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So...
did a similar post last year, and only 2 of the 4 actually came out (and the two that did, Evil Genius 2 and Humankind, weren't very good).

So what's on anyone's wishlist for the coming year?

I was very intrigued by Weird West and it was coming out in 2 weeks, but last week it got pushed back a couple months into March. Which isn't a great sign. Not sure why the devs are calling it a 'Sim' rather than an 'RPG,' either since it looks and quacks like the latter.

Total Warhammer 3 is also on the list, another 2021 refugee.

Still somewhat interested in Alaloth (an action RPG from my list last year).
Its joined by Black Geyser, a Baldur's Gate style isometric RPG thats currently in early access (which means I'm waiting).

Old World (Civ, but strictly ancient world, interesting orders system rather than 1 move per unit) is escaping from an Epic Store monopoly.

The new WH40K: Chaos Gate is theoretically coming in 2022, but I won't hold my breath.

Ah, the remake of Master of Magic is coming, mostly visual and supposedly faithful to the original gameplay. I'm probably most excited about this one, though a lot of that is nostalgia. Not sure how the rights ended up where they did, since its being made by MuHa games, the folks behind Thea the Awakening and its sequel, rather than landing with Civ or Master of Orion or anything else out of Microprose. (apparently Slitherine nabbed it when Atari went belly up, and called up the MuHa folks).

---
Anything anyone else is looking forward to? And how many are release date refugees from this year or even 2020?

TW3 is going to be an easy win for CA unless there are severe bugs or AI issues. All they have to do is expand on WH2 and they've done a great job improving with each DLC.

I think Starfield comes out this year which will be the first different IP for Bethesda since F3 and their first original IP since TES: Arena? That'll be interesting.

Space Marine 2 is slated for early 2022, but we'll see if that actually happens.

There's also Rainbow Six Siege Extraction, which should be out around the end of January.

Frostpunk 2
Baldurs Gate 3
Total Warhammer 3
Ymir
Hyperbolica

Oh man, I was looking forward to Everspace 2, but it’s been pushed to 2023:(

TW: WH3 and the Witch Queen expansion for Destiny 2 are about the only things I know of that I actually want to get and even then it'll probably be at least a month post-release.
I'll continue to pick up HOI4 and Stellaris DLC's and packs when they're released but that's about it.

 Manchild 1984 wrote:
Frostpunk 2
Baldurs Gate 3
Total Warhammer 3
Ymir
Hyperbolica

BG3 has been out in early access since 2020.

trexmeyer wrote:

 Manchild 1984 wrote:
Frostpunk 2
Baldurs Gate 3
Total Warhammer 3
Ymir
Hyperbolica

BG3 has been out in early access since 2020.

Ymir is also in EA. But I don't count EA.

And you're right not to. BG3 is still a bit of a mess and they still haven't ironed out problems with the classes they started with (some subclasses, like the warlock GOO, still get nothing for picking that option). Rogues are just straight up missing basic functionality and class features, and sneak attack is an all-or-nothing shot, rather than an optional damage bonus on any one attack that does hit (which sounds minor, but dramatically changes the class in combat)

They also haven't (AFAIK) haven't gone for a balance pass on the monsters despite taking out a lot of the divinity style environmental damage exploits. So things like gnoll archers are hitting way above their weight class (and tabletop expectations). Random road monsters shouldn't be able to one shot party members on a whim.

They're supposedly shooting for 2022, but sound really uncertain about it.

Vincke says the developer is instead aiming for 2022, but even that isn't a full commitment on Larian's part for now.

https://screenrant.com/baldurs-gate-3-release-date-2022-developer-larian/

I'm mildly curious about Elden Ring.
Otherwise, I don't currently have much on my 2022 radar, mainly because I don't really remember what is coming out in 2022. Unless hoping for a PC release of Persona 5 Royal counts?

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
I'm mildly curious about Elden Ring.
Otherwise, I don't currently have much on my 2022 radar, mainly because I don't really remember what is coming out in 2022. Unless hoping for a PC release of Persona 5 Royal counts?

Oh, I forgot about Elden Ring. I see a lot of press about it... well, no. I see a lot of press about its pedigree.
Whenever I see something from the game itself, it looks like Generic Open World Game (with JRPG Giant Monsters). Like a Spooky Monster Hunter.

Voss wrote:

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
I'm mildly curious about Elden Ring.
Otherwise, I don't currently have much on my 2022 radar, mainly because I don't really remember what is coming out in 2022. Unless hoping for a PC release of Persona 5 Royal counts?

Oh, I forgot about Elden Ring. I see a lot of press about it... well, no. I see a lot of press about its pedigree.
Whenever I see something from the game itself, it looks like Generic Open World Game (with JRPG Giant Monsters). Like a Spooky Monster Hunter.

It's the most unimpressive hyped game I've seen in my life. I don't get it at all.

