Well I am not into MMOs, but it is always sad to hear how guys who are doing all the work get screwed up so badly...

Game gems come out from smaller studios...not from the big sharks ;)

I hope not. Firaxis is pretty big I think, and part of 2K, and they're making the new strategic X-com which is about the only game I *really, really* want to have and am praying it's good :/

True. That is why indies are always interesting to look out for.

I didn't say all but most of the good franchises are screwed up already.... Max Payne 3 recently.

I think one big franchise that is still remaining sustainably good is arguably Warhammer 40k series. Dawn of War II was still alright and I actually enjoyed demoing Space Marine via OnLive.

I wish Final Liberation and Chaos Gate got revivals. At least those weren't Panzer General reskins.

I was playing Space Marine last night, in fact, I don't see how anyone can complain about how that game turned out (perhaps they screwed up some of the lore, dunno, I'm not a big 40k lore guy, I just kind of dig the visuals and the atmosphere).

I do contend that these franchises aren't "screwed up", some of them just have bad games. RE4 ended up good, and then they went back to fucking up the games, eventually they'll get another good one in there. It's a little early to be calling Max Payne a dud, watching some of the gun play videos it looked like engaging gameplay to me.

Space Marine was good for consoles... For PC not that good.
For screwed franchises: Age Of Empires,SimCity,Worms,Max Payne(If we count it as franchise),NFS Series and this list is quite long.

Max Payne is screwed up as an idea... The game will look nice,will probably be nice to play,but yet that is not Max Payne...

I would imagine Space Marine PC would play just fine with a gamepad (yeah, I'd hate to use a keyboard with it). I thought the knocks on the PC version were entirely limited to the stupid ass keyboard controls.

Anyway, I forgot this is the gaming deals thread, so let's move this discussion outside of it.

Also, if anyone doesn't know, Space Marine is still 9.99 USD on Amazon.com for 2 more days.

Was Panzer General not turn-based? I did not play it anyway...

Yes, the PG series was turnbased. The PG reskin was Rites of War (which was a good but forgettable game)

Yes, the fantasy themed one from the same guys was turn based (and card based) as well. Those games are super fun, btw.

Mafia II is 75% off at GMG, uses Steam.

I'm tempted since the price on Steam for Aussies is pure price-gouging bullshit. Are any of the DLCs any good?

If only devs stopped treating the franchise as if the 40K is enough to warrant a good game.
Rites was a re-skin, Chaos Gate not even close to JA2 in terms of gameplay, but at least Final Liberation had those awesome cinematics.