Beta testing and release chicken

[Morfiend]

I wanted to love GW. Gorgeous graphics, great developers, no sub fee, full instancing so I didn't have to involve myself in any social interaction, flat power progression, it had it all. I bought every expansion and played maybe 20 hours total. Just never "clicked" for me, it never triggered that part of my brain that says "you must play this".

No jumping.

[Nevermore]

If GW2 were a sci fi game, I wouldn't even be thinking about any other game.  But right now I'm just so sick of the fantasy genre it's hard to get any kind of enthusiasm for it, no matter how shiny it looks.

[Modern Angel]

No jumping.

Don't think this isn't part of it. The control scheme was absolutely that of a 2d game. It felt like it.

[Hawkbit]

If GW2 were a sci fi game, I wouldn't even be thinking about any other game.  But right now I'm just so sick of the fantasy genre it's hard to get any kind of enthusiasm for it, no matter how shiny it looks.

Look at some of their concept art - it's probably half sci-fi-esque.  Heck, it even has an engineer!!

[Sjofn]

I wanted to love GW. Gorgeous graphics, great developers, no sub fee, full instancing so I didn't have to involve myself in any social interaction, flat power progression, it had it all. I bought every expansion and played maybe 20 hours total. Just never "clicked" for me, it never triggered that part of my brain that says "you must play this".

That was about my experience with GW as well, and some of the parts I liked (henchmen, heroes in theory although by the time they rolled around I accepted I would just never love GW like I wanted to love it) are missing from GW2, so I am not expecting it to heal the sick and raise the dead while riding on a T-Rex. Plus NO MESEMERS NO PEACE so they had better announce those guys if they want me to even try it. 

[Evildrider]

Heck, it even has an engineer!!

So did Warhammer.  

GW2 has no draw whatsoever for me.  Just not my thing, besides I am sick of fantasy MMO's at this point.

[Tearofsoul]

Heck, it even has an engineer!!

So did Warhammer.  

 

[UnSub]

SWTOR is like bringing your exgirlfriend home. Its the same thing you have been doing for years, just in makeup and a new dress.

She only wants to talk, however.

Can we continue the awkward "games as girlfriends" descriptions? 

D3 is the alt-girl who is going to leave you wondering what the hell happened when you wake up 4 days later, muscles aching and having missed 3 days of work.

TSW is the mysterious quiet girl who promises a lot, but it may turn out her secret is that she's a man who laces drinks with GBH.

[Paelos]

It's getting creepier.

[Nevermore]

If GW2 were a sci fi game, I wouldn't even be thinking about any other game.  But right now I'm just so sick of the fantasy genre it's hard to get any kind of enthusiasm for it, no matter how shiny it looks.

Look at some of their concept art - it's probably half sci-fi-esque.  Heck, it even has an engineer!!

The only thing worse than fantasy is fantasy with guns.

[schild]

But what if the only game you care about on that list is SWTOR?  

I hate to say it, but I'm pretty sure that makes you retarded and more than a little bit unstable, clinically speaking.

[Evildrider]

But what if the only game you care about on that list is SWTOR?  

I hate to say it, but I'm pretty sure that makes you retarded and more than a little bit unstable, clinically speaking.

Diablo 2- was fine for a couple runs, didn't really care to play it online.  Nothing really special to me about Diablo 3 either.  I would have done a couple runs through it but Blizzard's decisions on the game killed it for me.

GW- played it, bored me.  Couldn't care less about GW2. 

TSW- I was interested in it, but I have no faith in FunCom.

SWTOR- It's Bioware, it's Star Wars, it's not a fantasy MMO.  I've been waiting for something me and my friends could agree on moving into.

As someone who's getting his ass kicked by the economy, I have to make choices in what I play.  I don't have the luxury of picking up every game that looks shiny. 

[apocrypha]

I think D3 will beta this year, possibly in October, more likely November. If open beta starts as early as October then they may even go live before the end of the year.

I agree with Malakili that Torchlight 2 will be no competition for it whatsoever. It might be a decent game at a decent price point but it ain't gonna sell millions of copies and have people playing it for 5+ years and 4 expansions.

[Nonentity]

Torchlight 2 is fun. Played it at PAX. Pretty much everything I had issue with they addressed in some way. (Faster player movement speed!)