As someone who played Bloodborne and DS3 I get the hype of Elden Ring. What will really make it or break it for me though is the pvp. I spent more time in the earlier games in fight clubs than I did doing anything else.

I think Blood Bowl 3 is also due out next year. As for space marine 2....gut feeling says it won't meet the early 2022 release window.

Starfield may rival that as we get on towards November. (assuming they stick that date, which I really doubt)

They wave that 'first new IP in years' flag, but I expect basically the same old gameplay (despite the engine overhaul).

I fully expect to be stuck on the starting planet for a third of the game, then go McGuffin hunting on a desert planet, jungle planet, ocean world and a moon base, all while ignoring a bland story to go poking in all the corners.

It might be fun, but its going to take a lot to convince me they shouldn't have just done ES6 and/or FO5.

We'll see how ambitious they get with Starfield. The real question is how are they going to handle space travel. Is it going to be mostly just fast traveling between points, will there actually be "empty space?" between astral bodies. Will the various planets actually feel like planets, or will they feel like cramped maps once you get on the planet.

Pretty excited for Expeditions: Rome.

Previous entry in the Expeditions franchise, Viking, was a pretty good rpg/squad turn based game, and this looks to be more of that, except set in Roman times.

Drops Jan 22.

 Grey Templar wrote:
We'll see how ambitious they get with Starfield. The real question is how are they going to handle space travel. Is it going to be mostly just fast traveling between points, will there actually be "empty space?" between astral bodies. Will the various planets actually feel like planets, or will they feel like cramped maps once you get on the planet.

Supposedly the overall expanse of Starfield will be 12x the size of Skyrim, and because of engine updates, cities will be bigger and NPCs nebulously 'better.'
Some areas will be handcrafted but a lot will be procedurally generated, which is always worrisome

But honestly, for multiple planets, 12x the size of skyrim doesn't sound all that impressive. (Fallout 76 is apparently 4x the size of skyrim, if that's a useful reference point for... anyone. From videos I've seen, its mostly bland generic terrain, which is exactly what I expect from procedural generation).

Honestly I'm expecting a certain radius around a few space ports. If there are 6-12 planets, the maps will be reasonably big (to the point that it may be tiresome by the later planets). If there are 20+ planets, that 12xSkyrims will be carved up so much that the 'new universe' will feel tiny.

AC: Odyssey is apparently 90.7 square miles to Skyrim's 14.5. If Starfield is 12x that would be 174. AC:O is a big, big world.

trexmeyer wrote:

Voss wrote:

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
I'm mildly curious about Elden Ring.
Otherwise, I don't currently have much on my 2022 radar, mainly because I don't really remember what is coming out in 2022. Unless hoping for a PC release of Persona 5 Royal counts?

Oh, I forgot about Elden Ring. I see a lot of press about it... well, no. I see a lot of press about its pedigree.
Whenever I see something from the game itself, it looks like Generic Open World Game (with JRPG Giant Monsters). Like a Spooky Monster Hunter.

It's the most unimpressive hyped game I've seen in my life. I don't get it at all.

The reviewers are basically saying it's an open world of Dark Souls 3 with some tweaks.

Movement is a blend of DS3 and Sekiro.

PVP is still there with various flavors.

Itemizations seems to be kicked up by several notches that encourages more playstyles.

Basically, FromSoftware don't make horrible games so I'm cautiously optimistic with this one.

Just remembered that Darktide will also be released next year, hopefully, fingers crossed and all that.

They still say spring, so even if it does get pushed, it should still land in 2022.

I'm not particularly excited unless they make it clear that they've put work into a good single-player setup. The graphics make the models and map snippets look like they'd be interesting to explore

 Thargrim wrote:
As someone who played Bloodborne and DS3 I get the hype of Elden Ring. What will really make it or break it for me though is the pvp. I spent more time in the earlier games in fight clubs than I did doing anything else.

I think Blood Bowl 3 is also due out next year. As for space marine 2....gut feeling says it won't meet the early 2022 release window.

It’s certainly an interesting direction. Where Dark Souls is Berserk, Bloodborne is Lovecraft, and Seiko is (I believe) Eastern folklore, I wonder if Elden Ring will go in a similar direction to Exalted or Malazan.

I never understood why they decided to make a third Blood Bowl game. The first one was more or less complete, and the second one was kind of an updated version. Don’t get me wrong, it would be cool if this one turns out to be the best one yet. I’m just wondering where the devs could go to keep the experience fresh at this point.

 SkavenLord wrote:

 Thargrim wrote:
As someone who played Bloodborne and DS3 I get the hype of Elden Ring. What will really make it or break it for me though is the pvp. I spent more time in the earlier games in fight clubs than I did doing anything else.

I think Blood Bowl 3 is also due out next year. As for space marine 2....gut feeling says it won't meet the early 2022 release window.

