"Sigh". Black Ops, black ops, black o........ Enjoy, Gentlemen. Gutshot, out....

I think that the offer of Battlefield 3 beta means it doesn't look good.

It could be that they simply want pre-order figures up, but the cynic in me says the game won't get that good a review, which is why they are using this heavy-weight bribe.

(I went for it of course, if BF3 comes out I so want a piece

MoH who?

I hear ya. I wish it would be the game, but it won't. Well, I can still be anti-COD and have some fun with BC2 and have some server host choices. At least I don't have to deal with VAC! muhahahahaha!

Gutshot, So what exactly are you looking for in an FPS and what do u consider to be your favourite all time FPS ? if your flaming the new titles

Sorry to flame 'em. I don't mean to come off negative all the time. The latest trends in PC gaming have left me cynical about new ones. Those are good questions though. Thanks for asking. I consider you guys the Guru's of PC gaming.

I would be happy with a PC FPS that had some of the "traditional" features of older titles, combined with a Frostbite and/or Cryengine-like gameplay and video card stressing capability (scalable of course). It should have server files, server rental choices, Punkbuster, be moddable, have both team based and ffa dm game modes, and cause our community to rally around it because we love it, not because it's the only new game to look forward to. If I were King, my perfect FPS would be COD4 features (traditional stuff), combined with the bone crushing gameplay and look of BC2, combined with the extremely fast paced action of Crysis.

As far as my all time favorite goes, I have 3. MoHAA, COD4, and Crysis.

I apologize to all if I sound like I just enjoy flaming. I didn't realize that I was getting so negative. I get frustrated when our community continually goes to these devs with hats in hands, almost begging them to deliver a product we can enjoy owning and paying for. When it doesn't happen, we still rally around the new game and try our best to keep a stiff upper lip, and justify ourselves crazy into why we should buy it anyway. Bottom line in my humble opinion is, that, if we value our hobby, then we should start to spend our hard earned cash on products that are put out by companies that actually want our business, like the creators of Red Orchestra. Companies like EA and Activision are not going to tailor their products for us anymore, not ever.

I believe COD BO is evil because it's business as usual for Activision, and once again there were strings attached. Everybody was pumped about it, then, as I figured they would, the strings appeared. Plus it's 2010 and they expect me to shell out $60 for a DX9 game. I think MoH 2010 is a sad deal because it has so much potential to be as great or greater than MOHAA, but instead it'll fail miserably. Why? because they tried to copycat other games instead of making it a unique product. The beta was horribly boring in most people's opinions. The latest videos show that it probably is still boring. But, I guess we'll see. Still, I don't personally know even one person that is looking forward to it.

Anyway, thanks for reading my long winded post. Sorry it was so long.

Yeah, I think the "blockbuster" games are getting like Microsoft did with Vista. They knew it would sell, so designed it to keep their friends happy (ie require new computers, loads of ram and initially completely new monitors - and don't get me started on the DRM stuff they tried putting in).

I think good games are made because people want to make them/have something to prove.

I agree with GutshotYooper that CoD 4 was one of the best, that and BF2/2142 for games designed to be brilliant rather than "just another copy".

I think if the companies just tried to make a great game rather than money it would be something special. It would also be good if they designed it with PC in mind and scaled back for console.

So if your biggest customer was GM motors and your less (least?) profitable, most vocal customer was "Derek the part-time inventor from anytown, somecountry" you'd design parts to fit him and ignore GM or would you concentrate most of your energy, design consepts and development plans for what GM might be needing and just keep an eye on "Derek" in case his work turns out to be commercially interesting?

Corporate have taken over. Like it or lump it. Money makes the world go around and so some things we just have to learn to live with. Consoles, commercially, rule the gaming industry. I don't like it any more than any of you. In fact it sux big time. To think that our pc's are getting dumbed down versions so console sales won't be affected...

Indie developers have "Derek" as their number one customer. I don't know this but I am pretty sure there are a number of paragrahps and clauses in any contract with e.g. Xbox Live that make producing games (for some) not viable and so they take their time and make it a labour of love rather than a commercial "rush and sell".

GWIZ42; it would be nice but it's not gonna happen.

No, I get that they want to make money etc and it's not about just listening to the most vocal minority.

What I don't like is that games/software and most things these days are designed almost by marketing not for purpose. Eg they used to make a car go as fast as it can with the parts/cost it had. Now you get things like the Porsche Caymen where it costs like halfway between 911 and boxter. Then the power/braking etc is halfway.

So instead of trying to make a great game and sell it, the larger companies are trying (almost) to do the least amount of work/cost to make a huge sum of money.

BFBC2 is a great example of this. Great core game, but almost no maps (game modes don't really count), no real server control and very low support. Then things like no modding so the game has a shorter shelf life and they can guarantee add on packs etc

When you do things that make a product worse just to benefit yourself, that's when games are marketing driven, rather than content driven.

Not gonna argue with that. 100% agree.

As long as the console crowd (ignorant parents?) buys and buys and pays and pays there's not a lot left for us. Like the Caymen, it's a brand thing rather than actual quality or even value for money. Perhaps it is the ease of access that makes it such a "valued service". Dunno myself. It's all in the eyes of the beholder of course, but I think on this one most BASH'ers would agree; quality over quantity anytime.