Rise of Nations goes Arcanum

[roguefrog]

Click for screens.
Click for more screens.
Click for questions.

:shock: I didn't see this one coming.

 

[EEVIAC]

I'm sold. Its not scheduled until Spring 2006, unfortunately.

 

[Greatatlantic]

Whoa, Troika (or Sierra, or Vivendi Universal, or somebody), ought to sue! Or, maybe hire the Troika as consultants. Whatever, I'm looking forward to it (or am interested enough to keep track of its progress with out any pre-disposed belief that it will be a quality title).

 

[Kthan75]

Sounds nice!
Rise of Nations was the only AoE type RTS I ever enjoyed and now, combined with Arcanum... It has potential, I'll say that!

 

[Flink]

I think it looks great. Can't wait.

 

[space captain]

its a bastardization of the steampunk genre, just like Arcanum was.... but it is quite similiar

troika wasnt exactly the first to combine magic and tech

 

[Sol Invictus]

Whoa, Troika (or Sierra, or Vivendi Universal, or somebody), ought to sue! Or, maybe hire the Troika as consultants. Whatever, I'm looking forward to it (or am interested enough to keep track of its progress with out any pre-disposed belief that it will be a quality title).

I'd assume you're kidding, but given the content of your statement I won't, and assume you're ignorant, so instead I'll ask you why you think they should sue given that neither Troika (nor Sierra nor VU) created the steampunk genre? Hiring Troika as consultants for an established general setting like steampunk is similar to the 'reaction' some of you had with the development of Fallout 3.

That said, I am very looking forward to this game. I hope that they adapt a lot of the ideas in China Mieville's books, which tend to be about war, conquest, independence and all degree of politics. It would be fantastic to sort of 'recreate' the New Crobuzon Militia, or the Tesh and their unnatural weapons.

I've always been a big fan of steampunk settings and their variants, enjoying many books ranging from authors like the aforementioned China Mieville, and Terry Pratchett who often incorporates steamwork or clockwork engines into his books. It'd be great to play a real time strategy game based in the setting. One of my favorite shows on TV, Alias, has a 'da Vinci' (Milo Rambaldi) over-arcing plot, which is pretty great.

 

[Sol Invictus]

By the way, there's a rumor that Big Huge Games licensed the Unreal 3 Engine for the development of a fantasy themed RPG. The 'questions' page mentions that Rise of Legends could become a new series, so it's entirely possible that they've already signed Microsoft on as the publisher of the upcoming RPG of the same setting. :D

 

[AdrianWerner]

By the way, there's a rumor that Big Huge Games licensed the Unreal 3 Engine for the development of a fantasy themed RPG. The 'questions' page mentions that Rise of Legends could become a new series, so it's entirely possible that they've already signed Microsoft on as the publisher of the upcoming RPG of the same setting. :D

Link?
Anyway, MS does own 20% of BGH, so they're most likely publisher for all their games.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Now, that does look very cool.

 

[Astromarine]

Sol, try this out: it's a SP comic by Phil Foglio that is now being (slowly)npublished online: http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/

 

[Sol Invictus]

I'll check it out. Thanks Astro.

 

[Greatatlantic]

Yeah, I was kidding, and it was late at night, happy? Well, not about the being interested part. Though where I got the sueing part is those screenshots gave me some Arcanum vibes, though it could just have been late.

 

[xemous]

I'll be picking this up for sure.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

This looks friggin sweet!

 

[Elwro]

I agree; looks great.

 

[LlamaGod]

its a bastardization of the steampunk genre, just like Arcanum was.... but it is quite similiar

Arcanum was a sub-genre, tardo.

Anyways, interesting for a steampunk RTS. Hopefully it doesnt suck dong like RoN did.

 

[roguefrog]

Arcanum is to Steampunk what Shadowrun is to Cyberpunk

I wouldn't go so far to say Arcanum was a sub-genre nor is it a bastardization. Excessive classification. After all Steampunk can have fantasy elements, gothic horror elements, a Western theme oppose to Victorian, etc...

 

[DIPthong]

cool...

Makes me wish I didn't hate RTS games...

 

[chaedwards]

Re: cool...

Makes me wish I didn't hate RTS games...

Ditto

 

[Lady Armageddona]

Makes me wish of buying a new system ...

OR a X-Box360° ...

 

[Mulciber]

This looks quite cool, but I really wonder why developers need to add dragons and orcs and such into a game to make it "steampunk". I'd like to see one based off of "The Age of Unreason" series by J. Gregory Keynes instead (Newton's Cannon was the first book). All of the cool tech in it was based off of phlostigon, harmonic resonances and the like and the international warfare aspect is already there.

 

[space captain]

damn I got more than my fill of RTS back in '97 - same with Diablo and "diablo type" games

 

[Spazmo]

OR a X-Box360° ...

They should have made it Xbox2pi for the math cred.

 

[Lady Armageddona]

I don't give a damn what its called as long it provides sufficient horse power so I could play games I want to and cannot cause my PC sucks.