It’s certainly an interesting direction. Where Dark Souls is Berserk, Bloodborne is Lovecraft, and Seiko is (I believe) Eastern folklore, I wonder if Elden Ring will go in a similar direction to Exalted or Malazan.

Martin keeps talking about it- its his take on Lord of the Rings.
But with weird giant monsters to spectacle fight, because of the game studio.

I think we get God of War Ragnarok this year?

I hope we do. The last one was loads of fun.

I thought ASOIAF was his take on LOTR. I guess he's doing another take?

GRRM being involved makes me kinda less interested, but the mechanics sound right up my alley for Elden Ring. And there was a time when I would have been incredibly hyped for Starfield, but Bethesda has a much less consistent record nowadays and FO4 in particular really disappointed me with how it was written and so on. If they make it a proper 'you can be anyone' space exploration game I will be pretty happy.

Something to keep in mind regarding Starfield and all Bethesda games going forward: Bethesda is owned by Microsoft now. That will likely have some influence on the development of the games and the quality of the release and support it gets. Even if Microsoft is giving them free reign right now, if Bethesda does nothing to improve its reputation as "Bugthesda", Microsoft will certainly do something about its investment.

 Da Boss wrote:
GRRM being involved makes me kinda less interested, but the mechanics sound right up my alley for Elden Ring. And there was a time when I would have been incredibly hyped for Starfield, but Bethesda has a much less consistent record nowadays and FO4 in particular really disappointed me with how it was written and so on. If they make it a proper 'you can be anyone' space exploration game I will be pretty happy.

Supposedly, Starfield will be more 'Hardcore RPG' than any Bethsoft game yet. And one of the major areas of engine improvements was NPCs, so...
We'll see. And we'll definitely see if that's actually an improvement. Their old attempts at hardcore RPG mechanics were incredibly backwards and terrible. The kind of thinking that led character builds to be centered around skills you didn't use (to better control leveling) and leaving a rock on the spacebar for 20 minutes so you could level up athletics.

----
Though... honestly from a writing perspective (not game mechanics), I'd call FO4 the best written so far. It was far too limiting in the character's origin (and the motivations kind of sucked for repeat playthroughs) and the main story was far too short (and consequences non-existant), but it was a long ways better than their usual mish-mashed mess of drivel where no-one has any real motivation and the characters are basically cardboard cutouts.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
Something to keep in mind regarding Starfield and all Bethesda games going forward: Bethesda is owned by Microsoft now. That will likely have some influence on the development of the games and the quality of the release and support it gets. Even if Microsoft is giving them free reign right now, if Bethesda does nothing to improve its reputation as "Bugthesda", Microsoft will certainly do something about its investment.

MS could start by firing the kappa emote

Voss wrote:

 Da Boss wrote:
GRRM being involved makes me kinda less interested, but the mechanics sound right up my alley for Elden Ring. And there was a time when I would have been incredibly hyped for Starfield, but Bethesda has a much less consistent record nowadays and FO4 in particular really disappointed me with how it was written and so on. If they make it a proper 'you can be anyone' space exploration game I will be pretty happy.

Supposedly, Starfield will be more 'Hardcore RPG' than any Bethsoft game yet. And one of the major areas of engine improvements was NPCs, so...
We'll see. And we'll definitely see if that's actually an improvement. Their old attempts at hardcore RPG mechanics were incredibly backwards and terrible. The kind of thinking that led character builds to be centered around skills you didn't use (to better control leveling) and leaving a rock on the spacebar for 20 minutes so you could level up athletics.

----
Though... honestly from a writing perspective (not game mechanics), I'd call FO4 the best written so far. It was far too limiting in the character's origin (and the motivations kind of sucked for repeat playthroughs) and the main story was far too short (and consequences non-existant), but it was a long ways better than their usual mish-mashed mess of drivel where no-one has any real motivation and the characters are basically cardboard cutouts.

Morrowind was more "hardcore" than anything they've done since and it was easily exploitable which is a common issue. I think even earlier Souls games have some absolutely broken builds. I know there is a similar issue with DA:I where certain builds can solo Dragons on max difficulty in seconds.

I'd say Morrowind was written better as far as the MQ and certain other quests go, but FO4 is excessively criticized. The MQ isn't amazing, but there a several fairly interesting NPCs and side quests, i.e. Cabot House, Dunwich Borers, Pickman Gallery, etc...and the flying museum ship that I forget the name of...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
Something to keep in mind regarding Starfield and all Bethesda games going forward: Bethesda is owned by Microsoft now. That will likely have some influence on the development of the games and the quality of the release and support it gets. Even if Microsoft is giving them free reign right now, if Bethesda does nothing to improve its reputation as "Bugthesda", Microsoft will certainly do something about its investment.

The real question is if they'll attempt to reign in some of the more risque elements of the modding community.