SWTOR will be out before the end of the year, whether it's ready or not. It'll be polished enough, I predict, but not BioWare polished.

Diablo 3 will be early 2012. TSW will be fall 2012. Not sure on GW2.

[Segoris]

Guildwars 2, SWTOR, Diablo 3, and the secret world all seem to be playing a game of who will flinch first. I'm beginning to suspect some of these titles won't release this year.

Love to hear peoples guesses for open betas, and release dates.

GW2: 1st qtr 2012
SWTOR: 4th qtr 2011 and will be a big pile of shit. Someone said it nicely earlier in this thread where it's the x-gf that just doesn't shut up now in their new dress and make up.
Diablo 3: Mid 2012 and Activision is making me care less and less with each bit of new info I hear about
TSW: Late 2012 but I won't care until mid/late 2013 when Funcom fixes its crap

At this point, the only games I'm waiting on are Prime Online, GW2, and Firefall.

[luckton]

But what if the only game you care about on that list is SWTOR?  

I hate to say it, but I'm pretty sure that makes you retarded and more than a little bit unstable, clinically speaking.

It's not that people don't 'care' about the other games, IMO.  It's that TOR is, of all the games on the horizon mentioned here, one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) star here.  Both from conceptional and financial points of view.  They have the brains, the brawn, and backing.  TSW already fails due to it's developer/publisher history, GW2 seems too good to be true, and Diablo 3...I don't even know why that was thrown in here, honestly.  It's not an MMORPG.  It's a single-player, non-subscription game with a strong multi-player element, but it's not a persistent-world game.

I agree that we should be mindful of other options and not close ourselves to just one almighty game, but when your options are

1: Visible, clearly there and almost within your grasps cake (TOR)
2: Cake that could be a lie (GW2)
3: Badly-baked and possibly moldy cake (TSW)
4: Pop-tart (D3)

...I don't blame anyone for just concerning themselves with option 1.

[K9]

Sign me up for the 'couldn't give a toss about TOR' camp. I've done WoW, and WoW in space has zero appeal to me right now.

[Nija]

Sign me up for the 'couldn't give a toss about TOR' camp. I've done WoW, and WoW in space has zero appeal to me right now.

I don't think people will grasp the reality of the situation until they are sitting there, watching their dude (w/lightsaber) crouch down next to a cage and "release" some "hostage" or some shit. Which, by the way, just involves mousing over the thing and watching the mouse cursor change to a gear (w/progress bar).

It's just reskinned WoW in the same way that the Koreans would reskin something. Except if you thought fast quest text was a must-have mod, boy are you in for frustration. Plastic-people yap at you for several minutes or you mashing the  "1" key as fast as humanly possible.

[Paelos]

Cynics, the lot of you. Stop shitting on our dialogue wheeling savior!

[amiable]

I honestly believe SWTOR will give WoW a run for its money.   

Disclaimer:  I thought at the time WAR would do well.  And I am just a random dude on the intenet so most likely I am wrong.

[Modern Angel]

I don't think people will grasp the reality of the situation until they are sitting there, watching their dude (w/lightsaber) crouch down next to a cage and "release" some "hostage" or some shit. Which, by the way, just involves mousing over the thing and watching the mouse cursor change to a gear (w/progress bar).

It's just reskinned WoW in the same way that the Koreans would reskin something. Except if you thought fast quest text was a must-have mod, boy are you in for frustration. Plastic-people yap at you for several minutes or you mashing the  "1" key as fast as humanly possible.

I can't wait for the NDA to drop.

[luckton]

Disclaimer:  I thought at the time WAR would do well.  And I am just a random dude on the intenet so most likely I am wrong.

It's ok...many of us thought this as well, mostly because Mythic's British hype-man was a rather convincing fellow.  Anyone seen that guy lately?  Or did he disappear like most one-hit wonders?

[Sky]

I find the TOR pre-hate amusing.

I think Diablo is a pretty meh franchise, but I'm hoping D3 is an awesome game. I thought GW1 sucked total ass (the controls!) but I hope GW2 is an awesome game. I loved Tortuga, and I hope Funcom learned that they almost had an amazing mmo on their hands.

But people love to pre-hate them some TOR. I apparently can't grasp the situation.  

[Modern Angel]

It's ok...many of us thought this as well, mostly because Mythic's British hype-man was a rather convincing fellow.  Anyone seen that guy lately?  Or did he disappear like most one-hit wonders?

