M&M was good early on, but I get what you are saying and in respect, I agree that they were only good for the time they were made. Now days they suck badly compared to most games even a year or two down the road from then that were aimed at the same consumers. They were never really great in any way except that they were very long games. They had pretty much zero storyline to speak of, and the graphics were subpar even for the time they were made. They did have two very good things about them. First they had simply *Huge* maps. Second they required zero patches at all. I think I never had a crash in playing any of the first five M&M games. Nor broken saves. Nothing at all.
I agree with Haldurson. MM was fun but never great. I just went through 4 and 5 to test that again. The games are very straight forward and repetitive. They ARE fun, but the story is so linear and basic... I think they just stopped the serie because it was turning to shit. MM6, 7 and 8 were clearly a descent to hell. After losing so much popularity it was best to stop making the games or they wouldnt sell. I dont see ANY link with HoMM here (which, is an entirely different serie and I'd say they gave the name MM to it just to ensure to get some sales but whatever. They are fun games too. Especially HoMM2.) I forgot Ubisoft bought the franchise but it explains a lot too. I guess you could say Ubisoft kill the MM serie.
What, a company make spurious tie-ins with existing IPs just to get sales? What a cynical thing to say, gentlemen.
Um... Ubisoft have been keeping the franchise alive, actually. What killed the M&M series itself was the bankruptcy of 3DO. About a year before 3DO closed, they cut the majority of NWC's employees. One of their last games was M&M IX, which was rushed, buggy and shipped about half a year before 3DO closed for good. Ubisoft have, since, created three excellent M&M entries - Dark Messiah (praised for its combat system), HoMM V (and its expansions) and the more "casual" Clash of Heroes, which is more akin to a puzzle game, but is still quite good. If it had been taken by EA or Activision, chances are we would not be getting anything branded M&M at all. Ubisoft are fairly good at keeping specialised franchises going.
I am sure you could guess this already, but I hated everything with the Might and Magic name after 5. HoMM was never really given even so much as a chance, simply because I hate strategy games in general. There are exceptions though. DMoM&M was awful and buggy. It was actually so buggy that I could have sworn it was made by "Piranha Bites". They made some of the absolute worst commercial games ever with regards to bugs. Could you explain what you actually liked about it? I thought CoH was a MMO of some sort. I guess I was wrong about that one too.
Kingdoms is the browser MMO. I swear there's a second but I could be wrong. DM was done by Arkane and wasn't the best game ever, but one of the most consistent praises it got was about it's combat system. Very few games have come close to it. It's been years since I've played it (and when I did I was less bothered by bugs, control issues, etc), but I remember enjoying it for what it was. Was it perfect? No, but I did enjoy it. And your comment about Piranha Bytes? Jeez, come on. Mid-level European independent RPG studio. They're going to naturally be of a lower quality than AAA releases, and it's hardly like AAA studios are much better - they just polish the product more.
DM was pretty good though I left it behind halfway through. But yeah, felt like a sequel of Arx fatalis which is a freaking awesome game. Games where you actually feel like you re really in the skin of your characters are rare. This style of combat is my favorite for FPS.
I miss the intricate Magic System of Arx Fatalis. Other games should have taken the hint and did exactly that.
I moved the offtopic posts in the Grimrock thread to this one so the post timeline might be confusing for a sec. Don't attack people for having different opinions, I may have to warn you (generic you).
I think their's still a loose end in the thread -- I'm sure I mentioned CoH in some thread, but I've searched this one and can only find Omni's reference to it. I thought it was in my favorite games thread, but I've participated in several related games threads so it could be that I was confused. Or maybe Omni is confused. I'm too confused to decide. Regardless, I mentioned CoH/CoV somewhere at some time in a thread that Omni obviously read. I only mentioned it at that time because it's on my top games list and I probably thought that that is where I was posting. Admittedly, that has nothing to do with Might and Magic.
Here you are: http://community.gaslampgames.com/threads/what-are-your-favorite-games-of-all-time.3097/#post-32038
I disagree here. Dark Messiah was quite fun on ots own, but as a MM game it failed hard. It was just a tunnel ride to the end. HoMM5 is a mere remake of HoMM3 with a few good ideas, many units' design stolen from Warhammer Fantasy, 3d camera was so bad that you *had* to rotate it lest you miss some artifacts/resources behind the trees or buildings, generic fantasy setting instead of NWC's (while I know that they have done a story restart in HoMM4, Nival could continue from there. Also a few famous heroes' names appearing in HoMM5 without any connection to former ones did not help either). Not to mention that it was buggy for a long time and many patches added new bugs too. It took a lot of time (until the last expansion) to polish the game into the state it should have been in the release. I have not played Clash of Heroes, so I can't comment on it. However HoMM6.....that killed the Ubisoft's HoMM games for me for good. Reduced number of resources, town windows instead of town screens, you have no problem purchasing units from anywhere, if you decide not to use Conflux (the online system, used for tracking achievements, game time, etc.), then you don't have access to some game features like Dynasty weapons. And as an added bonus, if Conflux servers are down (which has happened quite a few times already), your online saved games are inaccessible. Great, huh? It was not meant in an offensiwe way, but whatever. Point taken.
No Ubisoft M&M game continues from the ones under NWC. They're all set in a new world (don't think it's plural), and I think it was likely done to not step on the toes of NWC but also allow Ubisoft more control as it would be their own world. You know what happens when a different dev continues from another or even the project leads change - it always leads to hate, anger and so forth.
You know, I never perceived your comment about women as anything you actually meant. I figured it was hyperbole meant to exaggerate the differences we all know and love between men and women. I thought about replying to Daynab about that, but it is not my place to lay down the law, nor to correct moderators. Conflux servers? Wow. What an awful idea. A mostly single player game that requires Internet access to play? I am somewhat more glad I avoided the HoMM series altogether. That would have really pissed me off.
I cant believe they left the DRM on Settlers 7 in spite of all the complaints. Stopped me from buying it.
I've put maybe 20hrs into it (at least) and the DRM was the least of my problems. Dying PC, some technical issues, so on and so forth. It works now and I really quite like it. I wish the DRM was nuked, of course, but I've never really had an issue because of it.
