Games you're looking forward to this year

[Martok]

It's been a little while since we did one of these, so here we go!  (Of course, I doubt I'll end up getting them all, at least right away...) 



Fantasy strategy: 

Age of Wonders III
Worlds of Magic
Sovereignty: Crown of Kings
Warlock 2
Warhammer 40,000 Armageddon


Space 4x: 

Predestination
StarDrive 2
Distant Worlds: Universe
MORE
Star Lords
Horizon
GalCiv3


RPG:

Kingdom Come


Space sim:

Limit Theory


Other:

Mount and Blade 2




I'm sure I'm still forgetting a fair few titles, but that's at least a good starting list for now. 


(EDIT: Updated to add a couple titles.) 

[Greybriar]

I'm with you on Age of Wonders III and Worlds of Magic.

I am also looking forward to the release of Wasteland 2.

[TheCommandTent]

I'm with you on Age of Wonders III and Worlds of Magic.

I am also looking forward to the release of Wasteland 2.

+1 for Wasteland 2.  I am looking forward to seeing a return on my Kickstarter investment.

[bbmike]

The list so far:

Age Of Wonders III
Brother Against Brother
Galactic Civilizations 3
Worlds of Magic
Out of the Park Baseball 15
Gridiron Solitaire
Warlock 2: The Exiled
Tropico 5
East vs. West – A Hearts of Iron Game
Making History: The Great War
Dead State
UFO2Extraterrestrials: Battle for Mercury
(in addition I'm also closely monitoring all the Space 4x games)  8)

And a bonus list of games that somebody should really make for 2014. Or anytime soon. Tomorrow would be good:  :P

Imperialism III
Starfleet Battles: Hex Turn Based
Age of Rifles II
A Good PC American Football Game
Forge of Freedom II
Birth of the Federation II

[Swatter]

"A Good PC American Football Game"

Our beloved NFL has helped EA create a monopoly which has destroyed all graphical competition. We won't see any new football franchises until the NFL rethinks its licensing approach. Its tough for a major player in the video game industry to undertake such a risky proposition of creating a football game with generic teams, and mucho potential legal trouble if your users start modding the game to take NFL teams. EA has the market and we must live with that.

[Gusington]

Wings! remastered for the PC.

[MetalDog]

I don't keep up with upcoming releases.  I get all my info here at Grogheads.  But I do know that Warlock 2 will be out this year and I am REALLY looking forward to that!  :)

[Grim.Reaper]

"A Good PC American Football Game"

Our beloved NFL has helped EA create a monopoly which has destroyed all graphical competition. We won't see any new football franchises until the NFL rethinks its licensing approach. Its tough for a major player in the video game industry to undertake such a risky proposition of creating a football game with generic teams, and mucho potential legal trouble if your users start modding the game to take NFL teams. EA has the market and we must live with that.

Not to hijack the thread, but what I have always found interesting is football games (and other sport games) do exist out there with real player names and such and I doubt each of them have a license with the NFL.  Not sure how they do it....examples....ActionPC Football, Second and Ten Football, Strat-o-matic, football mogul, front office football, etc.  Each of these also allow the person to mod the game to include logos and such too.  So if they are able to do it, not sure why it is impossible to imagine a text-sim company coming up with a good career based sim and not be fearful of the NFL license issue?  Don't get me wrong, I don't anticipate anybody coming up with one soon, just not sure it is all because of the NFL license issue.

This is a football game I am keeping my eye on as well....
http://footballgeneralmanager.wordpress.com/

[Nefaro]

"A Good PC American Football Game"

Our beloved NFL has helped EA create a monopoly which has destroyed all graphical competition. We won't see any new football franchises until the NFL rethinks its licensing approach. Its tough for a major player in the video game industry to undertake such a risky proposition of creating a football game with generic teams, and mucho potential legal trouble if your users start modding the game to take NFL teams. EA has the market and we must live with that.

