Games To Come. . .

First off, I want to talk about Battlefield 3. There is sooo much talk going around about this game, and how it will compete up against MW3. Honestly, it's hard to say. We don't have our hands on either of the games right now. So the ball is up in the air. The CoD franchise is huge, and the most popular one. And Battlefield in my book comes close, if not second place. Which one will reign supreme? We'll have to wait and find out. But my guess is that MW3 will still be on top. Being that it'll be on the same engine as MW2 and Black Ops, plus, all the teenagers will stick to what they like to play. Battlefield 3 will be a lot more realistic. And more people in their 20's and up will buy the game.

That's what I am guessing will happen. Another thing about Battlefield 3, is that on PC, it'll run at 60 fps. Very smooth. And on console, it'll run at half that. 30 fps. Don't get me wrong, the game will still look gorgeous and beautiful, but won't be a super super smooth, and there is bound to be some fps drops somewhere, making the game lag a bit. Since the CoD franchise is sticking to the same engine, it will run at 60 fps, like the others. 30 and 60 fps sounds like a huge difference, but it's not. Any lower then 30 though, you start to feel the lag.

Now lets talk about Guild Wars 2. Are you a fan of MMO's? Play WoW on a daily basis? Well, here is a MMO that is going to change things, and in a big way. First off, there will be no grinding! That's right. No more grinding for those levels. Sounds kinda weird, right? ArenaNet has removed the bell-curve traditionally applied to leveling, so that gaining levels from 40 to 50, for example, isn't any more laborious than leveling from 1 to 10. The upshot is that you won't be forced to remain in an environment long after you've worn out its content just to accumulate enough experience to move forward.

No dedicated roles! In GW2, every class can heal, but they can also do so much more. They can control the battlefield to lock down enemies ('tanking' without the vulgarity of being a meat shield), throw up barriers to protect others or duck and roll and use cover to protect themselves. It's called 'active combat' (or in other genres, just 'combat'), and it means that a group can effectively take on a dungeon or boss without hiding behind someone dressed like a human battering ram. It means that you can play the class you want without worrying about your potential usefulness to a group. It also encourages a great deal more environmental awareness than WoW's 'don't stand in the fire' approach to raiding - although, admittedly, Blizzard has evolved such mechanics significantly in recent months.

No quests! Which will be a strange concept to get used to. There will be no "Kill 15 Goblins" in a remote section of the map that without a mount, would take you ten minutes just to run there, then another ten to run back. You will have to.. Well. Explore. Here a quote from IGN. "In the persistent worlds of tomorrow, crazy stuff is out there happening every second - villages being razed, armies being amassed, pub brawls being started - and you're just going to have to go out there and see it for yourself." GW2 calls this crazy stuff dynamic events. Dynamic events will unfold tangibly in front of you, and your intervention could change the outcome and create a domino effect with other events across the landscape. Very interesting, right?


So pretty much there is a huge change coming to the MMO scene in gaming. Will it stick? Who knows. We'll have to wait and find out.



Alright folks, that's all for today. Enjoy the weather too! It's beautiful outside here in Butte and SW MT.

-j-