Aye, Marlowe, I'm 45 and I found Mass Effect wasn't too bad. The pause feature that FrostMage mentioned may just be the ticket for you. I also suggest giving it another look. It's not the best game ever made, but it's pretty damned good.

I was quite aware of the pause feature. But unlike a similar feature in the Baldur's Gate, NWN, and KOTOR games, which allowed you to give strategic orders, the combat still remained twitch based and gamepad-centric (though I give Bioware credit for doing far more to adapt the game to the PC than most developers). I just don't like this type of combat and, frankly, I'm not very good at it. On the first planet I visited after leaving the Citadel (I think it was a side mission, but am not sure) I followed a long, narrow, and very linear path (did I say that I dislike Bioware's restricted environments?) until I came to a set piece at a camp in which I died almost immediately. I tried this several times with the same insta-death result and haven't played it again for some months. It's just a matter of taste and, although I realize I am in a minority of current gamers, those are mine. It's the same in MMOs--I can live without required and constant button mashing to use all the combat abilities they hand out now. I know that reviewrs love this stuff, but auto attack was always fine for this old EQ paladin.

Infinity (MMO), this I have looking forward to for very very long long long time now. I have follow the proces for about 3 years now and I'm really expects this would be THE game for me   

Infinity: The quest for Earth : http://www.infinity-universe.com/

Infinity looks very good. I love the concept art. I've noticed that there are lots of MMOs coming out, and many of them have a space theme. However, WoW is not declining in popularity so I think that many upcoming MMOs will fail. Hearts of Iron III looks cool. Is it a TBS game? does it have real-time combat?

I don't think the people that are attracted to WoW will usually be attracted to a space-MMO, just like people attracted to space-MMOs wouldn't be attracted to WoW.

That's like saying oranges are going to fail because apples are the most popular They certainly will not get WoW's numbers (except possibly The Old Republic), but they also don't need them to remain popular and viable. Just look at EVE - it only has like 50k concurrent players at the peaks, but it's survived for far longer than WoW and it's profitable.

Interesting. However, I think that only one or two space MMOs will have very high popularity . I hope SW:TOR will do well. My reference to WoW was mainly about Warhammer Online.

Hey, even Age of Conan is still alive. There are enough players to maintain these games so they haven't "failed" in that sense. You don't *have* to de-throne WoW to be successful.

But yes, just a few of the space MMOs will be popular. Jumpgate has a decent deal of hype around it and if it plays well it has a very good chance of coming out on top of the action-space-MMO genre. It's not going to draw the hardcore EVE crowd because EVE is not an action game. Black Prophecy, which I personally think has better potential than Jumpgate (it remains to be seen if it will realize it) isn't as well known and unless they start doing more marketing for it will largely slip under the mainstream radar.

The Old Republic isn't the same type of game as either, and it has the highest chance of drawing away from WoW because it's a similar type of game (ie character that runs around rather than ship in space) and let's face it, it's already hugely hyped. It just has to be good when it comes out.

Hearts of Iron III is like all Paradox strategy games (i.e., the Europa Universalis games, Rome, Victoria, the earlier HOI games) and, I believe, uses the current EUIII engine. Technically, it is not a TBS game since there are no turns per se and time moves on as you issue your commands and wait for the consequences to play out (you can vary the speed and all orders can be issued while the game is completely paused). Therefore, these games are sometimes described (even by Paradox marketing) as "real time" games, but they are in no way RTS games in the way that term is commonly understood. The games are at a strategic level, very deep and complex and have far more in common with TBS games than RTS games. Indeed, they have a very high learning curve and make TBS games like Civ IV or GalCivII look relatively simple in comparison. In reality, they are TBS games with a slightly different mechanic. Combat is technically in "real time" in that time moves on as the combat (which is in a complicated system of rounds) proceeds. Despite this, however, the combat is far more like Civilization than Total War. The player has no input or effect on combat once it commences.

But, I will like to see which game will de-throne WoW. It can't stay on top forever. I think SW:TOR has the best chance. Infinity, Black Prophecy and JG:E all look fairly similiar so I think that just one will succeed. I think that Black Prophecy is the best looking starship MMO. I'm skeptical about Star Trek Online.

So how do you win a battle? Is it based on chance , numbers, technology level etc. ? (I've looked for info on other sites, but they aren't very helpful when it comes to gameplay)

Games I'm salivating over and planning on getting (so long as they don't utterly suck): 

1.) Elemental

2.) War in the Pacific: Admirals Edition

3.) King Arthur

Games that -- while I'm not committed to getting yet -- definitely intrigue me:

1.) HoI 3

2.) Aphelion: Phoenix Rising

3.) Empires of Steel

Obviously, I have not played HOI III yet, but I expect it to play much like other Paradox games. Although details differ a bit between the games because of different historical eras, in a very general way, combat in thes games play out as follows: combat is in various rounds in which the two sides may alternate between attack and defense or fire and shock (melee). Casualties are taken each round and a unit retreats if its morale breaks. Everything is stat based and combat is influenced by factors such as the stats of the individual units involved, number of troops, terrain, tech level, the stats of the general or admiral (if any) commanding the army or navy. In addition, some randomness is thrown in via a die roll each round. Time passes during combat at the same variable rate set for the game as a whole and the game proceeds as the combat plays out; multiple combats can take place simulataneously in different provinces. The combat ends when all the troops/ships of one side are entirely destroyed (this rarely happens except in very lopsided battles) or (much more often) the morale of all the units on one side breaks and that army retreats. You can choose to watch the combat results play out in a window which shows a basic diagram of the units involved, various stats for each round as modified by the die roll, and casualties taken. The player has no input into the battle as it takes place. This works fine for me, since I dislike "twitch" games and am not a huge fan of traditional RTS games (though I like Sins). But if you are looking solely for Total War type battles, these are not the games for you. (I actually like the Total War games, though they are held in contempt by a sizable minority of posters on the Paradox boards, but I tend to autoresolve the battles far more often then I play them out.) if you have more questions on gameplay, I suggest asking on the Paradox boards--the community there is usually pretty friendly.

