O - Old games were better

Let's just go ahead and face it. The older games were amazing.

Sure, the graphics weren't as good and some of the stories were mediocre, but the games... they had love. Getting games in a baggy or a set of 5.25 floppies was awesome. Finding the coolest game ever on CD in a weird shaped box that somehow pertained to the title or plot was cool. We don't have that kind of flare, excitement or love surrounding these current games. It's pretty lame.

We used to have a whole lot of fun and take a lot of freedom with the games we had "back in the day". Remember when you could mod stuff? Tribes had a huge modding community. Counter-Strike started out as a mod for Half Life... so did Team Fortress. Unreal Tournament had a ton of custom maps and rulesets. Quake and Doom both had loads of extras and some pretty famous WAD and PK files. Now we have to buy our recycled Modern Warfare 2 maps. Oh how far we have fallen. =(

I don't know if there was a monetizing issue or not, but it really kind of sucks. I miss old games, but at the same time... I'm glad that we have these new gorgeous looking games. It makes me miss the gameplay of the old stuff, but reminds me how hideous the visuals were.

E3 2010 - Star Wars: The Old Republic

I've been looking forward to a new MMO for a while now. SW:TOR looks like it will be a big budget game with plenty of backing and high profile name. My hopes for the game being successful go beyond the Star Wars name and the huge backing from EA, BioWare and Lucas Arts, though. It's the fact that the gameplay looks so compelling and the classes look individualized enough that you might just find your perfect little niche in the game.

There are going to be standard MMO limitations, however. There will be tanks and healers, there will be various DPS, and there will be phat lewtz. The developers said that the game will be laid out in such a way that you will play you class "story" during the game. I'm not sure what that means or how that will change grouping, but it seems like it might be an interesting new take on the tired old questing system that we have now in MMO games. I hope very much that SW:TOR can break the mold of standard MMO games and go beyond with something that is both involving and fun. I want to play with other people, but I also want to be able to play alone. Good solo and group play will really make or break this game.

At E3 this year there has been a wealth of knowledge and a plethora of information given about SW:TOR. The game is scheduled to be released in Spring of 2011, hopefully this is the last time I have to see it at E3 without being able to play it. We have had interviews with developers and writers. We have seen countless new videos and treated to some hands-on play. Though they were not my hands, I am still glad that SOMEONE got to play the game. I can't tell you how excited this wealth of knowledge makes me, yet sad at the same time. I know that I won't get a good solid chunk of info for another month or more and I won't be able to play for almost another year. As we head into the summer of 2010 all I can do is prepare myself for the hours of my life that this game will steal away.