Blue Chamber

RockPaperShotgun's enormo-list of PC games to watch out for in 2012 went up a couple of days ago. I'm re-posting it here primarily to keep it somewhere handy and easily accessible for myself (You don't want to see the mess my browser bookmarks are in) but I have a few thoughts on the list that I'd like to add, as well as some thoughts about a couple of games that aren't mentioned.

HERE'S THE LIST IN FULL
...and here are my thoughts.

I spent a small fortune on games last year, particularly after I stopped working at the end of May. Not so many full price titles, you'll be glad to hear; having a keen eye for a bargain I favoured buying mine through loads of deals, bundles and special offers, or simply waiting until they came down in price enough. Like most gamers I have quite a few games sitting in my Steam account that I haven't actually gotten around to playing yet!

This year I'd like to take a step back from that. I don't want to give games up but I do want them to play less of a role in my life, to make room for other things. That's going to be difficult, however, looking ahead and seeing what's going to be released this year! I'd like to share a few of them with you now.

Carrier Command: Gaea Mission

The original Carrier Command was released multi-platform on 8 and 16-bit machines waaay back towards the end of Margaret Thatcher's rein of terror over the UK (1988, to be precise). To say it was "unique" or "revolutionary" was to vastly under-compliment it, a fact that becomes all the more astonishing when you consider that no-one in the 20+ years afterwards ever attempted to replicate it....until now.

It had a simple premise. You are in Command of a Carrier - not just a clever name - loaded with a quad-complement of Mantas (small fighter planes) and Walruses (amphibious, all-purpose rovers). your task is to secure a network of approximately 40 islands by building factories and bases on them to create a logistics network. Meanwhile, another, evil carrier would start off at the opposite end of the chain and try to do the same. There could be only one...

The execution of this idea was flawless, great fun, and probably far ahead of it's time. The shipboard systems were simple, yet powerful. The evil carrier could put up a hell of a fight. I loved it to pieces.

I don't actually know much about the sequel but I await word with great, glistening strings of slobber hanging from my frothing lips.

Thief 4

Oh, how I love the Thief games! While most game series' have the player running around killing everything frantically and more-or-less indiscriminately, killing people in the Thief games in perhaps the very worst thing you can do. It's certainly possible, but much more difficult that in other games and deeply frowned upon; the greatest honour comes from slipping in to your destination, divesting them of anything even remotely valuable, and slipping out again all without spilling a single drop.

This is a game [series] about tension. About patience. About moving only when the time is right. About concealing yourself in shadow while a guard walks past you close enough for you to lift the key/coin-purse from his belt, then sluipping up behind him and coshing him unconscious, only to stow his recumbent body in shadow so that no-one else finds him...

These games also build a rich and compelling world for you to play in. The character you play, Garrett, is one of gaming's most fantastic and indelible creations. The pseudo-medival world he lives in merely the backdrop for a fabulous, larger-than-life cast to inhabit.

Every single one of these cut-scenes is a masterwork in itself. The animation, glorious. The voice-acting, wondrous. This is the one in the first game where Garrett loses his eye. Or, more accurately, has it taken from him... Don't worry, though! He has a fab new tricksy metal-and-glass eye in game 2!
Original developers of Thief 1 & 2, Looking Glass software, collapsed just prior to the millennium (sniff). Thief 3: Deadly Shadows was a fine sequel from the similarly defunct Ion Storm. This new one is being made by Eidos Montreal. There's always concern that a new development studio won't quite get what makes the series work, but having seen the fine job Eidos Montreal did on Deus Ex: Human Revolution we legions of fans may be forgiven for breathing a little easier.

Cannot wait for this one!

X: Rebirth

I have a bit of a Marmite history with this one: Love, then hate, then love, than hate....the game is based on the model created by the ancient classic game, Elite, that cast you into space with just a few credits (space currency) to your name, and let you choose to trade, fight or work your way to fortune and glory. The X series offers you the same, essentially, but with several quirks that have so far worked hard to annoy me. They restrict your travel to 'town-square' sectors linked by jumpgates at one or all four of the cardinal compass points. Your ships are slow. Everything is REALLY expensive, and owning fleets of ships requires putting so much effort into becoming a corporate mogul, owning stations, factories and fleets of Trading agents, that you may as well do it in real life and have some actual reward.

On the other hand...just look at it! It's space-porn! *dribbles into lap*


Rebirth has me more excited than most of these games because developers Egosoft have decided to rebuild the game from the ground up, making some enormous changes along the way. Since their first game, X: Beyond the Frontier, released in 1999, every release since then has basically been the same game engine with upgrades, building upon the shoulders of the last game. That Rebirth is promising something new is very exciting! They claim to have an eye on making things easier for new players to get into, while also keeping the depth these games are famous for, so I'm fascinated - and a bit thrilled - to see what this actually means for the gameplay experience.

Oh, and did I mention it's gorgeous?