick its butt. On the other hand, Far Cry should beat RTW. But, then, it's always hard to compare games among different genres.

Bh

What made HL1 so great was not just the story, but how it was told.
Nothing happened with out an explanation. Things didn't just happen cause that’s the way it is, even the interesting weapons had expositions when you got them, like the scientists playing with the Tau Cannon, or the crossbow's being used for the nasty fish.

They seemed to have lost this for many of the things in HL2, like the Antlions, suddenly they just happen to appear, no explanation, apart from it being their breeding season. At least in HL1 we knew how the Xen aliens got to earth.
HL2 also missed many of the elements which made it seem more real, like the personalised graffiti or the radio broadcasts from the marines, although something similar does happen, it seems like a weak attempt to repeat it.
The cliché plot devices don’t help either, but I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't played it yet, so I won’t go into detail.

Many of the 'super' features were a little flat too, the graphics were nice, but didn't make me look in awe (as opposed to say, Far Cry, but if HL2 was out a year ago, it would be a different story). I found the geometry design particularly cheap, you'd be hard pressed to find a round object that didn’t look like an octagon, and the environments were very square. Models were brilliant though!
The 'brilliant' physics were also like the 'brilliant' graphics, a case of its been done before, I have enjoyed being able to pick up objects and throw them at people since Thief 1, but their 'heavily modified' modified Havoc engine acted surprisingly similar to Havoc implementations in many other games, only you could pick up really big items with the gravity gun..... well, maybe not that big, but I did enjoy using it to launch various objects at enemies, fear the barrel of death!
The AI was shocking (not that RTWs is any better) particularly when you get a squad of team mates, there’s nothing impressive about an AI which makes a friendly stand in front of a hostile Stryder and attempt to take it down with a plain old SMG. Every time I encounted one of the Biomechanical enemies, they would get wiped out by refusing to take cover, so much for an AI which 'reacts to its surroundings and intelligently uses the battle field'.

I did enjoy it though, some very good moments, and the gravity gun is the coolest weapon I have seen for some time, even if there is a sad lack of ways to use it after Ravenholm. It wasn't worth the hype it got though, you think I would learn after things like Deus Ex 2 (A perfect guide on how to screw up a sequel).


In a more on topic note, I don’t think RTW deserved #2, but I can understand The Sims2 getting #1 (just ask my sister). But its all in the eye of the beholder, perhaps the people who compiled the list were looking at long time enjoyment over short term thrills, something that games like RTW and The Sims has and many FPS sorely lack.

[Colovion]

The AI was shocking (not that RTWs is any better) particularly when you get a squad of team mates, there’s nothing impressive about an AI which makes a friendly stand in front of a hostile Stryder and attempt to take it down with a plain old SMG. Every time I encounted one of the Biomechanical enemies, they would get wiped out by refusing to take cover, so much for an AI which 'reacts to its surroundings and intelligently uses the battle field'.

I played it on Easy and the computer was a joke. On the Hardest though I found the AI to really kick it up, take cover, throw grenades, flank around using covering fire.... I was shocked it was so good was more like it. I was actually afraid of them more than any other computer AI.... well besides those leaping bastards.

[GodsPetMonkey]

I played it on Easy and the computer was a joke. On the Hardest though I found the AI to really kick it up, take cover, throw grenades, flank around using covering fire.... I was shocked it was so good was more like it. I was actually afraid of them more than any other computer AI.... well besides those leaping bastards.

I love it when the headcrabs leap to their death! Hilarious.

But even on hard the AI wasn't very flattering, maybe I had too high a set of standards (especially after they boasted so much about it) but it did nothing to make it appear any more intelligent then any old bog standard FPS, if taking cover when I toss a grenade is brilliant use of the battlefield environment, they have been living under a rock for way to long. Perhaps I'm being petty, but this game doesn't seem like its worthy to be the heir of HL1, which apart from everything else breathed life into the mainstream FPS market, and showed that good story, scripting and game play wasn’t the realm niche shooters, HL2 is something special, but its neither innovative like HL1, or in anyway revolutionary.

I do really recommend you get a copy of HL1, it’s dated, but still has a lot of charm. Perhaps what gives so many people fond memories of HL1 is that it took the ideas of the 'heart and soul' developers like Raven and LGS, that there is more to FPS games then the number of frags per hour, but with out removing the simplicity that these more niche games came with. HL1 felt epic, it was like a huge interactive movie, the more you progressed, the more you learnt, and the more you wanted to learn.
I think that may be my biggest problem with HL2, what really spoils it for me, the more I progress, the more I want to learn, but it never teaches us anything.

[Maltz]

I played the Sims 2 back to back with RTW. I ended up spending more time on RTW. There are more variety (i.e. more things to explore) in RTW, and apparantly it has a higher challenge level. Interesting that also people love to turn the "timer" off in TS2.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

All of these arguments are valid, so why not award games based on genre so if you are a strategy buff and only play FPSs on the side you can be pleased with "Strategy Game of the Year" and so forth. This also give a place for awards to be handed out other than runners up. Also I find that I care less about GOTY when there are other awards given. Lets all just hope that RTW gets strategy game of the year!

[Colovion]

For sure RTW should get Strategy game of the year. I'd probably say it should get Game of the Year if it wasn't for the bugs and problems that it has still. One thing is for sure - all the FPS that came out this year are going to be hard pressed to not just become "one of the big 2004 FPS releases".

Also, sequels to groundbreaking games can still be great - but they're unlikely to be as groundbreaking as their predecessors; so they're scrutinized more by the 'vets'. Like me with RTW right now - it's all about expectations and previous experiences with similar games.