Timmaigh

Gamescom was packed this year, literately, they closed the doors today because the building was full of people. I wasn't really expecting the new C&C game to be revealed, it's going to be very socially inclined anyway, I just hope they don't make another Lords of Ultima. Although Van Caneghem was heading up the project last time I heard, in February, and I trust that man with just about anything.Didn't even know about the new Relic RTS, honestly.

The bits I liked so far were:

• War of the Roses from Paradox Interactive and Fatshark, sort of like Mount&Blade but more action oriented and with a persistent upgrade system for the multiplayer
• Wildstar, the new MMO from Carbine and NCsoft seems interesting, as long as they don't pull the plug on it, like NCsoft does with all it's interesting MMOs
• The Secret World had a new cinematic trailer that was just plain amazing, and Ragnar said that Dreamfall Chapters isn't dead, it's still coming
• I know Hitman 5 was there, but I don't know for sure what they presented
• The gameplay trailer for the Battlefield 3 multiplayer looked great
• They way Ken Rolston presented Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning really got me interested in the game
• Diablo 3 of course was already on the top of my list
• They only had a few screenshots from Dishonored, but they look intriguing 
• Risen 2 is shaping up great
• World of Warplanes looks nice (they also announced World of Battleships)

Things I was expecting but didn't happen:

• More Magicka from Paradox and Arrowhead
• New Ultima
• A reason why EA recently re-registered Alpha Centauri
• Ubisoft announcing a proper Might and Magic Game 
• The Marketing people from EA and Activision didn't start a fight in the middle of the convention center(but they did sling words)
• World of Planes wasn't shown(entirely different game from WoWarplanes)
• Marvel vs Capcom 3 for the PC wasn't announced
• No sign of a new Syndicate game, the one that sort of stinks that's being worked on now
• Square Enix didn't announce another Legacy of Kain game or Anachronox 2(although that's been getting me down for about a decade now)

Wasn't there in person. I hope to get there one of these days. It's not really that far.. well, it is, but it's the closest big game expo, well, no, Igromir is closer, but I don't speak the language. In any case, this year's Gamescom didn't disappoint as much as much as this year's E3. 

Words of wisdom, have to do it this way myself, as these days, more often than not, i end up disappointed.

Relic's next RTS has already been announced as being Dawn of War 3. Was hoping for more Company of Heroes myself, alas.

Jon

The first details about Dragon Commander were released and so was the Sword of the Stars II trailer / opening squence, so it was a good year for me.

Yeah, basically still just the info they were releasing a few months ago before GamesCom. Tantalizing statements like "mega-armies", but my experience with DoW 2 is that devs will usually inflate the scope of what they're going to present you, with that "epic sales pitch." They tried to downplay the numbers of units and the general scope of the game in DoW 2, but people pretty quickly realized that, due to the level of graphic quality of DoW 2, they had scaled back everything.

So I kind of refuse to get excited about a real change in their thinking until they give up something solid. A "global tactical battle" with "little tactical things going on" "kind of like an MMO" could either be really awesome or totally misguided. I mean, didn't DoW 2 basically already have that faux-planet conflict presentation? It barely mattered in terms of the SP campaign playing out.

Since Company of Heroes didn't sell that well and Company of Heroes Online had to shut down, odds don't look too good for that. Also, I think the DoW and CoH series are very similar so that further rules out a CoH 2 as it would compete with DoW 3.

That leaves Homeworld 3. Never understood what people like about that series. I've tried part 2 and it was way too strategic. No tactics like in DoW & CoH.

YOU are on GameReplays??        Didn't expect that

That community have some of the internets most elitist, arrogant selfappointed pros that has ever existed which is the reason I left their StarCraft II section exactly 2 years ago. Gonna make a comback to their CoH section though but I feel it's gonna be a loong (flame) war.

I don't think we'll see more CoH from Relic. WW2 isn't really what's hot anymore, and while plenty of dev houses are still doing WW2 stuff, the major ones aren't. Relic could probably stay in business for the next 10 years just doing GWS products and I think that's their basic aim.

No, i am not, god forbid

I just read somewhere about that upcoming "announcement", so wanted to know more and googled it...i believe the first thing it found was the topic on the Gamereplays forums.

I used to check that site occasionaly few years back though, when Red Alert 3 was about to come out. Was pretty fascinated by that game back then, although never played it competitively or nothing like that. But i liked it for short amount of time and the site was source of some good info.

Regarding Homeworld, well you played the wrong one . Not saying its a bad game, or that much different in terms of gameplay to the first one, so it probably wont matter to you, but the first one has better story and is more immersive. Simply better game almost all around, perhaps with the exception of multiplayer, which was probably given more attention in the second game, but it is  possible some HW hardcore fans might be disagreeing with this as well.

I still think CoH sequel, even if not set in WW2 scenario, is sadly far more likely than anything Homeworld-related. Space RTS is a niche genre and THQ is not going to allow Relic to waste money on producing game without potential to sell millions of copies. Homeworld does noz boast such potential, ergo we are in for Dawn of War 3,4,5,6 etc... ad nauseum (and i liked that game) or perhaps other sequels to CoH.

As Timmaigh said, Homeworld was simply better than Homeworld 2. I have only managed to play the demo for Homeworld 2, and I didn't like it nearly as much as Homeworld.

Homeworld is definitely the one to play, the story was one of the best I have ever seen, and the gameplay was excellent.

I believe that if Relic had kept Homeworld's gameplay, and incorporated the UI enhancements and things like fighter/corvette squadrons from Homeworld 2, they would have something. Homeworld was Relic's first game and the one that put them on the map, they aren't just going to abandon the series.

Unless actually attending, I find it hard to keep up with news at these conferences. The exception would be something really high-profile like BF3 though.

Looks good. Seems like a good time for TBS games.