Anno 2070 announced, with pictures (not a joke)

Was not expecting a futuristic Anno game any time soon, but its apparently 100% real.

I really like 1404, will look forward for this one.

Wow that's pretty freaking cool. Loved anno 1701 and 1404.

I got to be honest with you. Never even heard of Anno. What is it? City builder/sim?AncientDozer

I got to be honest with you. Never even heard of Anno. What is it? City builder/sim?AncientDozer

Yeah and it's pretty good at that. Anno 1404 had massive maps, great graphics and gameplay and unusuallyfor the genre great campaign too.

Disappointment.

Anno should stay in past realistic times IMO.

Disappointment.

Anno should stay in past realistic times IMO.

JLF1

I was really concerned because Blue Byte was working on fitness games, i thought they were done for. I just hope this will stay on PC, and not be on consoles.

awesome. I love ANNO

I loved 1404, not sure about this....

Never gotten into Anno but that looks pretty cool.

[QUOTE="AncientDozer"]I got to be honest with you. Never even heard of Anno. What is it? City builder/sim?Rican-Prodigy

Sometimes you need to accept change or at the very least give it a chance. Sooner or later things change and you got to come to terms with it. If nothing changes, then you risk stagnation which is bad for companies and franchises, particularly less well-known. That's a problem we gamers face is that we get so attached to games that we believe that they are "our" games and that any change to the formula is automatically terrible and goes against the "spirit" of the game. As an outsider, I obviously have no connection to Anno but I understand the sentiment. Really, it's too late to turn back now so we'll have to wait and see. The pictures, at least, are impressive and applying anything from previous games to that in mind generates an interesting image. Give it a chance. Maybe you will be surprised.AncientDozer

Change is good. I am still disappointed with the new setting. Anno is a niche franchise for a niche audience. They are relying on a certain number of fans to buy this. I might not be one of them for this game.

My problem is that there are far too few historical strategy games and far too many sci-fi games. Another huge issue is that the Anno franchise is based on realistic settings and ideas. It's more or less a trade sim. Having it i the future kills that illusion of realism for me.

Imagine if Starcraft 3 was sett in modern time.

[QUOTE="AncientDozer"]Sometimes you need to accept change or at the very least give it a chance. Sooner or later things change and you got to come to terms with it. If nothing changes, then you risk stagnation which is bad for companies and franchises, particularly less well-known. That's a problem we gamers face is that we get so attached to games that we believe that they are "our" games and that any change to the formula is automatically terrible and goes against the "spirit" of the game. As an outsider, I obviously have no connection to Anno but I understand the sentiment. Really, it's too late to turn back now so we'll have to wait and see. The pictures, at least, are impressive and applying anything from previous games to that in mind generates an interesting image. Give it a chance. Maybe you will be surprised.JLF1

Change is good. I am still disappointed with the new setting. Anno is a niche franchise for a niche audience. They are relying on a certain number of fans to buy this. I might not be one of them for this game.

My problem is that there are far too few historical strategy games and far too many sci-fi games. Another huge issue is that the Anno franchise is based on realistic settings and ideas. It's more or less a trade sim. Having it i the future kills that illusion of realism for me.

Imagine if Starcraft 3 was sett in modern time.

I also don't think StarCraft 3 being set in modern times is a realistic comparison. I mean you can't have StarCraft in modern times, that doesn't even make sense with the lore.

This could also easily gain them new fans. Sometimes they have to embrace a new audience to move forward as a studio. The old audience always claims they were abandoned, but they weren't. They got countless great games out of the deal. I doubt that's what they are doing here with Anno though, but still take that into account.

I also don't think StarCraft 3 being set in modern times is a realistic comparison. I mean you can't have StarCraft in modern times, that doesn't even make sense with the lore.

hensothor

Starcraft is kind of different. As far as I'm aware, every Anno is unrelated. A game like Stacraft, each game is connected. 2 is a direct sequel and while not impossible, it'd be unlikely that they'd up and make a stacraft 3 unrelated to games previous and not only that but in the modern day. Anno has much more in common with, I don't know. Age of Empires or Rise of Nations. Each game is a separate entity, in effect, and are indirect sequels. Or spiritual sequels.

The setting doesn't so much matter as the mechanics and feel. If this new Anno maintains the feel of previous games, that's all that matters. If it retains its identiy as, what did you call it, a trade sim? Then that ought to be enough.

