LeHah said:
Otherwise, you're telling me that reading cereal boxes is better than watching The Seven Samurai or The Sorrow And The Pity.
I was going to go with the History Channel or the Learning Channel or something myself, but yeah - I think you made a good point there, LeHah. There are brilliant and foolish people who read books or watch TV day in and day out. I'm not going to pass judgment on anybody for doing anything. Just know (if you must) that I'm one of these TV and Internet blockheads (sorry - I think I just have too much ADD to sit and read a book; I sit utterly dumbfounded by and with some level of admiration for the people who can, honestly!).
For all the Arena naysayers who are being cut to ribbons out there, just a friendly reminder that this isn't exactly the most unbiased place to diss a potential future Wing Commander game in any format!
It'd be like arguing the passage of a new edict or religious doctrine in Christianity, standing in front of the Vatican, and trying to lambast the Pope over it. Mind you, the whole purpose of forums is indeed to discuss and debate things, I realize. I'm just throwing out a friendly reminder not to feel too upset if you get more than an earful back over picking such a fight.
I'm personally taking the whole "wait and see" with a leaning towards "hopeful" in regards to Arena. The fact that it's something new rather than a recycled old concept is something in and of itself to get excited about, in my opinion. As always, WCNews is right on top of things in reporting all things Wing Commander and similar concepts going on in the gaming world, and when there was talk of some other things in the past few years (Prophecy on Gameboy Advance & a collection of games in a Replay package for PSP? - please correct me if I'm wrong), I remained hopeful like everybody else here, but didn't think much of it. Because Arena is something new (even if it's not in the kind of prepackaged thing on the shelf complete with a full-length video thrown in with it), I think the naysayers all need to try to be a bit more positive.
My own hope is that player interest here will reignite the series. I agree that from the gameplay videos I've seen, it doesn't appear to have the 3-dimensional freedom of movement as previous games (for some design concept of what I'm referring to in terms of an XBox game, I'd throw around the name "Crimson Skies" as an example of more freedom in vertical movements with a special maneuver system built in), but that doesn't mean that Arena won't be fun or have tons of replay value.
I have seen games with beautiful graphics, but shoddy gameplay that makes the experience completely worthless. But you're also looking at a guy who could conceivably get countless hours of gaming enjoyment out of a furious game of Pong too.
From what I've seen in video clips of Arena, it looks like a fun concept with lots of fast action and multiple game types with some rather pretty explosions in a multiplayer setting. I mean, come on! They'd have to try really hard to make that NOT fun, I think!
So yeah, the gameplay looks like it's going to be different than what a lot of us Wing Commander kiddies are used to in ages past, but I don't think that's any reason to not embrace Arena as a welcome addition to a series we've all been starved to see some kind of interest and continuance in for years. Even if it turns out to be as simplistic as some people here are fearing (though I've seen LOAF and some of the others argue at length otherwise), it can still be done in just the right way to make for a thrilling experience. And the fact that it's built to be a multiplayer experience...honestly, it seems to me like they're putting their feelers out, and if Arena does as well as is hoped, I dare say that Wing Commander's potential future (as likely as all potentially successful future franchises) will be in terms of what it can bring to the community in terms of a thoroughly hashed-out multiplayer experience.
I've been an XBox owner for the past five years plus because I simply like the console and the lineup of games. I've never had XBox Live. Now Arena has me squirming in my seat and seriously trying to come up with a reason not to finally get connected!
Remain optimistic, fellow Confed and cat pilots!
- FireFalcon
