Game News IGDA nominations for 2003

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Neverwinter Nights

<a href="http://www.igda.org/">The International Game Developer's Association</a> has picked their <a href="http://www.igda.org/awards/pr_2003_0211.htm">nominations</a> for their awards, and here's that list:
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<blockquote><b>Game of the Year</b>
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* BATTLEFIELD 1942 (Digital Illusions)
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* GRAND THEFT AUTO: VICE CITY (Rockstar North)
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* METROID PRIME (Retro Studios)
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* <u>NEVERWINTER NIGHTS (BioWare Corp.)</u>
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* TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL (Ubi Soft Montreal)</blockquote>
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Hey, looks like someone's giving the <a href="http://www.grammy.com/">Grammy</a> a run for it's money!
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Spotted this at <A href="Http://www.homelanfed.com">HomeLAN Fed</a>.
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[Spazmo]

*Crosses fingers*

BF1942 BF1942 BF1942 BF1942...

 

[Jarinor]

I borrowed NWN from a friend recently, and I've got this to say - the manual is the best thing about the game, because it actually makes it sound like a fun game to play. The fact that I found the tutorial so incredibly boring that I can't even be bothered to protect the stupid animals should speak volumes as to the fun factor of this game. Sure, you could say that "It gets better, honestly!" but in my opinion, you can usually tell that it's going to get better, for a variety of reasons. I've got a sneaking suspicious NWN only gets worse.

The camera control sucks, the radial menu sucks, and character creation is screwed - what's the point of being part of a subrace if the only benefit you get from it is a different name? Ditto deity. Oh, and the creation process/interface doesn't seem to have changed since Infinity Engine days, along with the customarily outlandish and crap portraits.

 

[Azael]

*Crosses fingers*

BF1942 BF1942 BF1942 BF1942...

Agreed, but of course I've only played that one and NWN from the list, so clearly I'm biased. BF1942 is more fun as a single player game than NWN and a lot more fun as a multiplayer game.

Besides, Digital Illusion are Swedes and made some kick-ass pinball games for the Amiga back in the days. Good to see they've moved up.

 

[Section8]

Damn I loved Pinball Dreams/Illusions/Fantasies. BF1942 is pretty damn good too. Singleplayer is kind of weak as most botplay games are, but it managed to provide more single player entertainment than NWN within about 2 seconds.

 

[Mistress]

Speaking of BF:1942 - Josh Sawyer made a post on the IPLY forums, venting his frustrations regarding playing online - unfortunately, I think we can all relate quite well to what he says.

 

[Spazmo]

The real problem with BF1942 is the ridiculous load times. It takes forever to load a map.

 

[Section8]

Well, BF1942 executes all of it's scripts everytime it loads a map, which means creating every vehicle, object, weapon in the game on the fly during loading time. Not an ideal approach, but allows for great modding flexibility, and the ability to generate content at runtime.

 

[Sol Invictus]

The copy protection accounts heavily for the slow loading times in BF1942, too. The demo's loading times were far quicker than the retail, as the server didn't singlehandedly check each and every file loaded in order to assure that none of them are pirated, or whatever.

 

[Section8]

...and that would be all EAs doing. Fucking corporate wankers.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Yup, you know, there's a lot of room to hate EA. They screwed up the Ultima series, wacked Origin, they don't deal with the press well at all, they snuff out Ultima remakes, etc.

I'm just happy they're taking a bath on The Sims Online. :D

 

[Spazmo]

And don't forget that before 1.03, BF1924 would do a Safedisk check every time a new map was opened. Even when switching maps and already connected to a server, it did Safedisk checks. They removed a lot of the checks, but it still does one when joining a server.

Wait--something has just occured to me.

BF1942 is pretty damn good too.

Section8 likes a commercial game? Damn. Sometimes life just throws you a curveball right out of nowhere. :wink:

 

[Mental Funeral]

Yup, you know, there's a lot of room to hate EA. They screwed up the Ultima series, wacked Origin, they don't deal with the press well at all, they snuff out Ultima remakes, etc.

I'm just happy they're taking a bath on The Sims Online. :D

Not to mention their ruthless tactics in the console arena, refusal to support or equip people with the tools to make mods (although luckily there are some dedicated people out there to take care of this... for bf1942 at least), and downright awful customer support and interaction.

it is a damn shame because they publish many good games. one can only wonder though how much more enjoyable an experience their games would provide if they actually supported them and gave a damn about them.

 

[Spazmo]

What really gets me about EA is that little bit of CGI that shows their logo when you run a game. BF1942 v1.00 thru 1.02 had one of these, and it was a nice simple thing where the EA logo would sort of spin onto the screen with a nifty sound and you would then move on to the DICE logo. But with the 1.03 patch, they actualy bothered to include a new one, and it's really fucking annoying. You see the EA logo and hear a few people saying "EA Games" and then some stupid little fuck whispers "Challenge everything." It's an extremely annoying sound byte and I want to track down the kid who whispers at the end and gut him.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Not to mention their ruthless tactics in the console arena, refusal to support or equip people with the tools to make mods (although luckily there are some dedicated people out there to take care of this... for bf1942 at least), and downright awful customer support and interaction.

You know what gets me about that is that EA is one of the developers/publishers who stopped making Commodore Amiga games when Sega and Nintendo paid them not to make games for that platform. Where would EA have been without Commodore? If EA hadn't established itself on the Commodore64, it wouldn't be anywhere today. So, basically, they're one of the reasons Commodore died out.

it is a damn shame because they publish many good games. one can only wonder though how much more enjoyable an experience their games would provide if they actually supported them and gave a damn about them.

My wife buys Sims games and expansions, but personally, I can't recall the last time I bought an EA game.

 

[Spazmo]

While we're on the topic of EA, they've gone and announced another Sims expansion! The Sims: Superstar, which will no doubt include a whole new load of useless crap.