RPGWatch - RPG of the Year Poll

Time to move on to our RPG of the Year poll.
First, Eschalon: Book 1 was the winner of our Indie RPG of the Year poll, taking the honours in a landslide victory with 77% of the vote. Congratulations to Basilisk Games and I think many of us look forward eagerly to see what Book 2 holds in store.
Soldak's Depths of Peril came second and Spiderweb's Geneforge 4 was third. I think it's worth noting the comments that this was a landmark year for indies, all around.

So, voting for the RPG of the Year is open, based on a field selected by our editorial team. Go to it!
More information.

Many of the Indie games really are great. RPGwatch and Gametunnel.com really keep abreast of great Indie games out there.

That poll has been rigged. There is NO WAY Hellgate would get so many votes. This is not my fanboyism talking but seriously, its IMPOSSIBLE.

I can only feel pity for those poor misguided fools who have such bad taste to like something so generic, commercialized, shallow etc.

Deducting guest votes and just counting registered member votes, current interim results (Dec. 26, 21:05 local time) are…

Mass Effect - 4 votes
The Witcher - 38 votes
Two Worlds - 1 vote
Hellgate: London - 0 votes
NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer - 3 votes
Eschalon: Book 1 - 6 votes

There seems to be quite a voting bot race going on.

I'd like to vote, but the game that I thought was the best RPG this year wasn't even included.

Imho S.T.A.L.K.E.R., bugs and all, was the best game in what was otherwise a somewhat weak year for CRPG's.

Thanks for counting Jaz.

So JDR, I take it you gave up on The Witcher?

Originally Posted by magerette
So JDR, I take it you gave up on The Witcher?

Not at all, it seems like a pretty good game. I just have so many games lined up right now that I'm not going to rush out and buy The Witcher, it didn't impress me enough to do that. I'm close to finally finishing Gothic 3, and after that I'm going to catch up on some FPS and RTS games I've been waiting to play.

Um… so, if you don't actually get around to playing the major RPG's in a given year, that makes the year "somewhat weak for RPG's?" Ooookay, I guess…

Originally Posted by Prime Junta
Um… so, if you don't actually get around to playing the major RPG's in a given year, that makes the year "somewhat weak for RPG's?" Ooookay, I guess…

LOL, ok I didn't realize you were psychic and knew what games I had or hadn't played.

When the poll includes only 3 full-length CRPG's, 1 of which isn't even close to "RPGotY" material, then yes I'd say it was a weak year for CRPG's. I didn't say RPG's.

I think it has something to do with quantity/quality. There has perhaps not been released that many CRPG's compared to for example 2006, but the quality of the games have been considerably higher than NWN2, Gothic 3 etc. of 2006.
So no, this hasn't been a weak year for CRPG's. The Witcher is more or less singlehandedly sufficient to make it a great year for CRPG's.

Eh?

Exactly which of those games this year were "considerably" better than Gothic 3 and NWN2?

Hellgate London and Two Worlds certainly weren't, The Witcher is debatable.

World of Warcraf - my opinion
I know its a mmorpg……

WOW wasn't released this year. For that matter, was there even a WOW expansion released this year?

The Burning Crusade. Sold millions, I believe.

Released early in 07, like January, though so it's been awhile.

Originally Posted by magerette
The Burning Crusade. Sold millions, I believe.

Yeah, one of the only ones. It was a very weak year for PC sales, to be honest. Market is really unhealthy right now.

Your av is terrible, magerette.

In the USA during November the two AAA titles Crysis and Unreal Tournament that were released during the month sold only 87 000 and 34 000 copies for the PC, respectively.

Hardly what the publishers were hoping for, I think.

I'm not necessarily buying that it was a weak year - we just don't have good data. To my mind, Crysis proves what happens when your best claim to fame is that the game is so advanced, it kicks sand in the face of Cray supercomputers. And UT3 potentially shows the market is more competitive and repackaging UT2 doesn't cut it. We'll never really know but a half-decent tracking system would be a good start.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Eh?

Exactly which of those games this year were "considerably" better than Gothic 3 and NWN2?

Hellgate London and Two Worlds certainly weren't, The Witcher is debatable.

The Witcher and MoTB, by a long long way. The witcher's in the same league and with a reasonably similar feel to the first two gothics (or dare I say it, better even) and MoTB had one of the best and most atmospheric plots I've come across in a computer game for ages. I couldn't finish the original nwn2 campaign at all by comparison, utterly bland and insipid. I gave up part way through gothic 3 as well, I tried my best to like it but it just didn't really engage me, a huge disappointment after the brilliance of the first two.

Not played hellgate (and am very unlikely to) or Two Worlds.

Originally Posted by bkrueger

NWN2 didn't impress me much. The story was better than that of NWN1, but that doesn't say much. It is a good RPG, but it is totally an rails in two respects: There is no exploration and no real diffent outcome based on your decision. MotB may be a different beast, but after playing NWN2 I had no nerves to try it.
.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I really enjoyed it and just couldn't be bothered slogging my way through nwn2. I tried it (since i had to buy the bloody thing anyway), but it just didn't hold my interest at all. Within about 15 minutes of starting MoTB I was sucked in though, interesting characters, locations, good plot, significant choices, so much atmosphere that I forgot I was playing on the nwn2 engine at all.

Originally Posted by Benedict
The Witcher and MoTB, by a long long way. The witcher's in the same league and with a reasonably similar feel to the first two gothics (or dare I say it, better even) and MoTB had one of the best and most atmospheric plots I've come across in a computer game for ages. I couldn't finish the original nwn2 campaign at all by comparison, utterly bland and insipid. I gave up part way through gothic 3 as well, I tried my best to like it but it just didn't really engage me, a huge disappointment after the brilliance of the first two.
.

I won't compare MoTB because that's not even a full game by itself, but I don't think The Witcher is anywhere near the level of the first 2 Gothic games.

When is the last time you tried to play Gothic 3? Reason I ask is because it's come a long way from being the buggy crap it was when it was first released, almost an entirely different game now with the latest patch. With what the coming 1.6 patch promises, I think it will be truly excellent.

Hellgate London is pretty bad by CRPG standards, it shouldn't even be considered for any awards. Two Worlds isn't bad, but it's not RPG of the Year material imo.