As a gamer, I was very excited for this spring/summer/fall's crop of CRPGs. It looked like there would be hundreds of hours of PC RPG goodness to enjoy. So far, this has not been the case.

Might and Magic IX - This was a very buggy, very ugly, half finished game. I am a huge fan of the Might and Magic series, and have played every one except 1 and 8. I was really excited for this game, and it was a huge disappointment. The firing of 2/3 of their staff within a few weeks of its release, and the half finished nature of the game are evidence that this game was horribly rushed out the door in an effort to cash out. This is probably the death of an excellent franchise. =(

Dungeon Siege - I have been excited for this game for almost 2 years. It turned out to be nothing but an engine with an included graphics and sound demo. The game is gorgeous and sounds wonderful. The gameplay is unbelieveably boring and reptitive. It makes the gameplay of Diablo and Diablo 2 (which I actually loved) seem constantly evolving and ever-changing.

Up and coming CRPGS:

Elder Scrolls III, Morrowind - This is my last hope for a top notch CRPG for the year. It looks great from the screenshots, and the preview information makes it appear to be a great game. Since they had to develop it for the XBOX as well, I hope it will arrive bug free. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Icewind Dale II - I already played this game. It was called Baldur's Gate. Seriously- how long are they going to milk this engine? IMHO, the interface has never been very good, and the gameplay has always been a mixture of Fed Ex quests and dealing with smart mouthed peonic NPCs that you have to take a bunch of lip from or else you destroy the plot line. The concept of Innovation has been absent from Bioware/Black Isle's vocabulary since BG1 and Planescape: Torment.

Neverwinter Nights - This has been hugely hyped, and I plan to buy and play it. I'm worried its going to suck, however. First, I think D&D game rules translate poorly into computer games. Why? Because pen and paper rules need to be simple enough to resolve in a few dice rolls. A computer can handle SOOOO much more, so a simplistic pen and paper rule system seems empty. I hope this will be a good game, but I am not optimistic.

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There are a few other CRPGs for this year but those are the big ones. The conclusion of the whole post is that what looked to be an awesome year for the PC is not shaping up very well so far.

What do you think, and do you think things will get better in the upcoming months?

I agree. Black Isle is milking that poor thing.

Hey..The only CRPGS which are REALLY RPGS (xcept for MUDs) were the Planescape : Torment,and,maybe,Fallout 2.
And You'll see,soon there'll be no good CRPGS at all,xcept for online ones..

Its age of Hack'n'Slash now.. *Sniff*

While you make a good point that CRPGs are not really "RPGs", I think we must sadly just accept that this acronym will continue to be used to label any game that involves RPG-like character development (you earn some type of exp and you spend/use to gain levels, skills, power, etc). To do otherwise is to do battle with the inevitable.

While it is disconcerting that the RPG term has been hijacked by games that have little to do with role playing, I still enjoy this type of game. I am disappointed in the fare so far from what looked to be an excellent year.

I am wondering how other people would size up the year so far, and how they predict the rest of the year will unfold.

With regret, I must agree with you, Threshold. When I look back at the best games this year, I'm left with quite a divergance from my usual CRPG tastes. Games like Maximo and Jedi Knight II caught my attention longer than MM9, Dungeon Siege and Tsugunai combined.

I'm in the swamp area of Dungeon Siege, and I just can't bring myself to push any further through this numbingly repetetive game. A pity; I was looking forward to this game as a child looks to Christmas.

The most humorous thing I remember reading about Icewind Dale II came from a developer's diary. Addressed to fans, it said, "You won't believe what [staffmember's name] has done with the spell icons! [staffmember's name] has really outdone himself this time!" I thought it was rather fitting =).

Who needs RPGs? Just wait untill Unreal Torunament 2 comes out and I'll lock myself in my room together with my monster PC and cable internet, fragging the night away on vague servers while quoting latin lyrics whenever I kill somebody, untill I either start to die of dehydration/malnutrition/exhaustion or my ISP get evil and decided to sever my access after clogging up too much bandwidth.

I will throw a tantrum if UT2 doesn't include a Flak Cannon! But untill then, RTCW for me all the way baybee!!!

Well Seth.... Thanks for your input, and congratulations on adding another pip to your post total.

The subject though is CRPGs, and I know there are many CRPG fans here. Hence, their thoughts on the matter are most welcome.

Hmm. Well, if you are looking for ROLEPLAYING in a CRPG, then yes, they are all mostly disappointing. But seriously, do you truly expect deep, meaningful RP in any single player game? I hope not. =)

Planescape: Torment was probably the closest I have seen any CRPG come to actual role playing. It is also my favorite CRPG to date.

There are plenty of other FUN CRPGs.

Bards Tale, the Ultima Series, Might and Magic (except 9), Diablo 1, Diablo 2 (sorry to disagree, but I got hundreds of hours of major fun out of the Diablo games... sure, they aren't RP, but they are a heap of fun), Vampire:TM, the gold box computer AD&D games, and more.

Last year's big CRPGs were BG2 and Pools of Radiance 2. BG2 was another Bioware/Black Isle rehash, and POR2 was an unbelieveably buggy, sprawled out mess.

This year was looking up, with a lot of NEW games from heavy hitters. So far, the result has been bleak.

Has anyone else played this year's current crop of CRPGs? If so, did you share the feeling that they really fell short of expectations?

And what do you predict for the rest of the year's big name CRPGs?