Blizzard - One "Frontline" Release for 2009

HGL was a complete failure on many levels, but I personally think it's a GREAT game and I think it represents the first real evolution in the genre since Diablo 2.

There are also those who think Dungeon Lords is a GREAT game and the pinnacle of the action-RPG genre. No, really there are ...

I think HGL was good, got better with time, but was hampered by a bad business model and a lousy launch. But great? Personally I wouldn't ever go that far, but again, you said others wouldn't likely agree ;)
 
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HGL was cthulhu-tech, the idea is very sound, and could have been a great game: it just wasn't. Level design turned out to be mostly uninteresting, all safe zones being underground stations turned out rather dull, the story and quests were uninspired. You could probably make up for the stations by having interesting story/npcs in them, but you can't really expect to deliver interesting dialogue one sentence at a time.
 
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Well, to each his own :)

Personally, I greatly enjoyed the successful merger of FPS action and RPG elements. It was truly an intense game that made you feel like you were in the thick of things.

Among the evolutionary elements were the intelligent music system, the deep item modification system, the concept of taking the genre to first/third person, and - yes - the business model.

I know that the business model turned out to be a disaster, though I'll never really understand why. It was a way of ensuring continuous development and keeping the game evolving and interesting. The typical model of doing an expansion is fine, but I much prefer a game to evolve at a steady pace, rather than having to wait.

At the same time, people who didn't want to invest in this extra content didn't have to - and the game was quite complete without this investment - especially after Flagship adjusted what features were available.

Anyway, I know I'm in the minority - but that doesn't change how I feel about it.
 
Blizzard isn't fully dominating the mass-RPG-market now.

But now they try to ...

I begin to think of Microsoft as a business strategy for Blizzard: Dominate everything by catering the mass market so much that there is little room for other OSses/games ...

How much choice have we when we want to use a different OS than that by MS for a PC ? Linux, nothing else. Oh, good this is actually a choice between TWO OSSes ...

Ah, wait, I forgot the eComStation ...

... And BSD ...

Now, if Blizzard wanted to dominate the RPG market, everything they'd had to do is influence the masses so much that they wouldn't be able to imagine a different kind of gameplay anymore. And wouldn't want to. At least, until they might get fed up with it, I don't know.

I'm waiting until the day a gaming company (EA, Blizzard) says: "Sorry, your game is incompatible with our game. Please uninstall it."

Edit: I'd like to explicitely point out that I was speaking of the mass market ! No mentions of niches from my side !
 
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I wasn't pointing out its virtues there DArtagnan; just some of the game's flaws. Sydonai was quite impressive at the end, for instance, but I bet a few people got put of[f] by difficulty spikes of that magnitude. There was a lot of work put into skills & items as well; Whirlwinding on my blademaster was quite awesome, but it's neither here or there now the game is looking finished.
 
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I liked HG:L a lot actually, and I've completed it with Summoner, Guardian, Blademaster and Engineer. Every run was different, and loads of fun, as the classes are varied, but well balanced, and require different tactics to succeed. That aspect of the game is very similar to D2 actually, but without the massive machinery of Blizzard to support the game (and fund it), it failed to achieve as much as it should have. With Blizzards QA department in addition to their marketing crew, I'm sure things would've looked quite different.

Point is, the developers at Flagship were just as skilled when making HG:L as when making D2; they just didn't have the kind of support and what not they did at Blizzard (people seem to think the term "developer" means anyone working in the gaming idustry).

Anyhow, I'm sure SC2 is this years release (first campaign), and knowing Blizzard I'm also fairly sure it'll be a smash hit. Will it be as good as SC1 was back in the days? Probably better, but percieved as worse, due to the extreme expectations, and how the industry has developed since SC1 was released (as someone previously mentioned: SC1 is really lacking compared to some of the RTS games we've seen since then).

Edit: I should add that by complete I mean on the first difficulty. I did not max all these characters (level 50 is the max if I recall correctly - I think most of my characters are 40-ish). I just don't enjoy playing a game through more than once with the same character (which ultimately means the exact same gameplay, looks, feel etc of the character).
 
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I wasn't pointing out its virtues there DArtagnan; just some of the game's flaws. Sydonai was quite impressive at the end, for instance, but I bet a few people got put of by difficulty spikes of that magnitude. There was a lot of work put into skills & items as well; Whirlwinding on my blademaster was quite awesome, but it's neither here or there now the game is looking finished.

No, it's true. It's dead and gone - which is especially sad because there's no chance of redemption.

I feel for the guys pouring their hearts and souls into actually evolving the genre, even given their incompetence in key areas.

What reputation they had due to being ex-Bliz people is gone and people will be laughing them off - I'm sure.

That's the tragedy and will only serve to further entice developers to forego evolution and target the mass market with endless clones.
 
The D3 news has totally stopped, pretty much, so I'd be amazed if it's not SC2 this year. Even then, they're only bringing out the Terran campaign so you've got 4 years of releases with SC2 and D3 without even including expansions for D3. Blizzcon in August will probably see something new on most releases, and perhaps the revealing of the MMO in development.
 
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Blizzcon in August will probably see something new on most releases, and perhaps the revealing of the MMO in development.

I'm terribly excited about that one. Especially since it's going to be a brand new IP. And something different enough from WoW as to not cannibalize their market. Or maybe it'll just be WoS or WoD. :)
 
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No, it's true. It's dead and gone - which is especially sad because there's no chance of redemption.
Not for me - I have it installed and still noodle with the single player from time to time.
 
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