the last few months have been good to gamers, at least according to my tastes. half-life, thief, baldur’s gate & the s.m.a.c demo have all been good enough to give me a stiffy.

but of course i must have more…something new. so now, looking to the far horizon of the coming year, there are several games that have me getting really excited.

system shock 2–they just released a series of new shots that i think look awesome. i can just *feel* the game-play radiating off of these images. every location seems to tell some story or imply some interesting interaction-possibility. friends at looking glass & irrational games say that shock2 is really shaping up. some members of the thief team have moved over to work with the shock2 team (i believe). both groups are made up of some of the people who were responsible for underworld, system shock, terra nova and thief. if that doesn’t get you wildly excited, you probably should not be viewing the content on this page. go here for the new shock2 shots. (also, saam runs a really excellent site called Through the Looking Glass. it’s another great place to get info on LG games.) TTLG.com.

anachronox–yes, i know i work for ION, but i work at ION *Austin*, so i rarely get out to the dallas location, the mighty tower that it is. (here with warren’s group, we work in a little bank strip plaza…from which we have nearly been evicted several times for reasons i’d rather not divulge.) anyway, i just went to the ION web site and looked over all the new screen shots for the game. so far, from the demos i have seen, the game itself seems like a really interesting blend of strategy and role-playing. so i was already hyped for the game. but now, after seeing the latest work they have done, i am floored. it just looks amazing–revolutionary is the word that comes to mind. like jack nicholson said in _as good as it gets_, “you make me want to be a better designer…” really. looking at those shots is like a kick in the ass–those guys rock. & they are going to raise the bar. so this game is another title i am eagerly awaiting.

diablo 2–baldur’s gate is cool & it consumed a lot of the last few weekends. but as far as stat based/character advancement/kill monsters/collect treasure/ gain levels games go, diablo is the best. (btw–as you probably know, i am personally more inclined to the other side of the RPG–plot, character, setting; this is more what Deus Ex is all about. so don’t be thinking our game is going to be some sort of hack & slash fest.) the new diablo 2 shots seem to show that blizzard has repeated much of the same goodness that made diablo so damned addictive. plus they’ve added a bunch more. something like 6 character types, new monsters, spells, etc. and the ease of their multiplayer access is nothing short of ‘the best in the world.’ i can’t wait to play D2–it’s all the stat based game-play of a game like baldur’s gate, plus it’s faster, leaner and with fewer annoyances. note to blizzard: you should avoid areas that force instant repeated reloads, features that take control of the player’s character away & NPC interactions that suck everyone in the adventuring party into someone else’s conversation. (imho, the 3 worst aspects of BG.)

word of the day: tatterdemalion