Future FPS games on the horizon

I've got my eye on a few FPS games that will be released in the near future, some may become hits, others may become flops.. In any case, these all look pretty good..

Brothers in Arms - yes, probably the last of the overcrowded WW2 games since this theme has been gamed to death. Oh wait, can't forget about MOH - Pacific Assault.

Men of Valor - This seems interesting... its another Vietnam FPS. Unlike BF:V, there is a single player portion of the game. Supposed to be like "Medal of Honor", but for Vietnam.

Star Wars: Battlefront - I'm no SW geek, but this has GOT to be pretty dam cool. People are crying already about the 32 multi-player player limitation, but I don't think that is a flaw of the game. Supposedly the main reason LucasArts is doing this is because the detail of the game. They want to acheive quality over quantity. Plus, a whole new multiplayer campaign, galactic conquest that seems really cool.

Quake 4 - That's right folks.. Quake will not die easily. I haven't read that much about this game other than its been announced, so there really isn't that much detail about it.

Half Life 2 - Well, I've already posted my thoughts on this game. It might not kill me to grab it when it is first released, but I can't imagine not picking it up if Valve doesn't bundle up this game with Team Fortress 2. Why TF2 got scrapped way back when? Who the hell knows... but it might be a good move by Valve as now they are seeing what is being released these days and probably want to do their best to top the competition out there. I'm sure CS2, which I've never played or had a interest in playing, will play a big part in this release as well.

STALKER - I've been following this game for a while now and the one thing that is unique about this game is that this is a game with eight entirely different possible endings. So, just think about it.. play it once, the game ends one way.. play it again, and something else may happen in the game to lead to a totally different ending. The game physics look really cool too from some of the trailers I've watched. Although this theme is sort of like HL/Doom's with monsters, living dead, aliens, etc., I may make the exception and pick this over HL.

Battlefield 2 - At first I wasn't so sure that this would be a front runner to the games that will be released over the next few months, but after watching a few trailers and reading more and more about this, I can't imagine any BF fan will NOT pick this up. I'm just a little leary of the way the game will perform as the BF has a poor track record in terms of out-of-the-box problems. I hope DICE gets their crap together, because in my opinion, this game will make or break them.

Well, that's all for now I suppose.... LOL! 😀

That is a good run down of upcoming releases. Here are my thoughts on a few of them.

Star Wars: Battlefront - I absolutely loved the Ground Pounding action in the Galactic Conquest mod for BF. I think those guys did more to push that engine then any other mod I have seen. The space flight maps were terrible, but that was a limitation of BF. Had they something better to work with, I think the space side could have been awesome. With that said, I think Star Wars works really, really well with this type of FPS. Some of my favorite battles have been with the GC mod and for some reason that makes me even more excited about the possibility of playing a professionally done Star Wars FPS. My only concern is I don't think a lot of my fellow GRB's share the same thoughts. I would be interested to hear what they think.

Half Life 2 - The sequel to a game like that has to be a huge seller. I can't imagine it any other way. The real question is, do the current players who lack the specs to run the new HL2 plan on upgrading to be able to play this or will the hardware upgrades throw too many people off? As for TF2. I have never played TF for HL, but TF for Quake is the game that turned me on to FPS. It is the reason I love BF so much. They share similiar elements that really make the game more enjoyable for me. I've been waiting for TF2 long before any of the games I play today were even announced. I really have given up on it. I hear it is still out there, but for some reason I doubt it is going to be released along with HL2. My money is on HL2 being released solo, then the add-on's being released one at a time to milk that cash cow for all she's worth. By now, Valve has to be better than EA at doing that.

STALKER - I've read a little about this game, but to be honest I have not been paying attention. I might need to start.

BF2 - I am a fan of BF42 because I like the WWII aspect of it. I am a fan of BFV because the engine is really a lot better than BF42. I am not a fan of DC. Where does that leave me on BF2? Well, to be honest, I am very interested because I think it is a game that all GRB's will get behind, even if it is for different reasons. My concern is given DICE and EA's track record, the 100 person server thing is going to blow up in their face. I have not heard a single thing about net code optimization. Let's face it. If they don't start taking that as serious as Valve does, there is no way in Hell an engine based on BF42/BFV is going to support 100 players, much less server companies who can afford the bandwidth associated with running a server. The sad part is they are programming the game to reward larger servers. I hope we all get to enjoy that reward, otherwise this will be their last chance. I do not think Gamers will put up with the same problems a third time. I hope they prove me wrong, I really do.

Great Stuff. It's always fun to post opinions on upcoming games and to hear what other people think. Keep it coming......

Let's face it. If they don't start taking that as serious as Valve does,

Whaaaa???? Valve netcode sucks ass. They haven't even completed a game in 3 years.

Actually, Valve takes their NetCode very seriously. Half Life had some of the most effecient net code of any game ever produced. Don't believe me? How about this. The guy responsible for Valve's net code is also the same guy who invented and developed Bit Torrent. It's not about completing a game recently. It's about their dedication to making the games run as well as they can using TCP/IP. I respect Valve for taking the time to do that, where as DICE puts a game out, then try's to figure out why it has so many problems running over 32 players. Even their partner, Nvidia pulled the 64 player servers for BFV because it was so bad. Given their track record and the claim that BF2 will run 100 players, they better spend time analyzing the packets and figuring how to make it playable. If they don't do that, then 100 players servers are going to be a wash.

Hmmmm... well where I agree with you about half-life.... Have you seen how the netcode for Counterstrike has gone to shit?

Used to be you could play CS or TFC equally on a dialup with about a 200 ping and get good gameplay.

Now, CS isn't even playable if you have over 100 ping, and VERY obvious differences are seen if your ping differs between 20 and 80. Meanwhile, TFC went with many of the overall improvements to the HL core (voicecomm support, etc) and still plays excellent at a 200 ping.

I use CS as the frame of reference because it is the only game that Valve has been working on that we've seen. (other than alot of leaked code)

I don't know alot of the technical specs, but I have been playing CS since Beta 5.2 and it you could see it going downhill at every new release. It doesn't leave me with any faith in Valve's ability to do something good anymore. I really kinda see them as a company who has just made one big hit and are riding it for all its worth.