I was reading Steinmeyer’s article in the latest CG about the demise of 2d engine games… pretty sad. I then looked at a stack of cd cases next to my pc… OFP, Warcraft 3, MW, GTA3, Mafia, MTW and EE all 3d. Only AoW2 and WBC2 were the 2d games I play much. It does look like all devs are going 3d. Are there ANY upcoming 2d games worht noting? I mean big commercial games? I can’t think of any right now. Pretty sad!
etc
There’s a whole slew of them that people are buying in droves. They’re all on the Gameboy Advance.
–Dave
You know what? Console games probably DO have more 2d games available these days. Just a thought. I prefer good games. Dont matter if they are 2d or 3d. But some games just play out better in 2d imo. Like I’d rather have a detailed 2d game than a ‘generic’ looking 3d game. I mean, I like WBC2 over War 3 in that regard.
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I agree with you 100%. 3D is still a buzzword to some degree. If your game is not 3D, it’s “old”. That’s probably not going to change until we max out 3D tech. My biggest complaint is that we could have even more detailed 2D than ever before given today’s systems, and yet hardly anyone is exploring it.
I’d give anything for a true next generation 2D platform game like a Sonic or Mario using today’s technology and expanding on yesterday’s game concepts. You could speculate that the Dreamcast will probably be the last great system for 2D gaming and you’d probably be right in that prediction.
–Dave
I’d think the Gameboy Advance is the last great 2D system.
Cell phones.
Yes, the GBA is the last great 2D system.
What great games have been released for my cellphone? Did I miss them? </sarcasm>
Not until we get a heartier platform to work on with cellphones… then we’ll have remakes of every great game to hit nintendo/sega in the past.
I wouldn’t be so sure… the next Gameboy will likely be a 32-bit era device so the possibility of seeing a lot of top notch 2D games on there still exists. I’d love to be able to take the greatest shooters/fighters/etc. of the 32-bit generation on the road.
I’d much rather see original products created in 2D, but it seems like it’s much easier to just update the SNES library instead.
–Dave
If you can look past its name, Divine Divinity is a 2D RPG (for the PC) that’s worth keeping an eye out for. It should hit shelves sometime later this month, or early next. There’s a demo floating around the Net if you want to give it a try, but be warned… it’s 400MBs!!!
Personally, I’m not so fond of some of the monster designs, but the game world – especially the bits inside of buildings and castles, where food, plates, wine glasses, etc. litter the landscape – is stunning. Better still, not unlike Morrowind, a lot of these seemingly insignificant items can be picked up and moved… (and used!)
-Vede
Hey, I was responding to a post that said “…Gameboy Advance is the last great 2D system.” I didn’t say “cell phones are currently the best place to play 2D games”. Damn.
Well, Ultima VII did all that stuff ten years ago.
Speaking of which: A typical PocketPC - an iPaq for example - has faster processor than we played Ultima VII on, the same resolution (but higher-color capabilities), digital sound, and enough RAM to store the entire game and saves. And the totally mouse-driven interface would make it quite playable with a stylus. There’s a project out there to port Ultima VII to modern Windows, oh please oh please, let them do a version for PocketPC and the upcoming PalmOS 5 devices! Talk about a game to kill those long plane rides…
I’m curious about Divine Divinity, if for no other reason than because it has the worst name I’ve heard in a long time.
As for 3D/2D… well, when fooling around with Age of Mythology I was pretty surprised how closely it resembles the excellent 2D art from Age of Kings. Clearly, that level of detail is now possible with moderate 3D hardware. But I really miss the art style of a lot of 2D games. I was playing some Metal Slug 3 the other day, and it just looks cool. It’s not like any other game. If they did a 3D Meal Slug they could certainly keep the gameplay the same (see the upcoming PS2 Contra game), but it wouldn’t look right. I don’t want a 3D Metal Slug, I want a 2D Metal Slug with higher-res graphics and more animation frames! (note: I haven’t heard anything about a 3D Metal Slug. I’m just saying.)
I agree. I’d like to see more done with high quality 2D graphics myself, especially in tactical/RPG games. There’s subtleness and detail in many of these older titles that just doesn’t come across very well, yet, in 3D graphics.
[quote="Mike Cathcart Hey, I was responding to a post that said “…Gameboy Advance is the last great 2D system.” I didn’t say “cell phones are currently the best place to play 2D games”. Damn.[/quote]
And I was just saying I don’t know if cell phones will ever be there… maybe once they merge with PDAs or take on some other functionality, but just adding the system requirements for games to a cell phone isn’t going to work now. It seems a longshot that we’ll be getting lcds big enough to play real games on anytime soon, for instance.
Can a game overcome being 2D? Two words:
The Sims
(Oh, wait, you said “game.” :twisted: )
Roller Coaster Tycoon is another example. And I think it’s probably safe to say Sims Online and RCTycoon 2 will be hits. Civilization III did well. Though Sid Meier told me they licensed NetImmerse because (paraphrased) 3D is finally viable for the kinds of games we (Firaxis) make.
Age of Mythology and Rise of Nations both are good arguments in the pro-3D category IMO. I can’t believe how detailed Rise of Nations looked at Gen Con. You would swear it’s 2D until you rotate and zoom a bit.