Actually, he's working at Bioware last I heard. With the SWTOR team. He was flogging the game with some stormtroopers in Korea or something like that.

[luckton]

It's ok...many of us thought this as well, mostly because Mythic's British hype-man was a rather convincing fellow.  Anyone seen that guy lately?  Or did he disappear like most one-hit wonders?

Actually, he's working at Bioware last I heard. With the SWTOR team. He was flogging the game with some stormtroopers in Korea or something like that.

Well they're all working at Bioware now, since the Mythic name got deleted during EA's summer reorganization.  I just figured for all the hype and he did, he would have kept the momentum going, but alas, once the game went live, it's like he fell off the Earth.

[K9]

I find the TOR pre-hate amusing.

It's no less justified than all the pre-froth. I don't hate TOR per-se, but everthing I see about it it so familiar and unremarkable after years of WoW. It is an apparently unimaginative game riding on the back of one of the world's biggest franchises; doing well should be their default outcome based on the IP alone. Anything less than WoW-level subs points towards a lack of polish on their point.

Also, I am a lot less of a fan of Bioware than a lot of people here. I haven't really connected with any of their games since the Baldur's Gate series.

[Sky]

after years of WoW

See what you did there?

[Nebu]

I find the TOR pre-hate amusing.

I find the fanboism of these new MMO's even more amusing.  I'm looking forward to TOR and will gladly hand over my money when it releases.  Even with that being the case, I'm not deluded about what I'm likely to get for my money.  If Bioware manages to exceed my expectations, then they get more of my money.  Gladly. 

[K9]

after years of WoW

See what you did there?

No

[Merusk]

Disclaimer:  I thought at the time WAR would do well.  And I am just a random dude on the intenet so most likely I am wrong.

It's ok...many of us thought this as well, mostly because Mythic's British hype-man was a rather convincing fellow.  Anyone seen that guy lately?  Or did he disappear like most one-hit wonders?

Mark took his cut from the EA buyout of Mythic and retired.   I can't blame him, I'd certainly do the same rather than deal with a bunch of neck-bearded man-children for the rest of my life.   

I think SWTOR has the potential to do well.  As always it will come down to the execution and the details.  WAR Failed on both.  It wasn't engaging, it was buggy as fuck-all, its world felt too lifeless with a color palette that was still too muddy brown and it never got simplicity in it's mechanics right the way WOW had. (And has since failed at.)

People are tired of WOW the same way they were tired of EQ, but that doesn't mean they're tired of the game type.  The same lot were bitching early-on that WoW was just EQ with a prettier skin and minor changes and it was doomed.   I laughed at the time and said DIKU was 30 years old at that time and people hadn't tired of it yet and I still feel the same.

Don't make the mistake of pushing your own tastes on to another product, particularly a mass-market one.   Very few people here find anything mass-market appealing, but since you're in the minority that means games shouldn't cater to you when trying to make the money they're going after.

[Segoris]

It's ok...many of us thought this as well, mostly because Mythic's British hype-man was a rather convincing fellow.  Anyone seen that guy lately?  Or did he disappear like most one-hit wonders?

Mark took his cut from the EA buyout of Mythic and retired.   I can't blame him, I'd certainly do the same rather than deal with a bunch of neck-bearded man-children for the rest of my life.   

Not Mark, think big white sunglasses and lots of raising of one's voice even when it wasn't needed.

[Mosesandstick]

Paul Barnett?

[Lantyssa]

Anyone who believed a word out of Barnett's mouth got what they deserved.  The accent couldn't make up for the used car salesman vibe.

[Morfiend]

I honestly believe SWTOR will give WoW a run for its money.   

Why?

People play WoW already. Their friends play WoW. Just like every other Wow reskin in the past few years, why would people play "WoW but not as good"?

I was very disheartened by the last few SWTOR videos. It just looks so damn generic.

[Minvaren]

GW2 - no real interest

TSW - need to read up on this

D3 - Losing interest due to long lead time plus the "always online/no LAN play/moneyhats" stuff.  Might grab it when it's gone on sale.

TOR - Skeptical because of the Origin thing, but if the story is robust, I would like some sort of closure to KotOR 1&2.  Those two games are the ones I've replayed the most in the last 20 years.