Are We There Yet?

It's been a busy time on the game demo front lately starting with the official release of Valve's Steam client. While the major download portals are still overloaded with people downloading Steam, game companies have decided to pile it on:

• Lord of the Rings: Return of the King - EA's 3rd installment in their cash cow (but lackluster) game trilogy based on the movies.
• Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring - an RTS game where you can play good or evil from the makers of Battle Realms. The graphical styles are very similar if you liked Battle Realms.
• Commandos 3: Destination Berlin - The latest in the Commandos series. I never played the second game (despite it's critical success), however I was a big fan of the original. Rumor is that gameplay has been tweaked quite a bit and stealth is a major factor in succeeding.

FilePlanet has a demo for Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown. My latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine had a video preview of the game (it's coming out for the major consoles as well) that highlighted the variety of gameplay modes featured in it. Among these different modes is seiging castles, jousting, sword fighting, and bow fighting. This is a re-make of the original (with Robin Hood thrown in for PR), which had quite the following in the middle 1980's.

The video on my DVD demo disc for the Xbox looked intriguing and the demo is on my "list" (along with a million others) to check out. The only thing that disappointed me in the video is the sword fighting sequence they continually showed. Probably about half of the 5 minute video featured Robin Hood sword fighting against various kronies in a variety of locations, but each sequence of Robin Hood's defend and attack moves was identical. It was disgusting to see him perform the same attack combo over and over. I sure hope that this was just a limitation of the build that was used to create the video.

I've been thirsting for a decent sword fighting combat engine for quite some time. Why? Because then it would be possible to make Highlander online. What a fantastic license this would be for a MMO, no? Imagine the possiblities. The developer could set up two different "realms". In one realm is where you would spend the majority of your time learning, fighting, and role-playing as you fight to become the next legendary Highlander of MacLeod proportions. In the other realm would be the on-going "There can be only one" tournament free-for-all. This realm would be like Hardcore mode in Diablo 2. You only get one chance. Lose and you're done until the tournament is over. The developers could hold these tournaments twice a year with some nifty prizes for the people who make it to the "end". The very thought of this fills me with all sorts of warm and fluffy feelings.

The question is, who could do it right?