Not to hijack the thread, but what I have always found interesting is football games (and other sport games) do exist out there with real player names and such and I doubt each of them have a license with the NFL.  Not sure how they do it....examples....ActionPC Football, Second and Ten Football, Strat-o-matic, football mogul, front office football, etc.  Each of these also allow the person to mod the game to include logos and such too.  So if they are able to do it, not sure why it is impossible to imagine a text-sim company coming up with a good career based sim and not be fearful of the NFL license issue?  Don't get me wrong, I don't anticipate anybody coming up with one soon, just not sure it is all because of the NFL license issue.

This is a football game I am keeping my eye on as well....
http://footballgeneralmanager.wordpress.com/

It's just lawyer legalese and loopholes.   All those games you mentioned do not come with official logos & such.  The argument for the player names may not hold up in court since the games all include name randomizers that also place the same first & last names together.  Besides, I don't think there are IP rights to people's names being used, otherwise news services everywhere would be getting sued.  I'm sure the NFL or the players association has probably attempted to place copyright or some other bullshit claims on the use of names.  Hell, EA pretty much stated they own the rights to the term "Battlefield" which is goddamn ridiculous, so I wouldn't put it past any of them.

They don't have to worry about what end users mod into their games since the dev/publisher had nothing to do with it.  That's why we have to mod the real logos & such in.  The NFL and others in the same situation don't bother spending the time & money trying to prosecute individuals for using their IPs for themselves.   

So this begs the question.  Should we feel like criminals now for using their IP symbols and franchise names for personal uses?  I mean.. by some people's definition this is outright theft since they weren't purchased, right?

[Swatter]

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you can use player names and stats, because I don't think you can claim history as IP.

The thing, especially if your talking about a game with high production values, is that people want the whole package. Demand for a game without logos and pictures would probably be weak, relatively speaking. That's why we probably won't see the whole package: awesome graphics, authentic NFL experience, and a realistic game resolution engine. That is, until the NFL sets the bar a little lower and ends EA's monopoly. EA is evil! I am almost sure Lucifer himself took over the company years ago.

I am not crazy about text games. I am very tempted to write my own football graphics engine, but coupling that with a career mode worth playing is the tricky part. Some of these text football franchises that have been around forever, I can't understand why they haven't added a graphical resolution component. Its not THAT hard.

[Kushan]

I must be the only one who isn't looking forward to Age of Wonders 3 and GalCiv 3.

The List

Distant Worlds Universe
Hegemony Rome
Brother vs Brother
Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls
Wasteland 2
Xenonauts

The Maybe List

Titanfall
The Division
Destiny
Dragon Age 3

"A Good PC American Football Game"

Our beloved NFL has helped EA create a monopoly which has destroyed all graphical competition. We won't see any new football franchises until the NFL rethinks its licensing approach. Its tough for a major player in the video game industry to undertake such a risky proposition of creating a football game with generic teams, and mucho potential legal trouble if your users start modding the game to take NFL teams. EA has the market and we must live with that.

EA's contract with the NFL is up this year. It is possible that the NFL will choose to no longer give EA exclusive rights.

[jomni]

This is not really a game but an add-on:
I am waiting for the PMDG 777 for Prepar3d

[JudgeDredd]

I don't "know" of any games coming out this year. I really don't. That doesn't mean I won't buy any...just that I'm "out the loop" regarding what's coming out.

I used to look forward to releases. Reading up on them and sucking in all the info I could find. Now I just see a release and buy it if it's something I want.

[undercovergeek]

im fairly confident this year could be my year of catching up and getting dedicated to a few favourites - theres nothing really setting fire to the horizon, this time last year im sure we were all watching Rome II and its progress - this year its 'i might like the look of' more than 'FETCH ME MY CREDIT CARD'

but i do like the look of Massive Chalice, Banished, WG: Red Dragon, and Warlock II - which is a lot more fantasy than i expected!

id like to say Elite too but i dont know how much is nostalgia

[KyzBP]

Three of my Kickstarter investments are due to come online this year:

Wasteland 2
Dead State
Xenonauts

I took Wasteland 2 for a spin last month and can see that it's going to be a winner.  They need to clean up the UI a bit but it should be a good one.  Xenonauts will be good also.  I just hope the troops can be modded a bit.  They're a little rough to look at IMO.