Anno has already gone, let's see, according to Wikipedia. . 5 games and one DS game in historical, realistic settings. It is possible that they've exhausted that angle. That setting. The only chance for growth is to change and expand.

AncientDozer

My problem is they are expanding to the most generic and common setting in strategy games right now. Imagine if Bungies next game was a modern shooter or if the next Zelda would be in the future or modern time. It would be new settings to them but it's still the most common setting.

My problem is they are expanding to the most generic and common setting in strategy games right now. Imagine if Bungies next game was a modern shooter or if the next Zelda would be in the future or modern time. It would be new settings to them but it's still the most common setting.

JLF1

To be fair a game like Anno placed in the future is unique. What other city builder sim out there is set on the future? Every one I know is either in the past or the present.

[QUOTE="JLF1"]

My problem is they are expanding to the most generic and common setting in strategy games right now. Imagine if Bungies next game was a modern shooter or if the next Zelda would be in the future or modern time. It would be new settings to them but it's still the most common setting.

edidili

To be fair a game like Anno placed in the future is unique. What other city builder sim out there is set on the future? Every one I know is either in the past or the present.

I enjoy the Anno series (or Dawn of Discovery here in the US) even if it does mostly boil down to building the same cookie-cutter cities over and over again. Maybe a futuristic setting will give the developers some flexibility to add variety and depth to their city building formula. Here's hoping for a 3DS version (and, yes, I realize the graphics would look like nothing like the pictures posted in the OP).

Well there goes a lot of the charm I love the Anno franchise for.

This looks like something I should play.

I approve the change of setting. The futuristic design is very interesting, it's not the usual clichéd one. :D

It's unfortunate you feel that way based solely on one element that is small at best, petty at worst.

There's no way of knowing whether or not the setting change will ruin it until the game is released. Perhaps it will destroy the franchise or maybe it will herald in a new age where Anon sits pretty with Sim city, Starcraft, and Command and Conquer on the legendary shelf of Strategy games and Simulations.

However, setting is only one thing and doesn't necessarily equate to "generic". In fact, I find that idea to be unreasonable and unfair. Just because Star Trek and Star Wars flooded the market with sci-fi, it did not mean Babylon 5 was generic, for instance. Setting is only one aspect. There is also game play, story, graphics, sound. The FEEL. Call of Duty and Battlefield are both modern shooters but they FEEL different.

And to say something feels "wrong" before you even play it, that's also unfair.

AncientDozer

Alright, let me rephrase it.

It's not really the future setting that is bothering me that much. It's the art-direction. Twin-Blade pointed it out perfectly. It doesn't have any of the artistic charm that the previous games have had. Yes, claiming that a setting is generic without playing it is unfair. Claiming that it's art-direction is generic is not unfair when I can see clear pictures of it.

It looks like the Halo architecture mixed with Supreme Commander. Babylon 5 is not a generic future setting, Deus Ex is not a generic future setting. This game has a generic future setting though.

Imagine if Darksiders was actually the next Zelda or the Next Mario Kart from Nintendo would look like Forza. If I'm going to spend 100h playing this game I would prefer to actually like the look of the game.

The Art-direction of a game is really important for me. If I don't like it I rarely play a game.

I got to be honest with you. Never even heard of Anno. What is it? City builder/sim?AncientDozer

One of the best game series of all time.

Ah, I see. So it's not so much the setting but the aesthetics. I understand you now. That's definitely harder to ignore if what you see isn't pleasing to the eye. However, I do disagree that it looks like "Halo meets Supreme commander". To me, it's a more reasonable depiction of the "future" with exaggerations here and there.

AncientDozer

Yep, that's it. Gameplay will hopefully be amazing as usual and I don't think one less sold copy is going to hurt them much.

It's a shame that it has a very generic look to it. Why is that most future or alien looking things usually look the same? This is one of the reason why I think western devs should hire Japanese artists for their games. Most PC devs, especially in the modding scene don't really have that much artistic talent. Not trying to imply that a ton of Japanese games aren't looking just like the other but I hope you get my point.

Western gameplay with Japanese art-design would be amazing. For some games.

Wow, it is Anno in distant future

Another series destroyed

It's a shame that this game might have a crappy combat system like the last one. Why don't they just borrow the style from AoE or Total War?

[QUOTE="rcignoni"]Looks interesting, but Ubisoft being involved means I'm not getting excited.AncientDozer