It's not time for it to get dethroned yet. SW:TOR may, but I doubt it. WoW is not old and stale enough yet to start dying. But Blizzard is already working on another MMO with a new IP, and after Lich King I actually doubt WoW will get many more expansions.

Once the development of it really slows down and less content is coming out, that's when something new can come in and suck away all the bored players who've done everything (and of those there will be many).

If SW:TOR starts off successful, then by the time WoW is in that phase it may actually be feature rich enough to grab those players. The main obstacle to de-throning the giant is just the amount of polish the game has gotten that any new release just can't match.

Waiting for:

Starcraft 2

Mass Effect 2

HL2: Episode 3

And of course the Sins expansions

And these are on the watch list, not assured buys though

Supreme Commander 2

Doom 4

None of these are exactly coming next week (except maybe the next Sins expansion ), so there's plenty of time to replay some old classic, starting with Ultimate Doom

I have seen vids of SC 2 and I am so not interested.... I can't believe the lack of progression, if I want retro I'd go play SC 1 again, what is everyone excited about?  I just don't need another C&C clone in my life.  It reminds me of Dune 2000, in development everyone was so excited "I can't wait to play Dune 2 with great graphics", when it was released everyone realised how much RTS had moved on since them days and it got panned.

Diablo 3 on the other hand.....now that I'd pay good money for.  A lot of why I loved WoW come from Diablo 2, can't wait to see how their experiences with WoW are gonna effect the quality of Diablo 3.

And how can you say Doom 4 isn't an assured buy?  Loved Doom 3!  <3 id

I know that, but you seem to know what your talking about. Sounds interesting as I have not played many Paradox games before.

Now that you mentioned I heard that Blizzard was actually going to make another WoW expansion. This might not true though. If you mean that WoW is not as old and stale as SC then your right, but very few games last as long as it has.

To be succesful, an MMO can't have very high system requirements I've heard that SW:TOR will have reasonably low minimum system requirements so that will only help it sell well.

I'm concerned about Cybranzilla in SuCom 2. Its a bit cheesy. It could work though.

SW:TOR from E3 actually looks like it's using an engine similar to the Knights of the Old Republic games, which makes sense on many levels. There's an E3 Live Demo movie on IGN that actually has a few frames of UI and the combat engine actually looks very similar, with those 3 bars you get for selecting attacks and such. So yes, TOR looks like it will have reasonably low requirements (and I'm assuming that engine is going to be beefed up a little bit).

I don't think after Age of Conan any developer is going to rush into making an MMO for high-end PCs

So i wasn't the only one! It isn't assured since i want to see what direction they are taking with it. If it's a remake of Doom 2, like Doom 3 was a remake of Doom, with bigger focus on fighting massive demon hordes, i'll be all over it

Starcraft 2 mainly for the story, and for the fact they are releasing the SP campaign as three different games. Such dedication for SP content, especially on RTS games, is becoming rare nowadays, and i for one applaud them for it

Ahem,

Halo ODST and Halo: Reach

Halo ODST being the first open environment open story in the Halo franchise so far, and Halo: Reach detailing one of the most catastrophic losses in the Human-Covenant War, leading up to the discovery of Installation 04.

Plus ODST has firefight, which is a better version of the lame 'Horde Mode' for Gear of War II.

I was looking forward to The Old Republic, but since the creators of the game desided to be lazy idiots and recycle old and obvious ideas, as well as indulge themselves in creative bankruptcy rather than actually come up with a new idea, I'm not anymore.

edit: and how could i forget the next Sins Expansion. I can't wait!

Apart from expansions, the full games I am looking forward to are:

Elemental

Starcraft II

Mass Effect 2 if the PC port is good

How could you know that? the game isn't even out yet. The devs have put more content into it then all previous Bioware games and expansions put together. What's this rant about ideas and creativity? Star Wars has been around since the late 70's, there isn't any truly fresh Star Wars ideas to come up with anymore.

All of their new ideas are used for Biowares other IPs like Mass Effect.  Star Wars is a very set franchise, so it has to follow certain criteria.  If you start changing it too much it becomes a totally new IP.  Sooo... I'm just hoping they are original in the gameplay and what not...

The trailer shows clone troopers. A Republic attack shuttle. Dozens of Revan ripoffs. Pellaeon Class Star Destroyers. Yet another Sith war.

Sound familiar? This is all 3000 years before the clone wars and the Legacy Era. They could't do any new character design or ship design?

Also, since the Star Wars franchise prides itself on continuity, and in fact is rabid in keeping everything canonical (which is admirable), this game comes as a surprise because it does not fit within the accepted and already set timeperiod!

Anyway, this thread is not for arguments.

Another game I'm looking forward to, and forgot to mention, is Half-life 3! Whenever it does come out...

Oh, and also Beyond the Red Line, even though it's fan made. Who could want more than a BSG space sim?

Is Beyond the Red Line even being developed still? I checked up on it a few months ago and all they had was an incomplete demo and it didn't look like it was being worked on.

I'm pretty sure it's still being worked on. Problem is, they're trying to convert a full game into a brand new one with a tiny team.
Even if it takes five years, I'm there. I'll take that Viper, thank you!

I'd say it's probably fits and starts. But of course, it comes out in two weeks!

..not

edit: Oh right, I think the demo is all fixed up now.